Participants in the first conference on SustainableDevelopment , organized by Yarmouk University through the Queen Rania Center for Jordanian Studies and Community Service in cooperation with the Center for Sustainable Development, entitled "From Vision to Reality: Assessing the Process of Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the Arab World", recommended the need to establish a joint Arab platform to monitor the progress made in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the Arab countries, and promote education for sustainable development to become a community culture and practice.
The participants also called for funding small projects and community initiatives, expanding regional and international partnerships, by building bridges of cooperation between universities, the private sector, governments, and civil society institutions, and activating regional dialogue platforms.
The President of the University, Dr. Islam Massad, who attended part of the activities of the closing session of the conference, stressed that the vision of the university is that this scientific meeting will remain an annual platform for dialogue and joint planning for a sustainable Arab future, stressing that Yarmouk University extends the hand of partnership to Arab universities and international organizations related to sustainable development issues to organizing the second edition of the conference.
He continued: In light of the recommendations of the conference, it is necessary to develop a regional electronic platform to collect and analyze development data in the Arab countries, so that it is a reference tool for decision makers and researchers.
Masad pointed to the importance of integrating the concepts of sustainability in educational curricula at all stages, and developing training programs to build the capacities of teachers and the educational community.
The conference, whose final statement was delivered by the Director of the Center, Dr. Abdelbaset Athamneh , started its work last Tuesday under the auspices of the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Zeina Toukan, witnessed the holding of 15 sessions in addition to the main dialogue session, in which 76 working papers were presented. The activities of the conference also witnessed parallel sessions represented by training workshops, and a collection of institutional successes stories.
