In response to the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan to mark 2015 as the Year of Innovation, and as part of its participation in the UAE Innovation Week, Emirates Diplomatic Academy (EDA) organised a set of parallel brainstorming workshops under the title, Innovation in Diplomacy Labs, during which the Academys students presented their innovative ideas to enhance diplomatic work and promote the status of the UAE regionally and globally.

UAE Innovation Week is an annual initiative launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to highlight innovations and innovators in the UAE and honour achievements.

Innovation represents one of the most important pillars of EDAs vision and a key strategy of UAE diplomacy to develop all areas in the diplomatic field. EDA is focused on efforts to innovate new approaches in international relations to enhance the UAEs leading position in line with the Vision 2021, which aims to make the UAE one of the most advanced countries in the world in the coming years.

Abeer Al Mutawa, Marketing and Communications Director at Emirates Diplomatic Academy, said EDA organised the Innovation in Diplomacy Labs in response to the directives of the UAE leadership to employ innovation to raise the performance levels in all sectors. The Innovation in Diplomacy Labs was successful in generating several innovative ideas to meet the needs of next phase of diplomatic work, and highlighting the importance of employing these ideas to enhance the achievements of the UAE at the regional and international levels, she said.

Over the past few weeks, EDA students have been involved in discussions to employ the best innovative ideas to serve the diplomatic sector, and enhance the position of EDA as an integrated academic centre in the development of diplomatic capacity, research and thought leadership, and as a key driver of innovation to promote diplomatic performance in the UAE, Al Mutawa said.

The activities of Innovation in Diplomacy Labs started with an introduction highlighting the role of innovation in upgrading diplomatic performance. The session stressed the importance of training staff and encouraging them to adopt the culture of innovation in all aspects of work to meet the changing needs of international relations, and raise the status of the UAE as a global leader in diplomacy.

The students participated in four brainstorming workshops organised in parallel in the presence of a group of experts in the field of innovation. The participants in the Diplomacy Index workshop highlighted the Index as an effective tool to evaluate diplomatic performance, identifying the latest local and global trends and mechanisms. It includes a range of effective strategies adopted by embassies to achieve foreign policy goals.

In another session, participants discussed the idea of a Virtual Reality Embassy, which aims to strengthen the diplomatic presence of the UAE to serve UAE nationals abroad as well as citizens of other countries looking for information about the UAE. The workshop discussed all aspects of the virtual embassy, including measures to ensure secure online access.

The third workshop reviewed the idea of Youth Engagement Platform, highlighting it as a tool to raise awareness about multi-cultural and diplomatic values among school children aged 7-10 in the UAE. The emphasis was on teaching them the most important concepts and values to prepare a future generation of leaders and diplomats.

Another workshop discussed the idea of establishing a Majlis for Arabic Language in order to strengthen the presence of Arabic in the international community through a series of events and activities organised by UAE embassies. The Majlis would involve innovative educational tools to teach Arabic language.

The EDA students presented the ideas generated in the Innovation in Diplomacy Labs before the faculty and innovation experts and discussed mechanisms to implement the ideas by employing innovation and cutting-edge technologies as well as global best practices and successful experiences to promote diplomacy in the UAE.