DUBAI // Education can arm children to break through the cycle of poverty and war in the developing world, Reem Al Hashemy, Minister of State, said on Monday night.
“Children are the most innocent and vulnerable and like in any war zone they are first to suffer,” said Ms Al Hashemy, also chairwoman of Dubai Cares, which on Monday night held a Ramadan talk titled “Empowerment through Education”.
“There is no magnet that pulls a community together more than a school. People lose their sense of hope when there is no school
“At Dubai Cares we also train teachers to help provide a better education to girls because there is massive difference in a community when girls are educated.”
Drawing inspiration from the Government’s goal to make education a number one priority, the organisation hoped to take this resolve to the developing world by appealing to leaders in the private sector to forge education partnerships.
“I urge you in this month of reflection to think through your contribution and this is not always financial because direct cash transactions come and go but it is important to have a long-term commitment in the community,” Ms Al Hashemy said.
“We are interested in pushing this advocacy all the way through and not just in top management. This is not just for the private sector or the Government.
There needs to be a tireless effort to bring everyone together and have them involved and vested in communities.”
As Dubai Cares chairwoman for eight years, Ms Al Hashemy said she understood the challenge only when in the field, and realised the vast difference in the daily lives of the poor in remote villages.
Videos on Dubai Cares schools were also shown to depict how children from Tanzania to Nepal were skilled at handcrafts – but did not know how to read and write.
Chernor Bah, former chairman of the Youth Advocacy Group for the UN Global Education First Initiative, spoke about his mother’s determination that he and his sisters should study.
Mr Bah said that took them from the slums of Sierra Leone to refugee camps, and gave him a place as the youth representative on the UN global advocacy group on universal education in 2012.
“My mother said our passport out of the slum was education,” he said, recalling how she motivated them to study as guns pounded around them.
“Friends became child soldiers and I was tempted to be one as well. I saw young girls I grew up with being raped and young friends carrying guns to protect their family.
“My mother was an elementary school teacher. She said we were going to survive this and go to school. That saved me.”
Jim Ziolkowski, founder and chief executive of Buildon, shared stories of partnerships with Dubai Cares that helped to build more than 30 schools, including one in a Nepal village for Dalits, who are considered the lowest caste and not allowed to attend village schools.
“Education is a fire that nobody can put out,” Mr Ziolkowski said.
“It’s not about just building schools but about Dubai Cares being in solidarity with the poorest on the planet.”
Dubai Cares was set up in September 2007 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to improve children’s access to primary education in developing countries.
rtalwar@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
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Ultra processed foods
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
- energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
GCC-UK%20Growth
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Jebel Ali Dragons 26 Bahrain 23
Dragons
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Cons: Love
Pens: Love 3
Bahrain
Tries: Kenny, Crombie, Tantoh
Cons: Phillips
Pens: Phillips 2
