RQPI 5th Anniversary

(Left to right) Richard Darilek, Debra Knopman, Michael Rich, Charles Goldman, and Keith Crane.

Nearly 150 guests celebrated the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute’s 5th anniversary, and RAND’s 60th anniversary, at the Qatar Foundation’s headquarters in Education City, Doha, on October 26, 2008. Attendees included cabinet ministers, members of the Qatar Foundation’s board of directors, deans of Education City universities, ambassadors and other diplomatic corps representatives, business leaders, media, friends of RAND, and RQPI staff members and their families.

The event included two panel discussions. The first, “RAND-Qatar Policy Institute’s Research and Analysis Efforts in Qatar and the Region,” moderated by Michael Rich, RAND Corporation Executive Vice President and Co-chair of the RQPI Board of Overseers, addressed education reform and human capital development, as well as health and the environment. The panelists were Debra Knopman, Charles Goldman, and Keith Crane. The second panel, “The New U.S. Administration: RAND Perspectives on the Likelihood of Change in Issues and Policies Affecting the Middle East,” was moderated by Karen Elliott House, a RAND trustee and member of the RQPI Board of Overseers, and included panelists David Aaron, director of the RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy, and Robert Blackwill, a RAND senior fellow.

The event also featured the official release of the new RAND monograph Facing Human Capital Challenges of the 21st Century: Education and Labor Market Initiatives in Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, by Gabriella Gonzalez, Lynn A. Karoly, Louay Constant, Hanine Salem, Charles A. Goldman, MG-786-RC.

The 10th semiannual meeting of the RQPI Board of Overseers followed the anniversary celebration, on October 28. Michael Rich co-chaired the meeting with Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, chair of the Qatar Foundation. RQPI director Richard Darilek and incoming director Bruce Nardulli updated the board on the status of follow-up actions from the previous meeting. C. Richard Neu, the first director of RQPI, shared the results of a project on lessons learned from the 15th Asian Games, which Qatar hosted in 2006. Finally, researchers Keith Crane and Marla Haims briefed the board on interim findings from their continuing research on the effectiveness of Qatar's foreign assistance efforts.