Agenda Day 2

The Sharjah Child Friendly Office aims to launch the Sharjah Child Friendly School and Nurseries toolkit in this invitation-only session. The standard has been guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and experience of UNICEF worldwide, in implementing rights-based approaches to education and evidence pertaining to child development.

Speakers:

Dr. Hessa Khalfan Al Ghazal

Executive Director
Sharjah Child Friendly Office

H.E. Dr. Khawla Al Mulla

General Secretary
Supreme Council For Family Affairs

H.E. Dr. Muhadditha Al Hashimi

Chairperson
Sharjah Private Education Authority

H.E. Dr. Saeed Musabeh Al Kaabi

Chairperson
Sharjah Education Council

Mr. El Tayeb Adam

Area Representative
UNICEF Gulf Area Office

This panel will explore decentralized and accelerated education models in West Africa. It will examine why these approaches are needed, especially in crises contexts where state delivery is limited and where INGOs and UN actors are playing a bigger role in education provision.

Speakers:

H.E. Mr. Stanislas Ouaro

Minister of National Education and Literacy of Burkina Faso (Virtual)

Dr. Mansur Muhtar

Vice President, Country Programs, Islamic Development Bank

Marjorie Chéron

Head of Cooperation, Embassy of Canada to Burkina Faso and to Benin

Titus Tenga

International Director, Strømme Foundation

Stepping away from the usual to unusual, in this masterclass, Aman Merchant and Indy Johar will share their experience of crafting the RewirEd Provocations and take the participants through an open-ended thinking process of reimagining global education from a systems perspective. Provocations can be a powerful narrative tool for reframing challenges into opportunities, that inspire action from multiple stakeholders.

Speakers:

Aman Merchant

Chief Provocateur of Radicle

Indy Johar

Chief Strategic Designer of Radicle (Virtual)

Speakers:

Azad Oommen

Co-Founder
Global School Leaders

Dr. Colin Kennedy

Head, School of Innovation at Creative HQ

Inés Yábar

Senior Global Campaigns Coordinator, Restless Development

COVID-19 dictated the need to rapidly scale up flexible education options to reach all learners, however there is still confusion around which programmes are appropriate for which learners. This interactive session introduces the Accelerated Education Working Group’s COVID-19 tools and guidance supporting programme design, implementation and evaluation.

Speakers:

Martha Hewison

Accelerated Education Working Group (AEWG) Chair, UNHCR

Kayla Boisvert

Accelerated Education Working Group (AEWG) advisor

Ayoo Irene Hellen

Refugee Youth Representative

Five of Africa’s most promising Education Innovations will pitch to a highly experienced panel of judges for awards of $100,000, $70,000 and $40,000. The selected innovations will be implemented as pilot projects in AU Member countries.

In-Person Judges:

Anthony Bloome

Founder and Executive Director, mEducation Alliance. (Judge)

Ernst Hustaedt

Programme Manager, GIZ - SIFA (Judge)

Unami Mpofu

Team Lead-Skills & Employability, AUDA-NEPAD (Judge)

Innovators:

Elijah Lubala

Founder & Software Engineer, SOLAR-FI

Samson Wambuzi

Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Yiya AirScience

Warwick Vlantis

Project Co-founder & lead, African Coding Network (Virtual)

Rudolph Ampofo

Craft Education, Hunu Teletherapy

Omar Trabelsi

Class Quiz, Tunisia

Virtual Speakers (Judges):

Hema Vanam

Regional Programme Officer, CAFOR

Angela Arnott

Program Design, GESCI

Shem Okore Bodo

Senior Program Officer, ADEA

Youth-led programs for early childhood care and education (ECCE) offer an innovative strategy to provide mutual benefits for both youth and young children. This session will feature case studies from Pakistan, Colombia, Liberia, and the United States, highlighting implications for policy development, new directions for programs, and continued research.

Speakers:

Angelica Ponguta

Assoc. Research Scientist
Yale Child Study Center

Amanda Devercelli

Global Lead of Early Childhood Dev
The World Bank Group

Saima Siyal

Research Director
DREAM NGO Singh

Emily Franchett

Research Co-ordinator
Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health

Randi Wolfe

Exec Director
Early Care and Education Pathways to Success (ECEPTS) (virtual)

Vidya Putcha

Senior Program Officer
Results for Development (R4D) (virtual)

Frances Beaton-Day

Education Consultant
The World Bank Group (virtual)

Organised by: World Economic Forum (by invite only) - WEF meeting room, Level 1

We have increasingly seen investment in and prioritization of research in EiE, however knowledge production remains driven by predominantly Global North institutions. While National and Regional evidence exists, it is necessary to elevate and amplify this work globally. This session will showcase innovations in localized knowledge production as well as provide an opportunity for open discussion and creative brainstorming of best practice.

Speakers:

Kayla Boisvert

ACCESS Research

Nadeen Alalami

Dubai Cares

Silvia Diazgranados

IRC

UNRWA will briefly present its concept of quality education and the responsibility of the global community to help facilitate quality education for Palestine refugee children. UNRWA will also tackle the significant adversity it faces in the region and its plan to overcome this adversity through education innovation. UNRWA is in charge of ensuring SDG 4 for the Palestine refugee population.

Speakers:

Moritz Bilagher

Acting Director of Education, UNRWA

Reem Jeibat

Chief of Technical and Vocational Education Training and Youth, UNRWA

Dr. Iyad Zaqout

Head of Mental Health and Psycho-social Support Unit (Gaza), UNRWA

Leen Shaker Al Falah

Refugee Student, Syria

Led by Radicle, this session will focus on access to a healthy environment as a precondition for physical and mental well-being as well as cognitive development and learning. Our schools and learning environments, much like our cities, are currently modeled on reductive principles of management and efficiency rather than on ecological consciousness, humaneness, well-being, and creativity. What might education look like, if we repurposed and redesigned our learning environments to be more directly connected to nature and the community? This interactive dialogue will also share the experiment journeys & learnings of 2 experiments from the Sandbox on this topic.

Speakers:

Salman Sabbab

Senior Manager, BRAC Social Innovation Lab

Linnea Ronnequest

Strategic Designer, Dark Matter Labs (Virtual)

This playful hands-on workshop will present why the LEGO Foundation believes that learning through play is one of the most effective way for children to learn and develop the necessary skills to become lifelong learners.

Speakers:

Michael Renvillard

Facilitation Lead
The Lego Foundation

Casper Aarlit Jensen

Senior Facilitation Manager, The Lego Foundation

In this session, by delving deeply into some of the promising models emerging from the UAE, experts will provide a nuanced overview of the core components of successful digital learning solutions and the necessary conditions for innovation in this space to thrive particularly in contexts left farthest behind in the digital divide globally.

Speakers:

Geoffrey Alphonso

CEO, Alef Education

Dr. Waleed Al Ali

Advisor
Executive Office of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum

Mr. Anthony Bloome

Founder and Executive Director
mEducation Alliance

Mr. Gopi Krishnan (Krish)

Group Chief Disruption Manager, Varkey Foundation

Marcos Muller-Habig

Chief Technology Officer, 42 Abu Dhabi

Engaging with music, art and sport is essential to the human experience. Almost as soon as motor skills are developed, children communicate through artistic expression. While we recognize the transformative impacts of music, arts and sport to both academic achievement and key life skills, their place in K-12 education has become increasingly tenuous. This panel will passionately argue for centering innovation in education in the teaching of arts, music and sports.

Speakers:

Zara Mahmood

Artist & Adjunct Professor at American University in Dubai and Zayed University

Juan Diego Florez

Opera Singer

Clarence Seedorf

Football Icon, Entrepreneur and Philantropist

The panel will discuss how to support cognitive, physical, and mental health of learners in online environment and what are available solutions for safety and cyber wellbeing in education from academic, private and UNESCO perspectives. Participants are international experts, prominent researchers and academicians, and representatives of the private sector.

Speakers:

Mr. Tekha Selim

Vice President, Global Market Development, Delos

Dr. Tim Hughes

Chief Academic Officer, LEAMS Education

Dr. Allen Hershkowitz

Senior advisor to Delos' Founder and CEO, International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) (Video Message)

Tigran Yepoyan

Chief of Unit of ICT in Health Education, UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE) (Virtual)

The panel will present the findings from a global EdTech innovations landscape analysis. UNHCR will draw on the collective experience of implementing Connected Education programmes in refugee-contexts, along with presenting the increasing digital divide. Participants will also be shown a newly launched wiki to map and crowdsource global EdTech innovations.

Speakers:

Jeremy Kirschbaum

CEO
Handshake

Jaqueline Strecker

Connected Education Lead
UNHCR

Joseph Andrews Omoluyi

Operations Director
Handshake

Data about learning and schooling has never been more vital. But many countries still lack the data needed to halt Learning Poverty. How can countries assess learning and use data and drive change? And how can the international community improve coordination and quality in global efforts to measure what students learn?

Speakers:

H.E. Dr. Dipu Moni

Minister of Education, Bangladesh

H.E. Tarek Shawky

Minister of Education & Technical Education
Egypt

Jaime Saavedra

Global Director Education
World Bank

Robert Jenkins

Director of Education
UNICEF

Stefania Giannini

Assistant Director-General
UNESCO

This session will share the experiment journeys & learnings of the ReimaginED Collective and the EdTech Consortium. ReimaginED will touch upon how it is building towards the region’s first-of-its-kind Edtech venture studio, whereas EdTech Consortium will share insights from their collective action framework for cross-sector collaboration that meets the educational needs of youth on the move.

Speakers:

Leila Toplic

Head of Emerging Technologies Initiative, NetHope

Juan Luis Vilchez

EMEA EdTech Lead at Amazon Web Service

George Vinton

CEO, Common Group

Emma Bonar

Senior Advisor Youth Development, Mercy Corps

Judith Flick

Programme Director, Can’t Wait to Learn/WarChild

Drawing on new insights and evidence from practice around the world, this session is aimed at education system leaders and funders who want to focus their efforts on transformation, not just reform. We will explore the three drivers for transformation (purpose, power and practice), consider how to apply them in your context, and generate ideas for tools that can support decision-making and action.

Speakers:

Caireen Goddard

Director, Big Change

Vishal Talreja

Co-Founder, Dream a Dream

Emily Liebtag

Senior Partner, Education Reimagined

Ryan Burgess

Global Lead, Porticus

For the 258 million children who were not enrolled in school before the pandemic – including those affected by emergencies – ensuring they can learn is even more important. This panel will highlight innovative practices of non-formal education and mental health and psycho-social support (MHPSS) being used to meet the rights of out of school children.

Speakers:

Emma Wagner

Head of Education Policy and Advocacy
Save the Children

Teresa Sordé Marti

Professor, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Virtual)

Mairead King

Director
Arsenal Foundation

Dr. Iyad Zaqout

Head of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) unit Gaza, UNRWA

An intimate opportunity to hear from and ask questions of globally recognized EdTech CEOs who are operating highly impactful for-profit social enterprises and innovating to bring basic and higher education instruction to learners around the world.

Speakers:

Soonin Lee

CEO & Co-Founder, Enuma

Mike Feerick

Founder and CEO, Alison

Lak Chinta

CEO & Co-Founder, Attollo

Speaker:

Therese Curran

Regional Education Advisor, Norwegian Refugee Council

Teachers around the world have innovated to keep children learning during the pandemic. In this panel, a group of teacher leaders will share the mindset shifts these innovations have caused for them, which offer us all hope of creating a more equitable education system to support all children to shape a better world.

Speakers:

Emmanuel Kimuli

Teaching Fellow
Teach for Uganda

Khadija Bakhtiar

CEO
Teach for Pakistan

Oindrila Sanyal

Teacher
Teach for India (virtual)

Research shows that children learn better in a language they use daily. Many countries have experienced successful bilingual education and obtained encouraging results. Several of them decided to move scale. In this session, panelists will discuss features of bilingualism, the francophone experience, and how la Francophonie supports projects from different countries.

Speakers:

Ndeye Aby NDAW

Director of Elementary Education, Ministry of Education of Senegal

Séraphine BEN BOLIE

Deputy Director of Informal Education, Ministry of education of Cameroon

Mamadou Amadou LY

Director General, NGO ARED (Senegal)

Helikanto RAKOTOVOLOLONA

Director of Curriculam and Educational Research, Ministry of Education of Madagascar (virtual)

Moderated by J-PAL, this panel will share inspiring examples from leading organisations who are scaling innovative, evidence-based programs to millions of learners around the world. Panelists will reflect on the key levers which facilitate scale-up as well as challenges they grapple with along the way.

Speakers:

Boris Bulayev

CEO
Educate!

Devyani Pershad

Head, International Collaborations. Pratham (Virtual)

Girish Menon

CEO
Stir Education

Tom Venderbosch

Global Director of Programmes
VVOB

Laura Poswell

Executive Director, J-PAL Africa (Virtual)

Dr. Tahereh Pazouki

Lead Manager at Magrid (Virtual)

Innovation goes way beyond new and future technologies. This panel will focus on how to re-think mainstream education by integrating indigenous people's knowledge, models and learning systems into mainstream education.

Speakers:

Michael Running Wolf

CTO, Indigenous AI LLC

Makaela Jade

CEO
Indigital

Dr. Fanta Aw

Vice President, Undergrad Enrollment, Campus Life, Inclusive Excellence, Office of Campus Life

Prof. Tom Calma

Co-Chair
The Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation (ALNF) (Virtual)

The 2023 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report will draw on the most recent evidence to critically examine the role of technology in the provision and quality of education. It will take stock of recent initiatives and examine the potential gains, risks and side effects for an expanded role of information and communication technologies in education. There are often bitter divisions in how the role of technology is viewed. These divisions are widening as the world of technology is evolving at breakneck speed. Join a consultation with the GEM Report’s Director Manos Antoninis to find out how the publication will explore these debates, suggest relevant evidence for the theme or new areas of research to be explored in the report.

Speakers:

Gwen Hines

Chief Executive, Save the Children UK

Mr. Tom Kaye

Global Country Engagement Lead, EdTech Hub

NRC’s flagship Better Learning Programme (BLP) is currently funded by Porticus and ECW. In response to growing Psychosocial Support (PSS) needs stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, NRC introduced BLP in 10 new countries, bringing its total coverage to 22. We will present its latest research in this masterclass, demonstrating the positive impact of BLP to promote the global rollout of this approach.

Speakers:

Camilla Lodi

PSS Global Head of Unit-Better Learning Programme, NRC

Gerhard Pulfer

Portfolio Manager, Education in Displacement, Porticus

Mona Ghaith

Teacher, Palestine

Zohour Idries

Student, Palestine

This session aims to take stock of both the achievements and the challenages in early childhood education from the prespective of governments, multilaterals, civil society and the private sector. This multisectorial dialogue now becomes very crucial especially amidst the ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic that caused significant disruptions across all sectors that are essential to the development of young children; where access to programs and services that promote learning and nurturing care became more scarce and limited.
*All speakers should be in the Speaker Ready Room at 14.45

Speakers:

H.E. Dr. Tariq Al Gurg

Chief Executive Officer & Vice Chairman, Dubai Cares

H.E. Lubna Al Shamsi

Acting Executive Director at Emirates Schools Establishment, UAE

Dr. Yao Ydo

Director of UNESCO International Bureau of Education, based in Geneva

Dr. Omar Abdi

Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF

Mr. Ted Chaiban

UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa

Speakers:

Bronwen Magrath

Global Programme Manager, Schools2030, Aga Khan Foundation (Virtual)

Nora Marketos

Co-Lead, Learning Schools. Jacobs Foundation (Virtual)

Shaibu Athuman

Schools2030 National Coordinator
Tanzania
Aga Khan Foundation

Lasse Leponiemi

Executive Director
HundrED

Celia Hsiao

Initiative Lead Systemic Impact
LEGO Foundation

Globally, 37% of children are taught in a language they do not speak at home. The policies that should be setting children up for success are stacking the odds against them. How can this be addressed? In this talk, we discuss some of the key practical solutions available.

Speaker:

Hanada Taha-Thomure

Professor of Arabic Language
Zayed University

Jaime Saavedra

Global Director, Education
World Bank Group

Amanda Devercelli

Senior Education Specialist
World Bank Group (Virtual)

Andreas Blom

Practice Manager, Education, Middle East & North Africa.
World Bank Group (Virtual)

This workshop session will explore how human connection and gamification can be integrated into digital learning through virtual mentoring, role playing and co-creation. Participants will have the opportunity to “play & connect” with another participant at the session through a fun and interactive experience.

Speakers:

Atish Gonsalves

Head of Education Innovation, IRC and Founder, Gamoteca

Melisa Zelaya

Head of Content, Gamoteca

In all professions as well as in top sports capability to focus has become more and more essential. Yet the modern world offers a growing numbers of distractions. Hintsa Performance shares the tools that help Formula 1 drivers be 100% focused and presents how holistic wellbeing is a key to higher performance and improved resilience.

Speakers:

Mikael Vainio

Executive Mentor and Managing Partner
Hintsa Performance Workshop

Pekka Pohjakallio

Executive Mentor and Director of Global Business Development
Hintsa Performance

Laudy Lahdo

General Manager Middle East. ServCorp

This session shifts the discourse on digital learning from why it is needed to how to implement at scale, focusing on system-wide change and reaching marginalised children. The story is told by program countries, and teachers, youth, and parents, working in shared value partnerships to deliver digital learning at scale.

Speakers:

H.E. Tarek Shawky

Minister of Education & Technical Education
Egypt

Robert Jenkins

Global Director
Education and Adolescent Development
UNICEF

Henrietta Fore

Executive Director
UNICEF (video message)

Hà Ánh Phượng

2020 Global Teacher Prize Top 10 Finalist, Huong Can High School (Video Message)

Niki Abrishamian

Chief of Education Zimbabwe
UNICEF (virtual)

Tajudeen Oyewale

Representative, Zimbabwe
UNICEF (virtual)

Olusegun Ogunsanya

CEO
Airtel Africa

Omar Abdi

Deputy Executive Director for Programmes, UNICEF (Virtual)

Zohra Yermeche

Head of Connect to Learn
Ericsson (video message)

In a post-pandemic era where internationl collaboration on frontiers of science and technology is crucial, this provocative session is about how to re-purpose Higher Education to solve global challenges while delivering teaching and research at a reasonable cost and creating future-fit graduates.

Speakers:

Nicolas Sadirac

Founder, Edu01 (Virtual)

Fady Michel

Co-Founder
Ergo Design

Ed Fidoe

Co-Founder of London Interdisciplinary School

Ben Nelson

Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Minerva Project

COVID-19 has worsened educational inequalities globally and highlighted the crucial role of parents and communities in child learning, education systems transformation, and recovery from learning loss. This panel session will highlight lessons learned for effectively leveraging the home and community learning environments to strengthen education access and delivery for children worldwide.

Speakers:

Ms. Daniela Martinez

Program Officer
Americas
Global Fund for Children

Pradeep Kumar

Associate Director of Programs and Partnerships, Worldreader

Rebecca Winthrop

Senior Fellow and Co-director
Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution (virtual)

Manushi Yadav

Head, Strategic Partnerships. Pratham (Virtual)