Issue 121: Excellence in Governance
Welcome to Backstory, a weekly newsletter turning global technology shifts into a three-minute read. This week, we’re thinking about the World Government Summit. – Mary Ames, Director of Strategy
THE BIG TAKE
Excellence in Governance
Every year, Dubai hosts one of the most critical events in government worldwide. The World Government Summit brings together leading thinkers, urbanists, politicians, planners, and technologists to consider the latest challenges in governance and how we can solve them. This year’s theme is “shaping future governments,” and the summit has brought together leaders to chart how we can contribute to the development of tools, policies, and models that are essential in shaping future governments.
Governance and development. On the first day of the summit, HH Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE and Minister of Interior, said excellence in government is a major driving force in speeding up countries' development. He told the summit that “governments and their institutions must adopt the concepts of excellence and quality as a basis for providing pioneering government services and enhance their proactivity in order to address challenges and keep pace with changing and accelerating global trends."
Putting ideas into action. Setting this year’s summit apart from previous editions is the sheer range of topics being discussed. The rapid impact of technology is one area of constant concern, but other issues such as climate change are being hotly debated. Dr Sultan Al Jaber, the President-designate of Cop28 to be held in Abu Dhabi this year, said the world needed a “major course correction” in how we approach climate change. Indeed, the world needs course corrections in how we approach several issues. That’s one reason why the World Government Summit is so vital. Cities like Dubai are beacons of new ideas that will help us address the challenges we face in a sustainable way.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"We cannot be mere consumers of good governance, we must be participants; we must be co-creators."
– Rohini Nilekani, Indian writer.
CHART OF THE WEEK
We are looking at smartphones in India. Apple is making a major investment in the Indian smartphone market, both in terms of manufacturing and in the consumer sector. Will it pay off?
OUR VIEWS THIS WEEK
The city of the metaverse: At the World Government Summit last year, the Dubai Municipality revealed ambitious plans to integrate the metaverse into its governance portfolio. While the concepts are still new and might sound esoteric, the metaverse is fast becoming a reality. Dubai is eager to be on the bleeding edge of this technology and is making clear strides to becoming the first city in the world to be in the metaverse. The purely human-centric city of tomorrow will have a major metaverse component. Dubai is building that before our eyes and creating a blueprint for other cities to follow. We explored Dubai’s metaverse in detail in this piece published by Xische.
The human-centric city: Urban planners have long struggled to maximize the efficiency of cities. Until recently, the happiness of city dwellers wasn’t the driving motivation for urbanists as defense and commerce usually came first. But change is happening. The rise of connected urbanism places new emphasis on people, their health, and how cities can improve lives. With all the new technologies coming online, cities in the emerging world can now have their turn. One model for others to emulate during this shift to human-centric urbanism is Dubai. Xische has worked closely with the Dubai Municipality on its project to create a human-centric city.
SPOTTED ELSEWHERE
The battle against plastics. Every one of us makes an effort to save the environment. Sometimes these efforts are large, but often the little things feel like they are making a difference. Consider plastic straws. Over the last decade, the use of plastic straws has fallen in many places. Your favorite cafe has likely switched from plastic straws to alternatives like paper. New research, Reuters reports, shows that single-use plastic production actually rose globally by 6 million tonnes per year from 2019 to 2021 despite tougher worldwide regulations, with producers making "little progress" to tackle the problem and boost recycling. We have a long way to go.
Digital housekeeping. Instead of another long piece to consider, here is a great digital well-being tip about your email address. When you browse the web, the New York Times reminds us, an increasing number of sites and apps are asking for a piece of basic information that you probably hand over without hesitation: your email address. The paper goes on to outline several steps you can take to ensure that you are safeguarding that critical piece of personal data. It’s worth making sure this piece of digital information is secure.