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HH Sheikha Moza calls for more collaboration at World Innovation Summit for Education
Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser has called for more collaboration and innovation among stakeholders.
Addressing a special session at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) on the role of education in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, Her Highness said, “We need to accelerate and harvest efforts in all sectors. Education is not just important – it’s a priority. Governments need to keep the promises they have made but private enterprises should play a greater role and be incentivised to prioritise education as well.”
She was speaking as member of a high-level panel, which included fellow MDG Advocate Ambassador Dho Young-shim of Korea and Thomas Stelzer, UN Assistant Secretary General for Policy Co-ordination and also Co-ordinator for the MDG Group.
Ghida Fakhry of Al Jazeera moderated the interactive discussion between the panel and a diverse audience of academics, private and public sector representatives, NGOs and media, who actively contributed their views and experiences.
Her Highness explained that education is the key to achieving the goals of the Millennium Development Goals not only because it is a right but because it is an essential element to ensure the achievement of other goals.
She stressed the need to upgrade the quantitative and qualitative education as well as focusing on quality education by placing it on top of the list of priorities for states to ensure its support, underlining the importance of activating the partnership between the international will, civil society and the private sector, while calling for the establishment of an International Fund for Education to assist those countries that do not have adequate resources for this purpose, especially conflict zones such as Iraq, Gaza and Afghanistan.
Ayla Goksel, a WISE 2010 Laureate, shared a concrete example of her work in Turkey, where her organisation was able to build dormitories for girls from rural communities attending secondary schools in cities as a direct result of the Turkish government providing tax deductions for the building of education facilities.
The discussion also focused on the centrality of education to achieving all other MDGs. Thomas Stelzer noted that the eight goals are not competing but that they are all interlinked and complementary. The expansion of education leads to improvements of health-related MDGs in particular but also to poverty reduction and environmental sustainability.
In her remarks at the closing of the WISE summit, Her Highness said she had been encouraged by the morning session on MDGs and education and the constructive ideas which had been forthcoming. She asked the WISE participants to continue searching for new and realistic solutions to the challenges that education is facing.
“Every small experience can make a difference. I urge people to keep sharing ideas," she concluded.