and say we can't keep house. ok. move down with uncle frank into wilmington, there are jobs there. i will be back in a year, i will be back every weekend, but i will be back in a year and we will bring everybody down. looking back on a young adult that must've been hard for him to tell me and my brothers. it must have been even harder to walk into my grandpa's pantry and say ambrose, the father the four men, swallow your pride and say, can you take care of jean and the kids for three years and i promise i will pay you back. from that moment on, even though i was in fourth grade when we moved, i spent a lot of time going back home to scranton.

-- and a firsty i did not understand -- he would repeat all the time what you all feel in your bones. a job is a lot -- is about a lot more than a paycheck. it is about your dignity. it is about respect. it is about your place in a community. .t is about who you are my grandfather finnegan, joey remembered -- remember, nobody is better than you. you can do anything anybody else can do. [applause] we heard that in our family and our parents meant it. we learned about resilience and we learned that success is not about whether you get knocked down, it is about whether -- how quickly you get up. that is who we are. we get up. we do not break. we do not bend.

we get up. that was my neighborhood and that is your neighborhood. that is who the hell we are. and look what you did. you got back up and you are now selling 17 million cars a year. [applause] made in america. the most ever. you are making the best damn cars in the world again. you are the most productive workers. that is not a joe biden prolabor, that is a simple, natural fact. american workers are three times more productive by every study as asian workers are. [applause] i am so sick and tired. i know i am not supposed to get angry but i am so sick and tired of hearing people like trump and the chamber of commerce talking about, we get paid too much. give me a break. give me a break. this is a guy born with a silver

spin in his mouth that he is choking on because now his foot is in his mouth along with the spoon. [laughter] [applause] kids,ssage to all of you do not make any excuse for where you are from or who you are. do not -- and do not make any excuse or assistance that we get paid a fair wage. that is why i like this guy behind me. and by the way, i know some of your -- some of you are mad at hillary any look at her, let me tell you something man, she gets it, and she never yields. she does not break. she stands up. you know what i like about them both the most, they know how to spell the word union -- u

-n-i-o-n. they know why we are who we are and they know who built the middle crass -- class. hillary clinton was the co-author -- cosponsor of the card check legislation. this stuff about the middle class is not just from joe biden and hillary and ted, it is a fact. everybody is beginning to figure out all of these major think tanks are now beginning to figure it out. there is an outfit -- an economic research institute called economic policy institute . they put out a 57 page report end upnks like me reading. the headline says "union decline lowers wages for non-union workers.

remember how the chamber of commerce always go out to the nonunion workers and day, the reason why you are making -- not making more is because of those union guys? they blame us. the only reason they had benefits is because of unions even though they are not unions. this report, 57 pages, i commended to the press. here is the conclusion. it says "if organized labor was as strong today as it was in 1979, the whole country would be doing better." it says nonunion workers would make on average $2700 a year wereon average if unions as strong as they were. [applause] ladies and gentlemen. we should be a growing the labor movement. trump and the chamber of commerce and the chamber of

commerce in the last 12 years have declared war on labor's house. ted bricklin knows it, hillary knows it, that is why she led the car check fight and that is why ted supported it. ted has never turned his back. tell your friends who are angry and they say a pox on both your houses, ask them a question. i mean sincerely. try it. no matter what their policy. do you think there is any trumpility that donald would do anything other than continue to try to break a labor movement? .ll kidding aside i am so old i served with a guy named to barry goldwater and he made famous the praise. he said in your heart you know i am right. ask people in their heart, look them in the eye.

the actually think donald trump cares about raising the average salary of average workers? they used -- there used to be a basic bargain, democrats and republicans believed in the bargain. it existed since 1934. here's what the bargain was. if you contribute to the well-being and profitability of the enterprise you work with, you get to share the benefits. of the fortune 500 companies that have been fortune 500 for the last 10 $2,700,000,000,000. do you know what they did with the profit? of back their stock so they can raise the value of the stock they get paid with and they gave 37% to their investors, leaving 9% for every

including expansion, workers wages, benefits, new plants, equipment. that generated outfits like the imf, international monetary fund, no democratic think tank. the greatest threat to america is the concentration of wealth in just a few hands. that is what this guy is all about. by the way, republicans did not used to be that way. those of you in the automobile business remember the phrase, this ain't your father's automobile. this ain't your father's republican party. -- i do notw up mean to be degrading, but it was

not much more than a chicken coop. i mean, really, talk about resilience. it.ets he never turns his back on you. not one, single, solitary, moment. you know what is amazing? when you are going to the rainy day fund and we were trying to help bail you out with the recovery act which i was doing. >> thank you. vice president biden: you know the budget that caused this to happen? he is not a bad guy but portman wrote the budget. he headed up the budget. not a joke. he is not a bad guy, but he wrote the budget. congressman, he voted for the ryan budget.

the ryan budget makes sure that you privatize -- it did not pass the whole congress, thank god, but as you privatize social security you give a voucher for medicare, meaning an absolute amount and if you go over that you are dead, figuratively and $6 billion ins education, the quality of high school and grade school, cuts aid to education. times.ted for it six not a bad guy, but he has no notion of what is going to benefit labor-nonlabor and the middle class in america. opponent, ted did not think the auto rescue was a bad deal. when i was here the first time

you are laying off 700,000 people are and they were threatening to move everything to mexico. that was the deal. today you have 4500 folks punching a card and building one of the hottest selling cars. and you allow your families to have a basic, decent living. it is still a struggle. criticize my party, while we are worrying about getting everyone off of their -- it others are making is hard. hillary gets this. that is where she has been fighting her whole life, for families. from car check to making sure -- everybody says supreme court -- we're only talking about issues that relate to choice and the rest. guess what happened? there is a case in the supreme

court and only because there is a 4-4 tie to take away the collective right to bargain. did you ever think we would get to the court where with one more vote change, your right to collect to bargaining is fundamentally changed. her dad was born in my hometown of scranton and her grandfather were that scranton lace. that was hard work. m.sentially a central loo this is a guy who busted his rear end. understands the struggle and she understands that middle class is not a number. it is about being able to send your kids to a park and know they will come home safe. it is about sending your kid to a high score they can do well and be able to go to college if they want to. it is about being able to home

-- own your home. being able to take one of your geriatric parents after one dies and hope your kids never have to take care of you. that is middle-class. she understands. that is what these guys do not get. i am going to stop. this is what these guys do not get. i mean this sincerely now. he look at these beautiful and handsome young kids and you see all the talent. so we say, if the parent cannot figure out how to get to the college, it is a loss for the kids. it is. you know what is more profound they do not get? the most devastating thing that happened to a parent. what is the one thing that is the most devastating for a parent? to look at their kid who is in trouble are in need and has an opportunity and there is not a damn thing you can do to help.

i can remember, i was a pretty good athlete in high school. i remember after my senior year of my senior prom having to -- having a dad in automobile business was great. it means i got a new car after prom and i remember driving my 1951 candy apple red plymouth convertible with towels for seat covers after a baseball game from claymont, delaware, the old steel town i went to school in down to york, delaware where he managed the dealership. i had a routine, i would pull my car into one spot. i had my uniform on and i ran marythe showroom and i saw , i said, where is dad?

she said he is in the repair shop. my dad was a gentleman, extremely well-dressed and he was pacing back and for then he looked at me and said joey, i am so sorry. i thought, god almighty this is before cell phones. something had happened to my mother or my brother or my sister. he said joey, i went to the bank today. the bank had financed the loans for this dealership. i went to see charlie dolch are and joey, they will not lend me the money to send you to college. i am so ashamed. i am so ashamed. first thing i did when i got to the united states senate was increase college loan access. [applause] here.oing to end that is the deal folks. that is who we are.

this is about more than just whether a kid gets an education. this is about more than whether you can afford to bring mom home. it is about more. it is about who we are as a people. it is about the stuff we are made of. it is about our values. forfor all the criticism hillary, she gets it in her gut. she gets it. and folks, that made us the most unique country in the world. that sense. that sense. that is more than just about that one person and it is all about that one person. going to take my time -- your time because you have been standing too long. i just got back, i am supposedly

an expert on foreign policy if you read the national press. where i come from experts are headed out of town with a briefcase. do you know what i had to do? i had to change my schedule to get in the plane to fly to latvia, estonia, lithuania. do you know why? to meet with the president's. i met at a conference with their presidents to reassure them that donald trump did not represent america. do you know what donald trump said? donald trump said he is not sure he would honor our nato commitment. to protect them if russia invaded them. they are scared to death with good reason that russia will cross the border and annex them like they did crimea. and what does donald trump say?

these are members of nato. he says we are to check whether they paid all their dues. , for the first bush or clinton or obama, for the first time he is causing nations to wonder whether or not we will keep our word. the idea that i ever thought i would get on a plane in my career to basically make an emergency flight to hold the hand of three presidents and say he does not represent republicans or democrats on this. do not worry. this is a guy who admires putin. this is a guy who does not know that russian troops have already come across the border and annexed crimea. this is a guy who guarantees is not going to

invade a country he has already invaded i guess because his campaign manager is being paid millions of dollars by the dictator who ran the place beforehand. [applause] i do not believe the guy is a bad guy, i just believe he is thoroughly, totally, completely uninformed. he has no idea what the hell he is talking about and guess what? that is ok sometimes. that is ok sometimes. but i have a military aimed at me carrying a briefcase. that briefcase has the nuclear codes in it and got for bid if something happened to the president and a decision had to be made, i open up and the nuclear codes are there, just imagine giving this guy access. i really mean it. imagine giving this guy access to the nuclear codes.

how he woulds consider using nuclear weapons. a guy who talks about how maybe other countries should become nuclear -- my god. it is one thing not to know what .he hell car check is and i am sure he has no idea what it is. it is another thing to wonder whether or not this guy thinks that, when asked by stephanopoulos, would you be prepared to make a deal with putin? -- about himsing having part of ukraine? "i would consider that." oh, good. maybe the pact between the germans and stalin could be reinstated here, let us divide up. trump world is

already making us less safe. my son, who was a wonderful guy and he volunteered as a middletor to go into the as a spent a year in iraq major united states army and came back highly decorated with three decorations including the bronze star. let me tell you what is going on in iraq right now. a and the -- in tehran are trying to influence what is happening in iraq. and there is urban legend saying that the united states supports

isis. .upports isis when he stands up there and says, irresponsibly, that everybody here knows is ridiculous, that barack obama invented isis. do you know what happened the next day? a terroristruns organization put out on all of nomineetworks that the of one of the two largest parties in america may very well be president soon has admitted isis and that he has proof of this. do you know what that means? suree trying now to make that these, what they call the pmf do not attack american

forces or the american embassy in iraq. if people believe we are supporting isis, what do you think happens to our kids in these countries? the man is totally irresponsible. but folks, i could have just biden and i is joe am for hillary clinton and ted strickland and donald trump is dangerous and that probably would have sufficed. thank you very much. [applause] terrific. [applause] ♪

>> one of two events in ohio with vice president joe biden stomping for hillary clinton. the other one later in parma, ohio. we will go live back to the u.s. capitol where u.s. and foreign policymakers are joined by young meters in the middle east to discuss a way to get used in middle east cynically engaged. civicacally engaged -- lly engaged. questions,pes of security, prosperity, the role of youth in the broader middle east are not just crucial to u.s. national interest, but the council is tackling this in a big way. i am leaving this meeting to go with the meeting -- to a meeting with madeleine albright where we are working with a very novel

strategy for the middle east of the centerices here come at the atlantic council where this set of issues will play a prominent and important role. stay tuned for the release of those two two shares later this fall. we also have, here at the atlantic council, an entire center devoted to these types of efforts called the millennial leadership program and it is our hub for engaging young leaders as we seek to foster, connect, and and power the next generation of global leaders seeking impact in the world. i have talked to long, but i am so excited about that. i will turn it over to kim. please follow along on twitter acmideast.#

[applause] good afternoon everybody. i am delighted to moderate this event this afternoon. wonderful conversation about our youth and their potential in the region. with her excellency, the minister of state for affairs e andhe unique and our -- u our excellent panel. , presidentliam rees and ceo of the international youth foundation which works in many countries around the world including the arab world focusing on social innovation. he joined in 1998 and before that he was president and ceo of working of the americas to promote economic and social development in the western hemisphere. -- jasmine, she

was born in new york and raised in egypt and she served as a translator for the 82nd airborne division in iraq in 2003 and from 2008-2013 she served as an advisor on middle east issues and several positions at the department of defense. next her is the lead speckle -- specialist at the world bank. he is currently leading resource and -- research and manages active labornce in market programs. he was one of the principal officers of the 2007 report development and the next generation. youth issues are a problem for the arab world, but also for the entire globe because we have the

and we willhe world draw on all of your different expertise from the region and around the world, your personal stories to have this discussion with the start of this event, the minister. five years after the start of the arab uprising, there is not much left of the hope and exhilaration that young people felt at the start of that time in 2011. revolutions have either been beaten down and ended in a dead and or descended into violence are never really took off. young people between the age of 15-24 -- 29 make up around 20% of the arab world population and a total of around 60% of the population is under 30. that is a lot of jobs that need to be created. youth unemployment has arisen from what already was a quite high percentage, a regional average of 30%.

the drop in oil prices has weakened economic growth and young people are excluded from public life. we have not seen a young generation of public officials, with a few exceptions, like the minister herself. of course, we have wars, refugees, and extremism which make for a long-term instability and a lost generation, from job creation to better life skills, to access to polly -- policymakers and countering violent extremism. the challenges are huge, as are the opportunities. that is what we will unpack during this conversation. i want to give the minister the opportunity for brief opening remarks. after which i will draw our panelists into a conversation for about 45 minutes and we will have the opportunity for questions from the audience.

minister, the floor is yours. minister: it is a privilege and an honor to be here and i want to thank the atlantic council team for including me. we are here to talk about youth, but i want to talk about civics. .- physics it is a law in physics that in a vacuum nature cannot exist. something must fill them. it is also a law in physics that energy of any form will follow the path of least resistance. these are the laws that govern the growing youth cult in the middle east. what does that mean? if there is a gap between government leadership and their , they are not valuing their youth. if governments do not create authentic, credible channels to

connect to their youth, what happens? this creates a social vacuum of followwered youth who different paths. some of these paths we cannot even imagine or we do not want to anticipate and some of these and youthnnot afford energy will take these paths or other forms. i find it terrifying that some youth can be swayed by following , forever twitter page changing the course of so many lives. we have seen this. helplessness results when youth are not employed. apathy results when youth are not seen as assets. of violence results when youth are not valued. youth are such a powerful

energy. they are growing rapidly and filled with skills and ideas and we have a restless class -- quest for purpose. i want to share a story that some of you may know. it is a story about high my country, the united arab emirates is investing in its vision ofreate a new hope, openness, and opportunity in the middle east. thesee uae is filling vacuums by investing in us and what will make these youth prosper and how the ue is fighting for the future because the future is youth. it is a fight for jobs, opportunity, purpose, unity, and tolerance. us as a of you youth or threat of danger.

i am a testament of my country's commitment and courage to go intod and integrate youth the process of building our future. our prime minister has appointed a cabinet of ministers, many of whom are below the age of 37 years old and who are responding to this charge. our leadership is to empower youth to be their best know matter what field of work they pursue and to get these things done i have made it my business to engage with you and empower them. i am pushing the public sector and the private sector to make it there business to engage with youth. now, not tomorrow. it is my hope that this model can inspire the region because we are taking deliberate and mindful action and i will give you one example.

we started a platform called youth circles where youth across several emirates can share their thoughts and concerns directly with ministers of government. it is beautiful to see the power having an unprecedented opportunity to shape their future. let me emphasize this in another form of youth engagement. and imagine this accessibility, the ability to break through barriers and empower youth to shape their future. i am personally filled with hope in this new chapter, we are positioning youth as a authors and architects of their future ,nd just like in arab youth tunisian youth, egyptian youth

want to be empowered to shape their future. we are just as worried about atting into college, finding job in this very competitive global economy, juggling busy social and family lives, establishing homes in thriving communities, and where we can catch the most pokemon. [laughter] i think, and i believe listening to youth and taking action is of increasing global importance. sector,ector, private must roll up their sleeves and host grassroots routine forums to ask questions and listen to them and listen to what matters most. what keeps them awake at night? what is the point of having policies that do not -- do not .ppropriate the voices of youth

those perpetuate the vacuum. we fill in the vacuum by investing in youth. harnessing their talent. let's go back to the physics. i basically want physics to work for us, for me, for my country, for my region, for the world. byhink this can be done building policies that respond to them, not ignore them because youth are an opportunity. they are not a problem. they added value and they create value and the time for youth engagement is now. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much minister for those inspiring words. it is not often we have a message of hope coming from the region.

we are delighted to. from you. i want to talk about your own experience so far. i know you are only just starting in the job you have been active already. why do you think it is important to have young people in high profile positions in the arab world. do you feel empowered and do you worry that it was just a token gesture? this is what some people will be asking you. minister: in the ue we do not have time for publicity stunts. i think we are blessed to come from a country that does not want to wait, we want to take action now. we cannot wait to develop the best youth strategy, we have to implement something now and that, to me, is empowerment. to try, to take calculated risks investing in our youth. >> why do you think it is

important to have young people in positions like you are in? minister: young people are filled with a lot of talent and energy and they bring fresh insight. when you have policies that serve young people, i come from a country where more than 50% of the population are youth. it is important that we understand. we need to be in their shoes and know how they feel. to relate to the issues that young people are concerned about and translate that into government policy? are you planning to travel around the region at some point as well or will you focus on the uae. what can you learn from the rest of the region and what can you learn from the u.s.? minister: i am in my first year and we are focusing domestically . i care a lot about my region and my peers. i am here in the u.s. to meet

youth organizations to meet -- we are not going to reinvent the wheel. the international youth foundation and what william is doing here. we need to know about potential partnerships. >> the uae is quite special in the region in the sense that in a recent survey it tops the list of countries that young people from other arab countries would like to live in and the one that they think their own countries should emulate. ae is a bit of a standout. youth unemployment is low as opposed to the rest of the world. you are focused on the uae and your peers and youth in your own country. what do you think you have set

as an example for the rest of the region being in the position that you are and you think any of your experiences could translate to inspire others in the region? minister: i think you raise a very nice point because yesterday i was at a dinner and i had to give a speech at the end of the lead -- the dinner the leader grabbed my arm and told me, my daughter studies at a community college in maryland and she is 19 years old and she finds you and inspiration and she helps that back home she can do something and she can be empowered. in whatever field she wants to pursue. >> i want to draw you into this conversation next. as the manager mentioned, arab youth are often seen as a burden because of the demographic bulge and seen as a threat rather than a potential threat tell us about

your experience in the arab world. how do you think we can change that attitude? >> that is a really good question. thank you for your remark. i think you are an incredible inspiration to youth and the region. i want to make a note to start and this is an obvious point and i feel like it should be mentioned. when you talk about the region, it is very different. there is a lot of diversity and the uae is such an incredible example of hope and prosperity, but is also much smaller and is not gone through the same difficulties other countries have gone through such as egypt and jordan, syria, libya, tunisia. i would be interested in drawing out some of the differences in terms of the contextual

differences between the different countries and what kind of opportunities fit in those different contexts. my experience has been mostly in egypt. i grew up in egypt has mentioned earlier. do we have any egyptians in the house? i thought i saw some i recognize . it is important to recognize -- talk about education first as a building block. i grew up in egypt and education back then was just very much focused on a memorization. it was not so much of a discussion as it was, here are some facts that we would like you to memorize. the sky is blue. we have the best sense of humor, and something about the president. two out of those are true today. [laughter] generation that was used to memorizing and used

to being told certain things and not really taught to question them, certainly not in terms of who our leadership was or even to the leaders were. that same generation was the generation that affected a change, but one of the biggest unheard of changes in the world or at least certainly in the -- i wanted to say to quick things and to your question about opportunities and possibilities. that generation that found itself in this incredible high, suchwas such a a feeling of individual empowerment and hope and possibility and all of these positive things, but it was almost as if you got to the finish line and you realized you did not have anything to go further. the revolution happened and the follow-up was impossible because

toy did not have the tool build on the progress they had made and that goes back to the way the education system was set up. opportunity.of an it was a missed opportunity, something to learn from in the future. at the positive aspect of that is that along with this on the ground revolution that was happening, there was a social media revolution happening at the same time and you had this generation -- i was talking to one of my friends about this and he said they have this moment when you realize that you were suddenly one click away from telling the entire world anything that you wanted to tell them and to bring them along with you on the journey and to include them in this conversation and in this experience. of -- aspect media of it inspired a new generation a entrepreneurs and provided

way to harness some of that energy that came out of the revolution. the government itself cannot harness it on the ground, certainly the youth could take it into their own hands and use it to connect to other audiences and that provides an incredible opportunity we can focus on. >> think about the gap between skills and potential. the gap between the education sector and the market needs and it want to draw in materia's -- mathias because those are the more technical issues that need to be addressed to bridge the gap, whether it is updating skills are finding ways to expand the job market. when you look at the region, bill, you have looked around the well, whatathias as

differences and similarities do you see with the rest of the world? every country has its own specificity, but there are some things in common. youth want pretty much the same thing almost everywhere. what are the similarities and what are the differences that are specific to the arab world that need to be addressed when he comes to skills, education, public-private politics. later you tell us a little bit more about what you think on that? the region itself is diverse and in -- many go to the whole globe and you have diversity. it hitting young people connected -- having of their society our government and the is an aspiration that all

countries need to be. concerned about their children, their grandchildren, what jobs they will have. be 30ear-old today will in 2030 and she or he better have jobs and a place in economy are elsece in society this demographic will become a challenge if not a crisis. demographic bonus. --youth is asition transition. youth is something between childhood and adulthood and it is eight years or nine years old but still very relevant. if you have not looked at it you can read the summary.

dogeared should be a at this point by anyone who is interested in not just youth, but economic and political development. theot take into account young people, 70% of these countries are under 30. between 15% -- between 15 and 30. they are assets today. there is a skills mismatch and sometimes it is bad education or old education or traditional education. critical thinking would be the flip side of memorization is something people talk about in much of the world. was a difficult concept for people to grab 10-15 years ago, but not today and has not been for quite a while. they may call it different things, soft skills, employability skills, problem solving skills, but employers

will say oftentimes that is what is missing, not the technical degree. in egypt, where you have lived, there are more college graduates that are unemployed than high school graduates and that is devastating for a young person. it is also perverse for a country. think how much money went into educating those people and could be spent in different ways at different levels of education to see that all high school and college graduates have a chance to find a place in the economy. we want young people to end up being taxpayers and i live on the margins. if they are not, the countries will not be sustainable and a viable. life skills are terribly important. how do you teach in those things? not online but there are digitalized ways you can reach larger our dances. -- larger audiences.

life skills are taught in a print and ships -- apprenticeships, internships come a community activities. a lot of kids grow up in communities where there is not what we would think of as civil society, little league, girl scouts, synagogue and mosque programs that do after school and community service. those things can sound soft but that is where a lot of young people learn to work in groups and take orders and give orders if you are working together on a community service opportunity. those are skills that kids get from that. they take in to parenting and their roles as citizens and into their life. do you want to be hiring people for your organization? are notho entrepreneurial or think tankers.

we all need to be critical thinkers and imaginative and creative. i do not want to hire people who cannot think out-of-the-box or push an envelope although i have never quite understood what pushing an envelope meant. these are huge issues and the see high is that we schools, vocational systems, public and private throughout the region, community colleges, four-year universities, all taking in different types of life skills and career counseling and career visioning into their proper -- programs and we have worked at different levels. we always work through partnerships. our foundation does not deliver a program in anyone else's countries. we work with ngo's or colleges. the government has to be involved. groups,l society

domestic and international and multinationals and local businesses have to have a relationship with a government and that needs to go both ways. a true public-private partnership will not be more than a cute little demonstration project. long-term sustainability requires that education meets a market demand, not what we think as planners the kids ought to learn. it has to serve market needs. >> how responsive has he found -- have you found governments in the countries you work in? mathias i want to draw you into the differences you have seen. mathias: there are diversities of governments. we do not even have a ministry of youth, maybe that is something we should think about here. some of the arab governments are not as functional as others and some governments do not reach

out well and communicate well with their private sector or the private sector may not trust the government. there has got to be a dialogue in a relationship if businesses and your education systems are buildto raise and skills that the market will need . we cannot even predict what jobs 2040be needed in 2030 or and some of us are old enough that that doesn't matter. it certainly matters to a 15-year-old who will only be 40 years old in 2040 and what if that acute -- economy is losing jobs rather than gaining jobs? becauseglobal challenge , frankly, your countries are related to the rest of the world economically. we all fly through the biggest hub in the world now. >> i want to appear from you a little bit about your work in the region and the barriers you have found also inside and

outside the arab world and within the different sectors. letster: let me --mathias: me pick up on a few things bill said just now. there are some countries that have a 70% youth population and i talked to ministers of youth who say, we have a youth problem and no, they do not have a youth problem. there is a tendency to be andissive or provide token limited programs to modify youth and to deal with what frightens them immediately in the short realm that otherwise young people might be violent or might overthrow governments which we know they can. we should all be aware of that. that is not really why we need to pay attention. pay attention is that by 2030 the 16-year-old today will be 30 and she will be

the one driving all of the growth. it will not be us in this room come a would be the 16-year-old that we are more likely to be dismissive of today. the skills problem i think is important. when we talk to employers in the region, they say, we can find workers who are skilled. we can find workers who have technical skills, we cannot hire them because they have not got the intrapersonal school -- skills, life skills, whatever you want to call it, dealing with clients and customers skills, those sorts of experiences. education system is rather conventional and as jasmine said it is rather conventional and old-fashioned and there are fewer opportunities to develop. it is more true and more prevalent when we talk to employers in the middle east and north africa region.

there are differences across the region. that and other parts of the world. this is more of a problem. we also have to think about why it is we have such a highly -- relatively highly educated population and considerably larger unemployment rate in the region than elsewhere. i think we need to step back and not think about the problems with the worker. we do not want to put all of the fault on the young person trying to get into the labor market. what other problems in the middle east and the north africa region? firms are older and for managers are older than anywhere else in the world. policies and laws are generally established to protect firms -- existing firms in existing markets. >> in other words the status quo. quo.as: the status it is much harder for a young

person to establish himself or herself in the middle east and north africa region than elsewhere. it is a problem with insiders and outsiders. access to finance, business input, training, other sorts of things are much harder in the region than elsewhere in the world. we have to step back a little bit and not put all of the blame for unemployment on the individuals who are unemployed. we have to think about what policies may be necessary to expand opportunities for all. >> jasmine, you wanted to make a point. jasmine: i wanted to make a point about the trade-off that a gcc countries necessarily, but the other countries they find themselves struggling with seeking or assigning blame. i do not think we should be too blame governments because they are struggling with the trade-off between security

and education and the other soft skills you are talking about which are very important. if you do not have a secure country you cannot walk down the street without being kidnapped. if you cannot fit in a cafe with without having to worry about a , how do youar bomb really invest in things like education and employment? i was talking to government officials about the way they feel, what are your most pressing challenges, and they get the fact that youth and employment is important, but in their minds they have a security problem. they have to fix it. there is an entrepreneurial summit being held in downtown cairo in december called rise up 16 and i think it is fantastic and really exciting and it brings entrepreneurs from all over the world to cairo to talk about ideas and exchange

presentations. you cannot do something like that if you do not have a conducive security environment. maybe egyptians are right to focus on that first. i would like to hear from the other panelists as we are .alking always shifting the balance of the scale between security and opportunity. >> that is been an issue for a long time, what comes first? is it stability or freedom or democracy or jobs, the defense industry because some countries are still at war with israel. this is what every country has to to balance. i assume that you cannot prioritize one over the other because in time, as the minister said, there is no time to look at the best way forward.

you have to implement something now. >> i completely agree with that and i agree there are different challenges. in different challenges in the country and in the region. solutions, prioritizing them, it is important -- what keeps them awake at night? going back to how we are doing it, solutions that challenge us. it comes from you. in a few weeks, we will launch the national youth strategy. it comes from the youth council. they are the ones that are drafting their strategy. i don't think i've seen that around the world. planning their own solutions. >> i don't know how far you are in some of those, but can you you, andn idea of how a concrete way, translate that hope and aspirations into

effective mechanisms or projects? agree that we need to inspire and empower young people. but it takes specific programs to do that. >> we had a group on entrepreneurship. we are sitting with government officials trying to understand what are the challenges they face? to be the best entrepreneurs. discussing a lot of bankruptcy , -- tod the ecosystem not have an incubator. [indiscernible] the government worked up and in september, we will launch. develop theoing to best incubator. but we want to try and we want

to test it. we want to take action and listen to you. >> it is something that not all governments know how to do. i don't expect you to have the answer. how do we start changing the attitude of the government when it comes to young people? is it potential or is it a burden? governments see it as a specific issue in time. how do you nullify them today so that you don't become violent? that is often how some governments look at young people. how do we change that attitude? doesn't come from the government? does it come from young people?

>> wow. that is a great question. obviously, it is both an opportunity and a burden. when you have a population that , social do something media allows them to see what other youth are being integrated into their societies. absolution into their societies and other countries. sense thaten in the if you don't have opportunity for them to channel that energy, it can turn up against you. friend who isto a egyptian american as well. he put himself in the shoes of egyptian youth. you had two revolutions in the last five years. one was overthrowing a dictatorship. that didn't really bring about

the change. here you are. this didn't work and that didn't work. so what is the answer? that is when that message of violence is the answer and that's what i've been telling you all along. the wrong youtube videos and the wrong messages. that is when you start to get into the danger of that. the way to turn it into an opportunity. i realize this is much easier said than done. the way that you start taking about it, it's what the minister has said about having this via conversation, listening to the youth, listening to the populations in the country. trying to get a sense of how they want and how they see themselves.

i think the older counterparts, that is fair to say. maybe try to get some of the answers from them and see what they are doing. there are several individual projects out there. project in egypt that is a creative production media hub that does original content and inspires and educate others in the region. they can take some of the things that are happening by virtue of individual initiative and try to take experiences from others that had more of an opportunity to invest -- engage with the youth and tie those to your country and scale them to your population.

>> we see several rounds of revolutions and young activists. that makes the conversation very between people and the government. is the solution to have youth evolve on a separate track where they engage in entrepreneurship and private sector development separately from whatever their government is doing? that makes it very difficult. the laws where the education helps to make this move forward. -- it isn't forget the a big element of the equation. >> governments are going to have to do more than one thing at a time. even if you are trying to tackle employment for young people.

is that the ministry of education, the ministry of labor, the ministry of hospitality? the ministry of hospitality employees 10% of the workforce in the world. the ministry of youth in the ministry of education to get anything done that will be sustainable and broad-based. the discussion of security and whatever else the other side of the coin would be. peace, growth. capital is a coward. investments won't come to unstable, risky environments. there has to be security on the streets. if you don't employ enough to wanti think we tend silver bullets. silver bullets are fine if you

are developing a vaccine for a disease. growth, long-term and inclusive economic growth is a problem in spain or the united's dates or germany. and all the other countries that are not quite as well developed. it's an economic miracle. they've got 40% unemployment. this is not a problem like malaria. for the program with hiv. it may be can be solved if enough can get out there. this is going to be a challenge for economies forever. they have be peaceful, reasonable communities for people to get to work and people to invest. it will take policies, the private sector. there are no quickies. >> tell me about the programs that your organization has, including in the region.

those skills that you mentioned earlier on. this isn't a silver bullet either. there are organizations dealing with life skill programs. it's about 15 years old and started in mexico and india to keep kids in high school from dropping out. we have scaled that and adapted it to using 40 something in 20 languages. different levels of education. up for the largest universities whose kids would get graduating and couldn't find a job. the life skills were used for college graduates. not just kids in school. to pull they hard private sector in in a meaningful way. thrusting government and vice versa.

guess what. your training centers are training people for jobs that existed 10 years or 20 years ago. that is what the laboratory equipment was set up to do. it's not what the businesses need today. we tried very hard to pull the private sector in. but to think about it as part of the business. businessmen will tell you, they are not finding the young people with the skills they talked about. the technical skills or the life skills. how can they help with that? we are trying to develop, and we will, over the next six months -- to test life skills. so you don't have to talk about thingthereal subjected that might be squishy to some or a youngficult to quiz person in life skills than it would be in trigonometry.

or can you do an excel spreadsheet to get a microsoft certificate? or developing with the private sector or professional testers, graduates from the dts corporation that made a lot of money in testing over the years. so the training centers, public and private. employers can trust it. just like i did an internship or i can do xl. -- excel. or i speak three languages. demographic, the largest group of teenagers in the history of the world -- some countries are larger than others -- and it won't go away quickly. it will take a couple of generations. but it is a huge opportunity for them. and some will migrate to other countries.

that can be ok is it is reasonable and not an avalanche of migration. we share $15 billion of foreign aid. lower-class, low income latinos. we are sending 10 times as much family aid. it is migration and jobs that are a global issue. weare trying very hard, but are trying to get what people call a systems change. enough pilot project. let's get on with scaling it. there's not time and the demographics call for it. some others and i have been involved in a stakeholder or community of practice. , several big fund

businesses, several foundations. bilateral aid programs that have come together. bringing together the three different sectors. business, government, and the independent sector to try to get at the solutions. it would be a different solution. but what can you generalize in the scale so you don't have to reinvent the wheel? to come up with the programs so that you can get a much faster -- it will take investment. it has the largest offshore investment. but if i were a saudi or a jordanian, i'm not sure i would bring it back. it is a whole series of things.

it takes many ministries and the private sector being involved. >> you talk about not reinventing the wheel. i know they worked on a very interesting project including national service, which is important. a lot of young people feel they are not connected to the ideas of them as a citizen. you need to establish those channels. talk about the initiative that you work on. the two young women transitioning from lessons into full-time employment, in a sense. entering the job market. i want to talk about gender as well in the middle east.

>> before i answer your question , in response to something bill said. no one has ever escaped poverty in a sustainable way without having a job. and generally, those jobs are in the private sector. we can't ignore the constraints facing the private sector when it comes to encouraging investments. the question jasmine raised about the security, and that bill raised about encouraging investment in these countries. this is not a trivial question. is not an easy question and it is not a trivial question. bill's right to encourage private investment and job creation in these environments. but let me get back to your question. one of the things we're trying is to synthesize the

evidence with what works. when we started this endeavor a few years ago, it was this made it to learn that the evidence was very weak. we have been working together eilo withe aiello -- zr projects dedicated to use employment. and when we have done meta-analysis and looked at the whole package, the pile of programs, it turns out the evidence for the success of model is very small. what is best in wage employment, programs that support the development of life skills and that sort of thing. model seemditional to be less effective.

one of the things we are doing is that we are trying to build the evidence base. what are the programs that seem to be best suited to engendering employment? to see what might work to get young women into employment. ,oung women face constraints some that young men don't necessarily face. and there we found it, again, not a lot works. it's typical to get young women into employment. in liberiaess

because we started from a very low base. we had some successes in jordan. not really sustainable. we had some success in nepal. so when we assembled the evidence, we were really dismayed to learn it is difficult to find, as bill says, the magic bullet. restraints?the >> a lot of them are social. it was clearly a constraint in some cases. for the wage employment programs, to implement. they simply didn't have jobs available. i'm afraid that's not uncommon. it's not just that there is a mismatch, it is that there aren't wage jobs at all. we were pushing on the workers side when the constraint was

somewhere else. the entrepreneurship and self-employment is much more successful. from technical training and carpentry and other kinds of small business and enterprise skills. business management skills. access to finance. access to markets. so one. in afghanistan, clearly, we had issues with the ability of young women to leave the house seek employment outside. it was also a problem in some other places but for surprising reasons. in liberia, young women did not want to go out at night because there are no electric lights and they were afraid of being assaulted. the majority of young women we have worked with have already been the victims of assault. it was a problem i had not anticipated. i was naive and did not expect to see that.

young women face constraints policymakers are not aware of. >> women face constraints that policymakers are not aware of. how you have been received by her colleagues. thehow it approaches empowerment of women. celebratedys ago, we it. thatrime minister tweeted it empowers society. two thirds of our government employees are women and one third of our cabinet, there are a lot of countries that have women female ministers. the country is just 45 years old. but i am so proud of the

achievements we have made and we still have a lot to go. emirates mars mission is led by a 29-year-old female. it is beautiful to see how women are not only respected but empowered. we focus a lot about gender equality. not just women, but equal opportunities. >> what strikes you as issues you can think through and take were avenuesae were the uae can inspire aspects of what the region is going through? violence, weout look at the middle east region and how to counter extremism. if you focus on the role model

whether it is a village in egypt or the filmmakers in the media hub, those are the ones the media should focus on. gap when there are no role models. it we need to highlight these achievers. issue.s an region, people and policymakers look at the youth of the potential counterterrorism or terrorism issue. increasingly, it is seen through the prism of counterterrorism. how do we make sure they don't become violent. i think you raise a fantastic -- ifthat it is important

i go back 3, 4, or five times a year. countering violent extremism. it is simply about creating jobs. >> there is a new report out. we are looking for one single answer and we tend to look at these reports like we do in the medical yield. but there is a report. the press has picked up on the fact that it's not about employment. it's about other stuff. that other stuff we have to work on. young people who are not employed are not going to be talking about disconnected or

alienated. gap is sustainable development for a low income person. and if you lose the job, you can get another job. that will getip you from losing a job to getting a new one. society won't he stable. the ministry of jordan that was on the board of directors. we talked about the digital gap. that is important. i'm much more worried about a gap. i wanted her to put it in her own words. it is not something he fear real ethereal.

he stands cool and work hard and do well, you continuously learn about things. you find that passion, that route in life that might be setting up your own business or working for yourself. quite frankly, it will not be the solution if it is all informal. that is important stuff. it is called entrepreneurship for survival. it we need to get beyond survival economics. the incubators and accelerators and things they are doing, we see some of the programs in the united states that are very important. -- young people have to have to be connected in society. the studies have shown in egypt, a 30-year-old man that can't find a job and can't get married.

can't have his own apartment. how do you get married? is he going to become a terrorist? no, i don't think the chances of that -- it's not just about extremism in that part of the world. gangs in central america or gangs in los angeles are driven to buy young people that have chosen this, maybe. maybe for income, maybe for status. so the extra some we are talking about isn't just in the arab world around what everyone likes to talk about. -- alienatednected youth in the washington area. what hope did they have? my work hard? why play by the rules?

we all have to be aware of it. be added in a comprehensive all hands on deck. we know it from our country here. can get agovernment lot done for peaceful communities. >> i think you make a great point. our problems are the worst, and everything is the worst there. we've gone through things that no one else has gone through but there are similar problems. the comparison between a radical militant or young people to get drawn to radicalism and violent gangs is a very apt one. i think it's a different way of looking -- >> some of those gangs trained in los angeles before they were shipped home.

>> let me say a couple things about violence. i to part in a focus group discussion years ago where a young and who joined a gang was asked, why did you join a gang? they gave me a pair of shoes. it wasn't about the shoes. the shoes were symbolic. it was a symbol of this hope gap . but let me say something about violence. . worked a lot in war zones even in the depths of conflict, it is a small minority of evil that are actively engaged in violence. yes, young people and young men dominate but it is a small number of young people really engaged in violence. a few percent, if that. most people are trying to get along and are trying to survive.

the vast majority of people are simple he trying to survive. it is unfortunate that we let a small number of people who admittedly cause an enormous amount of chaos -- it's unfortunate that we let that drive our thinking. >> you want to add anything to that? >> i completely agree with you. i wanted to add the issue of identity. i think it is a huge issue. the age of 12 to 18, you're trying to figure out or you are in -- who you are and where you belong. aople want to be part of mission, a story, and the community. and by the way that loss of identity or lack of identity -- anto violent extremism

important issue to address, it doesn't necessarily mean finding that person a job. service or community projects that bring people together around a's civic cause. -- around a specific cause. , people went to the square and they were cleaning it up. impromptu and it wasn't run by the government or anything. it created a bond between people that felt like they had a shared interest in making something happen. >> i think the purpose is what drives everybody around the world. we need to work on that. i can't have any conversation about the arab world without mentioning syria. that is going to stay with us for a very long time.

millions of children are left outside of the educational system. whether they are inside syria, refugees for turkey, jordan, egypt as well. i want to hear from each one of you if you have anything in particular to stay -- to say. tell us how the world bank is looking at some of those issues. atnow they are looking reconstruction of syria. how do you factor in the lost generation when you're working on projects in the arab world. now tore trying right deliver services to those people that have been displaced. primarily outside syria. but right now, we are engaged to provide services to the people

who have fled. it is the third-largest city in jordan. we are working with governments to try to enable people that live there that are not jordanian to enable them to start businesses. there are constraints that they face. to have access locally. we are working to try to alleviate those constraints and provide opportunities for people that start a business. health,to provide education, basic services for people that are living there. this is true in turkey and in lebanon and other countries where we try to keep those services active and running to minimize the disruption and the harm as much as we can.

>> if you have any thoughts on syria, you can pitch in. create andyouth, to improve the education system to match the skills with the job market. how does the issue of millions of syrian children who are outside of this current effort. how does that way the region down and how does that region -- does everybody pitch in to move forward in? >> yes. the answer is yes. everybody should pitch in. year, i was at a refugee camp and does talking to some of the kids that were older kids and acting as mentors to

the younger kids in the cap. themre just kind of asking , what is it you really need? it seems like such a ridiculous question because they need a lot. but what is it we can help with, what can we focus on? this kid is 17 or 18 years old. he said that we need education and we need to learn. we are just sitting here waiting for the moment when we can go back to our country. the neighboring countries have done an incredible job accepting and maintaining and housing these refugees. it is not forever. it is supposed to be a temporary thing. thatid it is really unfair five years from now, we're going to go back to syria and you all are going to expect us to rebuild that country.

where are the skills that we have? i think this is where pitching in and utilizing the internet. something as simple as the internet. when it comes to education, whether it is mentoring kids and investing in the infrastructure to allow things like skype sessions. wish classes. i could see something where high schools across the u.s. allow their students extra credit for having a conversation with the syrian refugee in english. what can we do to help from afar? obviously, we can't go in but doing nothing is not an option.

>> i fear we will be visiting camp's in turkey in lebanon and jordan likely visit palestinian camp's in jordan and they call them caps off if years later. rebuilding isn't just bricks and mortar. it will be putting a country back together and i don't see that happening anytime soon. we have worked a lot in jordan and palestine. i was with a senior development .rofessional they said the migration is awful. and he was even referring to swedish, finnish, and foreign on foreignerspent

in germany and sweden to take care of these. it would literally subtract from other foreign aid. issue ofok it to the the youth bulge, long-term sustainable development that brings in people into the economy and allows them to have a good life. i think most people want to stay in the country they were born in. syria may look like a nice walk in the park 30 years from now when nigeria has 40 million people. how will we keep out that many people? this was not a european donald trump. it was a serious development professional that could've been the senior staffers at a world bank. this issue of bringing young people into and having a place , with a youth

bulge like that, it will not just be a country issue, it will -- other countries not able to maintain the people in that country. last point you would like to make? thinkust wanted to add, i tapping in to help everyone around us. it is our shared responsibility and it is heartbreaking. >> i try to end on a positive note, but it is difficult. it is difficult to remind people that this has been ongoing and everybody needs to do more. there are microphones and a lot of hands. second row. stand up, introduce yourself. if it is addressed to someone specific, let us know.

and keep it short. >> i am with international youth foundation. i was very struck by the conversation on countering extremism and we view the middle east having been back and forth. have toink we really do think about how we view the region. it exists in a conversation and a dialect. the with a people talk about the middle east and north africa here. by what iantly struck see in terms of images and on tv . it whatever we can do to increase the positive images for those making positive changes. and change it to positive youth

inclusion. help them by asking someone if they are going to be a terrorist. we have to flip the way we talk about this. >> that was a great question. [laughter] >> do you want some input here about how the u.s. views the region? we go to the regional betweenwe see the gap how the region is portrayed and what we encounter when we are in the actual region when it comes to entrepreneurship and initiatives. when it comes to mentoring programs and when it comes to art. about art in the arab world that did very well because people were somewhat surprised to see the level of creativity that you have whether

it is in saudi arabia or beirut or egypt. there is a lot of creativity and a great pointke about countering violent extremism. before you counter it, perhaps you can prevent it. that was a great article, by the way, because it looked at these issues in a different way. we tend to look at a region. it's about war or terrorism or eckstrom is him. and you go there and yes, that stuff happens but it is not just what happens. highlightinga positive things that are happening in the region is something that's not so hard to do. and there are women led initiatives and youth led initiatives.

they have very exciting things happening in the middle east. whether it is documentaries or exchange programs. has programsrnment where they send people over there. there is the east-west foundation that does exchange programs where they bring 10 youth from the u.s. and egypt together for a couple of weeks and go around the country here and in egypt. things like that. to go back to this theme of how ,ou identify something positive scale it and fit it to different context. , it doesn't have to mean literally countering something. someone said this so you will say that. it is not a tit-for-tat thing. about, in my opinion,

providing an alternative method. regardless of what is going on in the terrorism front, people will deal with it. but tell a different story and have people look at that story instead. >> to be the story, it has to have concrete -- when it comes to flipping the image, it is about finding those initiatives th finding for those young people. you first spoke about refugees, the internet has provided hope. guess, what's your wi-fi password is the question asked here.

i was forced to golf all afternoon because i'm a woman. i was talking to a state department friend about integration. how do people integrate with this? women fought to get on golf courses so we could integrate with men and become business leaders and break the glass ceiling. the youth are talking about integrating with the leadership. >> there you go. priority for a lot of people. but there you go. tell us a little bit more. i know this is a question a lot of people ask. tell us more about how you empower young women to be part of life in countries where there are still some of those very ears. >> even when i used to study in the u.s., they see another

image. the media shows you another image. uaeany of my sisters in the have a great education and get equal opportunities. they get equal pay. i am shocked that you mentioned about the gulf issue -- golf issue. i am a golfer. i think it's a story that you are not seeing and i am happy to have the chance to share with you. >> [inaudible] i was told i could only play golf after 4:00. dark.er [inaudible] >> we have lawyers of issues we need to work through in the middle east. the gentleman with the glasses.

>> also, the youth themselves are not monolithic either. many have opportunities that some of the more impoverished youth don't have. how can we motivate the youth that have more opportunities and have access to more education? how do we motivate them to stay -- and how to we give them opportunities to stay here. and those the impoverished didn't have? >> i have been pulling a lot of

my friends and contacts in the region. and stayed in the region left. this issue kept coming up again and again. this issue of how to prevent people from leaving. had you maintain ties with them? you can still try to benefit from them in a way that is not just sending money back. although that is a very important aspect of the economy. how do you get them to contribute. one of my friends is lebanese. it is a new model called the lebanese oil and gas initiative. that harnesses the expertise and education of lebanese ex-pats in the oil and gas industry around the world to provide advice and mentorship to help the lebanese inside lebanon deal with issues related to oil

and gas. getting people involved. , any other truth country in the middle east -- not just talking about egypt. to go back and face the problems that were there when you left except a seem so much more unmanageable because they lean health things are when you don't have these problems. you can talk about corruption and you can talk about having to know someone in order to get something done. jams, it is not easy to be a working professional in the middle east. the question about how to bridge the income and opportunity gaps. included ate feel

different ends of the income and opportunity spectrum? >> i guess we ask why people want to leave, right? what are the problems that you faced that encouraged you or major decide to come to the u.s. to study? you are not unique. you are, in many ways, of course. [laughter] many people face the same sets of decisions and constraints and made the decision you have made. .ake a step back why am i here and not their? -- not there? what would it take for me to go back? rather than addressing some of the constraints the gentleman just discussed, it prevents young people from having access to the opportunities they would like to have in their homes.

it also goes some way to addressing the concerns about the outsider. be dealtues need to with and confronted head-on to expand the opportunities available domestically. >> there is a program in the 90's with lebanon and possibly other countries as well called the transfer of knowledge through expatriate nationals. nationals toed come back to lebanon almost like an exchange program to contribute back to their country for one year or six months, facilitated by the u.n. or the in ministries private sector to share the knowledge that they had gained while working abroad. program iss if that still there but it is something they should consider.

>> my question goes back to the idea of palestinians staying in camp's. -- we are afraid that today it could be syrians were many others. it speaks to the idea of inclusion in the arab world. how much are we looking at an egyptunity in jordan or or wherever they are to actually have more and more of the economy bring them in and include them. and i don't know how much we are bringing that into the question. >> do you work on programs with syrian refugees in the region? >> i have not. it the relief community -- i make a generalization. refugee situations historically have not gotten into employment and entrepreneurship because they expect those people are want those people to leave and

get out and go home. is 17 years.e >> i understand. it is beginning to struggle with that. they are not used to dealing with those issues. the governments that don't want to see that kind of investment taking place. it is a complicated issue. years, they will be 20. it do you want the 20-year-old be sitting around with nothing to do and dependent on foreign aid? >> i think there is some effort to try to have economic zones on the border to just have opportunities. i know it is at the very beginning stages when i heard about this.

with administrators to open up opportunities for people living in these camps. in a way structure it that doesn't feel threatening to those communities. it emphasizes the fact that it is not, to use jargon, a zero-sum game. it doesn't take a job away from someone else. to emphasize this notion of inclusion. >> the question in the back, the gentleman with the glasses. >> with the u.s. department of education. thank you for being here, everyone. related to parent engagement. we often found that sometimes parents can unintentionally become barriers. they are worried about them going overseas or they may have preferences on the child's major.

have you had any targeted outreach to parents and grandparents? getting them to support initiatives. from changing from -- to critical thinking. what types of reforms have you put in place to think about that shift in the pipeline? >> we launched a few weeks ago a national program. we're talking about purpose. it is all about identity. it is an intergenerational conversation. we need ask what are the values they care about. it is more about how we can make sure that they are grounded in

tradition and values and customs. >> talk about your personal experience and your relationship with your parents, if i may ask. because that is important. growing up as a woman in lebanon, it never occurred to me there was something i couldn't do because my father never brought it up. that is very important. >> i had the same experience. my parents are my mentors. i think it goes back to the purpose that you are redefining success and success is about giving back to the community or the nation or the country and the world. that is taking about the bigger picture and what moral obligation you have to the people around you.

>> time for one last question. i think this will have to be our last question. >> my name is dan silverstein, a private actor advisor. i love the private sector. i have no patience. i try to. i have the solution. here it is. >> great. we will end on a positive note. invoking the morale act and create a series of land-grant universities which develop research. it uses as a basis for invoking an investment program like silicon valley where you bring in innovative, disruptive, cutting edge research. manwant to keep this young in the country and bring everybody back in from the diaspora, create these opportunities and use the capital markets to do it.

a basic problem that you haven't talked about. that is land rights. the emirates is a private real estate holding. companies that want to have a secure, long-range future have to have the security of knowing it is your revocable. -- it is your revocable -- irr evocable. i think you have the problem solved. you are welcome. [laughter] to the ideahis goes that there are these small-scale solutions and problems. and big scale solutions and problems. the two of marry them. i think your idea is fantastic. governments are not

able to conduct grandscale -- >> they will have to do more than one thing at a time. they will prioritize. it will be a cascading -- >> we seen that before. be willing to ask a question or do you have any points you would like to make, madam minister? >> [inaudible] conduct of the region and what can be accomplished. we look at youth as important and we share the same goals, all of us. d.c. orwe are based in the uae. -- everyoneuestion asked great questions. , from nowmportantly to two years ahead, where would be the arab world he echoed

where would be the uae -- the arab world? where would be the uae? don't sound biased, but it is a model that as far as a lot of they mention what is happening in egypt. we work exclusively with them. those are not the people we talked to. , am a government official but at the same time, when we talk to the youth and the organizations that look into that, we don't focus just on the government and policy. we focus on the grassroots community members that can bring hope and inspire. again, i am happy to be here with you today. >> thank you very much. i think this brings us to the end of the conversation. thank, inke to particular, her excellency, the minister for joining us for this

conversation. and the panelists, thank you very much for the conversation. i try to address some of the problems and find solutions. but we try to leave you with a slightly more positive impression of what young people in the arab world can actually offer. not just a burden but we are socially full of potential. thank you so much. a round of applause for the panelists. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]