I attended the GSM World Congress in Barcelona this winter along with almost 50,000 attendees. One attendee stood out from the crowd: Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan. Queen Rania mesmerized the convention by unveiling her "1GOAL Campaign," bringing together the mobile industry, the soccer world, various NGOs, and educational champions from around the world to ensure that every child in the world has the opportunity to go to school by 2015.
Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan spoke at the GSM World Congress
in Barcelona where she unveiled her "1GOAL Campaign" to ensure that every
child in the world has the opportunity to go to school by 2015.
"Imagine the entire population of New York City, Shanghai, Los Angeles, and Tokyo un-schooled and unskilled. Seventy-two million. That’s how many children are out of school today around the world," Her Majesty told delegates. Queen Rania is Co-founder and Co-Chair of the 1GOAL Campaign.
In partnership with the GSMA, the 1GOAL effort is claimed to be the world’s largest cause-related campaign ever undertaken and will use mobile messaging, advertising, and other applications to drive support. It aims to sign up millions of people, via a number of mobile response platforms, in an attempt to demonstrate to global leaders and the U.N. that universal education is a universal demand. 1GOAL is an initiative to mobilize support to hold world leaders to promises made in 2000 via the U.N. Millennium Development Goals; these included ensuring that all boys and girls’ complete primary schooling by 2015 – and that girls have the opportunity for education at all levels by 2015.
"With five years to go, it looks like we’ll have 56 million children who will still be cast out of classroom," noted Her Majesty. "Why? Because we can’t seem to find the $16 billion a year required to fill the financing gap. By 2011, we’ll have spent $16 billion on mobile gambling and not spent it on giving her generation the chance to graduate school... Our political leaders don’t have the will or the conscience to act. They need to understand the urgency of this tragedy unfolding in front of us. They need to feel the eyes of the world on them. They need to hear our cries of indignation. That’s what 1GOAL aims to do."
Queen Rania joins orphans from ten social care institutions for Iftar – the
breaking of the fast at Ramadan -- at the Hal Hilalk tent in Amman, Jordan.
1GOAL launched on April 20 and runs until the World Cup final in South Africa on July 11. It is run by the Global Campaign for Education and is part of a large global education initiative; the Class of 2015. The campaign provides the platform for millions of citizens globally, to show their support for 1GOAL. It launches on April 20th and runs up until the World Cup final in South Africa on July 11th.
"We are grateful for the GSMA’s leadership and partnership in creating this campaign," said Her Majesty, Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Co-founder and Co-Chair of the 1GOAL initiative. "I want to thank each and every one of you here today who has joined the 1GOAL team and who’ll reach out to subscribers with a message, an app, or a widget. 1GOAL is about people-power... the largest ever, never-before-done, cause-related campaign of its kind. And I hope that those of you in the mobile ecosystem, who haven’t done so, will join up and sign up before our kick-off in April."
Operators serving more than 1 billion mobile users are backing the campaign, including AT&T Wireless, Bharti Airtel, Hutchison 3 Group, MTN, NTT Docomo, Orascom, SingTel, SoftBank Mobile, SKT, VimpelCom and Zain. High-profile names that have also signed up for 1GOAL include Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s president; Hillary Clinton, U.S. secretary of state; Spain’s president Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero; and former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Queen Rania joins First Lady Michelle Obama in a private meeting at the White House.
"1GOAL is about people power. The largest ever, never-done-before cause-related campaign... We need all of you to flex your networks’ muscles and show how mega mobile can be," urged Her Majesty.
Her Majesty also called for the children’s education initiative to be just the start of progress in this area. "I’d like to think that the GSMA’s involvement with children’s education doesn’t stop with 1GOAL but rather starts with m-learning. mLearning can offer opportunities to children too scared to leave their homes." The queen cited m-learning initiatives in Bangladesh and Kenya and called for industry support.
As a Thought Leader and Global Citizen, Queen Rania is interviewed by journalist from around the world.
"I want all of you to cast your coverage wider to the hardest to reach. We need a lot of cheap phones. We need infrastructure in hard to reach places. And we need you to work together to connect all our children to a network of knowledge and ensure them digital justice. Think phone aid. Think phone-anthropy. Imagine U.N. peacekeeping tanks whose ammunition is mobiles loaded with lessons. I want you guys to be the institution that makes m-learning massive. I want you to be the people who give our most vulnerable children a teacher in their pocket, a classroom in their hand and a future at their fingertips."
Queen Rania of Jordan, Aaron Mokoena South Africa's football captain, Joan Laporta President of
FC Barcelona and Robert Conway CEO GSMA, united with the global mobile industry that serve over 1 billion
people to announce the world’s largest ever cause-related campaign, 1GOAL (Photo: Business Wire).
The mobile campaign – coordinated by the GSMA - will comprise a host of mobile communications tools, including mobile advertising, applications and messaging. The GSMA & 1GOAL will provide the marketing tools and innovative football-related content to operators and others in the mobile ecosystem that support the campaign. It will enable millions of people to sign up, via a host of mobile response mechanisms, demonstrating to global leaders and the U.N. that universal education is a universal demand.
About the GSMA. The GSMA represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organizations. It hosts the annual Mobile World Live. The GSMA is focused on innovating, incubating and creating new opportunities for its membership, all with the end goal of driving the growth of the mobile communications industry.
About 1GOAL. Education for All. In 2000, 164 world governments came together to create the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. Two of the eight goals involve ending poverty through providing education for all:
To ensure that all boys and girls complete primary schooling by 2015.
To ensure that girls have the opportunity for education at all levels by 2015.
They promised to make sure there was enough money and that the policies were in place to make it a reality. Since then many countries have abolished school fees, spending was increased by $4 billion and an extra 40 million children are now going to school.
1GOAL is an initiative to mobilize support to hold world leaders to these promises for 2015. 1GOAL is run by the Global Campaign for Education and is part of a large global education initiative: the Class of 2015.
About the Global Campaign for Education & Class of 2015. The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is the co-coordinator and founding member of the Class of 2015 and 1GOAL. GCE is a network of major non-governmental organizations (NGOs), teachers' unions and civil society in more than 120 countries, founded in 1999. Every year GCE runs a Global Action Week promoting access to education as a basic human right and campaigning for urgent action on education, with more than 10 million people taking part.
The Class of 2015 was launched at the U.N. summit in New York in September 2008. Class of 2015 launch signatories include Bono, Sir Bob Geldof, Gordon Brown, Jose Manuel Barroso, Robert Zoellick, Kevin Rudd, Queen Rania as well as the leaders of many charities and teaching trade unions.
Many global corporations are behind the imitative:
"AT&T is proud to be a part of the campaign to highlight the need for universal education," said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "This global campaign combines the worldwide reach of mobile and the one of the biggest sports events in the world. We are strong believers in '1GOAL: Education for All', and will support our customers who want to get behind this opportunity."
Jamaludin Ibrahim, President and Group Chief Executive Officer of Axiata Group Berhad said: "A child’s right to education is an ideal we hold very dear across the Axiata Group. We strongly believe that it is the key to unlocking a child’s true potential, and gives his or her aspirations a fighting chance to create a better, brighter future for themselves and for their nations. The power of mobile communications is the perfect conduit to raise further awareness for this worthy cause. For these reasons, we firmly support the 1GOAL: Education for All Mobile Campaign."
Batelco Group Chief Executive Officer Peter Kaliaropoulos said: "Batelco, as the leading telecommunications provider in the Kingdom of Bahrain, has long been associated with supporting educational initiatives. We understand that to ensure a nation’s economic success in the future requires investment in the present education of its youth. In Bahrain Batelco is a staunch supporter of H.M. King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s Schools of the Future project and of the Crown Prince’s Scholarship Fund, spearheaded by H.R.H. Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. We accordingly give 100% support to the noble aims of 1Goal which we believe is a winning formula that will make a significant and positive difference in the lives of young people all over the globe."
"We at Bharti Airtel are committed to Education For All and gender equality, not only in India but across the world," Said Sanjay Kapoor, Deputy CEO for Bharti Airtel. "Bharti Foundation in India is an example of our commitment where we are on our way of realizing goal of quality schooling for 100,000 underprivileged children in India. We also recognize the transformative role mobile can play in extending reach of education. We are therefore strongly dedicated to the 1GOAL: Education For All mobile campaign as eliminating poverty through universal education and alleviating the status of the girl child is a cause we strongly support and stand by."
Christian Salbaing, Deputy Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Europe and Managing Director of 3 Group Europe said: "We are pleased to support Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan, the 1GOAL Team and GSMA in support of the 1GOAL Education for All Mobile Campaign. Education is the cornerstone of global progress and the 1GOAL initiative to ensure that every child in the world has the opportunity to go to school, is essential to achieve it. 3 Group is happy to associate its leading Mobile Broadband and Mobile Internet networks and platforms on the occasion of the FIFA World Cup to help deliver the 1Goal message to its customers globally."
"The mobile industry has seen a phenomenal growth over the last decade and enriched lives of people," said Mr. Suk-Chae Lee, CEO of KT Corp. "It has become the most effective means to bridge the digital divide around the globe. 1GOAL is a clear demonstration of how the mobile industry can reach out to people and bring telecommunications welfare for all. KT supports this great initiative with all of its heart and soul. After all, telecommunications is all about people and the children are all about our future!"
"Education for all is not an ideal. It is a basic human right," said Madam Leisha Chandrasena, Chairperson of Mobitel, Sri Lanka. "To educate our children is to secure our future. It has the power to heal, to unify and bring peace. And yet, 75 million children around the world still remain outside the classroom. I strongly support 1GOAL: Education for all."
Dr. Kiyoyuki Tsujimura, Senior Executive Vice President of NTT Docomo, said that "NTT Docomo believes Education for all is one of the most important goals that should be handled through global cooperation. We fully agree that the mobile industry can contribute to this critical initiative and we are delighted to play a role as a member of the industry through the 1GOAL mobile campaign".
Ms. Chua Sock Koong, SingTel Group CEO, said: "SingTel believes in empowering the youth through education and we are very pleased to support this global initiative. This is an excellent use of mobile technology for this worthy cause."
"Our experience in Africa has shown that a little effort can make a big difference; 1GOAL is the perfect example of this principle," said Acting Zain Group CEO Khaled Al Hajeri. "And with over 70 million customers, Zain is ready to play its part in this historic campaign. Real empowerment comes when people can make themselves heard. Today we are committed to shouting out for this basic right of an education for all. At Zain we claim to live in ‘A wonderful world’. Now we have the power to effect real change through mobile communications, and shape the future of people who would otherwise not have one."
Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan has begun an enormous initiative with her "1GOAL Campaign." Bringing together the mobile industry, the soccer world, various NGOs, and educational champions from around the world to ensure that every child in the world has the opportunity to go to school by 2015 is indeed a noble goal. The world thanks Queen Rania for her efforts as a thought leader and global citizen on behalf of the world’s children.