Built to Last: Abu Dhabi's Model for Global Education

A school in a remote part of Afghanistan. A digital platform reaching 1.5 million students across Indonesia, bringing about improvements in standards of education. Scholarships offered to young people who will one day build something of their own and leave an indelible mark on their communities. Taken individually, each is significant. Taken together, they form a system aimed at transforming communities, opening pathways to futures that once seemed out of reach.

Today, 273 million children and youth worldwide remain out of school, while high-income countries spend over USD 8,500 per learner each year, compared to just USD 55 in low-income countries. These figures point to a clear need for sustained, structured engagement.

Abu Dhabi’s engagement with global education did not begin with a single initiative. It began with a principle — that for development to mean anything, it must begin with improving the conditions in which people learn.

The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) was among the first to put that principle into practice. Since its establishment in 1971, ADFD has financed 129 education projects across 14 developing countries, committing AED 2.5 billion to the construction and modernisation of schools, universities, and training centres. In Jordan alone, it funded 30 new schools equipped with modern science laboratories. In Morocco, 27 education projects estimated at AED 286 million supported everything from training institutes to student dormitories — a solid framework, structured, government-aligned, and built to last.

On the ground, a different layer of work has been unfolding. The Khalifa Foundation has approached education as a direct responsibility. Since 2010, it has supported schools in Gaza in partnership with UNRWA, covering teachers' salaries, maintenance, and supplies for thousands of students in Beit Lahia. 

"Education is a child's right, and not just a privilege."

• H.E. Mohamed Haji Al Khoori, Director-General of KBZF 

That same conviction has since carried the Foundation into new territory, a $12.8 million grant to McGill University establishing the UAE–Indonesia Future Leaders Programme, focused on teacher training, scholarships, and leadership development.

That same engagement with Indonesia has been deepened by Alef Education, an Abu Dhabi-based educational technology company whose AI-powered platform now operates across approximately 17,000 schools in the UAE, Indonesia, and Morocco, reaching 1.8 million registered students. In Indonesia, test scores improved by 8.5% following the platform's deployment, a result that has since supported further government partnerships.

Recognition sits alongside delivery. The Khalifa Award for Education, now under Erth Zayed Philanthropies, honours educational excellence across the UAE, the Arab world, and internationally. Its Khalifa International Award for Early Learning drew over 300 submissions from 61 countries in its inaugural edition alone. 

The most recent addition to this landscape is the Zayed Education Foundation, established in March 2025, with a stated aim of supporting 100,000 young leaders worldwide by 2035 through scholarships, research grants, and leadership programmes expanding into the Arab world and the Global South.

What emerges is not a collection of separate gestures. It is a layered approach, financing, delivery, technology, recognition, and leadership development, each part reinforcing the others. The classroom in Jordan, the scholarship in Indonesia, the award ceremony in Abu Dhabi: they belong to the same story.