HH Sheikha Moza inaugurates World Innovation Summit for Education "WISE" 2014

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, inaugurated the opening of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), being held under the theme "Imagine – Create – Learn: Creativity at the Heart of Education.” 

The summit, which is held at the Qatar National Convention Centre, brings together 1600 participants from 120 countries around the world, representing political sectors, non-profit organizations, information technology companies and teachers.

At the opening session of the summit, Her Highness honoured the winner of the 2014 WISE Award, Ann Cotton, who is the President and Founder of "Camfed" organization for female education, for her leading and distinctive role in supporting the education of girls in a number of African countries, particularly in rural areas. 

In her opening speech, Her Highness said that since 2011, "We wanted for the WISE Award for Education to be a celebration of the outstanding achievements of the pioneers and innovators of education. We also want for the spirit of this celebration to be fit with the desire to support the trend of innovation in education in order to cope with live variables and challenges in a changing world." 

In this context, Her Highness said that this tribute does not belong to the winner of the award alone, but is a direct honouring to all innovators in the field of innovation in education and defenders of education rights to enhance the status of innovation in the creation of exceptional solutions. 

Her Highness added that what is being honoured is the continuous and serious research to create a new vision for education to establish a new concept beyond the typical way of dealing with education issues and its dialectical relationship with other issues. 

Her Highness announced that the jury of WISE Award for Education has chosen a person who they believe truly represents the WISE values. 

Her Highness continued to say, "We are looking at the winner of the WISE Award for this year as a model to express the ability of education in changing communities." 

Her Highness noted in her speech that such a lady, full of the spirit of innovation, is worthy of winning the 2014 WISE Award. 

Following receiving the award from Her Highness, Anne Cotton expressed her sincere thanks and gratitude to Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser for this great honour, considering it a strong motivation for enthusiasm and making efforts in her task to educate girls in rural and marginalized areas in Africa. She also thanked in this regard, His Excellency Chairman of WISE, Dr. Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali Al-Thani.