ARAB WORLD SOCIAL INNOVATION FORUM: (May 14-15, 2010)

Distinguished Guests: His Excellency Amr Moussa: Secretary General of the League of Arab States Dalia Mogahed: Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies; Advisor to the White House on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Naguib Sawiris: Chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom Holdin Peder Wallenberg: Founder of Carpe Vitam International Samer Salty: CEO and Co-Founder of Zouk Ventures Limited Naseer Shamma: Iraqi oud player and Founder of the 1,000,000 Flowes Initiative Hani Masri: Founder of Tomorrow's Youth Organization; Co-Founder of Palestine Note Ursula Zindel: President of Ursula Zindel-Hilti Foundation

AWSIF will establish a platform for social change and innovation in the Arab world, and through uniting both regional and global leaders we hope to provide a means of generating innovative ideas and partnerships throughout the region.

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Dear Friends, WSIF will bring together business, social, academic, and policy leaders in the Arab region and beyond to celebrate, discuss, and advance the agenda of social innovation and change in the Arab World.

The Forum's main goal is to gather inspiring leaders to generate excitement and support for social entrepreneurship – the key to stimulating active citizen-driven development and change. We hope that through uniting these inspiring and influential individuals there will be ample room for forward-thinking discussions to promote future collaborations and truly impact the region and beyond.

We intend for the Forum to be more than an occasion for discussion. We have designed the event to be an engaging and inspiring two days where leaders will see the necessity and value of social entrepreneurship and become inspired to turn conversations into strategies and strategies into concrete initiatives. Attendees will partake in pivotal discussions, meet Ashoka Fellows, and witness union of like-minded individuals from all sectors, thus promoting a common ground for discussion and action.

AWSIF's first day will consist of: keynote addresses delivered by global leaders; the presentation of awards to several champions in philanthropy and development in the Arab world; the public introductions of several new innovative initiatives; the induction of 10 new Ashoka Arab World Fellows, and dinner and cocktails.

Additionally, the Forum’s second day will be comprised of three round table discussions which will discuss: Developing a Social Investment Framework; 2) Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation and 3) Market-based Solutions for Development. To guarantee AWSIF’s impact, the discourse from each panel will be recorded into a set of concrete recommendations for to be published both regional and international media outlets.

AWSIF will also be covered by international media outlets, which will also serve to achieve its larger goal of advancing the agenda of social entrepreneurship, innovation, and change in the Arab World. Thank you and I truly hope to see you there,

Best Regards,

Iman Bibars, Ph. D Vice President, Ashoka Global Regional Director, Ashoka Arab World

OVERVIEW

ARAB WORLD SOCIAL INNOVATION (AWSIF: MAY 14-15, 2010) HOSTED BY ASHOKA ARAB WORLD AT THE CAIRO MARRIOTT HOTEL

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His Excellency Amr Moussa: Secretary General of the League of Arab States

Dalia Mogahed: Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies; Advisor to White House

Naguib Sawiris: Chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom Holding

Samer Salty: CEO and Co-Founder of Zouk Ventures Limited

Peder Wallenberg: Founder of Carpe Vitam International

Hani Masri: Founder of Tomorrow's Youth Organization; Co-Founder of Palestine Note

Naseer Shamma: Acclaimed Iraqi oud player and Founder of the 1,000,000 Flowers Initiative

Ursula Zindel: CEO of Ursula Zindel Foundation; Member of Board of Directors

GUESTS OF HONOR:

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ON MAY 14TH, WE WILL INTRODUCE OUR 2010 ASHOKA FELLOWS

Our Ashoka Arab World Fellows have been developing ways to address social issues in fields such as education, gender equality, poverty alleviation, conflict resolution, and reviving and sustaining Egyptian culture. This year’s group of Fellows will continue Ashoka’s 30-year legacy.

Azza Kamel Country: Egypt Project: Azza uses experiential learning and non-formal education to overcome the exclusion, inadequate education and limited skills that keep children from marginalized areas excluded from the society and later on the labor market. Through her community education center, Alwan wa Awtar (Colors & Strings), Azza offers children from marginalized areas what they don’t receive at home, at public schools or in their neighborhoods, and accompanies them throughout their childhood.

Balsam and Lulwa Al-Ayoub Country: Kuwait Project: Through their example, Balsam and Lulwa Al-Ayoub are pioneering the change they want to see: women working and excelling in the same arenas as men. They are professional fencers and two of the few women dedicated to professional sports in the Gulf region, where laws and tradition inhibit girls inhibit girls from competing in sports. Through their example they are changing norms and laws, training younger girls and paving the way for them, while teaching them that the sky is the limit

Fairouz Omar Country: Egypt Project: Fairouz is revolutionizing the counseling system in Egypt to secure the emotional health of Egyptian youth and prepare them to be active and positive adults. She is operationalizing the dormant in-school psychological counseling system in public schools in Egypt by training a cadre of professional counselors

Mohammed El-Sawy Country: Egypt Project: El Sawy is providing space and an enabling environment where citizens become more enlightened in order to make informed choices leading to a systemic and positive cultural and social change.

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Rabee’ Zureikat Country: Jordan Project: Rabee has created a form of tourism that changes existing social systems and progresses towards more egalitarian, inclusive societies. Rabee’s exchange tourism leads to equity by helping marginalized rural communities rediscover their strength and take economically powerful urban communities out of their protective bubble. Both parties engage in an exchange in which each side learns and contributes. The tourism revenue is invested in the marginalized communities' economic development, thus narrowing the gap further.

Samar Dudin Country: Jordan Project: Samar is helping young people work through problems by acknowledging the common problem of exclusion and nurturing leaders within each group. She replaces apathy, loss of identity, and feelings of alienation among Arab youth with empathy, rights consciousness and a framework for action and social change.

Zeinab Al-Momani Country: Jordan Project: Zeinab believes that only women themselves can demand their full economic, social and political participation. She has founded the first agricultural union for, and by, women in the Arab world. Liberating rural women will affect society, and will encourage other women to create a more just and successful region.

Ahmed El Maraghy Country: Egypt Project: Ahmed is empowering and integrating the blind in Egypt by giving them a voice and a window for participation and employment through the media. Ahmed is using existing media channels and creating new media vehicles to break through the confinement of the blind community to help them communicate with the wider society and make society recognize blind citizen’s potential.

Joanne Farachakh Bajjaly Country: Lebanon Project: Joanne is building harmony in post conflict countries. She is helping Lebanese children surpass inherited confessional and religious divides by building a sense of collective belonging, by teaching children about their country and history and the “other in a fun and interactive manner.

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ROUND TABLES: MAY 15, 2010

Round Table 2: Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship (YIE)

Entrepreneurship is essentialfor promoting youth inclusion, especially as the need for private sector development and job creation is at an all-time high. However, before we seek impact from youth-focused entrepreneurship projects and policies, we need to assess the concepts, parameters and goals that are driving our work. There is no universally accepted definition for youth entrepreneurship, which affects the type of policy changes we seek. Wealso lack a general consensus on the long-term goals of youth entrepreneurship and our priorities regarding innovation and risk are unclear as well. By uniting the social, private, and academic sectors, the round table will be an opportunity to assess the underlying challenges and questions facing youth entrepreneurship as well as its potential to.

Round Table 1: Developing a Social Investment Framework (SI)

This discussion will address the concept of social investment and the necessity to construct a mutually beneficial framework for engagement and investment between the social and private sectors, which traditionally have had limited engagement. This round table will seek to develop such a framework that yields both social and economic gains, and to provide examples of strategic, impactful work between the two sectors. Participants will discuss what is needed to promote this type of social investment. The discussion will encourage pledges of cooperation and/or support to better defining and exploring the fields of social investment efforts, and recommendations to be included in Ashoka Arab World's forthcoming study on a social investment framework.

Round Table 3: Market-Based Solutions (MBS)

The main goal of this round table is to advance the conceptualization and implementation of market-based initiatives for the social and economic development of consumers at the Bottom of the Pyramid. The round table will also be an opportunity to develop a framework for cross-sector, market-based solutions that can achieve lasting impact. At the completion of the panel, Ashoka Arab World representatives will request pledges for support of its pilot project Housing for All, a market-based initiative to provide affordable, structurally-sound housing to the inhabitants of informal urban areas through the microfinance institutions (MFIs) of four Ashoka fellows.

Each discussion will cover a largely unexplored paradigm for social change in the Arab World. The topics represent promising fields in social innovation, yet little effort has been made to reflect and assess the impact of each approach. The round tables will review the efficacy, knowledge gaps, strategic alignment and latent challenges in each of these pivotal fields and test the assumptions and objectives that drive our work. Representatives from Silatech, Gallup, Google, Zouk Ventures, the Brookings Institution, the Hilti Foundation, Injaz, the American University in Cairo, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Ace and Company, the Act on 8 Foundation, the White House, Tomorrow’s Youth Organization, Synergos, Microsoft, Baraka Consulting, Baron Advisors/Global Capital Management, Lingfield AB, the Cherie Blair Foundation, USAID, Ashoka Arab World, the Dubai School of Government, the American Chamber of Commerce (Egypt), the Bank of Alexandria, the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, Eva Pharma, and others will be attending.

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“Social entrepreneurship is

one of the most hopeful and helpful

trends around. Their folks aren’t famous,

but they are showing that what it really

takes to change the world isn’t wealth or power as creativity, determination, and

passion.”

- Nicholas Kristof The New York

Times

social entrepreneurship is increasingly cited as one of the most innovative and impactful development tools in

the region. President Barack Obama’s forthcoming Summit on Entrepreneurship and the growing body of global research and development initiatives supporting social entrepreneurs, from Morocco to the Gulf, present a historic opportunity to place social entrepreneurship on the Arab region’s map as a driver of hope and change.

The Social Investment Imperative Bill Strickland, CEO of the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, wrote in Genius at Work: "Nonprofits have to recognize that they're businesses, not just causes. There's a way to combine the very best of the not-for-profit, philanthropic world with the very best of the for-profit, enterprising world. This hybrid is the wave of the future for both profit and nonprofit companies." In the wake of the financial crisis, CEOs, governments and social entrepreneurs have realized the need to fuse the for-profit and non-profit sectors, leveraging the respective strengths of each to yield both social and economic gains. The profit imperative needs to be aligned with social issues that are important to break the cycle of poverty. There must be increased dialogue and efforts by both sectors to align their priorities and establish a mutually beneficial investment framework to give investors the information and analytical tools needed to make effective social change.

Obama’s Summit on Entrepreneurship

In June 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a historic speech to the Arab world declaring that, "education and innovation will be the currency of the 21st century". He stressed the need for American businesses to partner with initiatives in Muslim countries, and announced he would host a Summit in DC on Entrepreneurship. From April 26 to 27, the Summit will bring together leaders and entrepreneurs from Muslim-majority countries and American stakeholders to "develop partnerships that provide innovative solutions and support entrepreneurial ecosystems". The Summit will be an unprecedented "networking experience" for entrepreneurs in the Arab region to collaborate with their American counterparts, furthering the latter’s efforts to strengthen ties with the Arab World.

Public Sector and Entrepreneurship?

In light of the U.S. government’s growing interest to boost entrepreneurship, Harvard Business School Investment Banking Professor Josh Lerner’s Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Why Public Efforts to Boost Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Have Failed-And What to do about it, addresses inconsistencies found in government programs supporting entrepreneurial activities. Problems include poor design, lack of understanding of the entrepreneurial process and implementation complications. Lerner argues that in order to duplicate the success of hubs of entrepreneurial activity such as Silicon Valley, the government must understand "the need for interconnections with entrepreneurs and investors overseas. Instead of solely focusing on domestic activity, they should encourage global interconnections".

SOCIAL INNOVATION IN THE NEWS

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5:00-5:45 PM: VIP Reception - Distinguished guests will have the opportunity to meet during a cocktail session to begin AWSIF. Local, regional, and international media will be present to interview attendees and provide general coverage of AWSIF.

6:00-6:05 PM: Welcome – Dr. Iman Bibars (Regional Director of Ashoka Arab World and Vice President of Ashoka Global) will provide introductory remarks.

6:05-6:15 PM: Dalia Mogahed Executive Director of Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and Advisor to White House Office on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, will discuss US-Islamic World Entrepreneurship Summit.

6:25-6:45 PM: H.E. Amr Moussa, Secretary General of the League of Arab States, will discuss the potential for social change and innovation in the Arab World’s socio-economic development and prosperity, and the steps needed to procure a more vibrant citizen sector.

6:45-7:00 PM: Award Ceremony recognizing H.E. Amr Moussa, Dalia Mogahed, Naguib Sawiris, Hani Masri, Peder Wallenberg, the Hilti Family, and Cherie Blair who have played a pivotal role in Arab World social innovation and change.

7:00-7:30 PM: Induction of new Fellows – Ashoka Arab World will publically recognize and induct its 10 newest Fellows. Each Fellow will be introduced by Dr. Iman Bibars and AWSIF Guests of Honor.

7:30-8:15 PM: Launch of New Initiatives: Unity Productions Foundation co-Founder Alex Kronemer will present a segment of UPF’s most recent film “Inside Islam”, and discuss the core themes of the film in relation to AWSIF. Internationally acclaimed Iraqi Oud player, Naseer Shamma will present his up and coming One-million Flowers Initiative. The “launch” of each project at AWSIF will serve as a platform for them to gain exposure and support.

8:15-9:00 PM: Dinner – All guests will dine while seated at thematic tables, arranged by their respective interests within the larger fields of social development and innovation. Tables will serve as smaller meeting grounds to unite actors in different sectors and generate action between various development fields.

ARAB WORLD SOCIAL INNOVATION FORUM: DAY 1: MAY 14 (AIDA BALLROOM)

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8:30-10:00 AM: Ashoka Arab World Advisory Board Breakfast (North Balcony) – Leading entrepreneurs from the Middle Eastern Diaspora from around the world will meet with their regionally-based counterparts to discuss the formation of Ashoka Arab World’s regional and international Advisory Board.

10:00-1:00 PM: AWSIF Round Table Discussions:

1. Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Verdi Room – Moderated by Ahmed Younis, Gallup and Silatech): This discussion will be comprised of some of the premiere experts in Arab youth development, who will debate some of the most pressing underlying challenges and way forward in promoting youth entrepreneurship in the Arab region.

2. Developing a Social Investment Framework (Memphis Room – Moderated by Adam Said, Ace and Company, the Act on 8 Foundation): The main goal of this round table is to advance the conceptualization and implementation of market-based initiatives for the social and economic development of consumers at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

3. Market-Based Solutions (Thebes Room – Moderated by Dr. Dale Murphy, the Dubai School of Government): Participants will seek to develop a social investment framework that yields both social and economic gains for the private and social sectors. By providing examples of strategic, impactful work between the two sectors, participants will discuss how to create such a framework.

Round Table Agendas:

10:00-10:30 AM All participants will gather in the Verdi Room for registration before separating into their respective discussions in the Verdi, Thebes and Memphis rooms. 10:30-10:40 AM: Opening presentation by Ashoka Arab World representative 10:40-11:00 AM: Introductions of discussion themes and objects by moderators 11:00-11:30 AM: Participant introductions 11:30-1:30 PM: Facilitated discussions 1:30-2:00 PM: Conclusions: Participants will discuss collaborations, develop recommendations for advancing each round table’s agenda, and make pledges in support of social entrepreneurial projects and research. 2:00 -2:15 PM: Coffee Break

Round Tables Plenary Session:

1:00-2:00 PM: Closing plenary session (Verdi Room): Participants and guests will gather to present results of round tables discussions, which will be done by round table moderators and Ashoka Arab World representatives. Following the presentations, pledges made during the discussions will be announced.

2:00 – 3:00 PM: Lunch (Verdi Room) All guests are invited for lunch following the plenary session.

ARAB WORLD SOCIAL INNOVATION FORUM: DAY 2: MAY 15 (MARRIOT MEETING ROOMS)

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Registration: Please find our registration package in the following link: www.ashoka-arab.org/Regitration_Package.pdf In addition, please find and fill out the registration in the following link: www.ashoka-arab.org/Registration_Form.doc

Please find our sponsorship information by the following link: www.ashoka-arab.org/Sponsorship_Package.pdf and fill out the form at: www.ashoka-arab.org/Sponsorship_Form.doc

Hotel: Ashoka would be happy to book a hotel room for you. We have booked rooms at discounted rates at severalhotels of various price ranges. Unless otherwise discussed, Ashoka will not be covering the hotel costs.

Flights: Ashoka would be happy to book a flight for you. If independently booking, please arrive by May 14th, no later than 2 PM local time. Unless otherwise discussed, Ashoka will not be covering flight costs. Most foreign nationals require a visa to enter Egypt, which can be easily purchased upon arrival. Please check online prior to departure to see if visa requirements for your country have changed.

Airport Pick-up: Ashoka would be happy to arrange airport pick-up for you, assist you with your visas and baggage, and to accompany you to your hotel.

Venue Transportation: Ashoka will provide transportation to the Forum venue as a courtesy.

Sightseeing: Ashoka would be happy to make sightseeing bookings for your stay in Egypt, including a visit to the pyramids, a tour around Cairo, scuba diving, desert treks, Nile cruises to Luxor/Aswan, a trip to Alexandria, and a trip to Siwa Oasis.

Thank you for deciding to come! If for any reason you need assistance, please feel free

to contact us anytime at: ashokaarabworld@ashoka-arab.org

Ashoka Arab World | 93 Abdel Aziz Al Saud Street | 7th Floor, Apt. 1

T (+202) 25328586 / 23655336 / 25314779 | F (+202) 32654404 www.ashoka-arab.org | ashokaarabworld.wordpress.com

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