“The AGFUND International Prize for Pioneering Human Development Projects”

Your Royal Highness Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud;
Your Majesty Queen Sofia;
Members of the Prize Committee;
His Excellency, Al Zayani [General Secretary of Gulf Cooperation Council];
His Excellency, Thomas Gass [Assistant Director General, Head of South Cooperation Department, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation];
Excellencies;
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am pleased to welcome you to today’s event and transmit to you a special greeting from Mr. Michael Møller, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva. The Director-General regrets very much that he cannot be here with us today and asked me to deliver the following message on his behalf and I quote:

“It is a great pleasure to welcome back to the Palais des Nations the Arab Gulf Programme for Development for another award ceremony of the International Prize for Pioneering Human Development Projects. I would like to commend His Royal Highness Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud for his support towards countless development projects around the world.

I would also like to thank Her Majesty Queen Sofia for her many charitable activities over the years and for her presence today. A special thanks to the Permanent Delegation of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf for making this ceremony possible.

The theme of your award this year, quality education, is a cause close to my heart. Three years ago when the Member States of the United Nations got together to agree on the Sustainable Development Goals and their 17 targets, we all embarked on a precious and daunting task of ensuring a better future for our planet and for our children.
Realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will require all our creativity, imagination and determination. Yet reaching these goals runs the risk of becoming unrealistic if we are not forward-looking.

We spend a great deal of time, energy and money to tackle the world’s challenges, but providing quality education is one of the most tangible solutions in our grasp and perhaps the most important first step in our endeavour towards a sustainable future.

In the words of the late Kofi Annan, “education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.”

It is the cornerstone of freedom, democracy and sustainable development. Educating a child today, will ensure an informed agent of change tomorrow.

Yet disparities linked to wealth, gender, ethnicity or language are holding back progress in many countries.

Through the AGFUND International Prize, you recognise that we need to do more to harness our collective ideas, in order to make a real difference.

Today’s laureates, all come from different sectors and from all over the world: NGOs, individuals and international organisations. They have come up with innovative projects to tackle challenges linked to education and accelerate progress towards removing barriers, to leave no one behind.

In closing, I wish to extend my sincere congratulations to the laureates. I wish you every success in the future. The international community needs your continued passion and spirit of innovation.”

This is the end of the Director-General’s message.

Thank you.