NEWS
At the conclusion of the Post Corona Pandemic (Covid-19) Recovery Hackathon.. UoB: Comprehensive Development to Be Accomplished Through the Involvement of Bahraini Youth and Scientific Research Tools.. Dr. Bin Shams: All government initiatives today aim at youth development and qualifying them to run public and private frameworks.
Sakhir – University of Bahrain (Khadija Abdul Salam)
28 November 2021
The President of the University of Bahrain (UoB), Dr. Jawaher bint Shaheen Al-Mudhahki, affirmed the University’s diligent work to achieve comprehensive development, according to the vision of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the King of the country, may God protect him, and the wise directives of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, President of the Council of Ministers, to involve scientific research, research tools, and innovation, in facing the pandemic, and resolving existing challenges, with the aim of improving government work in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
This came during the closing ceremony of the “Post Corona Pandemic (Covid-19) Recovery” Hackathon, today, Sunday (28 November 2021) in the Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Hall at UoB in Sakhir, in the trilateral joint cooperation between the University, Bahrain Institute for Public Administration (BIPA), and the United Nations Development Programme Office (UNDP).
During her opening statement, the University President added that the Hackathon represents a starting point for an ongoing cooperation, as it promotes the generation of ideas and innovations through using scientific research tools to produce the most accurate and best results.
Moreover, Dr. Al-Mudhahki referred to UoB’s endeavors to support government agencies, contribute to the economic growth of the Kingdom of Bahrain, and invest in youth energies, in line with the development goal adopted by the University in developing society, and providing its needs in various areas of importance.
While the Director General of BIPA, His Excellency Dr. Raed Mohammed bin Shams, stressed that the national vision of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the work agenda in the public and private sectors consider today’s Bahraini youth a major driver to advance national aspirations and manage the development process in all fields. From this comes all the development initiatives and projects aimed at youth development and preparing them to produce outputs and projects that rise to the level of national aspirations.
Also, Dr. Bin Shams explained that the trilateral networking between BIPA, UoB, and UNDP Office reflects the common administrative ambition to advance youth and enable them to employ innovation mechanisms to come up with systematic solutions to crises and challenges, adding that the adoption of innovative initiatives based on scientific foundations and research to face the repercussions and effects of the Corona Virus (Covid-19) pandemic has today become an essential need, and requires direct reliance on the youth as a key partner in the process of creating solutions to overcome the crisis in a way that enhances their national contribution and prepares them to take the lead in efforts to advance the country.
The idea of the Post Pandemic Recovery Hackathon – which was launched in June 2021 -came to create innovative administrative solutions to overcome the crisis, after BIPA studied the impact of the Corona pandemic on the performance level of public sector employees in the Kingdom of Bahrain, identified the challenges, and presented them to academics and graduate students at UoB, to propose solutions to these challenges, and to create research papers that include innovative solutions based on the foundations of scientific research and its methodologies, and best applied practices, in order to face the repercussions and effects of the Corona Virus (Covid-19) pandemic, and improve government work.
The Hackathon activities included a number of intensive training courses, under the supervision of UNDP in the Kingdom of Bahrain, to refine and develop the skills of participants in scientific research and innovation, and instill a spirit of challenge and creativity.
For her part, Ms. Aikan Mukanbetova, Acting Head of the Office of UNDP, stated that “ In UNDP, we are increasingly focused on supporting innovation that helps drive progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. And in an unprecedented setting, “old norms” can no longer be taken for granted, innovation has found a place in almost every aspect to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. I greatly appreciate our partnership with UoB and BIPA. Which led to the organization of this Hackathon at the right time, as an opportunity for researchers to move towards finding innovative solutions in the field of public administration.”
As 10 teams consisting of 25 graduate students at UoB, 20 supervisors from the University’s faculty, in addition to 11 mentors from the public sector participated. Each team discussed administrative challenges in the public sector during the Corona pandemic, within seven main axes, including: leadership and management of individuals, division of tasks, strategic planning, crisis management, institutional communication, employee relations, management of tasks and responsibilities, the development of technology and modern systems, and digital transformation. The participating teams presented 10 research papers as innovative solutions to some administrative challenges in the public sector during the pandemic.
In order to evaluate the research of the Hackathon’s participants and measure the extent of their contribution to addressing the challenges resulting from the Corona pandemic crisis, arbitrators were selected from leading experts in the field of developing administrative work in the public sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Headed by the Undersecretary for Works Affairs at the Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning, Eng. Ahmed Abdulaziz Al-Khayat, the jury consisted of six members: Executive Vice President for Electronic Transformation at the Information and e-Government Authority Dr. Zakaria Al-Khaja, Vice President of Polytechnic University Dr. Reem Al Buainain, Director of the Department of Studies and Research at the Derasat Center Dr. Omar Al-Obaidly, Director of the Training and Manpower Development Department at the Ministry of Labor and Social Development Dr. Issam Al-Alawi, Director of the Human Resources Development Department at the Civil Service Bureau Mr. Mohammed Al-Dawood, and the Director of the Women’s Information Center in the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Women Ms. Maha Sabt.
Furthermore, the head of the jury, Ahmed Abdulaziz Al-Khayat, praised the pioneering role played by UoB in launching innovative and distinguished initiatives, and the advanced curricula that it offers for students to obtain academic degrees and its postgraduate programs, which have become well known in various countries. Also, he thanked the members of the jury, BIPA and the organizing team from UoB for their efforts in working on the distinguished program, which took nearly four months, from the preparation stage to the conclusion stage.
The trilateral cooperation stems from a belief in responsibility towards the public sector, the effective contribution to finding solutions to societal issues, promoting sustainable development, forming and developing successive generations of leaders, and providing Bahrainis with employability skills, knowledge and values, by developing their skills in research and innovation.
