A woman walks past a COP28 sign at the venue of the United Nations climate summit in Dubai. File/AFP

Reinforcing its commitment to making education transformation an achievable reality for every country in the world, Dubai Cares, a civil society organisation formally associated with the United Nations Department of Global Communications (UN DGC), today unveiled its "Global Education Solutions Accelerator” (GESA) at COP28 UAE.

The innovative mechanism will help countries fast-track progress towards 2030, as they work with a robust network of international actors and platforms from within the development and education sectors, to collectively identify and implement solutions that best address their education transformation challenges and ambitions and allow them to leverage rewired education systems as a core enabler for sustainable development.

In its first phase, Dubai Cares and Aga Khan Foundation aim to fast-track education transformation across 10 countries that are part of the Schools2030 programme under the leadership of Aga Khan Foundation. These countries include Afghanistan, Brazil, India, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Portugal, Tajikistan, Tanzania, and Uganda that together represent a population of 2.1 billion. The transformation of the existing education systems in these countries would result in significant gains for entire populations, with children and youth reaching their full potential through the right set of values, skills, knowledge and experiences they need to address current challenges and drive social-economic growth within their countries.

Dr. Tariq Al Gurg, Chief Executive Officer and Vice-Chairman of Dubai Cares, made the announcement as part of his keynote address in a high-level session titled "The Youth and Education Session: The latent force of climate action” held on 2nd December during COP28’s World Climate Action Summit in the Blue Zone, in the presence of heads of state and other high-level speakers, including, Siaosi Sovalen, Prime Minister and Minister of Education, the Kingdom of Tonga; Honorable Kausea Natano, Prime Minister of Tuvalu; Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, UAE Minister of Education; Shamma Al Mazrui, COP28 Youth Climate Champion; Kitty van der Heijden Heijden, Assistant Secretary-General, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF; Prof. Dr. Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of Global Centre on Adaptation; Mafalda Duarte, Executive Director, Green Climate Fund; and Dr. Andrew Cunningham, Global Lead for Education, Aga Khan Foundation, as a moderator, among others.

Dr. Al Gurg said, "The Global Education Solutions Accelerator (GESA) is a powerful mechanism that embodies the essence of Dubai Cares’ 16 years of hands-on experience in implementing education programming on the ground, while simultaneously amplifying the global community’s understanding of the issues and gaps that have existed for a very long time. We are confident that the Aga Khan Foundation is the ideal strategic partner for the implementation of such a global initiative which represents a new system of partnerships for rewiring education. GESA will bring the education sector and various stakeholders together, in order to fast-track education transformation in countries, and unlock collective gains that can expedite meaningful outcomes towards a sustainable future for not only learners and teachers, but also the wider communities.”

Designed by Dubai Cares, the Accelerator will enable countries to unlock opportunities for achieving national education transformation ambitions, by leveraging the collective expertise and guidance of the diverse membership of the Accelerator. The Accelerator will be led by strategic partners that include multilateral organisations, UN agencies, international NGOs, development banks and civil society organisations among others. These entities will offer advice and guidance to countries in line with their national ambitions and job market needs, in order to prepare the next generation with the necessary knowledge and skills to play a pivotal role in steering their economies towards prosperous and sustainable future.

The Global Education Solutions Accelerator will aim to drive targeted technical support to countries to identify and fast-track flexible and adaptable solutions in line with their own aspirations to be contextualised to their countries’ vision with the goal of enabling systems' transformation in significantly shorter time than traditional approaches. This is a powerful mechanism that will actively transform how the global education sector can work together on a global scale by providing participating countries with a more efficient, impactful and timely approach of accelerating progress to 2030, through a whole-of-society ecosystem approach to education transformation.

Michael Kocher, General Manager, Aga Khan Foundation: "As long-standing partners of Dubai Cares, we are excited to be invited as strategic partners for the launch of the Global Education Solutions Accelerator (GESA). We are inspired by GESA’s vision to recognise and catalyze the collective energy and wisdom from the world’s learners, teachers, communities, youth, governments, and civil society organisations to address the most pressing educational challenges of our time through a more inclusive and accelerated approach. Through GESA, and our continued partnership with Dubai Cares, we are ready to co-create new pathways for educational transformation across schools, systems and societies to deliver meaningful results for people and the planet by 2030 and beyond.”

The Accelerator’s support to countries will include working at the systems level alongside governments while focusing on learners, youth, teachers, parents, and communities, through cross-sectoral collaboration and ensuring the alignment of programming, research, and advocacy efforts with their goals.

WAM