The UAE Government Accelerators programme has exceeded all expectations in the second round, addressing challenges and working towards services that directly affect people's everyday lives.

The eight teams in the programme have exceeded their stated goals, without committing to the use of additional resources, according to an official handout.

Six teams successfully achieved their stated targets as far as 100 days ahead of schedule. Their success led to reducing the time needed to issue residency visas; increasing the number of social development beneficiaries in Ajman; enhancing the workplace relations services; accelerating the distribution of retirement payrolls; improving residential support; and reducing waiting time for new homeowners and tenants to access the electric grid.

The remaining two teams, meanwhile, activated the newborn services package, as well as the feature allowing customers to access smart services offered by seven government agencies using only their Emirates ID.

Huda Al Hashimi, assistant director-general for strategy and innovation at the UAE Prime Minister's Office in the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the Future, said: "The great success of the Government Accelerators teams in achieving outstanding results in record time - and even overcoming their set targets - proves the programme's efficiency, as a results-driven scheme that develops top-notch services to improve people's everyday lives."

"The teams developed useful one-stop-shop integrated services, as directed by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who stressed that real success is spreading happiness among people by providing integrated services that save their time and effort," she added, explaining that the projects launched during the programme are on-going, and that the teams continuously discuss ways to upgrade their services.

The Ministry of Interior led two teams to accomplish two separate challenges. In the first challenge, the team activated the newborn services package, in which the ministry issues all documents for newborn citizens in one, visit instead of seven, packages. The team delivered all identity documents to 200 newborns across three hospitals, which is equal to 66 per cent of all newborns.

The team responsible for the second challenge led by the Ministry of Interior had originally set out to reduce the waiting period associated with issuing new residency visas in Ajman by 50 per cent. They, however, exceeded their target, instead reducing the time by 60 per cent.

The Ministry of Community Development led a team in the accelerators to bring more customers into government service centres, as mandated by the UAE government. While the initial plan was to multiply the number of customers by 10 within 100 days, the team ended up attracting 15 times more customers - increasing from 1,000 to 15,000.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation set out to improve workplace relations and the complaint service, and it successfully reduced the time to resolve complaints in Dubai by 82 per cent, from 30 to 5.3 working days, exceeding the original target by a full 10 working days.

The team for this accelerator succeeded in delivering pensions and end-of-service benefits to retirees from four government entities within a mere 12 days of their retirement date - exceeding the original target of 14 days.

Source: Khaleej Times