Dubai Cares reveals ‘win-win’ formula for transforming education at 77th United Nations General Assembly
‘Rewiring Education for People and Planet’ report offers six solutions to challenges
New York: Dubai Cares, a civil society organisation formally associated with the United Nations Department of Global Communications, has unveiled the ‘Rewiring Education for People and Planet’ report in New York at the Transforming Education Summit (TES) in collaboration with the Education Commission.
Held as part of the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the summit was convened by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres in response to the ongoing silent crisis in education. The global gathering provided a unique opportunity to elevate education to the top of the global political agenda and mobilise action, ambition, solidarity and solutions to recover pandemic-related learning losses. The summit’s agenda was segmented across three days, namely: Mobilisation Day, Solutions Day and Leaders Day.
Unveiled on the Solutions Day, the Rewiring Education for People and Planet report offers six concrete “win-win” solutions that can align thinking and action across sectors and stakeholders, while integrating and capturing the main outcomes and recommendations of the conversations that took place during the RewirEd Summit at Expo 2020 Dubai last December. The key recommendations from this report have contributed to the five action tracks and broader outcomes of the TES.
“For the last 15 years, Dubai Cares has been working tirelessly to address key challenges facing the education sector and implementing solutions that will enable countries to leverage education as the equaliser it should be. Combined with the resounding success of the RewirEd Summit, our extensive experience and long-standing strategic partnerships with key global stakeholders have placed Dubai Cares in a leading position to continue its mission to rewire education,” said Dr Tariq Al Gurg, CEO and Vice-Chairman of Dubai Cares.
“The Rewiring Education for People and Planet report, which we have developed in close collaboration with the Education Commission, is a roadmap we urgently need today to steer education towards a more sustainable future through a cross-sectoral ecosystem approach. Our aim with this report is to provide a concrete way forward for the global community to revive education’s role as a game-changer for humanity.”
Gordon Brown, the UN’s Special Envoy for Education and former UK Prime Minister thanked Dubai Cares and the Education Commission for making the event a success by bringing global voices from different sectors, not only to discuss the challenges that face education, but more importantly to put forward solutions. He said: “Let us not lose hope and let us not lose sight of our ambition with all the solutions on offer today, with all the initiatives that have been taken, we can be the first generation in history where every single child goes to school, but instead of developing just some of the potential of some of the children in some of the countries, we develop all of the potential of all children in all countries.”
'Whole-of-society' approach
The report outlines a vision for collaborative transformation and a clear call to action for different actors from different sectors to collectively rewire education systems to provide children and youth of today with the skills, knowledge, and values they need to navigate the complexities of an unknown future. In this context, Dubai Cares’ ‘Framework for Global Education Transformation’ calls for a “whole-of-society” ecosystem approach to transform education. The Framework has been widely endorsed by the international education community and is highlighted on the TES website as a key reference tool for the national consultation process.
Dr Liesbet Steer, Executive Director, Education Commission, said: “The needs of this generation are vast, intertwined, and multifaceted, hence, the need to combine forces with other sectors to deliver on our promises for peace and prosperity. We will not succeed unless we can ensure that education becomes an integral part and a win-win investment with other SDGs. We must ensure that education gets its rightful place in conversations around our global economy, health and environment. When education becomes a more central theme of the G7, G20, the COPs, and the Summit of the Future, that’s when we’ll know we’re on the right track.”
On the Mobilisation Day of the Transforming Education Summit, Dubai Cares, represented by Dr Al Gurg, participated in the launch of the ‘Youth Declaration’. During the session, Dr Al Gurg emphasized the importance of implementing the Declaration to transform education and the need for youth to be integrated within global development strategies and decision-making roles.
Dubai Cares also participated in a session titled ‘Hungry Children = A Failed Education System - Why School Feeding is So Important to Transforming Education’, co-hosted by Plan International Canada, Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education of Sierra Leone, Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations, World Food Programme, and School Meals Coalition. In his remarks, Dr Al Gurg highlighted the central role that school feeding programs play in supporting education transformation, which trigger a positive ripple effect on economic growth and human capital development.
Dubai Cares also took part in the Leaders Day, where Dr Al Gurg participated in the high-level session on Digital Learning and Transformation together with Pedro Castillo Terrones, President of the Republic of Peru; Niki Kerameus, Minister of Education, Greece; Nadiem Makarim, Minister of Education, Republic of Indonesia; Dipu Moni, Minister of Education, People’s Republic of Bangladesh, among other high-level dignitaries. During the session, Dr Al Gurg stressed on the need for a digital revolution to leverage technology and connectivity as a game-changer that can help bring education to even the most remote parts of the world.
Dr Al Gurg also participated in a youth-led festival hosted by the United Nations Foundation in a session titled ‘Rewiring Education Through Win-Win Solutions - Unlock The Future of Learning’, where he delivered a keynote focused on the Rewiring Education for People and Planet report. Moreover, Dr Al Gurg called upon governments, development partners, civil society, business leaders, teachers and young people to work collaboratively across sectors, levels and stakeholders to endorse the findings of the Report in order to rewire education for people and planet.
The extensive support for Rewiring Education for People and Planet report and the Framework for Global Education Transformation from governments and other global agencies has further reinforced Dubai Cares’ position as a leading contributor in driving the global education transformation agenda forward.