Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Officially Launches the First World Innovation Summit for Education - WISE Held in Doha, Qatar

Guest of Honour, Irina Bokova, Newly Elected UNESCO Director-General Addresses 1,000 Opinion Leaders From 120 Countries

DOHA, Qatar, November 17 - Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser AL-MISSNED, Chair of
Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, officially
opened this morning, the premiere edition of the World Innovation Summit for
Education - WISE, an initiative of Qatar Foundation.

Addressing 1,000 of the world's pre-eminent opinion leaders,
Her Highness delivered her vision on education, the answer to the challenges
posed today by globalization focusing on the theme of the Summit "Global
Education: Working Together for Sustainable Achievements":

"Innovation in education, which is the focus of this Summit
should become an achievable and executable process. It should be at the heart
of the education which is the force which exerts human energy and guides it
wisely for the purpose of expanding human intelligence and creativity to
serve the objective of just and equitable human societies.

"Therefore this Summit requires us to debate deeply and
discuss a series of issues at the core of the right to education in order to
draft an agreement on which we can build our next steps", concluded Her
Highness Sheikha Mozah.

As Guest of Honour, Mrs Irina BOKOVA, newly appointed UNESCO
Director-General, chose to address WISE worldwide community of opinion
leaders and stakeholders, for her first official intervention abroad:

Mrs Bokova explained that: "The world is undergoing a profound
and rapid transformation. The economic and financial crisis has brought
education sharply into focus. Education is a lifetime pursuit and an
investment for the future."

Dr. Abdulla bin Ali AL-THANI, Chairman of WISE and Qatar
Foundation's Vice-President of Education, engaged WISE attendees to make the
most of the unique dialogue opportunity that WISE brings. During his address,
Dr. AL-THANI expressed hope for meaningful debates that will lead to global
collaboration to help identify the strategic educational priorities for the
upcoming years.

Dr. Abdulla bin Ali AL-THANI explained: "We hope WISE will
become a medium - a global education forum - where all actors can meet,
reflect and consider, and ultimately enact them. Through this collaborative
process, we can identify major educational challenges and explore innovative
and sustainable ways to address them. The priorities identified over the next
three days, will be formalised in a declaration, a universal call for action,
to be announced at the end of the Summit."

ABOUT WISE

WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) is a global,
groundbreaking collaborative initiative established by Qatar Foundation under
the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned. WISE
seeks to monitor and contribute to 21st century challenges and their impact
on education. With 1,000 leading education stakeholders, opinion leaders and
decision-makers from 120 countries and from the spheres of education,
politics, international institutions, NGOs, grassroots movements, the private
sector, media and multimedia, culture and the arts. WISE endeavours to
propose visionary thinking on education, offer new ways of addressing current
global challenges and untapped opportunities and anticipate future education
models. The WISE Forum will take place in Doha, Qatar, from November 16th to
18th, 2009. Full details on the WISE website: www.wise-qatar.org

ABOUT QATAR FOUNDATION

Founded in 1995 by decree of His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin
Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, Qatar Foundation is a non-profit
organization focusing on education, scientific research and community
development. Under Qatar Foundation's umbrella are Education City, which
comprises elite universities, several academic and training programs and
Qatar Science and Technology Park, which boasts more than twenty-one
world-class companies involved in scientific research and development.

Chaired by Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned,
Qatar Foundation also aims to enhance lives through community development
initiatives including Doha Debates, Reach out To Asia and Al Jazeera
Children's Channel.

Joint venture partnerships in the areas of design, ICT,
telecommunications, policy studies and event management contribute to
fulfilling the objectives of the Qatar Foundation. For more information,
please visit: www.qf.org.qa

NOTE TO EDITORS:

Unedited recording of the WISE Opening Plenary Session is
available on WISE website: www.wise-qatar.org

    For further information, please contact :

    Emilie Demange / Constance Lozet
    Tel: +33(0)1-47-42-19-54 / +33(0)1-47-42-92-78
    Email : wisepr@fleishman.com

For further information, please contact : Emilie Demange / Constance Lozet, Tel: +33(0)1-47-42-19-54 / +33(0)1-47-42-92-78, Email : wisepr at fleishman.com