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Month: December 2021

“Education has been neglected globally”

by: Cassandra Tanti
31/12/2021

Stakeholders have come together at a major summit in Dubai with one clear goal: to put education on the global agenda alongside issues like climate and health. We talk to Dr. Tariq Al Gurg, CEO and Vice-Chairman of Dubai Cares, the organisers of the summit.

The RewirEd summit was the first of its kind. Held from 12th to 14th December as part of Expo 2020 Dubai Knowledge and Learning Week, the high-profile event served as a platform for global education stakeholders to spark a conversation and generate new ideas on how to tackle the future of education.

“Education has been neglected, globally,” Dr. Tariq Al Gurg, CEO and Vice-Chairman of Dubai Cares, told Monaco Life. “Everything has a global agenda – climate, water, malaria, agriculture, health… The education sector doesn’t. It is fragmented with no unity, no one platform or one meeting, to set an agenda.”

The RewirEd summit was organised by Dubai Cares in partnership with Expo 2020 Dubai and in close coordination with the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and delivered in partnership with global stakeholders. It saw the participation of more than 2,000 in-person attendees from 60 countries, focusing on topics around how and why education systems need to change to provide young people with better opportunities.

“Out of the trillions of dollars spent in foreign aid, only three percent is going towards global education. That is why we have one entire day dedicated to financing,” explained Dr. Al Gurg.

The other two themes on the agenda were youth, skills and the future of work, as well as innovation in education.

RewirEd 2021

Ultimately, RewirEd aims to unlock new solutions for the future of education by fostering collaborations between new and unlikely allies from across the private and public sectors, whilst bringing together existing platforms and partnerships to amplify their impact across the education ecosystem.

Participants included former UK Prime Minister and United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown, President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Sahle-Work Zewde, President of the Central African Republic Faustin-Archange Touadera, President of Botswana Mokgweetsi Masisi, President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta, Chair of the Board of Directors of Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and former President of Tanzania Jakaya Kikwete, and former President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid.

Prince Albert II of Monaco, who had just returned to the Principality after visiting the Dubai Expo, addressed participants in a recorded message, highlighting the vital role that the environmental crisis should play in education.

“We will not succeed in implementing the necessary changes if we continue to consider the environment as just one concern among others, perhaps more distant than others. We need to instill a different mindset to promote new responsibility and solidarity to involve our children in all aspects of their lives,” said the Prince.

“This work therefore needs to be done in the first few years of life at the time we discover the world with wonder and when we learn to understand our place in that world.”

There were also high-level representatives from UNESCO, UNICEF, UNHCR, the World Economic Forum (WEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and Education Cannot Wait (ECW), a global fund to transform the delivery of education in emergencies.

“At the end of the three-day summit, we had an outcome report that will be managed by the Education Commission under Gordon Brown and is aligned with the recently announced ‘Our Common Agenda’ report by the UN Secretary General,” revealed Dr. Al Gurg.

The UN report, launched on 10th November, calls for transformations to both “repair past injustices” and build capacity for a more sustainable and just future. It aims to foster a “contract” between parents, children, and educators.

“Moreover, our report will feed into the UN Summit on Transforming Education 2022 that the UN Secretary General is convening next September,” added the Dubai Cares CEO. “It will hopefully be the initial step on a path towards the first ever global education agenda.”

Adopt a School programme, Dubai Cares

So who, or what, is Dubai Cares?

Dubai Cares is the epitome of smart philanthropy. It was created by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, who believed that education is more than a human right, it is an irrevocable asset, and one of the most effective tools to break the cycle of poverty.

It was from this belief and the desire to give children, regardless of their gender, nationality, race, or religion, the opportunity to become positive contributors to society, that His Highness launched an eight-week fundraising campaign in 2007 that raised a staggering 480 million dollars, mostly from the public and private sectors and HNWIs of Dubai. He then matched that figure with 480 million dollars from his own pocket. The result was the creation of a non-profit, non-governmental organisation with a start-up capital of 960 million dollars. What the organisation has managed to achieve since then is nothing short of miraculous.

“His Highness developed Dubai Cares at a time when there were no global mechanisms or entities working towards innovation in education, providing the best solutions to children to have access to education, or receive quality education, primarily in developing countries,” explained Dr. Al Gurg. “When God gives you blessed land and money not as a person, but as a leader of your community, you have to use it to give back, sometimes to your own societies but sometimes to less fortunate societies globally.”

Dubai Cares is now positively impacting the lives of more than 20 million individuals in 60 developing countries and continues to play a vital role in helping to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) four, which aims to ensure inclusive and quality education for all in order to promote lifelong learning by the year 2030.

Adopt a School programme by Dubai Cares

But the path to success has many different routes. Dubai Cares provides basic infrastructure for learning by helping to build and renovate schools and classrooms, equipping them with the necessary materials for children and teachers.

But in the most remote locations of the world, like rural Ethiopia, this is the least of the students’ problems.

“Intestinal worms are one of the biggest issues that prevents these children from going to school,” revealed Dr. Al Gurg. “Those children with bloated stomachs that you see, the majority of cases are worms; 50 to 200 worms that vary from three to seven inches long in one child’s stomach.”
Many children drop out of school because the worms make them lethargic and unable to master key competencies.

So, in its effort to create equal access to education for all, Dubai Cares, with its local implementing partner, developed a health and hygiene programme.

“We didn’t just want to deworm the children, we needed to have a mind shift in people. Parents didn’t know about the worms in their children’s stomachs. So, working with the health ministry, the education ministry and community members, we started a door-to-door awareness programme, informing parents that their children were getting sick because they were drinking contaminated water and not washing their hands after going to the toilet.”

As part of its WASH programme, Dubai Cares provided children with hand washing facilities, gender specific latrines, and hygiene education. Dubai Cares also helped to develop the government’s capacity to provide training to teachers and community members on the importance of washing hands with soap.

Dubai Cares implemented the WASH programme in Ethiopia

“Keep in mind that 75% of rural Africa does not have latrines in schools,” said Dr. Al Gurg. “For four years, we had a deworming programme and hand washing awareness campaign – washing hands at school, washing hands at home, parents teaching their neighbours, adults teaching the community… then, the government was able to eliminate the deworming programme.”

The programme was so successful in southern Ethiopia that the government eventually rolled it out across the entire country, and school enrolment and retention rates went up.

The projects are as varied as the people that benefit from Dubai Cares, from a school meals system using organic produce by local farmers, to youth empowerment and adult literacy, to building the capacity of governments to make parents understand the importance of health check-ups and vaccination cycles for their children.

And the cross-cutting theme, says Dr. Al Gurg, is gender equality.

“In some countries like the Philippines, South Sudan, central America, Yemen, and Pakistan, girls don’t have any access to education. This is not because of faith, but rather cultural beliefs. So, we try to have a policy change in the government’s approach and a prioritisation towards girls’ education.”

Dr. Al Gurg says a vigorous monitoring and evaluation system guarantees the success of its model.

“On a weekly basis, my team visits these countries to monitor and evaluate the progress of our programs. When there is an issue, we sit with the parents, teachers, students, and education district officers, to see how we can modify the programmes, which run for three to five years on average. The final evaluation comes from a third party, so we can see what is working and what is not working, for it to become an innovation for the future.”

Top photo of Dr. Tariq Al Gurg, CEO and Vice-Chairman of Dubai Cares. All photos courtesy Dubai Cares. Video of Prince Albert published with permission of the Prince’s Palace.

‘Tremblings’ at the NMNM

by: Stephanie Horsman
31/12/2021

The Nouveau Musée National de Monaco’s new exhibition is bringing together a selection of works collected over the past decade by recently retired Museum Director Marie-Claude Beaud.
Villa Paloma is the setting for a new exhibit, ‘Tremblings – Recent Acquisitions of the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco’, which showcases a hand-picked collection of works acquired by former Museum Director Marie-Claude Beaud, who left in April 2021.
The exhibition was the brainchild of Célia Bernasconi, Chief Curator of the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco (NMNM), and features works by 17 contemporary living artists, nine of whom are women, from 12 different countries. The common thread between the pieces is that the artists all had a similar response to the definition of “trembling thinking”.
It is summed up by French Caribbean poet Edouard Glissant, who said, “First of all, it must be said that trembling is not uncertainty, that it is not fear, that it is not what paralyses us. Trembling thinking – and to my mind, all utopia passes through this thought – is first of all the instinctive feeling that we must refuse all categories of rigid thinking and all categories of imperial thinking.
“Thought that organises itself into a system and tries to put order, its own order, into the world, is a thought against which we can raise this trembling thinking, which is the knowledge or the attempt at real knowledge of what is happening in the world today. In the Whole-World, everything trembles. The Whole-World trembles physically, geologically, mentally, spiritually, because the Whole-World is looking for this point, I would not say this station, but this utopian point where all the cultures of the world, all the imaginations of the world, can meet and hear one another without being dispersed or getting lost.”
After having directed institutions as diverse as the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, the American Centre, the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and the Mudam in Luxembourg, Marie-Claude Beaud developed her vision of the contemporary museum in Monaco inspired by the poetry of Édouard Glissant and his aesthetic of the Whole-World.
The collections of the NMNM have thus been enriched in a transdisciplinary and inclusive manner, and in constant dialogue with contemporary artists. While ensuring the study and preservation of works of art linked to the Monaco of the past and the modern era, the NMNM has developed a heritage that includes interesting contemporary art. Based on themes defined by taking into consideration the history of Monaco and its territory, its acquisition policy has made it possible to support and represent a great diversity of views and voices within the national collections.
Video installations, sculptures, paintings, and photographs by diverse artists Yinka Shonibare, Sylvie Blocher, Arthur Jafa, Helen Johnson, Clément Cogitore, Candice Breitz, Latifa Echakhch, Petrit Halilaj, Brice Dellsperger, Pauline Boudry, Renate Lorenz, Nan Goldin, Steve McQueen, Apostolos Georgiou, Hans Schabus, Katinka Bock and Laure Prouvost will offer visitors committed visions of the world and highlight the fragilities of society.
The exhibition will run through 15th May 2022 at the Villa Paloma.
 
 

Shock as Kovac and Monaco part ways

by: Luke Entwistle
31/12/2021

Although not officially confirmed by the club, Nico Kovac was relieved of his duties as manager of AS Monaco on Thursday night, and a list of potential successors has already been drawn up.
Shock rumours of Kovac’s departure first surfaced in French media on Wednesday, with the owners seemingly unhappy with the side’s league standing, despite being within touching distance of the podium.
Following the Christmas break, Kovac then returned to the club’s training centre in La Turbie on Thursday afternoon and took charge of training, unaware of what was to come. The session has been described as rather banal, and just like Kovac, the players were also in the dark about the plans to sack the Croat.
But it was ultimately Kovac’s relationship with his squad that put paid to his time in the Principality, according to L’Equipe. The Croat has a semi-military style approach to training and man-management, which didn’t sit well with some of the playing staff. Youssouf Fofana was one of many in the squad who was reportedly unhappy with this style, as Kovac gradually lost control of segments of the changing room.
The hierarchy are also reportedly unhappy about the progression of some of the younger players in Kovac’s squad, as well as the summer arrivals. Jean Lucas, Ismail Jakobs and Myron Boadu all arrived in the last transfer window, but are yet to develop as expected.
Nonetheless, both the decision itself, as well as the timing of it, are curious. AS Monaco, having started the season slowly, have gradually improved in the domestic division, whilst their phenomenal performance in Europe saw them finish top of a difficult Europa League group.
The upheaval mid-season will likely hinder and disrupt the team in the short-term, as the players adapt to a new philosophy and way of playing. Sporting Director Paul Mitchell now has the difficult task of finding a replacement, but it remains to be seen whether a manager will be installed in time for Sunday’s Coupe de France match against Quevilly-Rouen.
Amongst those slated for the post are Phillipe Clement, Jesse Marsch and Paulo Fonseca. Belgian coach Clement, whose Club Brugge side currently sit second in the Belgian league, is favourite for the role, and the tactical similarities he shares with Kovac, for example an insistence on a high press, may offset some of the disruption that a manager change always brings.
Whoever takes the role has a difficult task given that positive results on the pitch weren’t enough to save Kovac. As well as continuing the charge towards the podium in Ligue 1, and progressing in the Europa League and Coupe de France, Kovac’s successor must also harmonise a divided squad, and earn the support of a fan base that has been fractured by the club’s latest decision.
 
 

Mandatory work from home until at least end of January

by: Cassandra Tanti
30/12/2021

As the Christmas holiday draws to a close, the government has announced it is reintroducing an order for employees to work from home, effective immediately, to limit the spread of Covid-19 and reduce the flow of people into the Principality.

The government made the announcement late Thursday, saying the mandatory telework measure will be published in the Official Journal on Friday and apply to all posts that allow it in the private and public sectors, from now until 31st January 2022.

“The aim is to limit the spread of the virus, reducing the flow of people in the Principality, as well as interactions in the professional sphere, while maintaining economic activity,” said the government in its statement.

There is also a ban on workers gathering during breaks without masks.

Meanwhile, supermarkets have been authorised to sell self-tests for Covid for three weeks until 23rd January.

Monaco set a new daily case record of 100 on Thursday 30th December. There are currently 28 Covid-positive patients including 11 residents being cared for at the CHPG, plus an additional four patients, including one resident, in ICU.

A total of 369 Covid-positive residents are being monitored by the Home Monitoring Centre.

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

Weekend Ski Report: 31st December – 2nd January

by: Luke Entwistle
30/12/2021

If you are looking to hit the slopes to welcome in the new year, expect mild conditions. It will be largely sunny throughout the region, and no snow is expected. But there is still 100cm of standing snow at Les Deux Alpes.
Isola 2000 – There are currently 26 ski slopes and 13 ski lifts open at Isola. There is 75 cm of snow at the resort, however no snow is expected over the weekend. It is forecast to be largely sunny over the weekend, with a little more cloud on Sunday. There will be highs of 13°C and lows of 5°C. The col de la Bonette and la Lombarde roads are closed until the end of the winter season.
Auron – There are currently 22 ski slopes and 16 ski lifts open at the resort. There is around 35cm of standing snow. It is expected to be largely sunny over the weekend, with a bit of cloud on Friday and Sunday. There will be highs of 12°C and lows of 5°C. There will also be winds of up to 23km/h. In terms of access, Route de la Tinée, Route de la Bonette, Piste de la Moustière, Piste de Demandols all remain closed.
Les Deux Alpes – There are currently 65 ski slopes and 41 ski lifts open. There is already 100cm of standing snow at the resort. It is expected to be a clear weekend at the resort, with some clouds on Sunday. There will be highs of 11°C and lows of 4°C.
La Colmiane – There are currently 11 ski slopes and 5 ski lifts open at the resort. There is also between 35 and 45cm of standing snow. As it is throughout the region, it is expected to be largely sunny over the weekend with the chance of cloud on Sunday. There will be highs of 12°C and lows of 6°C. The resort hasn’t reported any road closures.
Greolieres les Neiges – There is currently 0cm of standing snow in the resort, with no snow forecast over the weekend. It will be largely sunny throughout the weekend with highs of 17°C and lows of 7°C. The resort isn’t reporting any road closures.
Limone Piemonte – There are currently 14 runs open at the resort and 11 ski-lifts. There is a minimum of 15cm of snow throughout the resort with a maximum of 55cm in places. Visibility should be good throughout the weekend. It is expected to be sunny throughout the weekend, with lows of 7°C and highs of 14°C. Passage through the Roya valley currently isn’t possible due to the collapsed bridge at Tende. Drivers must instead pass through Ventimiglia and the journey from Monaco is currently approximately 3 hours.
Valberg – There are 18 ski slopes and 12 ski lifts open. The resort has 40cm of standing snow, but it has not snowed since 9th December.  It is expected to be sunny all weekend with highs of 13°C and lows of 7°C.
Note: Snow tyres must be worn on the roads up to the ski resorts.
 
Photo: Taken from live web cam, Les Deux Alps
 
 

Yes, you can enjoy a quick trip to Italy

by: Stephanie Horsman
30/12/2021

Confused about the current travel rules to enter Italy? Here is the latest on who can visit, for how long and under what conditions.
For people living in Monaco, a day jaunt into Italy is as natural as flowers returning in spring. Popping over to shop, have lunch or just to walk along the coast, Monegasques are used to having the Italian Riviera at their fingertips, almost as an extension of home.
For many though, the latest rules and regulations have made the trip across the border fraught with concerns about who is allowed to enter and under what circumstances.
So here is the latest information from the Italian government.
Italy has separated visitors into five lists, with varying rules for entry. List A requires no documentation or entry restrictions, whilst List E countries are in the “red” zone and must have specific reasons to be allowed entry.
Monaco, along with the rest of the EU and Switzerland, falls under List C and gives residents and citizens from these countries right to entry for any reason, including for tourism, provided certain criteria are met.
The good news is that short trips to Italy are possible without the need for Covid tests or self-quarantine.
Entry is allowed for anyone using private means to transit through the Italian territory for a period not exceeding 36 hours.
Meanwhile, foreigners who live within 60 kilometres of the place they are visiting are allowed to stay in Italy for 48 hours without the need to provide a negative Covid test or self-isolate.
It means that quick trips over the border for lunch, shopping or to visit friends and family are possible.
The government has stated that these provisions will remain in effect until at least 31st January 2022.
Outside of these conditions, visitors must provide a digital passenger locator form, a valid EU-issued Covid certificate or the equivalent, or a certificate showing that the traveller has recovered from Covid, which is valid for 180 days from the first day the person tested positive.
Additionally, if stays are for over 36 hours and further than 60kms from home, visitors over the age of six must take a PCR test within 48 hours of entry, or an antigen test 24 hours before.
Self-isolation is not required if a traveller presents both the valid certificates of vaccination or recovery and the Covid test. Those unable to offer both must, in addition to the previous requirements, undergo a five-day quarantine at an address listed on the passenger locator form as well as take a second test at the end of the five-day period.
Children under six years of age are exempt from all rules if their accompanying parent or guardian has complied.
 
 
Photo of Rapallo, Italy, by Brendan Greenway on Unsplash