| Issue 2
WISE:
World Innovation Summit
for Education
Education is the driver of human development and Qatar Foundation’s World Innovation
Summit for Education (WISE) is a celebration of innovative and collaborative educational
projects that work to build a prosperous future.
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ince 2009, WISE has built a thriving, global, and
multi-sectoral community, which generates fruitful
dialogue and productive partnerships to deliver quality
education. WISE works towards bridging the gap
between the education systems currently in place and
those required to meet the needs of future generations.
Through an annual conference held in Doha, and a
range of initiatives, WISE is a platform for creative
thinking, debate, and purposeful action. As the world’s
challenges appear increasingly intractable, QF and
WISE champion the belief that education is the key to
addressing these challenges: poverty, conflict, challenging
geographies, and inequality, to name a few.
WISE’s initiatives include an “Accelerator” programme
to support and develop innovation in the field of
education. Through mentorship programmes, WISE
selects projects with the potential for scalability, with a
view to increasing impact and addressing specific needs.
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The programme allows Qatar to share learnings in the
field of education to a global audience, with the current
cohort of applicants hailing from countries as diverse as
Canada, the Philippines, the Netherlands, and Australia.
WISE also seeks to recognise those providing an
outstanding, world-class contribution to education
through the WISE Prize for Education. Every year,
laureates are awarded £385,000 to continue their
exemplary work and advocate for education worldwide.
Previous winners include Dr Sakena Yacoobi, Ms Ann
Cotton, Ms Vicky Colbert, Dr Madhav Chavan, and Sir
Fazle Hasan Abed.
Dr Yacoobi, for example, founded the Afghan Institute of
Learning, an organisation that provides teacher training
to Afghan women to support education for children. Dr
Chavan received an award for his role as CEO-President
of Pratham, an organisation that reaches three million
primary school-aged children in India every year.