On the sidelines of the ASDW... Maat discusses the status of SDGs in conflicit afected countries

Maat Association for Peace, Development and Human Rights organized an event entitled “Sustainable Development in Arab Countries Affected by Conflicts...Towards Joint Efforts and Collective Action” during the Arab Sustainable Development Week.

Coordinated by Mr. Abdelrahman Basha, Director of Programs and Projects at Maat for Peace, the session shed lights on the reality of sustainable development in countries that suffered or still suffering from conflicts, in which the first speaker Dr. Salah Abdel Aati, Chairman of the ICSPR - International Commission to Support Palestinians Rights discussed the role of Western thought in globalizing colonial values in the region, pointing to the role of colonial thought in destroying all means of strengthening identity and development within the societies of occupied Palestine and both Gaza and West Bank as one of the repeated colonial plans, which created new contexts for thinking about development frameworks that support liberation, the identity of local citizens, and development that supports Palestinian national unity. He also highlighted the importance of creating a mixed economic system that focuses on combining the promotion of human value and achieving economic development at the same time, explaining that the Egyptian state and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had successful development models in this framework.

While Mr. Fadi Walid Akoum, the Lebanese writer and political analyst, pointed out the importance of looking at development from a modern framework that includes three aspects: well-studied development plans, civil society efforts, and media efforts, pointing out that one of the factors of weak knowledge of development thought and practices in local communities is the result of the lack of media efforts to introduce them and create mobilization and advocacy for them. In the same context, he shed light on the reality of sustainable development in Lebanese society, which suffers from major complications resulting from its demographic and sectarian division, which has hindered the expansion of development efforts horizontally within society, explaining the role of governments in advancing the wheel of development by taking the first steps, which is what happened in the Lebanese experience, where the government headed by Prime Minister Rafik Al -Hariri took the first step to advance development thought, which encouraged civil society to complete the steps.

While Dr. Hiba Al-Hariri, the Land and Water Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), focused on discussing the challenges of water and food security within Arab conflict societies, noting that Arab societies are already suffering from water scarcity crisis, and therefore conflicts represent an unprecedented element of danger in the countries of the region, as they have played a role in disrupting water, food and agriculture systems in local communities. During her speech, she also discussed the role of conflicts in creating multidimensional crises, most notably forced displacement, during which displaced persons experience a state of almost complete lack of resources, which has played a role in creating new development trends that include working to adopt innovative development plans and adopting specialized emergency strategies that are consistent with the reality and needs of each society suffering from conflict. She also discussed the role of FAO in studying the food needs of conflict societies and supporting Sudanese families through emergency relief aids and supporting ways to manage water resources in the Sana’a Basin in Yemen.

It is noteworthy that the 5th Arab Sustainable Development Week is being held this year from November 24 to 27, under the title “Sustainable Solutions for the Future” under the patronage of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt.