Dubai, The second edition of the RewirEd Summit, which was hosted today inside COP28’s Green Zone at the Connect Conference Centre at Expo City Dubai, has made history by bringing education to the forefront of climate action, to impact billions of children and youth globally.
RewirEd Summit is the first ever global education summit on climate that brought together more than 1,000 participants, including 2 heads of state, 22 ministers, and 28 CEOs, with 260 speakers, representing 209 entities and 76 countries, leading a global discussion that showcased the powerful solutions that exist at the climate-education intersection, WAM reported.
The RewirEd Summit agenda featured 35 sessions, with every discussion bringing together key actors from diverse sectors to shape a collective path forward, for transformed educations systems to be at the forefront of climate action. Staying true to its commitment to bringing new and unlikely allies under one roof, the RewirEd Summit ensured the inclusion of youth in almost all the sessions of its agenda. The programming saw ministers of education, international cooperation, climate and environment, joined by students, teachers, youth advocates, as well as subject-matter experts, climate champions, development sector representatives, indigenous leaders, and many others, for a series of insightful and inspiring sessions.
The one-day event witnessed the launch of impactful initiatives and put the spotlight on innovative solutions that would enable the rewiring of education systems across countries, in ways that would empower children and youth to actively contribute to climate action at every stage of learning. Brought forward by stakeholders representing the entire education ecosystem, the initiatives that were showcased at the RewirEd Summit, reinforced its success in bringing the whole of society together, for concrete action through cross-sectoral collaboration.
UNICEF and Generation Unlimited launched ‘Green Rising’, which will over the next three years (2023-2025), create pathways for at least 10 million children and youth, especially girls, in developing countries to take grassroots action through volunteering; green skills building, jobs and entrepreneurship; as well as advocacy – while mobilising hundreds of millions more to do the same through an ecosystem of other public, private, and youth stakeholders.
In a special segment, Dr. Al Gurg announced the spin-off of the RewirEd Summit as an independent standalone global platform led by a global board. In its first term, the three co-chairs of the board were announced as Laura Frigenti, Chief Executive Officer, Global Partnership for Education; Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait; and Dr. Tariq Al Gurg, Chief Executive Officer and Vice-Chairman of Dubai Cares.
The Aga Khan Foundation launched a new online portal of over 100 teacher-led, teacher-tested, and teacher-approved climate action solutions for education from more than 60 countries, co-funded by Dubai Cares. The foundation also announced a new mechanism at the country level, for advancing climate action in and through school and system-level collaborative networks, titled “Policy-Practice Translational Mechanism for Climate Education”.
In collaboration with Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN), the Governments of the Kyrgyz Republic and Malawi announced plans to link early childhood development and foundational learning with climate resilience and action in their countries.
The Social Investment Program (SIP), an initiative led by Dubai Cares, with Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation, under the World Food Programme’s School Meals Coalition, launched the first ever global social impact bond that will scale up sustainable homegrown school feeding programs in Senegal, and catalyse the development of a sustainable private post-secondary Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) program around climate and green skilling, and promote women entrepreneurship in resilient agricultural value chains.
The Summit also witnessed the launch of the ‘Planet-Friendly School Meals White Paper’ by the Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition. Rwanda, Kenya, and Sierra Leone are among the first countries to announce their commitment to implementing the recommendations outlined in the White Paper.
In partnership with Dubai Cares, the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens (BKMC) announced the launch of the Green Jobs for Youth Online Training and Mentoring Program to empower youth in choosing careers that contribute to solving the climate crisis and enhance their potential in driving system transformation around Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 on Climate Action, and other SDGs.
The African Union Commission announced the theme for the year 2024 on Education: "Educate an African Fit for the 21st Century: Building Resilient Education Systems for Increased Access to Inclusive, Lifelong, Quality, and Relevant Learning in Africa", and highlighted their plans to transform education across the continent by rethinking education models.
In addition, discussions at the RewirEd Summit reinforced the urgent gaps in education transformation that will be addressed by the Dubai Cares Global Education Solutions Accelerator, which Dr. Al Gurg launched on December 2nd, at the heart of the COP28 Presidency Program in the Blue Zone, in partnership with the Aga Khan Foundation, and together with the strategic support of the Global Center on Adaptation. The innovative mechanism aims to make education transformation a reality for every country in the world by 2030, allowing countries to work with international actors and platforms to collectively identify and fast-track the implementation of education transformation solutions. In its first phase, Dubai Cares and the Aga Khan Foundation will take the Accelerator to 10 countries, which means 2.1 billion people will benefit from the short and long gains of a transformed education system.
With this historic edition of the RewirEd Summit, Dubai Cares has set a new precedent on how a philanthropy can change the world by revamping systems and bringing together collaborative meaningful partnerships, that not only will pave the way for a prosperous and sustainable future for all, but also solve the most complex challenge facing humanity today, which is education.
Source: Bahrain News Agency