We must be open about humanitarian challenges – and the ways in which organizations solve them

Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair has an emphatic message to share in this week’s cover story: “Our culture has always kept philanthropy as a private matter. We always say that whatever your right hand gives, your left hand should not know about,” he explains. “But to scale up and have a larger impact, we need to open up.”

While personal charity can and should be a private matter, his point is that when we talk about solving really big problems then business principles – accountability, measurability, ROI – must all come in to play.

As CEO of Mashreq Bank and chairman of his family’s investment business, Al Ghurair has a long track record of success when it comes to organizational success. This experience has greatly benefited his other passion, running the Abdullah Al Ghurair Foundation set up by his father, and the Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair Refugee Education Fund founded earlier this year. The latter is already supporting 6,500 refugee youth displaced by wars and disasters.

“Today we are passing through a unique period in which 50 percent of refugees around the globe come from the Arab world,” says Al Ghurair of why he felt compelled to help. “Somebody needs to look after this issue.”

Luckily he is not alone in his call to arms. Another “reformed banker” featured in this issue is Tariq Al Gurg. The Dubai Cares CEO has transformed his organisation over the last decade from one that simply signed cheques to becoming a major global agency that helps countries around the world make sure they don’t leave their children behind.

Al Gurg notes that there were only three departments when he left National Bank of Dubai to join Dubai Cares. “All we had were programmes, campaigns, and back-office support. But we needed to work like a business, with a marketing and communications department and a fundraising function. Otherwise everyone would forget the point of why we were here.”

Tied since its inception to the UN Millennium Development Goals, designed to help alleviate a global education imbalance, promote gender equality in education, and get governments, donors agencies, UN agencies, and third party providers working closer together, Dubai Cares is bridging an essential gap, especially for a country in the Arab world.

31%
the proportion of the world’s refugees who are from countries in the Middle East

Written by Jeremy Lawrence
Publication date: 8 November 2018

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