At the World Economic Forum Special Meeting on Economic Growth and Job Creation in the Arab World at the Dead Sea in Jordan this past weekend, a panel on Addressing the Employment Challenge brought together panelists Habib Haddad, CEO of Wamda and WEF co-chair, Soraya Salti, Senior VP MENA of Injaz al Arab, Mohammed al Mady, CEO of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and Nemat Shafik the Deputy Managing Director of the IMF to discuss what the region really needs to do to create the millions of jobs that will have to be created in the next few years to employ the region's youth.

The idea of an Arab Marshall Plan was batted around at WEF, but our CEO called for "less leaders, more doers," noting that it's time to experiment with education rather than creating a master plan. In general, it can cost more to plan and manage complex systems than it does to bolster entrepreneurship and iterate with different curriculums for employment. "It's time to act," rather than plan, he said.