Southwest Asia and North Africa Future of Work (SWANA - FoW) Hub at @AUB_Lebanon
Beirut, Lebanon
Joined April 2024
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(1/10) We’re pleased to announce eight selected subgrantees under RFP Cycle 2 of the SWANA Future of Work Hub.
Their research spans #AI, labor governance, platform work, green transitions, creative industries, gendered digital labor and #climateresilient agriculture.
In case you missed them! 📚
Our three reports with @UNESCWA explore AI readiness in Arab universities, equity in higher education, and the role of academia in strengthening innovation ecosystems.
Catch up on the research 👇
🔗 aub.edu.lb/ifi/Documents/Ass…
🔗 aub.edu.lb/ifi/Documents/The…
🔗 aub.edu.lb/ifi/Documents/Ter…
🌱 How is AI reshaping agriculture and the future of work in SWANA?
As part of her research supported by the SWANA Future of Work Hub, our Early Career Scholar Layla Bartheldi attended #SIAT2026 in Tunis, exploring emerging agricultural technologies and their implications for farmers and workers.
FutureWORKS Collective - SWANA Hub retweeted
🌍 AI could transform jobs in developing economies. But who will benefit?
A new ILO policy brief explores how investment in skills, infrastructure and worker protections can turn AI adoption into an opportunity for decent work.
Read more 🔗 tinyurl.com/2ehx94sv
FutureWORKS Collective - SWANA Hub retweeted
🇹🇭Last week, our Institute was in #Bangkok for the 2026 #IMF-#World_Bank Annual Meetings, where discussions focused on AI's impact on development and regional economic growth, and on ways to maximize private capital mobilization for infrastructure and jobs.
On the ground, our colleagues shared initial reflections on the meetings, including a noticeable lack of a multilateral framework to tackle crises worldwide and, more specifically, what digital and green transitions mean for workers who already have limited access to social protection.
👉🏼IFI University Fellow @ishacdiwan gave a bleak view of the discussions, with multilateralism shrinking, no talk of climate change, and crises to be tackled individually with no global solutions.
👉🏼Program and Research Coordinator at the Arab Reform Initiative @ArabReform_ARI, Diala Ahwach, shared her thoughts on the meetings and findings from the FORWARD research project, supported by the SWANA Future of Work Hub at IFI. Drawing on evidence from Lebanon, the research examines how digitalization, informal employment, and overlapping economic shocks affect workers, and the reforms needed to build more inclusive social protection systems.
👉🏼IFI’s SWANA Future of Work Hub @SWANA_FoWHub Coordinator @SamirNassar_ shared highlights from the discussion following the session "Adapting Social Protection Systems to Digital and Green Transitions: A Forward-Looking World of Work,” which he moderated on the sidelines of the meetings last week.
(1/2) At the IMF-World Bank #AnnualMeetings in #Bangkok, the SWANA FoW Hub joined partners to discuss social protection through digital and green transitions. Moderated by @SamirNassar_ , the session drew on evidence from #Lebanon and #Egypt and perspectives on climate justice.
After our session, @ArabReform_ARI’s Diala Ahwach reflects on the discussions and shares findings from the Hub-supported FORWARD project on workers’ experiences and social protection gaps in Lebanon. Watch below 👇
FutureWORKS Collective - SWANA Hub retweeted
How can #socialprotection keep pace as work changes?
Today I’m joining colleagues and partners to moderate a discussion on #digital and #green transitions at the IMF–World Bank #AnnualMeetings.
Join us in person or online: 3 PM Bangkok / 11 AM Beirut.
👇🏻Details & access
Bringing #research and #researchers together across SWANA!
On October 12, the SWANA Future of Work Hub convened its first- and second-cycle research teams to share progress, exchange insights, and explore opportunities for #collaboration.
The meeting provided a space to connect research across different countries and themes, and strengthen collective efforts to better understand the changing world of work in the region.
#FutureWORKS #FutureOfWork #SWANA
The future of work is about more than job creation. The ILO estimated that over 600 million new jobs would be needed by 2030 and emphasized that job quality matters, too.
Decent work remains central to sustainable development.
Read more: ilo.org/topics-and-sectors/d…
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FutureWORKS Collective - SWANA Hub retweeted
Our Institute and the MA Program in Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) at @AUB_Lebanon invite you to "BAYRŪT KHANA’ITNĀ, BAYRŪT KHAYBATNĀ: A Study on the Extractive City and the Unequal Reproduction of Urban Life."
The panel discussion will feature the study's author Chloe Nasr, along with Mohamad Jammoul, @ildanahas, and Ghinwa El Khatib.
📅Monday, September 28, 2026
⏰4:00 to 6:00 PM
📍The Basile Antoine Meguerdiche Conference Hall (IFI Auditorium - Level B)
AI boosts efficiency, but does it lighten the load? 68% of entry-level workers report higher productivity due to AI, but 45% end up working more hours as expectations rise. Rethinking role design is key to preventing burnout.
Read more: reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF…
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FutureWORKS Collective - SWANA Hub retweeted
🌍 Interested in climate change & health research?
Join our info session on the second cycle of the Call for EOIs for the #MENA Hub for Action Research on Climate Change & Health (#MARCH)!
🗓️ Sep 24, 2026 | 3:00-4:00 PM (Beirut)
💻 Webex
🔗 Register: shorturl.at/5SaIp
Entry-level jobs in high AI-exposure roles are seeing double the rate of net skills change compared to non-entry-level roles. In fact, 28% of early-career workers believe over half their current skills will be obsolete in just 3 years.
Read more: reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF…
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FutureWORKS Collective - SWANA Hub retweeted
Lifelong learning does not become real through ambition alone.
It depends on access, financing, quality, coordination and social dialogue — the things that make learning possible in practice.
ILO report explains: ow.ly/vO3E50YUuGF
Access to higher education is expanding across the Arab region, but who gets access and who benefits from AI is still highly unequal.
Our third report with @UNESCWA finds significant gaps by wealth, location & gender, alongside uneven AI engagement across universities.
Building an AI-ready higher education system must also mean building an inclusive one. 👇
➡️"Tertiary Education, Equity, and AI Engagement in Arab Countries" is the third in a series of research reports developed through a collaboration between @UNESCWA and the @SWANA_FoWHub at @AUB_Lebanon, which examines the evolving role of higher education in the Arab region amid rapid advances in artificial intelligence and digital technologies.
The first three reports explore universities’ technological and intellectual preparedness, patterns of equitable engagement with AI across Arab countries, and the role of academia in national innovation ecosystems. A fourth report is expected in September 2026 and will further extend the series, alongside a conference in Oman early December 2026 that will bring together relevant stakeholders to discuss the findings and their policy implications and contribute to the development of the Muscat Declaration for Higher Education.
Read this report here:
aub.edu.lb/ifi/Documents/Ter…
For more information and to read the other reports in the series: aub.edu.lb/ifi/Pages/SWANA-R…
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FutureWORKS Collective - SWANA Hub retweeted
➡️"Tertiary Education, Equity, and AI Engagement in Arab Countries" is the third in a series of research reports developed through a collaboration between @UNESCWA and the @SWANA_FoWHub at @AUB_Lebanon, which examines the evolving role of higher education in the Arab region amid rapid advances in artificial intelligence and digital technologies.
The first three reports explore universities’ technological and intellectual preparedness, patterns of equitable engagement with AI across Arab countries, and the role of academia in national innovation ecosystems. A fourth report is expected in September 2026 and will further extend the series, alongside a conference in Oman early December 2026 that will bring together relevant stakeholders to discuss the findings and their policy implications and contribute to the development of the Muscat Declaration for Higher Education.
Read this report here:
aub.edu.lb/ifi/Documents/Ter…
For more information and to read the other reports in the series: aub.edu.lb/ifi/Pages/SWANA-R…
Universities across the Arab region are increasingly supporting entrepreneurship, but building more incubators alone is not enough.
Our second report with @UNESCWA finds that the stronger systems are those where incubation is connected to broader institutional structures, commercialization pathways & innovation ecosystems.
Read the report 👇
➡️"The Role of Academe in the National Innovation Ecosystem in the Arab World" is the second in a series of research reports developed through a collaboration between @UNESCWA and the @SWANA_FoWHub at
@AUB_Lebanon, which examines the evolving role of higher education in the Arab region amid rapid advances in artificial intelligence and digital technologies.
The first three reports explore universities’ technological and intellectual preparedness, patterns of equitable engagement with AI across Arab countries, and the role of academia in national innovation ecosystems. A fourth report is expected in September 2026 and will further extend the series, alongside a conference in Oman early December 2026 that will bring together relevant stakeholders to discuss the findings and their policy implications and contribute to the development of the Muscat Declaration for Higher Education.
Read this report here:
aub.edu.lb/ifi/Documents/The…
For more information and to read the other reports in the series: aub.edu.lb/ifi/Pages/SWANA-R…
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