Rethinking resilience in response to evolving crises requires flexible, forwardthinking approaches that go beyond traditional models. Philanthropy plays a critical role in resilience-building by providing risk-tolerant capital for transformative initiatives, fostering longterm solutions rather than short term interventions. Engaging the private sector, particularly businesses, is essential for driving economic development and strengthening social cohesion. As challenges and resource demands continue to grow, there is a pressing need to unlock nontraditional funding sources and explore alternative financing mechanisms to sustain and scale resilience efforts across the region.

 Addressing persistent issues like high unemployment, limited access to quality education, and socio-economic barriers faced by vulnerable communities, especially youth, refugees, and women requires multi-stakeholder collaboration. The private and public sectors, along with philanthropic organizations, need to collaborate to mobilize resources, share knowledge, and implement strategies tailored to local contexts for sustainable development.

This report is based on the first workshop of the AGF-UNDP Thought Leadership Series, held on 4th December 2024 in Amman, that represented a significant step toward co-creating resilience-based solutions and fostering cross-sector collaboration. I. Executive Summary Box 1: About the Thought Leadership Series The Thought Leadership Series, co-convened by the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation (AGF) and UNDP’s Sub-Regional Response Facility (SRF), aims to advance resilience-based development through strategic philanthropy in the Arab region. Focused on addressing youth challenges in education, employment, and self-reliance, the initiative will facilitate strategic convenings, knowledge exchange, and collaboration among philanthropic organizations, policymakers, donors and other key stakeholders. The partnership between UNDP and AGF underscores the role of philanthropy in bridging financing gaps for the SDGs and transitioning from crisis response to transformative resilience, particularly for vulnerable youth. The series aims to deepen engagement with philanthropy, promote learning, and strengthen adaptive solutions. Additionally, the initiative seeks to enhance collaboration between philanthropic organizations, traditional donors, the private sector, and IFIs, fostering next-generation philanthropy and sustainable impact. 02 Building on these discussions, the workshop generated key takeaways and actionable recommendations to strengthen resilience efforts through strategic philanthropy: