Giving teachers the right tools and knowledge are crucial, say the experts in our discussion following a new early childhood education report from Theirworld. As 90% of brain development happens before the age of five, quality early childhood education (ECE) is crucial. But across the world it is generally underfunded and undervalued. That can be damaging for any child - partic[...]
The refugee crisis in the Greek Aegean islands has reached an untenable situation which requires urgent action by the Greek authorities and the international community. This report shows a way forward. There are 42,000 refugees stuck on the Greek Aegean islands, their entry point to the country and, they hope, to Europe. Their futures are precarious and their daily reality is extr[...]
The Arab world has long suffered from a wide spectrum of socio-economic challenges and conflicts. Three statistics demonstrate these acute challenges beyond doubt: 1) two-thirds of the region’s population is either poor or vulnerable to multi-dimensional poverty, 2) the region’s youth unemployment rate has hovered at almost 30% for two decades with no progress, remaining the highest i[...]
Four years ago, we set out to establish the Arab world’s largest privately funded education foundation. The mandate that its founder Abdulla Al Ghurair laid out was focused and ambitious: to help 15,000 under-served, high-achieving Arab youth access high-quality education. Despite the seemingly daunting challenge, the foundation is on course to not only achieve but far exceed its o[...]
“What does one do with a sociology degree?” In 1992, Maysa Jalbout fielded that question a lot. The Mac undergrad had just spent a year studying commerce, but her heart wasn’t in it – so at the end of her first year she switched her major and decided to take the questions in stride. She graduated with a BA in sociology in 1994 and she’s never looked back. Today, Jalbout is[...]
Maysa Jalbout has spent her career advocating for greater and better support for education, youth and refugees. She has done so through the non-profit sector, government aid and for over a decade in philanthropy. She is currently a member of the IB Board of Governors and is Chief Executive Officer of the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education in the United Arab Emirates.[...]
Maysa Jalbout is the founding CEO of the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education - a landmark philanthropic initiative with a budget of $1 billion and an ambitious goal of educating 15,000 youth within 10 years. Forbes recognized her as one of the 100 most powerful businesswomen in the Arab world in 2016 and 2017. In her capacity as Non-resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution[...]
In August, Maysa Jalbout travelled to Nahr El Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon to meet Badriyeh Diab, an 18-year-old Palestinian refugee. An exceptional student, Diab had just received a scholarship from the STEM Scholars program, an initiative by the U.A.E.’s Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education. Jalbout is its CEO. The scholarship allows Diab to pursue undergraduate st[...]
Inadequate access to high-quality schooling in the Arab world has contributed to a widening skills gap that is leaving many young people, even those who have completed school, unemployed and hopeless. But one promising solution offers hope throughout the region: investment in online learning. DUBAI – Education has long been a challenge in the Arab world, with inadequate access to hig[...]
The new CEO of one of the world's largest education foundations -- its size puts it in the same league as the Gates Foundation's commitment to education -- faces these two realities: First, the Middle East has the highest youth unemployment rate in the world. There's a big mismatch between the skills graduates have and the needs of employers. And second, and even more dire: confli[...]