The activities of the International Conference “Universities and Sustainable Development Goals 2030: Targets and Practices”, hosted by Majmaah University under the patronage of His Excellency the Minister of Education Mr. Yousef Al-Benyan, came to an end.
The second of the conference featured three plenary sessions, multiple workshops and signing MoUs with international bodies.
The second plenary session under the theme "sustainable development goals and the Kingdom's vision 2030" was chaired by Dr. Bashayer Al-Rumaih, Assistant Professor of Program Evaluation MU, and presented by Dr. Abdelhakeem Al-Majed, Dean of College of Engineering, Prince Sultan University, Eng. Mustafa Al-Shehri, ESG Executive Director at SABIC, Prof. Sami Al-Ghamdi, Prof. Sustainable Built Environment at King Abdullah University, Dr. Wafa Al-Tuwaijri, Board Member in CIFAL Saudi, Mrs. Alia bint Talal bin Musaed, United Nation Department of Economic and Social Affairs, NY, and Eng. Mulla Al-Ahmadi, MA in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University and expert at World Bank.
The third plenary session under the theme "the role of universities in achieving SDGs: current and realities" was chaired by Dr. Naif Al-Shammari, Assistant Professor of AI at MU, and presented by Prof. Mariza Sanchez, Vice-President of Applied Management University, Germany, Dr. Edna Estefania, Director of CIFAL, Philippines, Prof. Mohammed Harbour, Director of Robert W. Galvin Center for Electrical Innovation at Illinois State University, USA, Dr. Wuhyan Sim, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of International Research and Education, Waseda University, Japan, Prof. Ali Asghari, Prof of Disaster and Emergency Management, York University, Canada and Prof. Allam Ahmed, Professor of Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development at Queen Mary University of London and President of World Association for Sustainable Development.
The fourth plenary session under the theme "proposed insights to activate the role of universities in achieving SDGs. " was chaired by Dr. Aiman Al-Barakati, Director of CIFAL, Saudi, and presented by the Ambassador Laslzo Molnar, Member of UN panel of Expert, Dr. Crystal Tremblay, CIFAL Victoria Director, Canada, Prof. Caludio Canizares, director of the Sustainable Energy Institute, Waterloo University, Canada, Dr. Yasmin Ulker, deputy director of CIFAL, Turkey, Prof. Mohammed Attia, expert in integrating the 2030 SDGs into educational curricular, Egypt, and Prof. Osama Mohammed, Associate Dean of Research and Director of Energy Systems Research Laboratory, Florida University.
At the end of the conference, Mr. Alex Mejia, the director of CIFAL Global Network, delivered a closing speech followed by the recommendations session which was addressed by prof. Musallam Al-Dosari, the vice-rector for development and investment.
It is worth noting that the core objectives of this conference are to enrich a dialogue around sustainable development and how to foster the achievement of SDGs, emphasizing the instrumental role of universities in this pursuit. It also emphasizes on building strategic partnerships to bolster sustainable practices and initiatives, amalgamate diversity of insights and solutions to have a richer and multi-dimensional understanding of sustainability through creating an environment that emphasize the role of universities in accelerating the effort to achieve sustainable development goals 2030.