As the global community wrestles with the challenge of meeting the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, a unifying theme that runs across diverse regional and national borders is the need for economic progress to go hand in hand with social development.  Within this context, the Arab Thought Foundation hosts a programme of events and initiatives that address the challenge of economic development for the Arab world, an economic agenda that is centred at the heart of wider development goals for a region that needs to create some 50m jobs by 2050.

Headlining this programme is the annual FIKR conference which brings together key players from the region and beyond.  FIKR presents an opportunity for leading policy-makers, the private sector, NGOs and regional thought-leaders to focus attention on the economic agenda as a driver for development.  Entitled ‘Integrating Arab Economies… Partners for Prosperity’ this year’s FIKR tackles the big issues of the day: economic integration and trade protectionism; prospects for trade and monetary union, food security and global agriculture, Arab corporate social responsibility and the role the private sector plays in combining business priorities with social development goals.  A particular spotlight will be placed on Islamic finance and its significance as a financial model within the global economy as well as an over-arching focus on the region’s youth – subject of a live Al Arabiya TV debate on day 2 and culminating in a gala dinner celebrating the best of young Arab talent and achievement in the 2009 Arab Creativity Awards.

Download Fikr Program