Source: www.rta.ae
The Higher Committee of the Dubai Award for Sustainable Transport (DAST) has recently discussed with the members of the Award’s Judges Panel the best means of upgrading the process of screening submissions and the timeline set for adjudging them with the aim of creating a highly competitive platform for the third edition of the Award 2011.
A statement to this effect was made in a meeting recently held at the premises of RTA Public Transport Agency chaired by the Chairperson of DAST Higher Committee Dr. Khalid Al Zahid, and attended by members of the Judges Panel including: the Director of the Dubai Police Traffic Department General engineer Mohammed Saif Al Zafeen, Advisor of Abu Dhabi’s Department of Transport Dr. Salim Al Shaafiee, Director of Environment, Dubai Municipality Hamdan Al Shaaer and members of DAST Judges Panel and the Higher Organizing Committee.
Dr. Khalid Al Zahid stated that the last date for receiving nominations for the Award was the 10th January 2011 and the number of submissions made totaled 44 representing government, semi-government and private entities.
“The members of the Higher Organizing Committee of the Award as well as the Judges Panel, will carry out field visits to a number of entities taking part in the Award; which is a key index in the assessment of initiatives made in various categories intended to enhance the assessment process and improve the accuracy of selecting the winners,” said Al Zahid.
“Upon nominating the winners, the Judges Panel will draw up the best recommendations to the non-winning entities with the aim of enriching their participation next time round such that they will be more effective and better placed to score leading positions in the next edition of the Award,” he added.
Al Zahid anticipated that all assessment works of submissions made are set to be finalized early next month.
“Since the inaugural edition, DAST Higher Organizing Committee remained in constant pursuit of upgrading its work mechanism in keeping with the massive development taking place in RTA projects & initiatives, and in view of the broadening participation in the Award. This will attract more participation from public, semi-public and private entities towards contributing to the advancement of sustained transport in Dubai Emirate, and contribute with the RTA to building the future of the Emirate.
“In order to facilitate the submission of nominations for this edition of the Award, the Organizing Committee developed a new fully electronic process through the portal of the Award (http://www.rta.ae/dast); which renders the participation a handy process for all participants.
“The Judges Panel of DAST is a neutral entity comprising experts and specialists from entities other than the RTA, and the Panel is entitled to scrutinize and assess the accepted submissions to select the winners based on precise technical standards that include the title or name of the initiative. A clear and short title must be selected for the initiative; which needs to be in line with the nature & objectives of the nominated initiative. It is possible to use promotional or inspirational titles, provided they are aligned with the concept and content of the nominated initiative. The concept & evolution of the initiative has to be defined in order to explain the background that led to the launch of the Award, highlight the source of the Award and state whether the leadership of the entity is embracing the initiative. It has also got to examine the extent of involvement of various leaders & staff of the entity in discussing & shaping the initiative, and ensuring the appropriate documentation of the initiative.
Methodology & Mechanism: This relates to measuring the extent of studying the potential alternatives of applying the initiative, availability of well-defined and viable plans & objectives, promoting & floating the initiative within the entity, and setting out the responsibilities related to the implementation of the initiative. It also includes reviewing the availability of support & resources required for the implementation of the initiative, clarity of and broadness of motivations necessary for the success of the initiative, method of measuring the compliance with the approved implementation plan, degree/rate of actual application of the plan & initiative, mechanism of realizing the partnerships necessary for the success of the campaign, and the degree of creativity & pioneering spirit in implementation of the initiative.
Achievements and Results: This includes introducing a well-defined method of measuring the results, accuracy & documentation of the actual results made at the level of various targeted groups along with the scope, importance & diversity of results made, and efforts put to generalize the benefits inside and outside the entity. The results have to be benchmarked against the specified objectives to quantify the achievement rate, match the results against the previous positions to quantify the improvement rate, and carry out an overall assessment of the success of the initiative in achieving its objectives.
Continued Improvement: The continued improvement plan ensures the availability of a continuous development plan of the initiative, and broadening the scope of implementation. It is also reveals whether the plan is based on surveys & analysis of service recipients to probe their satisfaction and understand their requirements & expectations, the practical measures taken to improve the initiative, and the effectiveness of improvement measures in realizing the intended objectives.
