DOHA: Common Purpose, a global leadership development organisation, brings together 45 leaders from Mena and Europe to take part in Itijah, a four-day leadership initiative from March 31 at Qatar Shell Research & Technology Centre. Itijah, or ‘direction’ in Arabic, is being run in partnership with Silatech and Shell. It will focus on ‘Legacy events – do they succeed or fail in providing employment opportunities for young people?’
“Youth unemployment is an increasing issue for both regions and as cities invest heavily in large-scale events, there is a potential for them to generate employment and help address youth unemployment,” said Sir Graham Boyce, Senior Adviser, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Chair of Itijah Advisory Group.
“Itijah brings together bright new leaders from a wide range of disciplines and nationalities. I believe they will be able to give political leaders fresh ideas on how to meet this challenge.”
Participants are from Alexandria, Amman, Amsterdam, Doha, Frankfurt, Istanbul, London and Tripoli, representing organisations such as Alexandria Business Association, Jordan River Foundation, Mastercard, Ozyegin University, Biedermann Consulting, Arab Youth for Climate Movement and British Council.
“Nurturing skills of emerging leaders from Qatar, the wider Arab world and Europe and encouraging links between the two regions is an important outcome of the Common Purpose Itijah Venture. It is aligned with Qatar Shell’s focus on human capacity building in support of Qatar National Vision 2030. The employable population in the Arab world will show dramatic growth over the next 10 years, and given this growing window of opportunity for youth, the Itijah Venture will play a key role in developing skills of these emerging leaders,” said Rob Sherwin, Deputy Country Chairman and General Manager Corporate Affairs, Qatar Shell.
“Silatech is delighted to partner with Common Purpose for the Itijah, bringing together young leaders from throughout the Arab world and Europe to find workable solutions to address what is perhaps the most pressing need for European and Arab economies today — job creation,” said Dr Tarik M Yousef, Chief Executive, Silatech.
“In addition to addressing the urgent need for more employment opportunities, Itijah helps cultivate the development of young leaders in civil society, an objective shared by Silatech and Common Purpose. We look forward to seeing the outcomes that emerge from this exciting challenge.”
Stephen Anderson, Senior Partner, PwC Qatar, said, “We at PwC globally and in the Middle East are proud to support Common Purpose initiatives, and today the initiative we are investigating in is of high importance to the region to what it holds. Successful mega event delivery organisations set strategy, plan, finance, develop and operate in the context of the legacy of the event. Legacy includes the long-term use of infrastructure in their post- event incarnation through to the delivery of socio-economic and cultural changes.”
The Peninsula
