UAE-PPF-2019: UAE Public Policy Forum 2019

at InterContinental Dubai - Festival City

Dubai, UAE, January 27-28, 2019

Conference website    http://www.uaepublicpolicyforum.ae

Paper Submissions: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=uaeppf2019

 

Call for Papers

 

 

Abstract submission deadline:                       August 15, 2018

Full Paper Submission deadline:                  October 21, 2018

           

The Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government (MBRSG) is hosting the 3^rd Annual UAE Public Policy Forum on January 27-28, 2019 at the InterContinental Festival City in Dubai. The Conference organizing committee is seeking high-quality papers on the theme of accelerating sustainable development goals implementations through digital transformation. We invite you to submit paper(s) that describe, advance, critique, and extract policy lessons from the multitude of government practices and development projects on the role of digital transformation in achieving sustainable development goals and addressing global challenges.

The growing global movement towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is driving governments around the world to seek innovative responses to persistent policy challenges. Meanwhile, the world is witnessing rapid technological advancements with wide effects on development efforts. It is widely recognized that during the implementing phase of the Millennium Development Goals information and communication technologies played a crucial role in meeting development goals such as education, healthcare and poverty. Today, the universal datafication of societies, the ubiquitous digitization of government practices, the rapidly growing maturity of big data techniques, artificial intelligence applications and the advent of the “4^th Industrial Revolution” are collectively presenting policymakers with unprecedented capabilities, toolsets and policy options. Such transformations have triggered numerous opportunities to develop better fitting policy responses, solve chronic developmental challenges, and accelerate implementation of the SDGs. However, they also created new set of challenges and evolving dilemmas for governments and societies worldwide.

There is a strong connection between development and the emerging digital transformation. For example, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlights how crucial the societal adoption of these digital technologies is for achieving the SDG goals. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development states that “the spread of information and communication technology and global interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress, to bridge the digital divide and to develop knowledge societies”, including for example, quality of education (SDG4), gender equality (SDG5), industry innovation (SDG9) and partnership and implementation (SDG17). However, these transformations also highlight several threats and risks that accompany digital transformations. On a global level, the following table provides a summary of some of these opportunities and risks. On a regional level, the findings of a region-wide policy report “The Arab World Online 2017: Digital Transformations and Societal Trends in the Age of the 4th Industrial Revolution” produced by MBRSG on digital transformation over two decades in the region, clearly highlights that people in the MENA region see these potentials with diverse levels of readiness and share many of these concerns. Similar findings are emerging from other regions around the world.

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Source: UNDESA 2016 - Crucial Emerging Technologies for the UN Sustainable Development Goals until 2030

Over the past two years, The UAE Public Policy Forum brought together a wide range of global thought-leaders, policymakers, academics, policy-focused private sector practitioners and international experts to debate thematic public policy challenges and responses. As a policy and knowledge platform, The UAE Public Policy Forum also invites high quality and innovative academic contributions from the global and local scholarly community. Given this year’s conference theme, the UAE PPF 2019 invites you to submit academic papers and case studies related to accelerating sustainable development goals implementations through digital transformation under the following pillars encapsulating the 17 sustainable developmental goals.

·        Practices and opportunities enabled by rapid digital transformation in the achieving the SDGs.

·        Analysis of existing regulatory, economic and societal challenges for governments to foster the 4th Industrial Revolution in sustainable development

·        Impact of ongoing applications and practices utilizing big data, artificial intelligence in service of sustainable development goals.

·        Research on emerging challenges and policy directions on local and international levels

·        The impact of digital transformation on inclusion, equality and wellbeing in light of the SDGs.

·        The prospects of emerging 4IR applications, such as big data, AI, smart cities applications, biotech in realizing environmental sustainability and growth.

·       Comparative and benchmarking studies on SDGs implementation in the digital age.

This list of themes is proposed to stimulate ideas, and is not exhaustive or intended to restrict submissions from other related domains.

Who Should Submit?

·        The conference will bring together academics, practitioners, and policy makers who are involved with sustainable development.

·       As a policy-focused conference, submissions with clear policy focus are preferred. We particularly welcome papers discussing policy challenges, evaluating practices, documenting and critiquing policy responses, and proposing policy roadmaps and recommendations.

·       The Forum also welcomes practical cases and experience papers adhering to academic rigor within the conference’s theme (limited to 2500 words).

·        We encourage contributions from all major disciplines of social sciences including public policy, public administration, governance, development studies, information systems, political economy, sociology, as well as multidisciplinary papers.

Publication:

o   Successful papers will be included in the 2019 UAE Public Policy Forum’s Proceedings by the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government.

o   The best papers will be considered by the academic committee for publication in a number of publication streams by the MBRSG. These include:

 

o   MBRSG Policy Briefs Series

o   Edited Volume Series on Public Policy Perspectives

o   Case Studies series

o   Policy Working Papers series

 

o   Authors of best papers selected by the committee will be considered for a small travel grant to facilitate participation in the conference (if authors are based outside the UAE).

 

Format for Paper Submissions
Papers must be written in English, in MS Word format, according to the following criteria:

·        Single Spacing

·        Cover page containing:

o   Title

o   Authors’ names, affiliations and contact details for correspondence including e-mail address

o   Abstract of not more than 200 words

o   Full Research Papers limited to 5000 words for text including abstract, diagrams, tables and references

o   Research in Progress, Practitioner Reports, Experience Papers and Reflections should be limited to 2500 words of text including abstract, diagrams, tables and references.

·       Please include a 50 words biography with your submission.

 

Important Information:

·       The deadline for all abstract submissions is August 15, 2018.

·       Full paper submission deadline is October 21, 2018.

·       Abstracts should be no more than 200 words.

·       Full papers should be no longer than 5000 words.

·       Research in Progress, Practitioner Reports, Experience Papers should be no longer than 2500 words

·       Note that In case of acceptance, at least one author must have to attend the conference on 27-28 January 2019 for the paper to be included in the proceedings.

We look forward to welcoming you in Dubai for this highly engaging and impact-driven experience at a critical juncture of sustainable development efforts.

 

Thank you and best regards

 

On behalf of Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government