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Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) located at the southeastern end of the Arabian Gulf, has a thriving population of nearly 2 million people.1 With an economy initially built on trade and business, Dubai has significantly diversified over the past decade, emerging as an international business and tourist hub.
To help guide its rapid economic and population growth, the Emirate prepares strategic plans focusing on developing its most dynamic sectors to drive growth. The current Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 focuses on making Dubai a more desirable place to live and do business, outlining targets for improvements across all sectors, including infrastructure, health, safety, education, judicial excellence, water and energy resources.2
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In order to support efforts to better monitor progress achieved to date towards the Dubai Strategic Plan, the Dubai Statistics Center (DSC) has created a customized offline database containing the Plan’s indicators. Developed in 2010 as an adaptation of the UN-endorsed DevInfo database system, the Dubai Strategic Plan database aligns the Plan’s indicators with their respective sectors. The database is being used to track progress, sector by sector, towards the 2015 Plan targets.
With the data centralized in a single location, all stakeholders and decision-makers can now easily search for and retrieve the relevant data, to identify gaps as well as achievements.
Active DevInfo use since 2009
The DSC has been actively using DevInfo technology to support its monitoring and data dissemination needs since 2009, when it initially launched a small database - Census DubaiInfo 2005 - to disseminate the results of its 2005 census. |
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| Following on the heels of this effort was the online launch of the large DubaiInfo database, which tracks the Emirate’s socio-economic progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and other national priorities. Available in both Arabic and English, DubaiInfo contains data for over 300 indicators spanning ten sectors, disaggregated by the Emirate’s three geographical levels: emirate, sector, and community. |
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Building on the success of DubaiInfo, the DSC in collaboration with the Dubai Health Authority developed and launched Dubai HealthInfo in 2011, a DevInfo adaptation designed to disseminate data from the 2009 Dubai Household Health Survey.
The DSC faithfully updates these databases at regular intervals, ensuring that stakeholders and government officials have access to the most comprehensive datasets to support informed decision-making. According to Mohammad Abu |
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Aishah, Demographic Statistics Analyst, DSC, “We periodically update our databases based on relevant data from projects, surveys and estimation outputs, making sure that the data entered complies with UN standards and international best practices.”
Training and outreach
Aside from maintaining and updating these multiple databases, the DSC undertakes training outreach activities to promote awareness of and good use of the data. |
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Explains Abu Aishah, “We train our staff in DevInfo and also share this knowledge with other government departments. Our training targets both regular users as well as database administrators across all government departments in Dubai, in order to create a team capable of setting up and maintaining an integrated data management system in the Emirate.”
To heighten awareness of its database products, the DSC regularly participates in the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX), an annual consumer computer and electronic trade show held in Dubai. This year, the DSC chose to launch its updated databases during the exhibition. |
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As a result of the DSC’s sustained training and outreach activities, the various databases – including the Strategic Plan Database – are being used by key counterparts in the Dubai government to access data and monitor progress to date. As the Strategic Plan requires action across all sectors, this data-sharing contributes to better coordination and planning within the government. |
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With DevInfo firmly rooted in Dubai, the Emirate can look forward to better monitoring and tracking of progress across all sectors, as it continues to position itself as one of the world’s leading business and tourist centers. |
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Data making a difference. |
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For more information, please contact Mohammed Abu Aishah, Demographic Statistics Analyst, Dubai Statistics Center, at maabuaishah@DSC.gov.ae.
1 Website of Dubai Statistics Center, “Dubai in Figures” page, http://www.dsc.gov.ae/EN/Pages/DubaiInFigures.aspx, accessed on 13 December 2011.
2 Website of the Government of Dubai, “Getting Familiar with the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015” page, http://dubai.ae/en/Lists/Articles/DispForm.aspx?ID=108&event=Planning%20a%20business%20in%
20Dubai&category=Businesses, accessed on 13 December 2011.
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