On November 21, Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser addressed the World Innovation Summit on Education (WISE) and reaffirmed her commitment to ensuring universal primary education for every child in the world. Her remarks kicked off a day dedicated to galvanizing the global community to take action on a number of barriers to education, and to educating the tens of millions primary-aged children around the world who are not in school.

As the founder and chair of the Education Above All Foundation (EAA), Her Highness announced new expansions of the “Educate A Child”-programme, in particular the Zero Out Of School Children strategy. Collaborating directly with governments and non-governmental organizations, the strategy targets countries with near-universal primary education to enroll the hardest to reach children. 

EAA also unveiled a partnership with  Zaha Hadid Architects and the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (Supreme Committee). The aim of the partnership is to develop portable, multi-functional schools, designed and equipped for refugee children and their families to use for education and community engagement. The initial prototype was shown on the exhibit floor at WISE 2019 and the converted classroom structures are planned to be deployed post-2022 in Cambodia, Cameroon, Colombia, Jordan, Lebanon, Mali, Myanmar, Palestine, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Uganda. Click here to learn more.

Her Highness welcomed the first regional edition of the Global Education Monitoring Report dedicated to the Arab States and entitled “Migration, displacement and education: Building Bridges, not Walls”. The report was released during a panel discussion featuring regional experts hosted by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Educate A Child. The discussion provided analysis on the impact of various types of population movements on education in the Arab States.

WISE is hosted bi-annually and is an international, multi-sectoral platform for creative thinking, debate and purposeful action and new approaches to education. The Qatar Foundation, under the leadership of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, its Chairperson, established WISE in 2009.