Tolerance

In February 2016, H. H. Sheikh Mohammed introduced the post of Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence in the UAE Cabinet to promote tolerance and instill its core principles as a fundamental value of the UAE's society.

Since then, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives and its affiliated bodies invested 400million AED in cultural understanding initiatives, which have benefited more than 200 nationalities.

According to the UAEInteract website, some 20,000 Imams have been trained to promote the principles of Islam based on moderation and tolerance.

Gender

In the UAE, women citizens enjoy the same constitutional rights as men. As per The Global Gender Gap Report 2015, the UAE is third in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region for gender balance. It scores above the regional average across all sub-indexes except 'Health and Survival', with 96 per cent of the gender gap closed. It ranks first in the region on literacy rate and third on wage equality for similar work.

After the 2015 elections of Federal National Council, 20 new members were appointed out of which 8 were women. That year, the FNC got its first woman speaker, Dr. Amal Abdullah Al Qubaisi. This was the first time for a woman to hold this position not only in the UAE but also in the GCC. In fact, Dr. Al Qubaisi was the first woman to be elected to the FNC.

The current UAE Cabinet comprises 29 ministers of which 8 are women.

The UAE established the Gender Balance Council to enhance work environment by giving women equal opportunities in the public sector. Towards that end, the UAE launched the Gender Inequality Index for Government sector.

The council would enact a framework to consolidate the efforts of various government entities. It aims to boost the country's efforts to evolve and enhance women's role as key partners in building the future of the nation.

Knowledge

As part of the national mGovernment initiative, the UAE launched the ‘mGovernment TV programme’. The programme highlighted the progress of the initiative in terms of mTransformation and provided information about the new ways of accessing government services while stressing on the ease and convenience of adopting the innovative technology. The programme successfully utilised traditional media to bridge the knowledge divide and to facilitate the flow of content. 

In spreading knowledge in other countries, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives and its affiliated bodies seek to support education, disseminate knowledge, encourage the research and spread of knowledge, and provide children with healthy learning environment free of disease and its causes. The initiatives in this sector have been responsible for the construction 2,126 schools around the world, training 400,000 teachers, distributing and printing more than 3.2 million books, translating 1,000 knowledge-based books, encouraging millions of students in the Arab world to read 50 million books a year and sustaining Arabic language support initiatives.

Society

Providing cohesive society and preserved identity is one of the six pillars of the UAE National Agenda. The UAE aims to promote an inclusive environment that integrates all segments of society while preserving the UAE's unique culture, heritage and traditions and reinforces social and family cohesion.

Read about the legal provisions to safeguard labour rights, human rights, women's rights, children's rights and consumer rights in the UAE in the 'Justice safety and the law' section.

Read more under 'No Poverty' and social affairs.

Read more about the sustainable development goal 'Reduced inequalities' .

The Darb initiative

MoHRE's Darb initiative offers priority services to young entrepreneurs, businesswomen, the elderly and the disabled at customer happiness centres. To avail the priority services, the beneficiaries should head to the receptionist at the MoHRE's service halls or the ticket dispenser machine and select the Darb service and the transaction to be conducted. They will be attended to on priority by the employee concerned.