Education
Improving educational systems remains a crucial imperative. According to a 2005 World Economic Forum survey, an inadequately educated workforce consistently ranked among the most glaring obstacles to doing business in the Middle East and North Africa. While unemployment is a huge problem, many companies in the region lack appropriately-skilled employees. Existing programmes must be overhauled to incorporate private sector input and vocational training in order to reduce the current skills gap. Benchmarks for achievement are needed, as are elearning programmes, peer-to-peer counselling initiatives and "second-chance" safety nets so that every student has ample opportunities to learn and develop vocational skills.

"Governments must not be afraid of free thinkers," said Soraya Salti, Senior Vice-President, Middle East and North Africa, JA Worldwide, Jordan. Classes should be reformed to encourage critical thinking and dissenting viewpoints. Arab societies too often stifle creative and entrepreneurial impulses among young people.

The Forum, which this year included a quorum of youth from the region, launched the Egypt Education Initiative whose first phase will benefit 820,000 children in 2,000 schools and over 300 colleges. Other initiatives include INJAZ, which teaches students about the needs of the private sector by bringing students into contact with the companies themselves.

Peacemaking
Reforming education to improve job prospects will aid in a second youth-oriented goal: creating a generation of peace-builders. Youth who see a future to live for will be less likely to seek out a cause to die for. Today, young people's expectations for future employment are lower in the Middle East than in any other part of the world.

Too often, the skills to get ahead involve networking alone, and those not born with access are quickly alienated. Labour markets must be opened to encourage entry into the private sector rather than the bloated and non-meritocratic public sphere. Students must be taught the skills for a new economy. Entrepreneurial training and ground-level job programmes can work, but must be scaled up.

"If we want peace," said Suzanne Mubarak, First Lady of Egypt, "we must teach peace." Curricula must be reformed to embrace diversity and teach the common values of all religions, rather than the values of one over another. Certain young people need to be particularly targeted. A Palestinian youth leaving an Israeli prison is at risk of succumbing to intolerance as is his counterpart leaving the Israeli army. But efforts to teach peace must extend to all segments of all societies. Islam has a long history of embracing common humanity, and learning from and respecting followers of other faiths. Historically, scientific advancement came with cultural tolerance.

"We should revive values that make this civilization great," said Ismail Serageldin, Director, Biblioteca Alexandrina, Egypt. Educational reform should encourage a dialogue between cultures rather than a clash of civilizations. In support of this impulse for cross-cultural understanding, the World Economic Forum agreed to assist developing, under the Council of 100 Leaders (C-100), a web-based information portal and local communities supporting its work in the West and Islamic worlds (see Box 6).

Box 6: Communicating across the region: The Council of 100 Leaders (C-100)
Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, provided an excellent venue for fruitful discussions among the Council of 100 Leaders' West-Islamic World Dialogue community. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of Malaysia addressed the C-100 community in their private meeting, stressing the need for dialogue to be "effective, focused and fruitful, leading to frameworks for concrete action." The continued sense of commitment and enthusiasm was clearly visible in all the meetings and the discussions were open, engaging and productive. The objectives of the meeting were many but included how to place the C-100 as a hub of knowledge and information on the state of West-Islamic dialogue and continuing discussions on the work of the Education sub-group to further develop the C-100 Education Project.	Rabbi Awraham S. Soetendorp, JewishInstitute for Human Values, Netherlands
Members fully endorsed the proposals for using the C-100 as a knowledge hub and as a platform for projects on education, as well as continuing its role as a clearinghouse for action-oriented projects that advance understanding and cooperation. There was tremendous support for many activities, including highly practical commitments, such as technical help for creating a website and support in organizing local fund-raising events in several cities around the world.

Citizenship
A recent study revealed that young people are more politically active in developing countries than in the developed world. In a variety of ways, the youth of today are already leading the charge toward free societies in the Middle East and North Africa. How the next generation behaves as citizens will depend on education, but also on how governments, schools and families listen to young people, as well teach them about their rights and obligations (see Box 7).

Box 7: Meet the Young: Youth Participation in Middle East

To better understand the needs of the new generation in the Middle East, the World Economic Forum invited a number of young students from the region to participate in the two-day meeting.By actively engaging regional politicians from the Forum's Young Global Leaders community and participating in various sessions (including New Approaches to Further Education, or the Revolution will be Televised), these students were able to share their vision for the future, their expectations from current leaders and their concrete plans for moving the youth agenda forward. One key area for youth is education. In this context, launching the Egyptian Education Initiative will help improve schooling through Information and Communication Technologies. The initiative will focus on different levels of education (pre-university, higher education, lifelong learning and e-learning industry development), and in its first stage will impact 820,000 students in 2,000 schools and over 300 colleges.

Saeed Al Muntafiq, Chairman of the Board, Young Arab Leaders, United Arab Emirates

Pushing this change is the spread of Information Technology. From blogs to SMS messaging, new forms of communication mean that millions of young people can connect instantly across boundaries of culture and nationality. In 2004, only 4% of residents of the MENA countries were Internet users. Today, the number has grown slightly and demand for the Internet is booming.