Qatar currently spends $500 million per week on infrastructure related to the 2022 World Cup, according to the emirate's finance minister.

This level of spending could continue until 2021, Ali Shareef Al-Emadi said, according to The Guardian. In total, more than $200 billion will be spent by Qatar in preparation for the international sporting event.

This whopping chunk of change dwarfs the $11 billion spent by Brazil for the 2014 World Cup, which was hailed as the most expensive since the competition began 84 years ago. Russia, the host of the upcoming the 2018 World Cup, plans to spend a total of some $10.7 billion.

Despite these staggering disparities, Emadi insists Qatar's World Cup will not be the most expensive in history.

"We are putting $200 billion in terms of infrastructure... If you look at stand alone, the World Cup, no it is not," the finance minister said.

Previously, officials had said that stadiums for the event will only cost $8 billion to $10 billion.

Emadi explained that much of the spending was on long-term infrastructure such as highways, rail, ports, airports, and even hospitals. As this infrastructure is not specifically for the World Cup, the finance minister doesn't see the $200 billion as the official price tag of hosting the event.

At the same time, the impetus for the rapid development of the infrastructure is the 2022 World Cup. While Qatar may have planned on building much of the infrastructure anyway, the World Cup has propelled the development at a faster pace.

This high spending comes as Qatar, which depends heavily on its natural gas and oil resources, faces a second year of multi-billion dollar budget deficits. Due to low oil and gas prices globally, the emirate ran a budget deficit of more than $12.8 billion in 2016 and expects to run a budget deficit of $7.8 billion in 2017.

Although Qatar has trimmed its budget significantly as a result, Emadi said the World Cup spending hasn't been touched.

“Having been on the receiving end of charity, I got issues with the traditional aid models,” proclaims Chaker Khazaal, the author of the ‘Confessions of a War Child’ trilogy. 

"It rarely empowers the receiver, but rather creates a dependent community. I got to have no respect or belief in that approach of traditional charity models.”

Chaker manages a for-profit program that offers refugees and migrants contractual remote employment in e-marketing, graphics, social media management and web development. “Today and with advanced communication methods - the internet, social media, etc. - it is easier to identify talents among refugees and invest.”

Chaker is also a public speaker and contributes to various publications, including The Huffington Post. His talks typically focus on refugee advocacy, placing special emphasis on the economic empowerment of refugees.

A refugee himself, Khazaal grew up in the Bourj El Barajneh camp in Beirut. Yet, unlike the crushing majority of exiles, his fate has taken a different path.

After immigrating to Canada, Khazaal was selected as one of four recipients of the Global Leaders of Tomorrow Award. Consequently, he studied at York University in Toronto and graduated in 2009 with a B.A. in International Development Studies. Such opportunities are very scarce however. The Global Leaders of Tomorrow Award only selects four individuals each year.

Khazaal is intent on replicating his experience at scale: Traditional charity creates a dependable generation he says, "the focus should be on economic empowerment instead."

Khazaal has authored three novels, inspired by his travels to refugee camps and conflict zones, and is currently working on his fourth.

In 2015, Esquire Middle East named him Man of the Year, and in 2016, he topped the list of 100 Most Powerful Arabs Under 40 published by Arabian Business Magazine. In the same year, he was presented with the Mentor Arabia Award by Queen Silvia of Sweden and Prince Turki Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. And in December 2016, he was awarded the Global Trailblazer together with Arianna Huffington by New York based NGO Bridges of Understanding.

Chaker has also cooperated with the Social Enterprise Project in Jordan to design the Chaker Scarf, embroidered by Palestinian refugees in Jordan.

Chaker will be speaking at STEP Conference 2017 this April.
You can get more information about the conference and see more speakers here.
Tickets are available here.