EXECUTIVE EDUCATION PROGRAMS
The Middle East Initiative offers executive education courses for experienced leaders and professionals from the Middle East. Our programs bring together practitioners, a world-class faculty, and a dynamic curriculum to address a spectrum of concerns such as public leadership, good governance, international trade policy, management of non-governmental organizations, and education reform.
Upcoming Programs
Negotiation Opportunities and Challenges
Date of Program: May 19-24, 2013
Venue: Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, MA (by invitation only)
This program is designed specifically for senior officials from Kuwait. The program takes a broad view of negotiation: whenever you rely on others to provide resources, permission, cooperation, support, or implementation to carry out your goals, there is an opportunity to negotiate. Rather than passively waiting for circumstances to force you to react, successful negotiators seek to identify potential challenges and opportunities in advance, in order to proactively develop strategies to shape the negotiation environment. Furthermore, in today’s complex and modern world, many issues span a variety of organizations, sectors, identity groups, and cultures: sustainable solutions may require the achievement of consensus among a wide range of stakeholders. In this program, we aim to help you improve both your analytic and interpersonal skills to setup a favorable negotiation environment, identify opportunities to create value, and convince other parties to help advance your interests. Analysis is important because negotiators cannot develop promising strategies without a deep understanding of the context of the situation, the interests and alternatives of the other parties, and the range of possible moves and countermoves. Interpersonal skills are important because negotiation is essentially a process of communication, trust building (or breaking), and mutual persuasion.
Past Programs
Leading for the Future: The Arab Region in a Changing World
Date of Program: May 27-31, 2012
Venue: Dead Sea, Jordan
Leading for the Future: The Arab Region in a Changing World--A unique Executive Education program designed for influential senior officials from the Arab region
Date of Program: January 16-20, 2011
Venue: Dead Sea, Jordan
During times of great change, leadership is critically important. This is particularly true today where the pace of political and economic change is accelerating rapidly. The Leading for the Future: The Arab Region in a Changing World program provides an important forum to hone skills, expand knowledge, and gain unique perspectives on the challenges facing the region and the world. Intense interaction with world class faculty and other participants, who hold the most senior leadership and policymaking positions in their countries, will provide an unparalleled opportunity for discussions and reflection on the challenges facing the region.
Leading for the Future: The Arab Region in a Changing World encourages the transformational skills of leaders. The program will enable participants to return to their countries with an enhanced understanding of the leadership necessary to promote reform, greater knowledge of changes taking place internationally, and a renewed commitment to working with their peers from other countries.
2010 was the inaugural year for the program and this first session of the Leading for the Future program had 51 participants from 11 Arab countries : Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Algeria, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan. One of the core elements of the program was t he diversity of the participants in terms of geographical and professional backgrounds.
Educational Reform III: Strengthening School Leadership (Follow up workshop)
Date of Program: December 12 - 23, 2010
Venue: Kuwait
Educational Reform III: Strengthening School Leadership -- An Executive Education Program for Kuwait School Principals
Date of Program: April 27 - May 7, 2010
Venue: Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge MA
By Invitation Only
The evidence from around the world is unambiguous, effective school leadership is one of the keys to improving student performance, instructional practice and quality in schools. Strengthening school-based leadership is a priority of the Kuwait Ministry of Education.
The model of a principal as primarily an administrator of centralized policy and a highly prescribed education model is no longer valid. In today's more effective schools, in addition to their role as an administrator of central policy, principals must serve multiple roles as:
Leaders, who inspire their teachers and students to higher levels of performance and achievement;
School-based senior managers, who work with their professional staff, teachers and parents to, within national frameworks, set school-based goals and objectives, develop school-based improvement plans and budgets and administer all programs effectively and efficiently;
Instructional champions, who are up-to-date with current thinking and "best practices" in teaching-learning, able to assess and supervise the work of their teachers and help them constantly improve their instructional practice.
Advocates, who relentlessly seek the resources and supports required to meet the needs of their teachers and the students for whom they are responsible.
In this program experienced school principals, and a small number of ministry and university educators who support principals, will work with Harvard faculty and recognized practitioner experts to review current best thinking about school effectiveness and to explore the role of principals as leaders of school change.
The faculty chair for this program is Professor Tom Cassidy. Supporting faculty will consist of Katherine Boles, Nadia Higgins, Jenny Lewis, Karen Mapps, Kim Marshall, Kay Merseth, Andreas Schleicher, Vivian Troen and Tony Wagner. Participation in this program is by invitation only.
Strategic Management for Leaders of Non-Governmental Organizations
Date of Program: February 28 - March 5, 2010
Venue: Athens, Greece
As many nations have undergone dramatic political and economic changes in the past two decades, the civil society sector in those countries has also experienced a rapid metamorphosis. While non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were virtually nonexistent during the Cold War era, thousands of domestic and international NGOs of all sizes began operating in the 1990s, establishing a vibrant civil society sector to accompany new government regimes and economic development. After this rapid expansion, the sector is now consolidating, and NGOs face the challenge of defining sustainable roles in service provision, advocacy, and policy.
The Strategic Management for Leaders of Non-Government Organizations Executive Education program is designed to give NGO leaders the tools, perspectives, and frameworks needed to strengthen their organizations, engage constituent communities, and cultivate long-term partnerships and commitments. Through cutting edge research, case studies, and presentations tailored to the unique needs of NGOs, this program provides the skills NGO leaders need to make informed and strategically sound decisions.
Executive Leadership and Strategy: An Executive Education Program for the United Arab Emirates
Date of Program: February 15 - 19, 2010
Venue: Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge MA
By Invitation Only
Executive Leadership and Strategy in Counterterrorism is a custom program designed for UAE officials from the Higher National Security Council, Abu Dhabi Police, UAE Military and National Crisis and Emergency Management Authority. This group has been tasked with writing a counterterrorism strategy for the UAE. They will spend one week in London, one week at Harvard and one week in Washington DC as part of their overall training. The faculty include: Dutch Leonard, David Gergen, Nick Burns, Graham Allison, Joe Nye and Meghan O'Sullivan.
Executive Education Fellowships
The Middle East Initiative financially sponsors fellows to attend Executive Education programs at Harvard. In partnership with the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), the MEI sponsors participants from Kuwait to attend Executive Education programs at Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Business School, and Harvard School of Public Health. Interested candidates should contact Khaled Al-Muhailan at KFAS and apply directly to the programs at Harvard in which they are interested.
The MEI also sponsors participants from Iran and Palestine to attend Executive Education programs at the Harvard Kennedy School. Interested candidates should apply to the program in which they are interested, indicating on the application their interest in receiving a Middle East Initiative fellowship.
