By Jamil Khan | DUBAI
The Community Development Authority in Dubai (CDA) in a media round-table unveiled the details of the volunteering and community service associated with the education policy adopted recently by Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai.
CDA has developed the policy based on the need for an integrated regulatory framework for volunteering and the necessity to raise awareness of the volunteering culture among individuals and joint working groups.
The implementation of the policy will have a direct impact on Dubai’s community and will help ensuring social development sustainability and social cohesion.
CDA said that the policy has come into force, communication with the concerned authorities has started to discuss the suggested application paths. CDA will be responsible for follow-up and submit regular reports about the policy implantation stages.
Ahmad Abdul Kareem Julfar, Director General of CDA, talking to the media said that having an adopted methodology to improve volunteering and regulating it helps boost the productivity of several national sectors, increases the chances of positively utilising the community members’ efforts and mitigating the financial burden on the government. The percentage of the volunteering work in any society is an indicator of how this society is able to respond to economic and social changes smoothly.
“After adopting the Volunteering Policy Proposal that CDA prepared, the Social Development Committee of the Executive Council of Dubai has assigned CDA to draft a law to regulate volunteering in collaboration with the involved authorities. This will constitute an integrated and unified framework for regulating and promoting volunteering in the Emirate to serve the social and economic needs. We will follow up on the policy implementation as per timelines and will submit regular reports about it to the Committee,” he said.
“Volunteering is an important social resource in the developed countries, and a key player in social development sustainability. The promising vision for Dubai’s development calls to combine efforts, to ensure the participation of all sectors of society and for the optimal investment of cultural diversity and the experiences and skills it carries. Compared to the countries with high volunteering rates, we still have a lot -as government authorities- to provide to the community members to encourage them to volunteer either as individuals or as joint interest groups and task forces”, he continued.
“The Policy implementation plan has developed specific paths in order to achieve the desired goals, this starts with developing legal framework that regulates and ensure the success and safety of any volunteering activities. We also need to have a unified electronic platform that will become a trusted reference for volunteers and volunteering bodies”, Julfar added.
Julfar explained that developing standards related to regulating the volunteering work and training the concerned entities is part of the implementation plan.
The community service associated to education is currently one of the important trends internationally to develop students’ personalities and enhance their national identities, the developed countries are adopting “Education for Global Citizenship” which is based on increasing the volunteering participation of the students during the school stages.
The policy recommended to prepare a programme to regulate and encourage volunteering and social services associated to education to promote volunteering among students in the private schools in Dubai. KHDA will be responsible for that with CDA to help.
CDA said that several initiatives will be launched to increase the awareness about volunteering and to recognize volunteers, this will include a specialized conference on volunteering and the creation of a category in the Dubai Award for Volunteering.
-Published At The Gulf Today
Jamil Khan -- The Journalist 