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Though girls’ enrollment and primary education completion rates in Yemen have increased substantially over the last decade, the gender disparity remains severe

e corresponding rate for boys has remained at least 20% highe

A conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, designed to help girls in grades 4-9 in disadvantaged communities in selected governorates, has been effective in encouraging parents to allow girls to attend school.

he cash stipends are conditional on maintaining no less than 80% attendance and a passing grade, with an allowance to repeat the grade only once

Under Yemen’s second basic education development project, approved under a $66 million IDA grant in February, the government  will recruit, train and deploy an additional 700 female teachers in rural areas and continue its conditional cash transfer program for girls’ education, to extend service to an additional 25,000 students.

With fewer than 1 in 10 Syrian refugees ages 15, 16, or 17 enrolled in secondary school or technical/vocational education, the risk of losing a generation of skilled professionals is very real

A strategy to beat the jihadists and make sure they stay beaten must be locally-driven, led by nationalist forces supported by the Sunni population that forms the insurgency’s social base.

The U.S.-led air campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) has scored some points in Syria, weakening ISIS’s oil infrastructure and revenues and keeping the group out of Kobane

the promised U.S. train-and-equip program is unlikely to reverse the nationalists’ losses or jihadists’ gains in northern Syria

air strikes alone, and treating nationalist groups as agents rather than partners, violates this principle

, the U.S. has helped nationalists in the south avoid the fragmentation, infighting, and lawlessness that weakened them and benefited the jihadists in northern Syria

ISIS offers conquered populations the choice between submission – which brings a sense of order and some protection from regime violence – or futile resistance and death

Jabhat al Nusra has driven nationalist forces out of much of their core territory in northern Syria, and ISIS continues to threaten those that remain

Even if the coalition wants to avoid confronting regime forces, it can and should concentrate air strikes closer to ISIS’s front lines with the nationalist insurgency, helping the latter block ISIS advances in cooperation with local Kurdish forces when possible

the United States has excluded them from the coalition military effort

, U.S. interests would be better served by a two-pronged approach in northern and southern Syria, helping nationalist rebels contain ISIS and compete with Jabhat al Nusra for control of the insurgency.

U.S. airstrikes on jihadists have spared the regime’s forces and inadvertently killed Syrian civilians

that Sunni Muslims are under siege by oppressive regional minorities, Iran, and even the United States itself

Ironically, the coalition campaign has contributed to the near-collapse of nationalist forces in northern Syria who, despite their imperfections, were ISIS’s most effective rivals and competed with Jabhat al Nusra for leadership of the insurgency

campaign has had serious local side effects that have undermined the broader, long-term objective of degrading and destroying ISIS in Syria and preventing the Al Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al Nusra, from replacing or thriving alongside ISIS

Twitter app called The Dawn of Glad Tidings, or just Dawn.

way to keep up on the latest news about the jihadi group.

Once you sign up, the app will post tweets to your account

spaced out to avoid triggering Twitter’s spam-detection algorithms

organized hashtag campaigns

repetitively tweet hashtags at certain times of day so that they trend on the social network. 

ISIS hashtag consistently outperforms that of the group’s main competitor in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, even though the two groups have a similar number of supporters online.

ISIS also uses hashtags to focus-group messaging and branding concepts, much like a Western corporation might.

ISIS does have legitimate support online—but less than it might seem.

Finally, although Qatar has a high per capita income, the national investment in education was small. Teachers received low pay and little professional development, many school buildings were in poor condition, and classrooms were overcrowded.

he most fundamental need was for clear curriculum standards oriented toward the desired outcomes of schooling. The new system’s curriculum, assessments, and professional development would all need to be aligned with these clear standards

AND presented three governance options to the Qatari leadership for discussion: (1) a Modified Centralized Model, which upgraded the existing, centrally controlled system by allowing for some school-level flexibility with or without parental choice of schools; (2) a Charter School Model, which encouraged variety through a set of schools independent of the Ministry and which allowed parents to choose whether to send their children to these schools; and (3) a Voucher Model, which offered parents school vouchers so that they could send their children to private schools and which sought to expand high-quality private schooling in Qatar.

Qatar now possesses curriculum standards in Arabic, mathematics, science, and English for all 12 grades — and these standards are comparable to the highest in the world.

These tests and surveys were then upgraded and repeated in 2005 and 2006 as part of the ongoing accountability system. The tests are the first standardized measures of student learning available in the Arabic language.

otential school operators responded enthusiastically to the call to open the new schools.

from a pool of 160 initial applicants; all 12 opened under three-year renewable contracts. In 2005, 21 additional Independent schools opened, and in 2006, 13 more opened.

Increased expertise is needed in Qatar’s teaching workforce and among the Institutes’ staff. Non-Qatari specialists are likely to be required in the future, but it is important that they find the means to transfer knowledge to Qataris to build local human resources.

The four principles of the reform — autonomy, accountability, variety, and choice

The emirate of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates recently adopted a strategy of public financing for private providers of education that is similar to that of Qatar. Also, the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council praised Qatar’s initiative, especially its curriculum standards. Since these standards are the foundation for teaching, learning, and accountability, the Secretary General’s praise, motivated by concern throughout the region about preparing students for later life, represents a major endorsement of the approach taken in Qatar.