Youth at FIKR9: Arab Thought Foundation organized a youth workshop entitled "Shaping the Future… Arab Youths’ Role?”, on December 7th, 2010, one day prior to its annual FIKR9 conference. The workshop brought together, Arab youth from different Arab countries along with some of their international counterparts, to discuss and set together, their vision for the future of the Arab world. The youth participants used the Lego Serious play series, as a tool for learning, expressing their ideas, through systematic thinking and collaborative work, in order to put strategies and plans of their futuristic vision in the fields of management, knowledge economy, culture, education, media and arts. The workshop aimed at promoting culture of innovation and social entrepreneurship among the Arab youth, and empowering them to build trust and believe in equality, peace, and human rights. Moreover, the participants emphasized on the importance and development of technological and multimedia tools, such as social and online communities, to exchange ideas and experiences and express themselves; thus encouraging dialogue among the Arab youth and with their international counterparts. One of the youth, made out of the Lego pieces, a model for the "Youth Leadership development Center”. This model was adopted by HRH Prince Khalid Al Faisal, during his visit to the youth workshop, where he promised to keep it and use it as cornerstone of the “Youth Leadership development center” in Jeddah, which is being established to be Beacon of hope for the Future. At the end, the participants agreed on five main and essential requirements that lie behind the success of each initiative. They are:

• Determination and refusal of giving up
• Not to fear failure
• Creativity & innovation
• Self-belief and trust
• Being solution oriented

The youth café

Preliminary meeting of Fikr 8 conference

October 1, 2009

The youth as a real motor of the Arab economy

Under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Khaled Al Faysal, president of the Arab Thought Foundation, the preliminary youth meeting “Youth café” was held at Phoenicia Hotel in Beirut, on Thursday October 1^st, 2009 in the context of the preparations of its Eighth annual conference Fikr 8 that will be held in Kuwait on December 9 & 10 under the theme “Integrating Arab Economies: Partnering for prosperity”.

The meeting, organized as an international café and to which 55 young men and women from all the Arab countries participated on the identification of the youth’s role as a motor for the integration of Arab Economies. The meeting aimed at making the youth partners of the evolution process of Fikr 8 conference, and to empower them to play an important role in ameliorating their future, and to inspire the younger generation and making them part of the important regional issues, and raise their awareness levels on the responsibility and sharing culture.

The participants met over round tables and discussed several issues among which the youth as a main motor for the Arab economy. In addition, the participants shared the stories of two participants who continued their journey despite the obstacles the thing that gave a strong motivation to the participants to overcome the obstacles and to become the change they are requesting; the café also witnessed the launching of several agreements and activities that participate in the development of Arab youth.

During Fikr 7, there was a new initiative, the “youth café” where a group of Arab youth from all over the Arab World participated in an honest and daring dialogue with leaders among Arab intellectuals and decision makers. The pattern of the “world café” was adopted to discuss the subject of the “Arab youth identity” and other efficient issues that contribute to the development of the educational and scientific base of our youth, whereas the youth and the participants connected the different discussions that took place in different round tables, which contributed to the flow of ideas on the Arab youth identity subject and how to be able to combine between the follow up of the evolution and the maintenance of the Arab identity and inherited values, cultures and customs, in order to suggest various new horizons pertaining to the concept of the “Identity of the Modern Arab youth”.

In addition, the institution contributed to providing the appropriate atmosphere to enhance the youth’s desire to earn knowledge and search for necessary living skills, it also worked on clarifying the concepts of the youth work according to a vision that matches the youth’s vision and their needs, and to spread knowledge and awareness among them to contribute to the true development process and enhance and develop the capabilities of the young society.

In this context, and based upon the will to treat the youth as partners, the Arab Thought Foundation took an important step and opened its doors for the Arab youth to efficiently participate in its events, so it declared during a meeting of the board of trustees that occurred prior to Fikr 7, the participation of the youth in the Foundation’s administrative board through opening the candidature for the youth to join the administration board.

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Preliminary meeting of Fikr 7 conference

The Lebanese capital Beirut witnessed on July 12, 2008 the occurrence of the preliminary meeting of the Arab youth conference, in the context of the preparations for the Arab Thought Foundation seventh Fikr conference that was held in Cairo. A group of Arab youth from the different Arab countries participated in the conference that raised the most important problems and challenges that the Arab society is facing as well as the role of the youth in taking initiatives to set the appropriate strategies and solutions that can make a difference in their modern reality.

This conference was part of the preparations preceding the Arab Thought Foundation annual conference Fikr 7, since the conference is discussing several vital topics for the comprehensive development in the Arab reality, and the role of the culture in making the required change and the desired progress. Here, it is essential to assert that education is not related to the economic situation alone, but is also influenced by the general social status in the communities, that the conference will discuss and work towards its development based upon its positive aspects.

After meeting many young men and women from all the Arab countries, we became much more enthusiastic because of their power to defend their Arab identity and culture in the face of the challenges imposed by the globalization era in its different aspects. We also noted that they are really informed and we can count on them to prepare the leaders of the future, leaders that are really capable of making a difference and leading the Arab society towards an eminent developmental culture, where the renovation and creation and the fight for keeping the integrity and the historical inheritance of the nation are the main points.

The Arab Thought Foundation organized during Fikr sixth conference a workshop on the invention and the scientific thinking. Among the objectives of the workshop was the motivation of a group of 60 Arab young men and women in order to:

• Adopt a new and unfamiliar thinking method in order to develop their imaginations and abilities with regards to problems identification and finding solutions.
• Working within a group of people of different backgrounds and discovering the power of group work.
• Discovering what can be achieved in a short period of time if the person stays concentrated and holds on to simple guiding principles that contribute to decision making.
• Defining the problem, identifying it and giving innovative solutions.
• Encouraging them and motivating them to always think of new projects in a creative and pioneer manner.

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The workshop was preceded by a preliminary meeting in Beirut (October 2007). The meeting was divided to two sessions:

• During the first session the youth discussed the issues to be discussed in Fikr sixth conference in order to know the visions and expectations of the youth from the conference and its participants.
• During the second session the youth met five experts in the different subtopics that the Fikr 6 is covering in the presence of one of the persons in charge at the Arab Thought Foundation where the youth expressed their opinions and discussed them directly in front of those experts. There was a free exchange of questions and answers thus reflecting the mission of Fikr 6 and its main ideas.

This meeting resulted in the establishment of a specialized group of youth supported by the Arab Thought Foundation that gathers the Arab youth leaders to deploy efforts and unify the next generations in a way that supports the Arab unity and enhances the building of a sustainable youth for the next generations.