Dubai Cares and global partners place Water Sanitation on global humanitarian agenda

Held in New York City from 20-21 January, the roundtable will define statistical indicators on the proposed link and highlight comparative advantages among the approaches of Dubai Cares and its global partners to create an agreed unified program model.

The Dubai-based charitable establishment is joined by current and potential partners UNICEF, Save the Children, Oxfam, Care International and Water Aid for the 2-day forum.

The charitable establishment's leadership in the roundtable is part of Dubai Cares' mission to help shape the global agenda for effective and impactful interventions to achieving United Nations Millennium Development Goals 2 and 3 by 2015. By mid 2009, Dubai Cares will launch a global awareness campaign to highlight and mobilize international development institutions to ensure the integration and prioritization of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in all education programs and budgets.

Dubai Cares' focus on water sanitation follows its recent participation in the annual MDG summit held at United Nations headquarters in New York on integrating Water Sanitation components into any primary education initiative.

"The Dubai Cares mandate is to address and work toward the elimination of the underlining causes that prevent children's access to quality primary education. Water and Sanitation to date is considered the second biggest cause of all child deaths, and a major contributor to the high dropout rates and absenteeism in primary school, especially girls. Dubai Cares seeks to build its intervention based on a Community Led Total Water and Sanitation approach," said HE Reem Al Hashimy, Chairperson of Dubai Cares.

Together with its partners, Dubai Cares is developing a framework for future programs using the school as the focal point, making the school an important platform from which best practices and information can be diffused into the community.

Al Hashimy explained, "Dubai Cares believes that school children are agents of change to reach the wider community and the school acts as the physical focal point for change. When we strengthen this important institution, we are strengthening communities."

Also, Dubai Cares and its partners are developing a framework for future programs that will include provisions for management information systems, using the school as the focal point, The school will be an important platform from which best practices and information can be disseminated into the community.

Dubai Cares is the world's largest charitable establishment solely devoted to improving primary education for underprivileged children and currently has primary education programmes in over 13 developing countries that address the four pillars of the primary school education value chain: Infrastructure, Water Sanitation, Health & Nutrition, and Quality.

Since its launch, Dubai Cares has established itself as a fully transparent, multilateral, non-profit organization, operating based on international best practices for foundations worldwide to ensure financial transparency. The charitable establishment has positioned itself as a strategic coordinator actively engaged with international aid agencies to develop primary education programmes and to ensure immediate impact on the ground.