Social and Cultural
The UAE is an innovative social investor, seeking ways to expand opportunities for UAE citizens and help address regional and global challenges. Among top UAE priorities are education reform, improving healthcare, expanding the role of women, and the environment. The UAE has found support in the United States to pursue these domestic goals.
Education
In 1975, the rate of adult literacy was 54 percent among men and 31 percent among women. Today, literacy rates for both genders are nearly 90 percent.
The UAE’s values of tolerance and openness are best reflected in the progress of Emirati women in education. Forty years ago, virtually no girls went to school. But His Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, founder of the UAE, personally encouraged and even insisted on education for girls.
New initiatives are being launched at all educational levels and US partners have played key roles.
- US Education Secretary Margaret Spellings visited the UAE in May 2008. The two countries signed a Memorandum of Cooperation, committing both sides to collaborate on mutually beneficial projects in educational reform and development.
- The New England Center for Children, a Massachusetts school serving children with autism, will establish a comprehensive special education program as well as train and qualify a number of UAE nationals to provide services in Arabic.
- New York University-Abu Dhabi will be the first comprehensive liberal arts and sciences campus with a robust research component to be operated abroad by a major US university.
- MIT is helping develop the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi. The Institute, which focuses on clean energy technologies, will be the region’s first institution dedicated to research-driven graduate programs.
- The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has partnered with Dubai World to create the Dubai Leaders Program.
- Rochester Institute of Technology has established a new Dubai campus.
- The trustees of Michigan State University endorsed the development of undergraduate and graduate degree programs and research activities in Dubai, in collaboration with Dubai International Academic City.
Health
Health care delivery in parts of the UAE is undergoing a significant transformation, and the UAE is working with leading US institutions to develop its health care system.
- Harvard Medical School-Dubai Center was launched in 2004 as part of the Government of Dubai’s mission to develop excellence for health care delivery, medical education and research.
- Boston University and Dubai Healthcare City are opening a dental school in the Emirate.
- Johns Hopkins Medicine will manage the Tawam Hospital in Abu Dhabi. Johns Hopkins faculty are also involved in the development of a public health doctoral program for the UAE and providing advice on preventive health care programs.
- The Cleveland Clinic is creating and operating a new world-class hospital in the UAE. Cleveland Clinic also announced it will take over management of Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi.
- Susan G. Komen for the Cure, in collaboration with the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and the US State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative, is developing programs with UAE women’s groups, government officials, physicians and medical organizations to raise awareness of breast cancer, and facilitate more effective outcomes in prevention and treatment.
- The UAE and the University of North Carolina’s School of Public Health have signed a two-year contract to investigate possible environmental health risks that come with being an industrialized country.
Women
The UAE Constitution guarantees equal rights for both men and women. Women have been very successful in getting advanced degrees and graduates in the UAE can be found working in government, engineering, science, health care, media, computer technology, law, commerce, and the oil industry.
- Four UAE cabinet ministers are women—including Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Foreign Trade Minister, who was on Forbes magazine’s 2007 list of the 100 most powerful women in the world.
- Women form two-thirds of government sector workers. In October 2008, the first female judge was sworn in.
- In 2006, nine women took up seats within the Federal National Council, accounting for 22.5 percent of the Council’s membership. In March 2007, these nine FNC members sat for the first time and began full participation in the deliberations of the Council.
- In 2003, for the first time, the Abu Dhabi police trained 32 women to work with the special security forces. The UAE has four women fighter pilots, the first to serve in UAE military forces.
The UAE has worked with US partners to further the success of its professional women. Vital Voices, a Washington-based nongovernmental organization, and the US State Department has organized the MENA Businesswomen’s Network. The goal is to build a network of businesswomen, expand the number of women in business, increase the value of their businesses, advance the role of women in society, and promote a regional culture of women's entrepreneurship. Among the network’s seven founding members is the Dubai Business Women’s Council.
Cultural
Art and culture play a central role in enhancing international relations and developing understanding between the UAE and the United States.
- New York-based Guggenheim Museum will establish a world-class museum in the UAE devoted to modern and contemporary art, to be known as the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
- National Geographic Entertainment and Imagenation Abu Dhabi have committed $100 million for the production of 15 movies and documentaries for theatrical release over the next five years.
- Abu Dhabi signed a deal with the New York Film Academy to establish a film academy in the UAE capital.
- The UAE has Sister City relationships between Detroit and Dubai and Houston and Abu Dhabi.
Hurricane Katrina Reconstruction
When Hurricane Katrina struck the shores of Louisiana and other US Gulf states, the UAE donated $100 million in direct foreign aid to US relief efforts. These funds supported “Katrina Aid Today,” a three-year interfaith initiative that has helped more than 100,000 families and individuals affected by Hurricane Katrina.
The contribution also helped to build technology infrastructure in a number of New Orleans schools, which now assists disadvantaged children to develop skills needed to rebuild and transform that region’s economy in the years to come.
Environment
The UAE understands that ensuring a clean environment is critical to sustainable economic growth and intergenerational equity. With a long-standing commitment to sustainability and conservation, efforts continue to minimize the UAE’s impact on the global environment.
In 2005 the UAE became one of the first major oil-producing countries to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Convention on Climate Change.
In addition, the Government of Abu Dhabi created the Masdar Initiative, a $15 billion program supporting the development and commercialization of clean energy technologies, a world-class research institute and initiating projects like the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste green community.
