UNICEF and VO-Kuwait announced today the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, establishing a partnership to nurture and develop youth talents in Kuwait.
The signing ceremony was held at the UN House in Kuwait in the presence of Her Excellency Sheikha Ohoud Salem Al Ali Al Sabah, Chairperson of VO Kuwait, UNICEF Representative to the Gulf Area, Mr. Eltayeb Adam, the UN Resident Coordinator to the State of Kuwait, Dr. Tarek Elsheikh, Riham Al Ayyar, CEO of VO Kuwait, and the Chairman of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises of Kuwait (ASMEK), Mr. Mohammed Al Anjari.
The agreement outlines steps to build a meaningful collaboration over the next five years through knowledge exchange and developing an action plan to empower young people, enhance their qualifications, and prepare them for international employment markets.
In her official statement, Her Excellency Sheikha Ohoud Al-Sabah reaffirmed the goal of VO Kuwait and its commitment towards Kuwaiti youth. She explained that VO’s main goal is to position Kuwait globally and foster the country’s economic diversification by exporting Kuwaiti talents worldwide. She praised UNICEF’s efforts in the region and explained that this agreement is a successful step in VO’s journey towards empowering Kuwaiti youth, highlighting their talents and helping them achieve their dreams.
“Kuwait’s youth are one of the most important elements of success for our country. Therefore, we must all work together to provide them with development opportunities to equip them with the necessary tools that will bring forth Kuwait into the world’s new era of innovation and prepare them to face the current global challenges. Our agreement with UNICEF is another step towards achieving this goal,” added Her Excellency.
“A country’s long-term prosperity directly depends on investments in today’s children and youth,” said Eltayeb Adam, UNICEF Representative to the Gulf Area. “Our partnership with VO will offer young people in Kuwait an opportunity to fulfil their full potential, lift their societies to new heights, and contribute to achieving national development goals.”
Dr Tarek Elsheikh, United Nations Resident Coordinator to the State of Kuwait said: “I am pleased to witness such partnership between UNICEF and VO materialise. This partnership is a very positive step towards providing VO with the international norms and standards as well as best practices and experiences in youth engagement, empowerment and leadership for development transformations in a new world era that is highly technological, artificial intelligence focused and leaving no one behind. It is also an opportunity to link the very competent and highly skilled young Kuwaitis with the international youth world of UNICEF and other sister agencies, through VO UNICEF will ensure that youth of Kuwait and the world exchange experience and lessons for the interest of their aspiration for New Kuwait that is smart by 2035. Only with young Kuwaiti intellectuals and with such partnerships reaching such objective can be accelerated.”
The partnership with VO builds on UNICEF’s ongoing advocacy and programmes in Kuwait and other GCC countries to improve education outcomes and create better training and employment opportunities for young people transitioning from learning to earning.
VO is committed to creating opportunities to help foster youth creativity, the emergence of their ideas and talents, the production of their work, and support their professional journey in distributing and marketing their produced materials to the regional and international market.