EAA Village at WISE Summit 2014
04 - 06 November 2014
Event Details
EAA’s village events will include a session moderated by EAA’s Al Fakhoora programme on the first day (November 4th), during which the importance of reconstruction of educational facilities in Gaza will be discussed. Mr Nasser Faqih, from UNDP Palestine, Mr Muneeb Abu-Ghazaleh from Islamic Relief Worldwide will be among the speakers.
A session dedicated to the important role of education in the lives of explorers, athletes and adventurers will take place on the 5th of November at the EAA Village. Qatari athletes will participate in this multi-generational panel, where the importance of volunteerism and social responsibility as tools to fight poverty will be emphasised.
Other sessions at the EAA Village will include discussions on the impact of armed conflict on education in sub-Saharian Africa, and in the MENA region, during which Dr. Maryan Qasim, former Minister of Human Development and Public Services, Somalia, Dr Tariq Cheema President, World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, United States, and Dr. Abla Amawi, UNWOMEN Egypt Country Director will participate.
Films and documentaries will be screened at the EAA village, which will portray the barriers and challenges faced by children seeking an education.
Daily Events
Screening of Documentaries and Partner Films
Throughout the week before and after our village sessions we will be screening films and documentaries that look at the barriers and challenges faced by children seeking an education, organizations working to provide education in very difficult circumstances. Some of the films will feature success stories, presented through the eyes of students, teachers and representatives of NGO’s that have succeeded in bringing sustainable quality education to children and young adults.
Maher Attar: Realities & Challenges Project Trailer
The photographer Maher Attar has been working on Realities and Challenges his next book for the last two years. This short film will provide the viewer with a quick look at the his process, the obstacles he has faced and the joy that he has brought to his subjects through his work.
EAA Selfie Photo Booth
Guests to visiting the village will have an opportunity to visit the EAA Selfie Photo Booth where they can get their photograph taken with their choice of different backgrounds behind them through the magic of green screen technology.
Daily Programme
Day 1 - Tuesday, 4 November
12:30 – 13:30
More Than a Classroom; Why Rebuild Gaza?
Location: QAPCO Theatre – EAA Village
This session focuses on the importance of reconstruction of educational facilities in Gaza. Opening discussions are centered around the creation of safe learning spaces for children and young adults. With the need and eagerness to quickly rebuild in the aftermath of the destruction, we must not forget to focus on planning and investing in creating healthy creative learning environments that in turn foster healthy creative young children and students. A classroom in Gaza needs to be more than just bricks and mortar.
13:15 – 15:00
Education Post 2015 – Conflict: Insecurity, Instability & Disasters
Location: Auditorium 2
The achievement of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for Universal Primary Education and the wider six-goal agenda of Education for All (EFA) will not become a reality by 2015 despite some significant progress. For a number of countries, a key factor contributing to this disappointing outcome has been the adverse impact of armed conflict and insecurity on education. As well as suffering from the far-reaching destructiveness of violent conflict, education has also been subjected to targeted attacks that have exacted a high price in terms of lives lost, injuries, damage and disruption. For this session, we focus on conflict as a serious barrier that makes education inaccessible for millions, sometimes for many years. Lost educational opportunities are part of the human cost of armed conflict, with immediate and long-term consequences for individuals, families, communities and society as a whole. Moreover, understanding the impact of armed conflict on education requires that we take into account not only how many students and teachers are killed or injured and the number of schools destroyed or damaged, but also the psychological effects of fear, bereavement, the witnessing of violence, and the loss of hope.
Education – sometimes part of the problem, too often the scene of terrible destruction – must also be, crucially, a vital part of the solution. The speakers in this session bring a diverse range of intellectual and professional backgrounds to bear on two of the main challenges facing education today, namely, understanding the impact of violent conflict on education and finding ways to address that impact effectively through and within education.
13:45 – 15:15
Update on OOSCI - UNICEF / UNESCO
Location: QAPCO Theatre – EAA Village
This session aims to critically engage experts, development practitioners and policy-makers on the issue of out-of-school children. It will equip them with new tools to advocate for the most marginalized out of school children. The session will also provide information that can be used to galvanize support with the general public around the world.
The objective is to ensure stronger, more relevant and data-driven advocacy. It is also to explore innovative solutions for addressing the gaps and bottlenecks in the implementation of efforts to ensure schooling for all children.
Participating experts will also address the need to mobilize resources and ensure that global education initiatives are effectively engaging with global, national and local policymakers.
15:30 – 16:45
The Impact of Armed Conflict on Education
Location: QAPCO Theatre – EAA Village
This session will focus on a newly released study The Quantitative Impact of Conflict on Education which addresses the human and financial costs related to Out of School Children. The study was commissioned by PEIC and undertaken by the UK – based CfBT Education Trust.
Day 2 - Wednesday, 5 November
9:00am – 10:30am
Plenary: Education Post 2015: The Unfinished Agenda
Location: Theatre @QNCC
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are one of the initiatives of the United Nations that have literally changed the world. Nevertheless, the actual implementation of the MDGs continues to remain a matter of intense debate. With the 2015 deadline fast approaching, the international community remains preoccupied with the future of the “unmet MDGs”. Certainly, an explicit understanding seems to have emerged that the MDGs are going to continue beyond 2015 in one form or another. Therefore, questions are being asked about the processes that were implemented to decide on the elements of the post‐2015 development agenda as well as about what would be their distinctive features.
In the new global framework for development, it is critical that education, and equitable and quality learning are placed as key drivers of inclusive growth and poverty reduction, and vital to the achievement of all other development goals. Moreover, in low-income countries, every extra year of education adds about 10% to a person's income on average, and even more for women.
It is clear that education has the transformational power to turn the course of human development from poverty to raising living standards for all. To do so, education must be relevant not only to today’s challenges but it must also equip people to cope with the changing circumstances of sustainable development as we look beyond 2015.
Three processes have informed the position of education in the post-2015 development agenda, namely: (a) The post-MDG process; (b) The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) process; and, (c) The post-EFA process. While each of the three processes had their own trajectory, all have converged to a new standalone goal on education accompanied by seven targets.
The Open Working Group on Sustainable Development has proposed a goal of “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all” with targets related to universal access to, and completion of quality pre-primary education of an agreed period (at least 1 year); equal access to and completion of a full course of quality primary schooling, with an emphasis on learning outcomes; universal access to, and completion of, quality lower secondary/secondary education, again with an emphasis on learning outcomes; and, universal access to post-secondary learning opportunities (including technical and vocational) that are relevant to the worlds of work, life, lifelong learning and global citizenship.
With the plenary session during WISE, EAA will consider the central role that primary education must play in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, as considered by the ongoing intergovernmental debates. EAA intends to bring forward clarity and focus as to exactly how the post-2015 agenda can make a real step forward in ensuring universal primary quality education for all, with a focus on zeroing the number of out-of-school children worldwide.
EAA recognizes the critical role of governments and will call on business leaders, philanthropists and private sector actors for their increased support for primary education efforts and to strengthen global partnerships for sustainable development. In the past, these sectors have stood up and made significant progress on issues of great social and economic importance, such as public health. In the post 2015 scenario, the same can be achieved in primary education if efforts are focused and clear and innovative approaches are adopted.
10:30 – 11:30
Why Education - Explorers, Athletes & Adventurers
Location: QAPCO Theatre – EAA Village
Moderated semi-scripted discussion where Explorers / Athletes / Adventurers share the important role that education has played in their lives, allowing them to achieve the goals they have achieved so far in their lives and how it influences their planning, preparation and training on a daily basis. This panel will also discuss the importance of volunteerism and helping young people see the importance of social responsibility and how it can help lift individuals, families and communities out of poverty.
11:00 – 12:45
Launch of the New Model Education Program for Kakuma Refuge Camp
Location: Auditorium 2
The world is seeing unprecedented numbers of refugees and displaced populations. As part of its ongoing effort to address barriers to education worldwide, Education Above All (EAA) is piloting a project that will seek to address all of the factors that currently prevent refugee camp residents from receiving an education—such as health and nutrition, livelihood, food security, water and sanitation and energy—effecting changes that will positively impact the community as a whole
11:45 – 12:45
Pascal Plisson: Education through a Filmmakers Lens
Location: QAPCO Theatre – EAA Village
During this session we will discuss the documentary “On the Way to School” by Pascal Plisson. This award winning documentary follows Jackson, Zahira, Samuel and Carlito, four children united in their yearning to learn. Like millions of others worldwide, their quest for education and dreams of escaping the traps of poverty, ignorance or loneliness lead them to confront and overcome countless and often dangerous obstacles on their daily journeys to school.
13:00 – 13:30
Qatar Airways Moments
Location: QAPCO Theatre – EAA Village
This session will provide an update on the fundraising partnership between Education Above All and Qatar Airways.
13:45 – 15:30
Education Post 2015 – Poverty: Social, Economic & Cultural Challenges
Location: Auditorium 2
The current Millennium Development Goals (MDG) list Eradicate Poverty as Goal #1, and achievement of Universal Primary Education as Goal #2. Post-2015 goals remain to be set but seem likely to include completing current goals that will not have been met by 2015. The poverty and education goals are inextricably linked and the success or failure to reach one impacts the other. For this session, we focus on poverty as a barrier to education, and education as a pathway to address poverty and inequality. Some 57 million children are still out of primary school and some 250 million children, including half who are in school, are not learning at the primary and secondary levels. It is indisputable that extreme poverty continues to exist around the world, and it is recognized that universal primary education is a goal we must still strive to achieve, currently falling short by the nearly 60 million out of school children who cannot be forgotten. One contribution to moving toward accomplishing both of these goals is to better understand the implications of poverty on the social sector, including social, economic, cultural, environmental, political, and educational impacts. This session includes speakers who have extensive background in real world settings and academia who will share both analytical perspectives on the current situation in selected countries and provide successful models for addressing poverty in the context of education. This session will explore the consequences of not educating children and will look at various initiatives that have helped poor children and young adults enroll and learn in the education system.
13:45 – 14:45
The Impact of Armed Conflict on Education in the MENA Region
Location: QAPCO Theatre – EAA Village
This session will focus on the challenges to education created by conflict in the MENA Region. During the session we will present the unique situations of two regions impacted by prolonged conflict Yemen and Syria.
15:00 – 16:30
Gaza: Education in Active Conflict
Location: QAPCO Theatre – EAA Village
This session addresses how the blockade has affected education in Gaza and how educators and students have been able to overcome these challenges and reach out to their peers around the world.
Day 3 - Thursday, 6 November
10:15 – 11:15
Why Education - Explorers, Athletes & Adventurers
Location: QAPCO Theatre – EAA Village
Moderated semi-scripted discussion where Explorers / Athletes / Adventurers share the important role that education has played in their lives, allowing them to achieve the goals they have achieved so far in their lives and how it influences their planning, preparation and training on a daily basis. This panel will also discuss the importance of volunteerism and helping young people see the importance of social responsibility and how it can help lift individuals, families and communities out of poverty.
11:15 – 13:00
Education Post 2015 - Quality: Operational Challenges & Solutions
Location: Auditorium 2
The 2011’s EFA Global Monitoring Report focused on highlighting the fact that countries undergoing armed conflict are ‘among the farthest from reaching the Education for All goals, yet their educational challenges go largely unreported’ (UNESCO 2011:2). This aspect has made the debate on the post-2015 global education agenda a critical one. How to guarantee not only the right to education for populations in conflict and post-conflict areas that include refugees, internally displaced persons, and those harmed by conflict but also ensure access to a quality education. This session will focus on the operational needs and challenges of providing education in conflict situations as well as the solutions. The challenge is how to move away from fragmented, ad hoc approaches towards more comprehensive, effective and lasting solutions. The speakers in this session bring experiences that range from education through community action, quality of education and inequalities in access to education.
11:30 – 12:30
Empowering Future Global Citizens
Location: QAPCO Theatre – EAA Village
A Town Hall style session bringing together a diverse group of high school & university students to discuss the importance social media, communication and education play in shaping tomorrows global citizens. Participants will include EAA Youth Advocates, GEFI Youth Advocates, and students from World in Conversation discussing the importance of creating better communication between young people and how that can help foster better understanding.
12:45 – 13:45
Impact of Armed Conflict on Education in sub – Saharan Africa
Location: QAPCO Theatre – EAA Village
The session will provide a broad overview of the challenges education faces in the region with a focus on the status of education in Somalia, South Sudan & Nigeria.
