Crisis

The first panel event in the series focussed on education through the crises of war, emergency, unrest and exclusion.

The intersecting, planetary-scale crises we face bring new urgency to the debate about the purpose of education. Climate catastrophe, widening inequalities, conflict, pathogen spillovers, new diseases, failures of governance and technology acceleration all challenge us to ask again what education might be, and what we need it to do.

Bringing together a panel of high-profile leaders and campaigners for education in such contexts and included hearing from students who have lived through education in crisis in Pakistan and Gaza.

This event also featured the launch of a new commissioned work from the Iranian poet Marjorie Lotfi, based on the words of displaced and excluded women in Scotland.

Event video

The Future of Education: Crisis

Our conversationalists

Sarah Brown is Chair of the global children’s charity Theirworld and Executive Chair of the Global Business Coalition for Education. Since she founded Theirworld in 2002, its campaigns, advocacy and ground-breaking programmes have been rooted in the belief that every child deserves the best start in life, a safe place to learn and skills for the future. Working with government, business, philanthropy and civil society, Sarah has succeeded in creating lasting change for the world’s most vulnerable children. As a passionate advocate that every child should have the opportunity of an education, Sarah has shifted international political will on the provision of education in emergencies, and on the need for innovative funding.


Liz Grant is one of the University’s Assistant Principals with a remit for Global Health. She is Professor of Global Health and Development, directs the Global Health Academy,  convenes the Chaplaincy Committee and sits on the Advisory Board of the Academy of Sport and on the Programme Board Education Beyond Borders. Liz co-directs the Global Compassion Initiative which explores the science and practice of compassion Her research spans global and planetary health and healthcare in contexts of poverty and conflict –   and compassion as the value base of the Sustainable Development Goals. She co-directs the MSc in Planetary Health in Edinburgh Futures Institute, and the MSc Family Medicine in the Usher Institute.


Yasmine Sherif is the Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. A lawyer specialising in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law (LL.M), she has over 30 years of experience with the United Nations and international NGOs.Ms. Sherif has served in some of the most crisis-affected areas of the world, including Afghanistan and the Middle East, the Balkans, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan. She has also led teams in New York and Geneva – from where she continues to conduct regular missions to countries affected by armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate-induced disasters and other crises.


Kainat Riaz is an education advocate whose journey on this path began when her school-van was attacked by the Taliban. She decided to seek education as a revenge against that attack. Today, she is an advocate for girls’ education and education in general, and a co-founder and Director for girls’ education at ‘Beydaar Society’, an NGO working in Pakistan to help promote peace and harmony by using education as a tool. Among other recognitions, she has been decorated with a national award granted by the President of Pakistan, Tamgha e Shuja’at (National Medal of Bravery), Human Rights Defender Award, GG2 Award, Ladies Fund Awards, etc. She believes that through education this world can become a better and more peaceful place.


Marjorie Lotfi was born in New Orleans, moved to Tehran as a baby with her American mother and Persian father, and fled Iran with one suitcase and an hour’s notice during the Iranian Revolution. After waiting with family for her father’s return in her mother’s tiny hometown in Ohio, she lived in different parts of the US before moving to New York as a young lawyer in 1996 and then back and forth to the UK, settling in the UK in 1999, and in Scotland in 2005. Marjorie Lotfi’s poems have been published in journals and anthologies in the UK and US (including The Rialto, Gutter, Ambit, Magma, Rattle and Staying Human), included in Best Scottish Poems 2021 and performed on BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio 4. Her pamphlet Refuge, poems about her childhood in revolutionary Iran, was published by Tapsalteerie Press in 2018. She was one of the three winners of the inaugural James Berry Poetry Prize in 2021, and her first book-length collection, The Wrong Person to Ask (Bloodaxe Books, 2023) is a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation.


Laura Frigenti is a senior executive with 30 years of experience in global development gained through her service in multilateral organizations, government, nonprofit, and more recently the private sector. She started her career at the World Bank, where she worked for 20 years, holding several technical and managerial positions in Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

She was then appointed Director General of the Italian Overseas Development Agency, with the responsibility of setting up the newly created agency under the government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Prior to joining GPE, Laura led the Global Development Assistance Service Practice at KPMG, which supports initiatives that create real value for investors and for society. In the aftermath of the pandemic, an increasing amount of her work related to vaccine distribution and COVID-related issues, as well as supporting governments in implementing various types of social protection measures to sustain the most vulnerable groups.

Her senior roles at the World Bank, where she worked extensively in the human development sector, as head of a bilateral development agency, and more recently as head of a large practice in a global consulting firm, give her a deep familiarity with GPE, the issues that GPE is trying to address, and the global development space where its work is situated.


Rt Hon Sir Julian Smith KCB CBE was recently appointed Executive Chair of the International Finance Facility for Education (IFFED), a Geneva-based foundation initiated by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown to enhance global education financing in lower-middle-income countries. In addition to this role, Julian has had a notable political career as the Member of Parliament for Skipton and Ripon since 2010, holding key positions such as Government Chief Whip during the Brexit impasse from 2017-2019, and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland where he led significant negotiations and reforms including the “New Decade, New Approach” deal.

Throughout his career, Julian successfully introduced legislation such as same-sex marriage and abortion laws in Northern Ireland, aligning its social laws with the rest of the UK, and played a pivotal role in establishing the Historical Institutional Abuse Redress Board. More recently, he has been involved in advising Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, mediating industrial disputes including the resolution of a nurses' strike, and now chairs the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero Taskforce on Alternative Dispute Resolution for Electricity Network Infrastructure. His contributions were recognized when he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of Bath in the 2024 dissolution honours list.


Amani Ahmed is a Ph.D candidate at Edinburgh University Business School and a Council for At Risk Academics Home Fellow. Amani trained as an electrical engineer  and worked as Head of the International Relations at the Islamic University of Gaza.  Since 2023 she is a member of the EU- Higher Education Reform Experts-Palestine chamber Hub for Education for Refugees in Europe (HEREs)  She has a research interest in women’s digital entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial ecosystems in conflict contexts, as well as internationalization of Higher education under siege and in conflict context.


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