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World Innovation Summit for Education - WISE - is a global forum based in Doha, Qatar and established by the non-profit organization Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. The summit is placed under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned. WISE brings together education stakeholders, opinion leaders and decision makers from all over the world to discuss educational issues.

The first edition of the forum will be held in Doha from November 16th to 18th 2009.

Objective
In 2009, Qatar Foundation is establishing the World Innovation Summit for Education with the objective of trying to benefit the global education community by creating and sharing proposals to address emerging global issues.

The first edition focuses on 21st century educational models, innovation, new initiatives, best practices, and educational engagement on a global scale, under the theme “Global Education: Working Together for Sustainable Achievements”. The central theme is complemented by sub-themes of pluralism, sustainability and innovation.

The aim of the forum is to create an international, multi-disciplinary platform which will try to shape education models of the 21st century, by offering a better understanding of key current and future educational issues, and promoting a global multicultural vision through an interdisciplinary event.

Participants
WISE will bring together 1,000 education stakeholders, opinion leaders and decision makers from all disciplines, levels, supports and media coming from more than 120 countries and representing the 5 continents.

Participants will include:
 * Academics: experts from teaching and research areas in national education institutions from pre-school to higher education and life-long learning
 * Policy makers: current and former politicians expert on education and interested in international cooperation.
 * NGOs/associations representatives: heads of NGOs/associations acting for education development and enhancement or for children’s causes
 * Private sector representatives: multinational companies committed in education, development, IT, culture and arts

The WISE Awards 2009
WISE also established the WISE Awards that are focussed on rewarding a total of six concrete achievements from around the world, which have proven measurable impact in the field of educational practices. In 2009, the WISE Awards are divided into three categories aligned with WISE 2009 summit themes: pluralism, sustainability and innovation:
 * Pluralism: “Educational activities that explicitly generate greater respect and understanding between communities, enhance diversity, or increase access and equality to education.”
 * Sustainability: “Initiatives that offer new approaches to educational sustainability (through appropriate funding mechanisms, good governance, suitable accreditation and quality control structure) thereby contributing to the creation of sustainable global societies.”
 * Innovation: “Educational activities that use information and communication technologies and other innovative means to generate new and exciting opportunities for access and delivery of learning content that better enabled people to face the diversity of today’s challenges.”

From a total of 394 legitimate applications, 6 projects have been chosen in recognition of their achievements within Pluralism, Sustainability and Innovation in education for the 21st century:
 * Pluralism
 * Sheetal Mehta, from India, for the Project Nanhi Kali with an objective of providing primary education to the underprivileged girl child in India.
 * Vicky Colbert, from Colombia, for the project Escuela Nueva which contributes to improving the quality of basic education in low income-schools.
 * Sustainability
 * Martin Burt, from Paraguay, for the project The Self-Sufficient School which provides education to chronically poor young people without relying on third-party support.
 * Joyce Dongottey-Padi, from Ghana for the Widows Alliance Network for Sustainable Economic Development in Ghana which aims to emancipate Ghanaian widows from the social, cultural and economic deprivation.
 * Innovation
 * Peter Levy, from the USA for the project Curriki. The Curriki website is a platform that provides users with the tools and services necessary to develop, aggregate, evaluate and support Open Educational Resources.
 * Delio Morais, from Brazil, for the project Distance Learning in the Amazon Forest which involves transmitting live classes via a two-way video-conference link to 25,000 students in 300 secondary schools and 700 classrooms, throughout the 62 county districts.