MENA Innovation: jp.ik strengthens relations with the Middle East and North Africa region

Starting last Sunday, and for three days, Government and Industry gathered in this event under the patronage of the Minister of Information and Communication Technologies of Egypt Yasser El Kady.

The participation of jp.ik, the only Portuguese company in this event, relates to the importance of the needs, specificities and challenges of the various countries present in this Forum and for which the integration of technology in education is one of the priorities. Therefore, it is essential to ensure the presence in this type of Forum for reflection and debate as it is part of our approach to the technology market for education to continue working with these regions.

This three-day forum is a unique event for the exchange of experiences, challenges and needs of each country for the integration of technology in education systems and for the promotion of meetings with government agents from the countries represented at this event. The Ministries of Education and Technology from more than 25 countries in the Middle East and Africa were represented at this event. Among the countries represented were Cyprus, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Uganda.

In the words of the Minister of Information and Communication Technologies of Egipt Yasser El Kady “the summit is of great importance to the Government of Egypt and especially the meetings-based format allowing for productive face-to-face engagement between government, civil society and industry partners. The summit has our own high-level involvement from multiple ministers, senior government officials and stakeholders representing Egypt”.
Thus, pre-scheduled meetings between ministers, government officials and industry partners were held at MENA Innovation. In addition, the event was also the stage of panel sessions dedicated to key themes within the scope of the Sustainable Development Goals; investment in Information and Communication Technologies; the development of digital skills; professional development; and innovation and research in the field of technology for education.
For Jorge Sá Couto, Chairman of jp.ik, “our work to promote the sustainable development of communities through the integration of Technology in Education is as irreversible as it is fundamental”. And adds: “the success of the major education projects implemented by jp.ik results from the Inspiring Knowledge Ecosystem, a model that combines three crucial pillars for the design of large-scale educational projects with profound and long-term impact: engineering, pedagogy and technology.”

On Sunday, at the Government Leaders Day, Jerónimo Silva represented jp.ik and conducted a presentation on “Successful Large Scale Projects Implementation in Education”. For one hour, jp.ik share our vision and expertise in a sector that is both changeable and challenging as the education technology sector is to a predominantly governmental audience.

On the last day of the event, Jerónimo Silva returned to the stage and moderated a Q&A panel session under the theme “ICT Ecosystem for Digital Transformation”. The Minister of Communications & Information Technology of Egypt Dr Amr Talaat, the Minister of Communications of Iraq Hassan Kazem Al-Rashed, the Minister of Telecommunications of Lebanon Jamal Al-Jarrah, the , Minister of Telecommunications of Djibouti Abdi Youssouf Sougeh and the Deputy Minister for Technology Industry & Digital Capacities of Saudi Arabia Dr Ahmed Al-Theneyan attended this panel session.
Themes such as the importance of an authentically inclusive education; productive partnerships towards successful ICT-based education projects or the identification of major educational reforms for the development of digital skills increasingly imperative in a labor market undergoing a mind-boggling transformation driven by technology were addressed during this one-hour panel session.

The integration of technology into education is as irreversible as it is fundamental. These events are an excellent forum for sharing experiences, challenges and best practices in integrating technology into education.
In addition, these forums have a networking component that is relevant to understand the state of the art of technology in education in certain regions of the planet; in this particular case – Middle East and North Africa.