Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has received the Middle East Risk and Crisis Management Initiative Excellence Award, at the 7th Middle East Municipalities and Smart Cities Excellence Awards. DEWA was honoured, during a ceremony coinciding with the conclusion of the 7th GCC Municipalities and Smart Cities Conference, which was recently hosted by Dubai, in the presence of decision-makers and leaders in different sectors in the region. The award acknowledges DEWA’s leadership in corporate risk management and business continuity, in line with its vision of being a sustainable innovative world-class utility.
Rooman Latif, Risk Management Specialist, received the award in the presence of several senior officials and decision-makers in the public and private sectors, as well as media.
The Middle East Risk and Crisis Management Initiative Excellence Award, presented by the Middle East Municipalities and Smart Cities Excellence Awards, recognises the best achievements and practices of excellence aimed at strengthening and empowering the development of cities and municipalities. The award highlights modern strategic planning for smart infrastructure, sustainable strategies, and smart city management solutions.
“We are delighted to receive this recognition from the Middle East Excellence Award Institute. DEWA works in line with the vision of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to promote Dubai’s global competitiveness by adopting the best global best practices in all fields. DEWA strives to continuously develop its capabilities, especially in the field of addressing potential risks, assessing them, and responding to them immediately. It acknowledges the importance of the services it provides. DEWA supplies water and electricity to more than 800,000 residents of the Emirate, based on the highest levels of availability, reliability, and quality. DEWA adopts best international practices, in accordance with the ISO 31000, and the latest integrated management systems in the field of enterprise risk management because they are closely related to DEWA’s strategic planning. In addition, DEWA takes precautionary measures to avoid all forms of risk,” said Al Tayer.
“DEWA’s winning of the Middle East Municipalities and Smart Cities Excellence Awards for its excellence in risk and crisis management, is recognition of its position as a global leader in business continuity, risk management, crisis management and reducing downtime to the lowest level. DEWA achieved 3.28 minutes compared to 15 minutes recorded by leading utilities in Europe and the USA. DEWA also received an accreditation from ISO 22301 Business Continuity management for 2016, becoming the first service institution to receive this accreditation in the MENA region. It also received the Cyber Risk Strategy Award, in the Global Risk Award for Building Risk Management Capability from the Institute of Risk Management (IRM), in 2016. Moreover, in 2015, DEWA won the Commitment to Learning and Development award at the Global Risk Awards, making it also the first organisation in the MENA region to win this award. In 2013, DEWA won the Global Risk Award for Building Risk Management Capability from the IRM,” added Al Tayer.
Al Tayer highlighted that DEWA is working on harnessing modern technologies as part of its strategy for smart transformation, in the field of risk management, and has launched two new platforms to support and accelerate DEWA’s risk management procedures. These include the Smart Risk Dashboard, which was launched in accordance with the ISO 31000, and DEWA’s Corporate Risk Management Framework, and SAP GRC Mobility, making it one of the first institutions, worldwide, to use this smart platform.
Al Tayer noted that DEWA is keen to provide training to its Enterprise Risk Management staff to obtain certificates from international institutions in the implementation of international risk management and business continuity standards, to enhance DEWA’s capabilities to identify all potential threats, how they affect the work flow, and the appropriate plans to address them before they occur or to mitigate their impact if they occur.
DEWA won the Middle East Municipalities and Smart Cities Excellence Award, in the Utilities Usage and Management Excellence category, in 2014. In 2015, DEWA won in the Energy Sector, and the Knowledge Management and Innovation Development category. In 2016, DEWA won the Utilities Usage and Management Excellence category.