Day: July 9, 2024

Manama, The Ministry of Sustainable Development and Mastercard, announced the launch of the “Mastercard Challenge on Financial Inclusion for the SDGs” under the theme ‘Solving for the Future’, inpartnership with BENEFIT, the Labour Fund (Tamkeen) and StartUp Bahrain.

Targeted towards university students in Bahrain, this competition serves as a call for innovative solutions driven by Bahrain’s youth, to further unlock the potential of financial inclusion and accelerate progress towards achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Financial inclusion is positioned prominently as an enabler of several SDGs, where it is featured as a target in eight of the seventeen goals, including reducing inequalities, improving health and well-being, promoting gender equality, fostering economic growth, and supporting job creation. Given the pivotal role of youth and the importance of fostering youth-led innovations in advancing the SDGs, this competition hopes to provide an opportunity for university students a
nd young change-makers in Bahrain to be curators of the next generation solutions using financial inclusion, digitisation, and data as powerful tools.

Noor bint Ali Alkhulaif, the Minister of Sustainable Development and Chief Executive of the Bahrain Economic Development Board said: “Over the years, Bahrain’s inclusive financial system has helped position the Kingdom as a pioneer in digital financial infrastructure innovation, which resulted in the expansion of mobile payments, strengthening regulations, prioritising financial integrity and stability, and promoting digitisation, financial literacy, and financial innovation. Given the role of financial inclusion as an enabler of several SDGs, the Mastercard Challenge seeks to encourage Bahrain’s youth to develop new solutions that can unlock its full potential by creating more economic opportunities, enabling economic diversification, and boosting sustainable growth”.

Dana Imad Hamzah, the Assistant Undersecretary for Sustainable Development added: The “Mast
ercard Challenge on Financial Inclusion for the SDGs” is an exciting opportunity and an ideal platform that can enable Bahrain’s youth to design innovative solutions with disruptive potential to help ignite SDG progress, using financial inclusion, digitisation and the power of data as key enablers. This initiative also falls in line with the Ministry of Sustainable Development’s efforts in strengthening strategic partnerships with the private sector in recognition of their pivotal role in advancing the SDGs”.

Competition winners will benefit from complimentary enrollment in the Mastercard Academy for one year and will have the chance to visit Mastercard’s Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMEA) headquarters. They will also win a paid internship at BENEFIT to develop and scale their solutions, gain access to technical expertise, mentorship, and training from Mastercard and BENEFIT, including an AI masterclass, 10 mentoring sessions and three online sessions with Mastercard’s experts, and engage with se
lected Startup Bahrain resources and partners.

Open to all Undergraduate and Postgraduate students in Bahrain from any discipline, the Mastercard Challenge will help university students explore real-life challenges facing the SDGs from a multi-disciplinary perspective in sectors that include education, healthcare, climate, the environment, tourism and business and more.

The deadline for applications is July 31st, 2024, at 7 pm Bahrain time. Following this, a panel of distinguished experts with experience in financial services at the frontier of social impact and industry will review the submissions and announce the shortlisted qualifying applicants, who will then be eligible to participate in a three-week intensive Summer Bootcamp programme during August 2024 which will be organised by the Labour Fund (Tamkeen) and StartUp Bahrain.

Through the Summer Bootcamp, participants will gain valuable insights on the SDGs, sustainability in the age of AI, success stories from Bahrain’s financial sector’s digital tra
nsformation journey, entrepreneurship mentorship, coaching and more. The UN Resident Coordinator’s office in Bahrain, will also provide dedicated sessions on the SDGs and the role of digitisation, financial inclusion and data as key enablers, delivered by leading UN experts, to help equip participants with the necessary knowledge to tackle developmental challenges through a local lens. Participants will also be awarded certificates by the United Nations Resident Coordinator Office in Bahrain naming them as “Ambassadors for the SDGs.”

The bootcamp will culminate in a semifinals pitch in September 2024, while the Finalists Pitch will be held at the flagship Fintech Forward 2024 conference in October2024 in Bahrain.

Interested university students in Bahrain can learn more about the challenge and apply at(https://benefit.bh/mastercardChallenge).

Source: Bahrain News Agency

Jerusalem – Ma’an – Israeli occupation forces and intelligence services stormed the village of Issawiya in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

The forces spread out in the streets of the town, then raided the home of the Secretary of the Fatah Movement in Issawiya, Yasser Darwish, and carried out a wide-ranging search and vandalism of the contents.

The forces arrested Darwish early this week, and after detaining him for a day, they released him.

On the other hand, 77 settlers stormed the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque through the Mughrabi Gate, and prayed during the storming.

Source: Maan News Agency

Manama, General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, the Interior Minister, met His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Ali Al Khalifa, the Southern Governor.

The Interior Minister was presented with the Southern Governorate’s annual report for 2023. The report documented the governorate’s accomplishments. It covered initiatives and programmes launched to meet citizens’ needs and the follow-up of project implementation in cooperation with the concerned authorities.

Source: Bahrain News Agency

Jerusalem – Ma’an – Israeli municipality crews, accompanied by special forces, stormed the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning.

Eyewitnesses said that the occupation forces stormed the camp to support the municipality crews who stormed a 5-storey residential building and posted an administrative demolition order on it under the pretext of building without a permit.

Witnesses said that the forces photographed the building and the streets leading to it.

At the Shuafat camp checkpoint, the forces tightened inspection procedures for vehicles and pedestrians at the checkpoint.

Source: Maan News Agency

Manama, Ombudswoman Ghada Hamid Habib met today with Mazen Shaqoura, Regional Representative for the Middle East and North Africa of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Beirut upon his visit to Bahrain, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ombudswoman Habib welcomed the visiting official and expressed appreciation for the ongoing communication between the Ombuds Office and the United Nation’s agencies, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Development Programme, particularly in the context of joint training projects to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.

The two sides discussed the role of the Ombuds Office and its contribution to promoting respect for human rights within the framework of the judiciary and independent human rights institutions in cooperation with the relevant agencies in the kingdom.

She highlighted the interest in developing training and development activities and applying best practices, such as guidelines issued
by meetings and resolutions of the UN General Assembly.

Habib emphasised the commitment to continue cooperation and communication with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. This is in line with the approach of transparency and applying standards of meaningful communication to serve the public, and ensuring respect for human rights in the areas of law enforcement and monitoring reform and rehabilitation centers and pretrial detention centers.

Source: Bahrain News Agency