Projects

In early 2021, Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) and the Digital Citizen Fund (DCF) signed a grant agreement to finance vocational training and educational scholarships for women and girls in Afghanistan.  The members of an all-female Afghan robotics team under the sponsorship of DCF, have evacuated from Afghanistan to Qatar and will continue their education through educational scholarships, jointly funded by QFFD and Qatar Foundation to study at Qatar Foundation’s Education City. The scholarships will provide high-quality technical training to ensure the development of employable skills, particularly related to information technology, engineering and robotics; finance and business administration; and entrepreneurship. The Afghan Dreamers will be supported in continuing their high-school studies and preparing for and completing higher education degrees. They will also have the opportunity to continue advancing their robotics skills through the facilities and expertise available at QF member Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and QF partner universities, Texas A&M University at Qatar and Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar

In December 2019, Qatar Fund for Development and the Dutch non-governmental organization SPARK, signed a memorandum of understanding to join efforts in supporting and empowering Syrian refugees in host communities through the development of entrepreneurship and sustainable job opportunities. The SPARK economic empowerment programme aims to improve employment and income-generation opportunities for Syrian refugees in the region, particularly for women and youth. The program provides vocational and entrepreneurship training and has resulted in the creation of 4,380 jobs for Syrian refugee women to date.

Qatar Fund for Development, Silatech and Kaah Islamic Microfinance Services (KIMS) signed a 2-year agreement in March 2018, to support the economic empowerment of women and youth in Somalia by providing them with access to microfinance. QFFD has contributed $1 million USD to expand the KIMS loan portfolio to include an additional 10,000 women and youth, as well as providing technical assistance services. The project targets job creation, women and youth empowerment and poverty alleviation.

In September 2017, on the sideline of the 73th United Nations General Assembly, HH the Emir of the State of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, pledged to provide access to quality education for an additional one million girls by 2021 in support of the Charlevoix Declaration on Quality Education for Girls, Adolescent Girls and Women in Developing Countries. With local and international partners, QFFD has implemented this pledge, primarily in regions of conflict.

Between September 2018 and December 2020, through funding from QFFD, the Education Above All Foundation enrolled 1,612,704 out-of-school girls in quality primary education programmes, significantly exceeding the Charlevoix 1 million commitment.

Through funding from the Qatar Fund for Development, Education Above All Foundation continues to deliver access to quality education to marginalized communities across 51 countries, many in regions of conflict, through its Educate a Child Programme.  By the end of 2020, a total of 4,917,413 out-of-school girls had been enrolled in quality primary education programmes.

In 2016, the State of Qatar, through Qatar Fund for Development, launched "Qatar Upholding Education for Syrians’ Trust” (QUEST), an initiative that aims to ensure that children and young people affected by the Syrian crisis have access to education, skills training, and healthcare services, both inside Syria as well as in neighboring refugee host countries, including Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey.  

Examples of QUEST Education initiatives include the establishment and operation of community centers in Gaziantep, Turkey to serve Syrian refugees with educational and life-skills development programmes. In Syria itself, QUEST Education has partnered with Qatar Charity to print and distribute elementary, middle, and high school textbooks to support the continuation of education for students.

In March 2021, Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly respond to the increasing needs of the most vulnerable children in Northwest Syria.

The Syria Educational Programme represents a critical investment to support both children and teachers in Idlib and Aleppo governorates. The programme has supported 130,000 children and 5.731 teachers across 435 schools, particularly through the payment of teacher stipends to ensure teachers continue to have a livelihood and students continue to learn during a time when no financial resources are available locally to ensure the continuation of education.

The Al Fakhoora Dynamic Futures Programme, a collaboration with the Dutch NGO, SPARK, and Qatari NGO Education Above All, aims to build a cadre of civic-minded, intellectually able, and professionally skilled young women who are to become community, business, and national leaders of the future. The programme, which targets Palestinian postsecondary students of underserved backgrounds in Gaza, avails opportunities for them to actualise their potential by overcoming socioeconomic, political and cultural limitations and enabling them to become productive members in the society. The programme provides vocational and higher-education scholarships, leadership and advocacy training, and career-related support to bridge the gap between academic studies and professional life.

In 2016, the State of Qatar, through Qatar Fund for Development, launched "Qatar Upholding Education for Syrians’ Trust” (QUEST), an initiative that aims to ensure that children and young people affected by the Syrian crisis have access to education, skills training, and healthcare services, both inside Syria as well as in neighboring refugee host countries, including Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey.  

Examples of QUEST Health initiatives include Women Health Care Today, a program operated by Qatar Charity to ensure the preservation of safety of both pregnant women and children during the COVID-19 pandemic. QUEST Health has   also supported the Academy of Health Sciences in Idleb Governorate to build the capacity of health systems in Northern Syria.

The Sudan Public Health Training Initiative (PHTI) was launched in 2015 as a joint effort with the federal ministry of health in Sudan to strengthen the public health education system and develop a skilled and equitably distributed workforce capable of meeting maternal and child health needs across Sudan.   

The initiative has provided skills laboratories, essential information and communication technology, reference books, textbooks, and copies of updated training curricula in Sudanese Arabic for anesthesia assistants and midwifery community health workers. More than 370 faculty members have been trained in effective clinical teaching skills, and they, in turn, have been responsible for training more than 25,000 public health students and trainees. This program has enabled women to promote health in their communities and ensure safer deliveries of newborns.

In 2019, Qatar Fund for Development opened Hamad Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics in Gaza, a state-of-the-art, 12,000-square-metre facility, that offers 100 beds to service those who have lost their limbs due to conflict, as well as women and children with hearing impairment or motor disabilities. Thus far, more than 13 thousand patients have benefited from the hospital’s rehabilitation services, half of which have been women.