The MBI Al Jaber Foundation will support the EWC in its work in the field of education for intercultural understanding, human rights and democratic citizenship. The MBI Foundation and the EWC will cooperate on several research- and capacity building related projects in the forthcoming years.

The Foundation, which is based in London, will provide funding for projects that support the mandate of the centre. The capacity building projects will consist among other of several training modules aimed at education professionals in the areas of education for human rights, democratic citizenship and intercultural understanding. The target groups of the modules are primarily teachers and teacher trainers from Europe and neighbouring countries, and this is only one of many projects that will be undertaken by the EWC in cooperation with the MBI Foundation.

In relation to the official signing of the agreement, Founder and Chairman of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation, H.E. Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber, visited the European Wergeland Centre in Oslo last week; a great honour for the EWC staff. He also had the opportunity to meet with High Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education and Research, as well as representatives from the Council of Europe. 

The agreement was signed by Foundation Chairman MBI Al Jaber and Professor Svein Lorentzen, Chair of the EWC Board.



From left: Ana Perona-Fjeldstad, EWC Executive Director; Inger Enger, Headmaster and EWC Board Member; Kari Brustad, Deputy Director General at the Ministry of Education and Research; H.E. Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber, Founder and Chair of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation;
Olöf Olafsdottir, Director of Education and Languages at the Council of Europe

“We are delighted to have formalised our partnership with the MBI Al Jaber Foundation, and are confident that with their involvement we can make further great strides in our work in the field of human rights.”  Ana Perona-Fjeldstad, The EWC Executive Director

More information about the concrete projects will follow.


The MBI Al Jaber Foundation

Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber is a self made businessman and philanthropist who has sought to promote better understanding between the Middle East and Europe through greater engagement and cultural exchange.  The MBI Al Jaber Foundation, a UK registered charity offers opportunities for hundreds of undergraduates in the Middle East and North Africa to continue their studies in Europe.

The Foundation seeks to champion education for young people across the Arab world, and puts particular emphasis on the important of increased education for women in the Middle East. This pledge has been reinforced by the granting of scholarships to students at Dar El Hekmah Private College for Women and the all-female Effat College in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and major donations by MBI Al Jaber to both institutions.

MBI Al Jaber’s efforts to bridge the divide between the West and the Middle East have seen him named as a UNESCO Special Envoy for Education Tolerance and Cultures in the Middle East and a UN Spokesperson for Global Forums on Reinventing Government. 

MBI Al Jaber is an Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, founding patron of the London Middle East Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies, and has endowed the MBI Al Jaber Chair in Middle Eastern Studies at the university.