On Sept. 6th, 2010 the first African Student Leadership Summit took place at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Many Africa Colonizers made a point of keeping the local population under-educated to ensure docility. As a result, when African countries gained their independence they were left with a political and economic framework designed by the West, and few citizens who had the experience or education to manage their newly inherited country.

About 50 years after most countries gained their independence the first African Student Leadership Summit took place.

Dubai has produced a a number of ambitious man-made islands, including "The ‘World’, a 300-island project being developed in the Persian Gulf, a few kilometers off the coast of Dubai. To create these islands, which cover an area of 48 million square meters, 320 million cubic meters of sand is being dredged out from the sea and 32 million tones of rock is being used to protect the islands from extreme weather changes. Similar projects that coming up in Dubai include Palm Jumeirah, Palm Deira and the Waterfront."

Israel is leading the Middle East in exeriments with landfills to provide recreational and recycling benefits.

2008 was the year the world officially went from majority rural to majority urban for the first time in human history. MENA is facing major urbanization. After Latin America, the Middle East is facing the fastest rate of urbanization. As a result, the Middle East and the greater MENA community are rapidly building their public transportation system.

MENA's population is currently about 50% below 24 years of age. By 2030 this youth bulge is expected to shift to constitute MENA's working age population. By 2030, 50% of MENA's population will be from 24 to 65 years of age. MENA will be in a special 'window of opportunity' wherein there will be an even split between working population and dependents. After 2030 the dependency ratio is expected to rise again.

In 2008, the US and Vietnam signed a memorandum of understanding for bilateral cooperation in education. Under the terms of the pact, Vietnam and the US agreed to set up a task force in charge of education to encourage Vietnamese students, especially postgraduates and the holders of doctorates, to study in the US. Both countries also agreed to increase education programmes to update Vietnamese students with the skills they need for an economy that is currently going through a modernization process.

Recently, the number of students entering vocational schools in Vietnam has been decreasing dramatically, and in order to improve vocational training, to address a worsening shortage of skilled workers in key area of its economy, Vietnam is getting support from the Asian Development Bank.

PANdora (Pan Asian Networking Distance and Open Resource Access) is a consortium of countries exploring distance education possibilities in Asia.

From the PANdora website:
“From 2005 - 2008, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) funded a major series of distance learning studies in its Asian region….The goal of the PANdora projects is to develop practices and policies enhancing the use of distance learning technologies (DLT) in Asia.”

Due to the far reaching impacts of sanitation, most importantly on human health and civic life, it is being worked on extensively by NGOs and the private sector. A good example of this is the Sulabh Sanitation Movement, which in India, provides public toilets, as well as household toilets in under-privileged areas.

IFTF Implication: