Established in 2001, AHLIA UNIVERSITY BAHRAIN (AU) was the first private University to be licensed by the Government of Bahrain. AU is an autonomous institution, independently chartered, funded and managed by the private sector. In addition to the Bahrain’s Higher Education Council, all professional programmes offered by AU are also recognised by highly reputed and distinguished leading Universities in the UK and USA. The University was amongst the first Bahraini private Universities to be recognized by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Higher Education.
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The theme of 2017 conference is “Digital revolution, smart cities and performance improvement towards a sustainable knowledge-based inclusive development“. Central to the forum were the challenges faced by countries within the MENA region. The rapid urbanisation within the region were found to be leaning towards the development of smart cities, clearly exhibiting the governments’ – particularly that of Saudi Arabia’s – recognition and consideration of the importance of the role of technology and the youth in their states’ future. Downward trends in oil prices have posed a serious barrier to this development, thus solutions to securing the economy and income in oil and gas export dependent states were also explored. The urgency of income and wealth inequalities was also revisited, which called for further radical reform in regulation and policy to better address the welfare, and macro- and micro-level challenges that have arose. 
The theme of 2009 conference is “The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on the Environment, Energy and Sustainable Development“. The conference critically discussed and analysed the situation in the years following the 2008 financial crisis were marked with distrust, disorder, and mass re-regulation. Overlooked in this global crisis were the impacts the recession had left on pursuits towards sustainable development goals. Bringing together experience and research papers from across the world, the conference further investigated the greater and less evidently demonstrable impacts of the crisis. The performance of the entire world is not very satisfactory with regard to the international agreed targets and indexes and so far very limited progress is achieved by several countries. The deterioration of the environment in the MENA region for example is a major challenge for all countries in the region with nearly 90% of the region’s surface consists of desert.
Together We Are Safe is a pioneering initiative led by Students from Ahlia University Bahrain as part of their marketing and management study course and under close academic supervision of Dr. Anji Ben Hamed, former Director of Ahlia Centre for Entrepreneurship. Together We Are Safe emphasises on tolerance, acceptance, love and integrity, and to cleanse all types of extremism which lead us to build a culture filled with love, peace and togetherness. Students believe that all religions accept the others regardless of their colour, gender, nationality, faith, orientation and people live with each other and accept each others religions, by cleansing all types of religious extremism.
In collaboration with AU, WASD runs regular training workshops on the key factors that are influencing human development and capacity building in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Gulf Region. Examples of the training workshops include: Executive Leadership and Performance Improvement in the Public and Private Sectors and Global Business Environment and Entrepreneurship. In 2013, WASD in partnership with Ahlia organised an international seminar part of the Meridian Series entitled “Innovation and Development: Role of Human Capital”. The objective of the seminar is to highlight the importance of innovation and human capital development in the new economy. The seminar aims to stimulate creative thinking and enhance capabilities to contribute top the growth and development of the Bahraini economy. More details about the event can be found here.
On behalf of WASD, and AU we would like to thank all various institutions and individuals for supporting our activities in the Kingdom of Bahrain. We are also grateful for all National and International Press and Media agencies who provided an excellent media coverage of al our various activities in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
