March 2018 Issue No 43

March 2018 Issue No 43 Founder & Chairman of AIWF Haifa Fahoum Al Kaylani addressing the opening session at the 10th Young Arab Women Leaders conference in London Chairman’s Message AIWF In Action As Founder & Chairman of the Arab International 10th Young Arab Women Leaders Women’s Forum, I am delighted to share with you this The 10th YAWL on Women-Led Innovation in edition of the AIWF Newsletter for March 2018. STEM was held on 11 December 2017 in partnership This is the first newsletter for 2018, a year in which with the Royal Academy of Engineering, PwC, the we look forward to continuing our close collaborations World Bank, PepsiCo and Shell. The conference was with all partners and stakeholders to deliver the a highly successful initiative that brought together high-impact, action-oriented initiatives that are the 200 young leaders and innovators in STEM from hallmark of AIWF. across the UK and MENA region. Full story on page 4 We especially look forward to honouring the UN’s theme this year for International Women’s Day, “Time is Now: Rural and Urban Activists Transforming Women’s Lives”, and upholding our commitments to Upcoming AIWF Events the UN Sustainable Development Goals to advance AIWF / World Bank Center for women’s and youth empowerment in the Arab Mediterranean Integration Joint world and beyond. This year, we also look forward to Conference on ‘Women, Water & Youth’ renewing our longstanding commitment to the UN Global Compact, of which AIWF is exceptionally proud in September 2018 in Amman, Jordan to be a NGO Member, with the upcoming delivery of AIWF will host a Joint Conference with the our second Progress Report and Communication of World Bank Center for Mediterranean Integration Continued Commitment. on ‘Women, Water & Youth’ in September 2018 in Amman, Jordan. The conference will take an As AIWF enters its seventeenth year since its launch intersectional approach to three critical development in London in 2001 to advance gender diversity for challenges for the MENA region – water scarcity, women in the MENA region and internationally, in women’s economic participation, and youth the workplace, in business, in academia, the media unemployment, and aims to provide a platform and in public service, I take this opportunity to reflect for stakeholders most affected by water and food as Founder & Chairman on the achievements of insecurity, armed conflict and displacement, and our organisation over the years. As a development reduced economic opportunity to address region- economist, I am very proud to have founded AIWF specific environmental challenges whilst promoting as a non-profit development organisation, focused women’s leadership in these areas. on women’s development and youth empowerment, To register your interest in attending this prioritising job creation for Arab youth from the outset conference in Amman, please contact the and with a special emphasis on ‘Women as Engines of AIWF office in London. Economic Growth’ in the Arab world. 1 AIWF works closely with a global network of corporate international student community at Harvard. Many and institutional partners to promote and prioritise of the participants commented to me afterwards that the engagement of women and youth towards my remarks had successfully challenged stereotypes finding innovative and actionable solutions to the they had previously held with regards to the status and multi-faceted and complex environmental, economic situation of Arab women, and that they were surprised security, and developmental challenges the MENA and delighted to hear of the many role models coming region faces. Today, AIWF is recognised as a key from the region who are leading the way forward actor in the international development community across all sectors and at all levels of business and for our groundbreaking, timely, and results-driven public life. initiatives that have brought civil society, the corporate sector, governments, media and academia together to action progress and change for women and youth across the Arab world. International conferences held over the past 17 years in London, Paris, Dubai, Doha, Damascus, Washington DC, Madrid, Brussels, Sharjah, Cairo, Amman, Beirut, Palestine, Kuwait and Morocco have examined strategies for job creation, inclusive sustainable development, the role of women as engines of economic growth, women’s peace and security, economic competitiveness, early stage entrepreneurship in the MENA region, and women-led innovation in STEM. Haifa Al Kaylani receiving her certificate of completion at the conclusion of her year-long Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellowship 2017 As we progress into 2018, it is an excellent time to share with pride the exciting initiatives that AIWF is It was truly an honour for me to be at Harvard as a now actively engaged in planning for the year ahead, Fellow of the ALI, and to have had such an exceptional and to update on both my past year at Harvard and my opportunity to pursue in great depth my keen interest recent appointment to the ILO Global Commission on as a development economist in food-water-energy the Future of Work. security challenges, which are of great concern to many developing regions in the world and in particular As many of you will already know, I recently completed to the MENA region. My year at Harvard as a Fellow a transformational, year-long Fellowship of the and a member of the ALI Coalition has been truly Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI). I take inspiring and life-changing, and I now look forward this opportunity to extend my heartfelt thanks and to joining the nine past cohorts of ALI Fellows as we deepest appreciation to Rania Rizk, SVP & General become members of the global Harvard alumni and Counsel AMENA, PepsiCo, and valued AIWF Board effect change in our various disciplines and in our Member, for her leadership of AIWF as Acting many countries around the world. Chairman throughout 2017. I also wish to thank the distinguished AIWF Board for all their support over I also now look ahead to implementing the key the year, which enabled me to pursue the Harvard outcome of my ALI Fellowship, my Harvard ALI Fellowship and to spend 2017 in Cambridge, MA Special Project, which I will be launching in Jordan to undertake the intensive, year-long programme, this year, titled Ploughing New Ground: Sustainable joining 46 distinguished global leaders to research and Agriculture in the MENA Region Jordan Project. The address significant societal problems. project provides an innovative model for sustainable development through agriculture and aims to revive During my time at Harvard, I continually worked a critical sector in the MENA region, sustainable to promote AIWF’s many successes as part of agriculture, to enhance food security, conserve scarce the international development community and water resources, and create job opportunities for local to strengthen key existing and new relationships communities. I am very proud to share that it has on behalf of AIWF with the Arab, American already gained support in Jordan following my visits and international academic, philanthropic and last year and in early 2018 to the Ministers of Water, entrepreneurial communities both at Harvard and Agriculture and Social Development, from the local in Washington DC. While at Harvard, it was a farming communities, as well as multinationals such as pleasure to speak at a number of conferences as PwC in preparing the project feasibility study; PepsiCo, well as to the distinguished Fellows of the Edward already deeply involved in agribusiness in the region; S Mason Fellowship Programme, sharing success and the World Bank, which I am proud to share has stories of Arab women leaders and the many exciting agreed to provide support for the project. developments for women in the MENA region with the 2 Finding innovative, viable strategies to boost job key development concerns of the AIWF Board and our creation through sustainable agriculture, especially partners and stakeholders. for women and youth in rural communities and in countries where water scarcity represents a critical The changing workplace, the impact of automation developmental and environmental challenge, is a key and gender diversity in the workplace, especially the priority for AIWF in the year ahead. Indeed, adapting critical STEM sectors, resoundingly emerged as key to new technologies and meeting unprecedented themes of the 10th Young Arab Women Leaders challenges head on was a recurring theme in much of conference, which I was proud to be back in London AIWF’s outreach last year, and examining the changing to chair in December 2017. The conference was titled world of work and its impact on women and youth is of ‘Women-Led Innovation in STEM’, was held at and in course a key priority for me personally with my August partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering, 2017 appointment to the ILO Global Commission and was a phenomenal success for AIWF, initiative on the Future of Work. I am honoured to have been founding partner PwC, valued supporting partners appointed to this Commission and to have the PepsiCo and Shell, and indeed for the World Bank as opportunity to contribute to this timely and valuable valued Conference Partner for this very special event. ILO Centenary Initiative under the joint chairmanship AIWF was delighted to welcome Dr Hayat Sindi, a of Prime Minister of Sweden, Stefan Löfven, and the leading Saudi bio-scientist and entrepreneur who President of Mauritius, HE Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim. serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the UN Secretary-General and as Advisor to the President The ILO launched the Global Commission on the of the Islamic Development Bank, as Guest of Future of Work, a high-level international body to Honour Keynote Speaker, and to have the high-level address the challenges of the rapidly transforming attendance of the World Bank on this special occasion, world of work, in Geneva on 22 August 2017 in the welcoming Blanca Moreno-Dodson, Head of the presence of the Commission Co-Chairs.

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