Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser’s Speech At Mentor Arabia Gala Dinner

First, I welcome Your Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden, President of Mentor International. And welcome, Your Royal Highness, Prince Turki bin Talal Al Saud, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Mentor Arabia.

Welcome to Doha — I am delighted to be with you both at this event, which I trust will be successful. And I welcome all of you, our guests.

When I heard that Mentor Arabia wished to hold this event in Doha, I welcomed the opportunity without hesitation. Young people have always been the focus of my work. I believe in them — they are the spark that will light the future.

I commend Queen Silvia for her interest in Arab youth, and I am, of course, not surprised that Prince Turki takes an interest in Arab youth too. May God bless your work and grant you success in achieving your noble goal.

We are keen to support Mentor Arabia activities in Doha, through its partnership with Education Above All Foundation. I commend and thank Mentor Arabia for empowering Arab youth, both economically and in their health and wellbeing.  They are the true wealth of our nations, and who will be the ones to shape the future of the Arab world.

Today, above all, young people need hope for their future — a future where every one of them can be fulfilled and play an active role in galvanizing the development of their countries. If we approach this challenge from an economic angle, we can see that failure to invest in young people and provide them with job opportunities constitutes a huge waste of any nation’s most important resource.

We must trust in our youth to bring about change, and invest in them — whether through education or the labor market — and harness their energy and ideas to drive development forward. In order to do so, we must provide them with an environment that allows them to express themselves and achieve social and economic security.

In the Arab world, young people constitute the largest demographic and youth unemployment rates are increasing. This challenge calls for a concerted collective effort to develop ambitious plans and programs to combat youth unemployment.  Youth are our human capital. We should invest in our own development, using this wealth of human talent.

Contrary to what some might believe, while our burgeoning youth population could be seen as a worrying economic burden, it should be a source of economic prosperity and social change, if we only invest appropriately. Youth is widely recognized as the most productive phase of a person's life. I remember reading in a 2009 UNDP report that the Arab world needed to create 51 million jobs by the end of 2020. You can only imagine how many jobs we need now, given the deterioration of political, social and economic conditions in the last fifteen years.

EAA’s Silatech programs have already proven successful in providing jobs for unemployed Arab youth, through connecting young people with opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship and civic engagement. The programs do this through promoting knowledge, investment, technology and networking, changing both mindsets and policies to affect wider change. Silatech also empowers youth in fragile environments to take control of their lives and futures and contribute to change.

On this occasion, we look forward to a productive collaboration between Mentor Arabia and Silatech that will support young people and qualify them to push the wheel of sustainable development forward. The two foundations are commencing a program in Lebanon and Qatar. The program will develop skills and employment pathways for more than 8,000 young people across the next four years. It will make a tremendous difference in their lives, linking educational outcomes to the labor market.

There is no doubt that our partners share our dedication to sustainable development and our eagerness to implement monitoring mechanisms for the program and our young people, bolstering its impact. I hope this will be the kind of partnership that will inspire other Arab youth-oriented initiatives.

To conclude – but perhaps this is really just the beginning – I wish you an enjoyable stay in Doha, and outstanding success for Mentor Arabia. I congratulate all the winners of the Mentor Arabia Award 2025, and commend them on achieving this honour.