01People
Future of Work
Cross-border talent, remote enterprise and credential portability between the two regions.
01Cohort 01 · February 2027
The Connection Cohort
The first intake. Built to establish relationships, read each other's ecosystems honestly, and find where the real opportunities sit.
Discover. Connect. Exchange.
01What it is built to do
- 01
Build trusted cross-border relationships
- 02
Understand each other's markets and institutions
- 03
Exchange knowledge and working methods
- 04
Develop Gulf–Africa cultural intelligence
- 05
Meet relevant mentors and institutions
- 06
Identify areas for collaboration in Cohort 02
02Challenge Labs
Labs open inside the cohort, not only at the Forum.
Each cohort carries the six Challenge Labs. Teams are cross-regional by construction, and every Lab ends with a proposed action, a named partner and a next step.
01
Challenge
A real, named problem brought by an institution or a participant — not a hypothetical.
02
Ideas
Teams of 10–12, cross-regional and cross-sector by design. No team is single-country.
03
Collaboration
One institutional mentor, one facilitator, two working sessions across days one and two.
04
Proposed action
A pathway that can survive the flight home, with a named owner attached to it.
05
Named partner
The institution or individual who carries it forward, identified in the room.
06
Next step
Fed directly into the Dubai Commitment and tracked publicly at 90, 180 and 365 days.
02Innovation
AI & African Innovation
Tooling, data, talent and deployment — what it takes to build and ship from the continent.
03Enterprise
Cross-Border Entrepreneurship
Market entry, corporate structuring, capital and licensing across the UAE–Africa corridor.
04Society
Sustainable Cities & Climate
Technology, finance and delivery for urban and climate infrastructure in both regions.
05Society
Creative & Cultural Economy
Intellectual property, distribution and export for creative enterprises working across regions.
06People
Education & Human Capital
Skills, mobility and institutional partnership between universities and employers.
Selection is on contribution, not need.
We look for evidence of something built, shipped, led or contributed to — a genuine interest in the Gulf–Africa relationship, and the capacity to act on the network afterwards. Age is not the criterion.