Dubai, 17 March 2019: The seventh annual Global Education & Skills Forum (GESF 2019), a Varkey Foundation initiative, to be staged at The Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai, UAE on Saturday 23 - Sunday 24 March 2019, will focus on the theme of Who is changing the world?

GESF 2019, will once again feature leading personalities from the public, private, social, entertainment and sports arenas, including over five former Presidents and Prime Ministers and 40 Education Ministers. This year, they will be joined by a new generation of change-makers, including grassroots activists, philanthropists, tech developers and many more, that are shaping the world with new voices, new ideas and new technologies.

Among the key speakers spearheading sessions are Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone, Juan Manuel Santos, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of Colombia; Bana al-Abed, the Syrian schoolgirl whose moving Twitter messages brought home to the world the horror of the siege of Aleppo; and Matteo Renzi, former Prime Minister of Italy.

Other change-makers include Steven Pinker, the world-renowned Canadian psychologist, Mark Pollock, the first blind man to run to the South Pole, Kennedy ODede, a social entrepreneur that combats urban poverty and gender equality in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya and Mina Guli, a passionate water advocate and ultra runner.

Sunny Varkey, Founder of the Varkey Foundation and the Global Education & Skills Forum, said:

By sharing the stories of grassroots activists, campaigners, philanthropists, tech developers and many more, we can have a much smarter debate about how to solve challenges on a global scale.

Our fervent hope is that education leaders gathered at GESF 2019 will be able to learn from these pioneers to help make the change needed to give every child their birthright: a good education.