An Alliance event in partnership with International Rescue Committee, Sesame Workshop and the MacArthur Foundation

Embracing innovation and partnership–and reshaping how we think about risk–enabled new, unconventional solutions to meet the needs of children and families in nearly impossible contexts. Ahlan Simsim’s funders were careful to ensure that the size and prominence of the grants did not restrict creativity or experimentation. Instead, they encouraged it, at the same time that the COVID19 pandemic and other emerging crises demanded it.

The resulting initiative, Ahlan Simsim or "Welcome Sesame" in Arabic is now the single largest early childhood intervention in the history of humanitarian response. Integrating educational media with direct services for families, Ahlan Simsim provides transformational early childhood development and playful learning that is now part of daily life for millions of children in the Middle East.

In this conversation, learn from Ahlan Simsim's program leads at Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) along with the MacArthur Foundation about how experimentation yielded huge breakthroughs, and how future funders and humanitarian organisations can centre innovation and learning for good.

Featuring program staff from IRC, MacArthur Foundation and Sesame Workshop, this event will take you inside the Ahlan Simsim initiative, sharing lessons like:

What adaptable, longterm funding can make happen how the funds over six years enabled innovation and drove scale for longterm impact

How the IRC and Sesame Workshop integrated educational media and content with direct services to drive impact and learning

How funders can support and encourage innovation and collaboration

How to build and scale partnerships for longterm, lasting impact

How the way you give is as powerful as how much you give in a sector where the average crisis lasts years and the average grant lasts 1215 months, how approaches like longterm funding, adaptable approaches and true partnership can leverage more money and drive bigger change

Joe Elias
Senior Director for Program Management International Programs
Sesame Workshop

Kristen Molyneaux
Vice President of Program Strategy and Learning
Lever for Change, a nonprofit affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Marianne Stone
Regional Project Director Ahlan Simsim
International Rescue Committee