The Tawakkol Karman Foundation concluded today, Sunday, in Istanbul, the proceedings of the First Conference for Yemeni Researchers and Experts, which was held over two days (October 11–12, 2025) under the theme “No Leader but Knowledge.” The event witnessed broad participation from a distinguished group of Yemeni academics and experts, who arrived from inside Yemen and more than 15 countries around the world. Attendance exceeded 200 participants.

Below is the full text of the conference’s final statement:

Final Statement of the Yemeni Researchers and Experts Conference
October 11–12, 2025
There’s No Leader but Knowledge

In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful
Under the slogan “There’s No Leader but Knowledge”, the first Yemeni Researchers and Experts Conference concluded its sessions in Istanbul on October 11–12, 2025, organized by Tawakkol Karman Foundation with the participation of a broad spectrum of Yemeni academics, researchers, and experts from within Yemen and fifteen countries around the world.

Throughout its scientific sessions, the conference sought to deconstruct the complex Yemeni question into its fundamental components. Participants presented more than forty academic papers and studies addressing development issues in diverse fields including education, health, food security, energy, national identity, politics, and economy. Each research group approached its field with scientific rigor and analytical insight, producing conclusions and recommendations that may contribute to shaping practical and realistic solutions to Yemen’s ongoing crises.
It has been decided that all research papers and studies presented during the conference will be published in a dedicated academic volume to document its proceedings, outcomes, and recommendations.
The organizers of the conference recognize that Yemen, as both a state and a nation, has for more than a decade been moving along a path without guidance, descending to the lowest rungs of global decline. The Yemeni issue has reached a level of complexity that has rendered politics itself devoid of meaning, substance, and capacity to generate solutions. Politics alone can no longer serve as the "golden key" to salvation, as has often been claimed, for the nation’s affairs have become too grave to be left solely to politicians.
Over the years, the scientific and intellectual elite has been excluded from policymaking and decision-making processes, with dire consequences. As the Arab philosopher Abu al-Ala al-Ma’arri once said, “There is no leader but reason,” and reason is knowledge, and knowledge is the path to salvation.
Engaging the country’s highly qualified academic community in the public discourse has therefore become a national necessity. Their participation can open pathways to recovery that politics alone cannot envision, and help build a solid common ground for a society that is in urgent need of it.
It is time for the scientific community, long deprived of its platform and its voice, to finally be heard. This conference provided that platform, enabling it to express its vision and share the fruit of its thought and expertise, culminating in a series of key recommendations:

Academic Education
•    Establish a comprehensive national vision to reform higher education and scientific research, aligning academic specializations with the requirements of future development such as artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and cybersecurity, and linking them to the labor market.
•    Protect the entire academic chain, from university students to curricula to professors. This requires safeguarding education from ideological bias and recognizing the university professor as an essential pillar of national security and a guardian of the nation’s future.
•    Create an equitable and motivating educational environment that reinforces national identity, ensures equal access to education, and benefits from the expertise of the Yemeni diaspora in developing higher education and scientific research.

Medical Infrastructure in Yemen
•    Expand healthcare services to reach rural areas and implement a comprehensive health insurance system by restructuring health financing and strengthening partnerships with the private sector, civil society, and international organizations to ensure sustainability.
•    Recognize that wars and conflicts leave behind broken societies and that the psychological effects of war may persist across two or three generations. A national strategy must therefore be developed to address and contain these effects over time.
•    Establish a nationally integrated system for physical and mental health by developing infrastructure, integrating services within primary care, and modernizing pharmaceutical management to guarantee safety and quality.
•    Utilize artificial intelligence and digital health technologies to enhance service efficiency while enforcing strict oversight of both public and private healthcare sectors to ensure transparency and quality.

The Reality and Future of Political Life
•    Reaffirm commitment to Yemen’s national principles represented in the republican system, unity, and democracy, foremost among them freedom of expression, thought, scientific research, and the peaceful transfer of power through free and direct elections. Emphasize integrity in governance and independence in national decision-making.
•    Establish a unified national leadership with a shared vision that adopts a new social contract based on citizenship, competence, national reconciliation, and transitional justice. It must criminalize hate speech and exclusion, rebuild the national movement as an inclusive reference point, and restore public trust.
•    End militarization and build a civil state by disarming all armed groups and reintegrating combatants into state institutions in a way that strengthens the rule of law and national unity. Adopt a political code of honor that criminalizes all forms of hate speech and racial superiority.

Economy
•    Build sustainable peace as the foundation of a sustainable economy by ending the war, unifying economic institutions, especially the Central Bank, and establishing a National Reconstruction Fund managed transparently in cooperation with international partners. Promote good governance, combat corruption, and restore basic services.
•    Diversify the national economy through the development of agriculture, fisheries, and rare minerals, launching strategic projects such as the Bab al-Mandab–Djibouti Bridge, establishing a unified national database, and strengthening the role of the private sector and both domestic and foreign investment in achieving sustainable development.

Energy and Food
•    Approve a comprehensive national energy policy that reviews gas and oil agreements, prioritizes citizens’ access to electricity and gas, and expands investment in renewable energy such as solar and wind. Create an enabling legislative and financial environment and build national capacities for efficient and sustainable sector management.
•    Strengthen food security as a national priority by expanding household hydroponic farming, empowering rural communities to manage their resources, and supporting the Yemeni honey sector as part of rural development programs. Energy and food security must become the twin pillars of recovery, reconstruction, and national stability.
•    Develop a comprehensive national environmental policy that includes sustainable waste management, pollution reduction, encouragement of recycling and eco-friendly practices across institutions and communities, and the promotion of community-based environmental innovations.

National Identity and Its Transformations
•    Launch a national project for inclusive identity grounded in social consensus around shared values, drawing lessons from countries that have strengthened their national identity through education, media, and inclusive policies. This should reinforce justice, belonging, and unity while protecting society from division.
•    Harness cultural and intellectual tools as instruments of soft power, including patriotic music, enlightened religious thought, and creative cultural production, to promote national cohesion, counter extremism through rational discourse, and highlight Yemen’s positive identity at home and abroad.

Technology
•    Harness technology and artificial intelligence across key sectors such as education, health, agriculture, administration, infrastructure, energy, and digital governance, making innovation and knowledge the cornerstone of development and progress.

Finally
As we hold fast to hope and strive to chart a path toward Yemen’s salvation, we call on friendly and brotherly nations to build relationships based on partnership rather than dependency, grounded in mutual respect and shared interests. We believe that cooperation with our friends and neighbors should be directed toward building a future in which comprehensive development stands at the heart of the vision for restoring and rebuilding the state, for it is the true path to Yemen’s renaissance, progress, and rightful place among nations.
The conference extends its deepest appreciation to all researchers and experts whose scholarly papers and insightful contributions enriched its discussions and ensured its success as a national scientific forum. It also expresses profound gratitude to the Scientific Committee for its academic preparation and meticulous review of the conference’s research topics.
Special thanks and sincere appreciation are extended to Tawakkol Karman Foundation for its exceptional effort in organizing this conference, which would not have been possible without the creativity, energy, and dedication of its dynamic team.
In conclusion, we reaffirm our commitment to continue expanding this circle of light by engaging more academic and scientific voices and addressing new fields such as literature, environment, governance, and the humanities. Together, we will strive for a public discourse led by knowledge and guided by science, moving beyond the technical boundaries of academia toward a comprehensive vision of the Yemeni question.
For there is no leader but knowledge, knowledge in all its truths, its imagination, and its vastness.

And God is the source of success.
Issued by the First Yemeni Researchers and Experts Conference
Istanbul, October 12, 2025