Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, wife of the former Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, is to be presented this week with an award from former US President George H. W. Bush for her work promoting education and social reform.
Sheikha Moza will receive the George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service on Thursday, September 19 as part of the George and Barbara Bush Distinguished Lecture Series.
“For more than 15 years, Sheikha Moza has been a driving force behind education and social reforms in her country. These wide-ranging initiatives are aimed at preparing Qataris to compete in the global economy while building strong families and communities at home. Sheikha Moza also is active on the international stage, spearheading projects to promote peace and human development throughout the world,” the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation said in a statement.
The Qatari royal currently serves as chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), is vice chair of the Supreme Council of Health and also serves as the vice chair of the Supreme Education Council.
Internationally, she has also launched multiple projects including the International Fund for Higher Education in Iraq, the Silatech initiative to address the growing challenge of youth employment in the Middle East and North Africa, and Protecting Education in Insecurity and Conflict, a policy research and advocacy organisation concerned with protecting the right to education in conflict-affected areas.
In November 2012, Sheikha Moza launched the Educate A Child program, which is seeking to support 10 million out of school children across the world gain access to quality education by the end of 2015.
Sheikha Moza is also active with the United Nations (UN) and in 2003 was appointed as UNESCO’s Special Envoy for Basic and Higher Education and in 2010 became a member of the UN Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group.
Past recipients of the George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service include former US President Ronald Reagan, former Secretary of Defence Robert M. Gates, former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, former US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, former General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev and former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl.
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