Latest news with #ShammaAlMazrui
The National
13-05-2025
- Business
- The National
Emirati benefit claimants to receive training in effort to get back to work
The UAE has launched a scheme to provide training to Emiratis who are receiving financial support from the government, in an effort to help them find work. The initiative, which has already been in place for several months, was officially announced on Monday by Shamma Al Mazrui, Minister of Community Empowerment. Ms Al Mazrui said the project would empower citizens by offering them the opportunity to be productive members of the community. 'We don't want individuals to depend on the government in financial aid, but we want the person to participate [in society] and be productive," she said. While the government is always prepared to assist citizens in need, she added, now is the time for them to give back to their country. 'We want to change the mentality in society to sit back and wait for the government to solve challenges. People should take a step forward," Ms Al Mazrui said. How does the scheme work? Under the initiative, citizens on low incomes and receiving financial aid will be enrolled in courses that provide the skills they need to return to the workplace. They will continue to receive assistance during their training. 'We don't want the low-income family to survive, but to thrive. Survival alone is not an option. We want them to be prosperous families participating in society,' Ms Al Mazrui said. 'We want them to be contributors, rather than only depending on us." The UAE's social welfare programme for low-income citizens is available to Emirati families whose income is less than Dh25,000 ($6,800) a month. The programme offers Dh5,000 aid a month for citizens over the age of 45, housing allowance up to Dh2,500 a month, university education allowance of Dh3,200 a month to outstanding students and Dh5,000 a month for six months to those who are unemployed. In addition, the government offers an inflation allowance, which covers food, electricity, water and fuel costs. More than 3,800 people have already found work through the scheme, Ms Al Mazrui said. The ministry aims to empower 10,000 families to become financially independent by 2030. The ministry also hopes to increase the number of registered volunteers to 1,000,000 by 2031, from its current level of 630,000.
The National
30-04-2025
- Health
- The National
Science can change how people think to help society, conference hears
Behavioural science can be used by governments to guide decision-making, build good habits and tackle societal ills, some of the world's leading experts have said at an event in Abu Dhabi. At the inaugural Behavioural Exchange conference at NYU Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, Shamma Al Mazrui, Minister of Community Empowerment, called for strategies that strengthen people's ability to adapt and lead. 'It's about building people who can function and thrive and lead when none of these paths exist,' she said in her opening speech. Speaking to The National, Cass Sunstein, Robert Walmsley Professor at Harvard Law School and co-author of the influential book Nudge, said governments and institutions can dramatically improve people's health and well-being through simple design choices that guide but never force better decisions. The concept behind nudge theory is to preserve freedom of choice while gently steering people towards beneficial outcomes. 'The idea is that it's possible to improve outcomes for people by nudging them without mandating anything,' he said. 'If you get information about allergens in food, you're being nudged to avoid those foods. If an airport offers clear directions to the gate or a prayer room, that's a nudge. If your printer defaults to double-sided, you're being nudged to use less paper.' Nudges, he explained, are built into everyday environments. They do not take away a person's autonomy and freedom of choice. Shops, for example, can encourage healthier diets simply by putting nutritious items at eye-level. 'All over the world, nations are using behavioural science to try to improve outcomes,' he said. 'In the UAE, there's extraordinary work being done to help people live longer, eat better, and stay safe.' Rasha Attar, director of the Behavioural Science Group, pointed to successes that demonstrated measurable change in the UAE. 'Some of our early wins that showed tangible and competent changes were in our collaboration with Nema, the national food loss initiative,' she said. 'We were able to decrease food loss across multiple different touch points and to show different stakeholders and new partners that, with simple low-cost nudges, we are able to change behaviours sustainably.' Ms Attar said the team is targeting a range of habits. 'Whether it's encouraging people to become more physically active, to be more aware of what kind of food they eat, to be healthier, these are all behaviours we love to see.' On whether simple nudges could shape long-term behaviour, she said: 'Absolutely, with the right choice, the right environment, but also the correct nudges that have been tailored to suit our particular audience? Absolutely.' She described a study implemented during Ramadan in the Emirates that focused on cutting food waste as people broke their fast, noting that it was cut by 15 per cent per diner after 'simple posters or cards with important messages about waste' were strategically located to raise awareness and trigger different behaviours. Professor David Halpern, president emeritus of the Behavioural Insights Team, said Abu Dhabi is becoming a global hub for this sort of research. 'The whole thing is bringing together leading thinkers, who try to understand human behaviour, with policymakers,' he said. Prof Halpern, often regarded as one of the pioneers of the nudge movement, said that understanding and influencing human behaviour is essential to solving today's most pressing public policy challenges, from obesity to savings habits to climate action. But nudges are only the beginning, with Prof Halpern emphasising that long-term change depends on creating new habits. 'A lot of our behaviour is driven from an almost automatic level of habit. So one of the challenges is for us to become more aware of our habits and what drives them, and that can be empowering for families or communities or countries,' he said. 'Ideally, what we're often trying to do is turn it into a new habit which sometimes even becomes part of our identity.' The conference is hosted by the Behavioural Insights Team and the Behavioural Science Group, in partnership with the Centre for Behavioural Institutional Design at NYU Abu Dhabi. Areas of discussion focus on applied behavioural sciences and how these insights can be used to aid international development, global education and change societal norms. It concludes on Thursday.
