DUBAI, twenty fifth September, 2026 (WAM) — The Digital School, an initiative of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, has achieved a brand new worldwide milestone after its “Donate Your Own Device” initiative gained the 2026 IPMA Global Award for Sustainable Project Management on the International Project Management Association (IPMA) Global Awards ceremony in Hiroshima, Japan.
The award represents international recognition of an revolutionary UAE mannequin that brings collectively expanded entry to digital schooling, environmental sustainability, neighborhood duty and efficient mission administration.
The recognition carries specific significance because it comes from a global platform bringing collectively the worldwide mission administration neighborhood in Hiroshima, as a part of the thirty fifth IPMA World Congress, held below the theme “Achieving Peace: Project Management for a Sustainable World.” It displays the rising worldwide presence of revolutionary UAE fashions and their means to ship sensible, sustainable options to improvement challenges.
“Donate Your Own Device” was recognised for its built-in mannequin of giving expertise an prolonged lifecycle and a renewed instructional and humanitarian objective. The initiative collects used digital units, refurbishes these appropriate for reuse and deploys them to increase digital studying alternatives for college students in underserved communities, whereas different units are responsibly recycled in accordance with acceptable environmental practices.
“Donate Your Own Device” presents an built-in UAE mannequin for sustainability that goes past the reuse of digital units, remodeling underutilised expertise into sustainable instructional, humanitarian and environmental worth.
The mannequin integrates three key dimensions: increasing entry to digital schooling for underserved college students and communities; extending the lifecycle of expertise and selling accountable use of assets; and fascinating people, establishments and companions in a shared community-driven ecosystem able to delivering measurable and scalable impression.
The initiative was chosen for the award following a global analysis of initiatives from world wide within the Sustainable Project Management class, reflecting the power of its mannequin and its means to mix instructional impression, environmental duty, neighborhood partnerships and sustainable mission administration.
Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Digital School, affirmed that the “Donate Your Device” initiative displays the UAE’s imaginative and prescient of utilizing expertise and information to empower individuals and increase their alternatives to form the longer term. He mentioned the award is international recognition of an Emirati mannequin constructed on a concepts with lasting impression: turning an unused system into a brand new alternative to study.
Al Olama added that the initiative affords a mannequin that brings collectively schooling, sustainability and social duty. Through partnerships that flip out there assets into alternatives for studying and progress, it expands entry to information for communities and interprets sustainability into sensible options that profit individuals, society and the setting.
Since its launch, the “Donate Your Own Device” initiative has collected greater than 145,000 digital units, with a complete weight exceeding 370 tonnes. Its environmental impression consists of saving multiple million kWh of electrical energy and greater than 550,000 litres of gas, defending greater than 110,000 sq. ft of land from waste, and avoiding greater than 369,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions.
These outcomes present how the initiative turns sustainability into measurable impression: lowering digital waste, encouraging accountable reuse, and creating extra alternatives to make use of expertise in assist of schooling.
The second version of the initiative is being carried out in partnership with Emirates Red Crescent and Ecyclex, with the assist of the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment. It goals to gather 100,000 used digital units, strengthening collaboration between authorities, the humanitarian sector, the non-public sector and the broader neighborhood in advancing a sustainable mannequin for schooling and giving.
Professor Dr. Mladen Vukomanovi, President of the International Project Management Association (IPMA), mentioned, “The IPMA World Congress brings together the global project management community to exchange knowledge, recognise excellence and explore how projects can address the challenges shaping our world. Meeting in Hiroshima this year holds special significance and reinforces our belief in the role of projects in building more sustainable and resilient communities.”
Vukomanovi added that recognising the “Donate Your Device” initiative displays this imaginative and prescient by bringing collectively accountable expertise reuse, schooling and collaboration in a sustainable mission administration mannequin.
The Digital School was launched in November 2020 below the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, as a part of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives. The Digital School gives versatile digital studying alternatives for underserved communities by means of an built-in mannequin that mixes digital studying, trainer capability constructing, partnerships with governments, worldwide organisations and educational establishments, and scalable schooling options. It is internationally accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC).
The Digital School’s programmes and initiatives have reached greater than 850,000 beneficiaries throughout greater than 40 nations and are delivered in seven languages by means of partnerships with governments, worldwide organisations and main universities worldwide.