Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber, Chairman of MBI International and a prominent sponsor of reform in the Middle East, has been officially nominated by UNESCO Director General, M. Koichiro Matsuura, as the Director General's personal representative for "education, human rights, tolerance, and cultures to build peace and democracy." This nomination was made during a ceremony held at the UNESCO offices in Paris on March 18th, 2005.
By virtue of this nomination Mr. Al Jaber will be representing the Director General in this capacity as UNESCO Special Envoy throughout the world.
This nomination is the result of Sheikh Al Jaber's various activities in support of Arab culture during a time of change for the Arab world. Mr. Al Jaber is a result-oriented businessman who brings wide-ranging endeavours in support of higher learning in the Arab world, most recently in Iraq, where he is helping to foster the beginnings of democracy.
Sheikh Al Jaber said: “I am thrilled to be nominated as the UNIESCO’s special envoy. I would now have to the opportunity to actively participate in their activities which aim to promote the values of democracy, tolerance, and human rights. Through these values we will attempt to encourage cultural dialogues throughout the world.”
In 2003, Mr. Al Jaber signed an ambitious protocol with Mr. Matsuura to promote educational and curriculum reform and teacher training in order to improve educational standards in the region. In addition, Al Jaber and UNESCO are partnering to improve Arabic internet applications. They will also be working on the "Kitab Fi Jaridah" Project, which will see free books periodically inserted inside dozens of Arab newspapers across the region.
MBI Al Jaber is playing an increasingly important role in confronting the negative impact of certain aspects of the cultural and educational scene in the Arab world. The necessity and effectiveness of these successful pilot projects have prompted the Director General of UNESCO to further strengthen additional cooperation between UNESCO and MBI Al Jaber as part of UNESCO's mandate as an international organization, paving the way to peace via cooperation and tolerance through education, teaching, culture and communication.
Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber is directly involved in many charitable and educational activities. His desire to provide practical assistance to his community has led him to fund scholarship programmes for deserving students from the Middle East at Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, University of London, American University of Beirut, the American University of Cairo, INSEAD near Paris and at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
As the Founding Sponsor of the London Middle East Institute, he has also generously donated to funding a new building at the Jeddah-based Dar El Hikmah College, an English-language, private women's liberal arts college.
