The American University of Beirut (AUB) hosted the 2017 annual meeting and general assembly of the Arab Foundations Forum (AFF).
The meeting opened with a welcome speech by Dr. Imad Baalbaki, Vice President for Advancement at AUB and Secretary of the AFF Board, who spoke about the joint commitment of AUB and AFF to the Arab community.
Next to speak was the Chair of the AFF Board and CEO of Emirates Foundation Clare Woodcraft, who said: “I think in the past few years, up until now, we really have been focused on trying to continue to build a community, to increase the number of members that we have, to really make sure that anybody working in the philanthropic sector in the Middle East is connected, connected to others who can support their work, and who can share ideas and share lessons learned.”
Naila Farouky, CEO of Arab Foundations Forum, spoke next and she listed the topics on the agenda of the meeting, that will be discussed in the next two days. She said: “We designed the structure of the next two days to focus specifically on two key initiatives that AFF launched over the last year, specifically the data coalition and the youth coalition.”
The event continued for two days with sessions on various topics such as “NGO governance & global best practices: case study”, “data coalition - data and impact for philanthropy in the Arab region”, “youth coalition – employment and youth in the Arab region”. The meeting concluded with the 2017 General Assembly of the AFF.
