United Arab Emirates
Young people have demonstrated resilience to shocks and led positive change in their communities across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Young people (aged under 30) constitute more than half (55%) of the population across MENA, compared with 36% of the population across OECD countries. While challenges vary significantly across the region, youth unemployment rates are among the highest in the world, young people tend to express low trust in public institutions, and nearly four in ten live in fragile and conflicted-affected areas. The COVID-19 crisis has underscored the need to place the needs of young people at the centre of an inclusive and resilient recovery. To support this process, this report analyses current governance arrangements and practices across 10 MENA governments in three areas: 1) uniting all government stakeholders to implement a shared, integrated youth policy and deliver services to young people; 2) building administrative and institutional capacities to mainstream the perspectives of young people in policy making; and 3) encouraging the participation and representation of young people and youth stakeholders in public and political life.
This chapter provides an overview of the Emirate of Dubai’s well-being journey thus far, as well as the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA)’s current approach to well-being in schools. In addition, this chapter presents the OECD’s analytical lenses, and discusses how it has been applied to Dubai’s private school sector.
What happens in schools is key to understanding whether students, teachers and staff enjoy good physical and mental health, and how happy and satisfied they are with different aspects of their life. School practices and initiatives can help – or indeed hinder – efforts to build a nurturing environment and positive social connections. This chapter looks at the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA)’s and Dubai’s private schools’ efforts to foster well-being in schools, highlighting some of the strengths and limitations of the current approach. Moreover, this chapter discusses some of the steps that could help ensure students and staff across the sector are adequately supported in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the years to come.
The United Arab Emirates launched its foreign assistance policy in December 2016 and published an updated policy in 2022 in consideration of the global impact of COVID-19. The United Arab Emirates’ ODA focuses, in particular, on supporting fragile countries and contexts and is mostly channelled bilaterally. The United Arab Emirates is currently focused on improving the effectiveness of its activities, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation co-ordinating the activities of all of the country’s providers (e.g. Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, other ministries and civil society organisations [CSOs]). The United Arab Emirates’ total ODA (USD 1.4 billion, preliminary data) decreased in 2022, representing 0.33% of gross national income (GNI). This was mainly due to a decrease in both its bilateral and multilateral ODA.
This report analyses the implementation of the AEOI Standard in the United Arab Emirates with respect to the requirements of the AEOI Terms of Reference. It assesses both the legal frameworks put in place to implement the AEOI Standard and the effectiveness of the implementation of the AEOI Standard in practice.
The United Arab Emirates’ legal framework implementing the AEOI Standard is in place and is consistent with the requirements of the AEOI Terms of Reference. This includes the United Arab Emirates’ domestic legislative framework requiring Reporting Financial Institutions to conduct the due diligence and reporting procedures (CR1) and its international legal framework to exchange the information with all of the United Arab Emirates’ Interested Appropriate Partners (CR2).
The United Arab Emirates has 95 tax agreements in force, as reported in its response to the Peer Review questionnaire. Twenty-one of those agreements, the agreements with Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, India, Ireland, Japan, Jersey, Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, comply with the minimum standard.
The United Arab Emirates was first reviewed during the 2018/2019 peer review. This report is supplementary to that previous report (OECD, 2018[2]).
This report is the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) first annual peer review report. Consistent with the agreed methodology this report covers: (i) the domestic legal and administrative framework, (ii) the exchange of information framework as well as (iii) the appropriate use of CbC reports. There is no filing obligation for a CbC report in UAE yet.
The Constitution of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) upholds the principle of equal treatment of all citizens, but does not specifically address gender-based discrimination. All legislation in the UAE is based on Islamic Sharia law. Several laws and national policies continue to restrict women to their traditional roles as wives and mothers.