The Pearl Initiative, a UAE-based non-profit organisation founded in 2010 with a focus on fostering corporate transparency across Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states, has signed an agreement with global consultancy firm EY to compile an annual survey looking at family firms.

According to a statement released in June, the survey will track “issues related to governance within family firms across the GCC”, as well as look at governance, business, succession, ownership and philanthropy in family firms.

Both parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at EY headquarters based in London.   

Family-owned businesses employ an estimated 80 per cent of the region’s workforce and contribute to about 60 per cent to its gross domestic product. 

Former banker Yamama Al-Oraibi was appointed in April as CEO of the Pearl Initiative. Its founding patron is Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah, the third most populous city in the United Arab Emirates.  

While the UAE is developing a modern philanthropic scene rooted in the Arab region, Arab philanthropy has a long, ancient history inspired by the region’s religious and spiritual traditions. 

In more recent times, endowments are being revived with a considerable revamp of their governance and goals to secure a sustainable fund for modern Arab philanthropic foundations and civil society organisations. 

Read our latest analysis of endowment building in the Arab region and its renaissance.  

Shafi Musaddique is a news editor at Alliance magazine.