Q Life Magazine Q Magazine June 2017 | Page 50

| 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. S 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. 50 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.