Hi, I’m Jehane! I’m a systems designer, strategist, and social entrepreneur who is passionate about the world and the systems that govern it.
Throughout my work, I combine my knowledge of international development, business management, and strategic design to build solutions for some of the world’s toughest problems.
I have a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies and Business Management from Boston College and a Masters in International Affairs with Concentrations in Economics and Cities & Social Justice from The New School, New York. I have also completed the Parsons Masters in Strategic Design and Management Capstone alongside different strategic design courses.
I love working at crossroads — mixing and merging disciplines, connecting different individuals, and synthesizing disconnected ideas for innovative projects to emerge.
I work on issues surrounding education, regenerative agriculture, food systems, climate change, refugees, slum dwellers, social inclusion, and local development. I have also engaged in policy writings and spoken at key UN conferences around my work.
I build out my own projects or work as a consultant for different organizations. Some of my projects fall under ioi strategic design, the integrated design agency I founded under the mission of merging systems and design thinking and harnessing collective intelligence to solve social problems.
My Areas of Work
-
Systems Thinking
Zooming out and looking at the big picture, mapping out the system, and understanding the different dynamics, factors, influences, forces and stakeholders that influence a certain area or problem.
-
Design Thinking
Zooming in and getting to the heart of the issue, using human-centered design principles and methods to understand what problems are faced, setting up user/ community workshops and co-creation sessions, creating user journeys, generating insights and more.
-
Integrated Research
Looking at a problem area or issue holistically and from different perspectives, using a mix of strategic design principles, systems thinking, traditional research, stakeholder research and more to provide a unique, multifaceted analysis.
-
Solution Vision Development
Building visions that are informed by holistic, integrated, human-centered research. Understanding what it takes to solve a problem and proposing concepts, solutions, and visions rooted in human needs and pressing issues.
-
Strategy and Planning
Developing a strategy to tackle any issue by looking at the long-term goal and planning a series of small-scale interventions to get there. Offering a roadmap that favors testing and experimentation and a validating-while-building approach.
-
Project Development
Taking on a project from start to finish, from problem solving to implementation. This includes a mix of all of the above but adds the element of physically building out and implementing projects after undergoing the research, strategy, and validation processes.
Projects
Farms Not Arms
I’m the co-founder and managing director of Farms Not Arms, an international design collective of architects, farmers, strategists and more working together to tackle food security, climate change, and social cohesion. The result is a scalable, multi-agricultural farm model combining regenerative agriculture with low-tech hydroponics to produce 3 times more food in any given space while sequestering carbon to reverse climate change. It is currently being implemented in Zahle, Beqaa, Lebanon.
Learning Blocks
I founded Learning Blocks, a 21st-century education certification system for non-formal and alternative forms of education. I got the idea for it after realizing the problem of certification in non-formal learning settings such as that of NGO-led education for refugees, developed the concept and assembled the team to build out a solution.
Learning Blocks created a blockchain-powered way to issue permanent, personalized certificates that contain encrypted, tamper-proof attachments of students’ individual achievements. Learning Blocks was built as a pilot, was tested in Jordan and Lebanon, received recognition by UNICEF, and was showcased at Web Summit 2019. From this pilot journey, I learned the limitations and benefits of technology in education for all.
Digilit Bootcamp
The Digilit Bootcamp is a result of an extensive education strategy on how to provide education in the 21st century given the fast rate of changes in the economy. It focuses on education provision in an underserved setting like that of refugees to ensure that education is equipping them with the right skills to partake in the productive economy and not be left behind. I designed this bootcamp as a means to lay the foundation for 21st century education with 3 sections: digital training, design thinking, and social and emotional learning using the arts.
The Launching Pad
The Launching Pad is an education strategy that I designed for a holistic, skills-based, student-centered 21st century education system that takes into account the changing world around us and its required skillsets as well as the inherent capacities, curiosities, and capabilities that each learner should develop within in order to thrive in an increasingly uncertain world.
Eliminating the Other
This project started in my Masters program as a design thinking inquiry into how to build inclusive environments, first as a group project comparing different cases of marginalization from gentrification in NYC to migrant workers in China and Syrian refugees globally in order to come up with a common framework for social integration. I later expanded it by applying it to the case of Syrian refugees and mapping out the different network of areas needed for smarter economic and social integration.
Public Speaking
UNESCO, Mobile Learning Week, Paris.
Presented “Digital Bootcamp: Laying Down the Foundations for a 21st Century Education”.
UN Habitat III, Thematic Meeting on Informal Settlements, South Africa.
Hosted side event ‘Eliminating the Other’ talking about how design thinking can illuminate governance challenges in creating more inclusive cities.
Policy Writings
-
Arab Center for Scientific Research and Humane Studies
I was selected to participate in Istanbul and Marrakech policy trainings in December 2017 and May 2018 respectively with a group of practitioners working on integration of refugees.
Following the series of policy workshops in Istanbul and Marrakech, I wrote the policy paper “Empowering NGOs to Provide Effective, 21st century education for Syrian Refugees.”
-
Habitat III, New Urban Agenda
I was invited to contribute to the policy papers, which where spearheaded by EAROPH, Australia, and that fed into the New Urban Agenda adopted by cities globally in Habitat III in October 2016.
I was a contributing writer to 2 Implementation Policy Papers regarding Municipal Finance (Issue paper 7) and Local Economic Development (Issue paper 12), where I proposed policy recommendations and action plan frameworks.
Featured in
LebNet: A woman on a mission: Jehane Akiki fights food scarcity in Lebanon
Agritecture: Farms Not Arms Tackles the Refugee and Food Security Crises
Rockefeller Foundation: A Call to Action: Multigenerational Collaboration for Food Systems Change
Kiron Talks... about Building Trust in Non-Formal Education