Exploring ways to apply knowledge effectively

Dubai: A report on the status of knowledge in the Arab world will be released by December 2008 as part of an initiatives announced by Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation to promote a creative-knowledge generation and invest in education.

The United Nations Development Programme and the Foundation will compile the report to identify challenges, best practices, and propose policies for the effective generation and application of knowledge in the region.

The partnership marks the first of a series of strategic initiatives announced by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, at the Knowledge Conference in Dubai last month.

Mohammad Al Gergawi, Chairman of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, and Amat Al Alim Alsoswa, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Director for UNDP's Regional Bureau for Arab States, signed the agreement to work together.

The report will build on the foundation set by UNDP's Arab Human Development Report 2003: Building a Knowledge Society, written by a group of distinguished Arab scholars and leaders, which emphasises the need for Arab countries to close a growing knowledge gap by investing heavily in education and promoting open intellectual inquiry.

The Arab Knowledge Report will expand on that analysis, presenting new data and agenda-setting studies on recent and long-standing trends, deepening the inquiry into the state of education and the development of a knowledge society in the Arab world.

"Research on the region's development indicates tangible progress can be achieved only with a competent knowledge base. There is an urgent need for an adequate resource pool of qualified human capital to realise the region's ambitious development goals," said Gergawi.

"The Arab world is in dire need to revisit the understanding of the knowledge concept, and embracing the knowledge economy as the only path to succeed in facing the third millennium challenges, and achieving a befitting place among the world nations," said Amat Al Alim Alsoswa.

Two-fold objective