Afghanistan:

Afghanistan has a rich culture and history as well as a tradition of academic excellence and leadership. However, its educational system has been devastated by decades of war and instability. Today, more than 5.4 million children, nearly 35 per cent of who are girls, are enrolled in school compared with a little more than a million five years ago, almost none of whom were girls. However, around half of its children of school age are estimated to have no access to education, with significant disparities according to gender and location. The number of teachers has grown seven-fold, but only 22 per cent meet the minimum qualifications of Grade 14.

Only 28 per cent of the teachers are female and they are located primarily in urban areas. There is no modern curriculum for secondary schools; in the past five years, curriculum development has concentrated on the first six years. Although more than 3,500 schools have been set up, only 25 per cent actually have buildings. Thousands of communities have no easy access to schools and thousands of children are being taught in cross-border madrassas (Quranic schools).  Of the 30,000-40,000 students who graduate from high school every year, only one-third are admitted to universities, the rest join the pool of the unemployed. An estimated 11 million Afghans are illiterate.

DIHE is committed to assisting in meeting Afghanistan’s educational challenges by providing internationally recognized learning and research programs, creating a community of stakeholders committed to shared governance, and a centre of innovative thought and practice. Our aim is to develop male and female managers and leaders, businesses and organizations capable of tailoring global knowledge and skills to Afghanistan’s specific economic, cultural and historical context and contributing to the creation of new knowledge and values in Afghanistan.

     

Switzerland (official name: the Swiss Confederation), is a federal republic consisting of 26 states, called cantons. The country has a long history of neutrality and hosts many international organizations. For generations, the country has developed and maintained its know-how, its excellence in products and services and its multiculturalism. Reliability, neutrality, friendliness, punctuality, serenity, security, stability, multilingualism are all words used to describe Switzerland, a country with a unique infrastructure and environment. It is one of the richest countries in the world with Zurich and Geneva  ranked respectively as having the second and third highest quality of life in the world.
 
Situated where the Rhône River flows out of Lake Geneva (in French known as Lac Léman), the town of Geneva is the capital of the Republic and Canton of Geneva. With a city population of 189,000 and a cantonal population of 457,000 (2009), it is the second most populous city in Switzerland. In Swiss terms, Geneva tops the list with nationals from nearly 180 countries making up around 45 per cent of the population. Geneva is renowned worldwide as a centre for diplomacy and international cooperation and, despite its small size is widely considered to be one of the world’s major cities.

It is host to 140 international organizations including the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Red Cross (ICRC), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) where the World Wide Web was invented.

It has one of the highest levels of education in the world and is home to numerous private universities. It is also where the Geneva Conventions, which chiefly concern the treatment of wartime non-combatants and prisoners of war, were signed.

Geneva has been described as the world's sixth most important financial centre, ahead of Tokyo, Chicago, Frankfurt and Sydney and it hosts approximately 130 banks. The city has been referred to as the world's most compact metropolis and has been named the "Peace Capital".