Policy Track 2: Sustainable Development Goals In a Changing Climate — SwitchMed

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Policy Track 2: Sustainable Development Goals In a Changing Climate



The session is an opportunity to debate the challenges of achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030, taking into account the impacts of climate change, as well as the state of conflict and chaos facing many parts of the world. The Arab region is a good example of a region facing conflicts, wars and occupation, and still having to achieve stringent development goals and targets by 2030. What are the enabling conditions that are needed to achieve the SDGs, broadly pertaining to governance and financing, with special concentration on Green Economy?

A wide range of initiatives and programmes are available in the MENA region for raising capacity among entrepreneurs for them to develop and put eco and social innovations in the market. Still, synergies among these initiatives are not well identified. Programmes could benefit from each other and build on each other's experience for enhancing the impact of the initiatives in building the eco system of entrepreneurs.



How to achieve the SGDs in the Arab region taking into account new challenges it is facing?

 

The objectives of this session were to highlight challenges of achieving the SDGs, with focus on the Arab region and the necessary enabling conditions.

 

 

The session was moderated by Mr. Najib Saab secretary General of the Arab Forum for Environment & Development (AFED), and targeted mainly policy makers. Panellists include:

  • Ms. Sabine Ghosn, Program Director of Lebanon Environmental Pollution Abatement Project (LEPAP) at the Lebanese Ministry of Environment
  • Ms. Michèle Gendreau-Massaloux, Vice president and responsible for inter-institutional relations in the Interacademic Group for Development (IGD)
  • Mr. Hussam Allam, Programme Manager, at the Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region & Europe (CEDARE), Egypt

 

First, Najib Saab introduced the different panellist then presented a preview of the main findings of AFED 2016 Annual Report on achieving SDGs. He highlighted that for most Arab countries current sustainable development plans will not be sufficient to re-establish the status-quo, and even less to achieve the SDGs by the 2030 target.

 

“There is a need of a nexus approach, combining water-energy-food, with the impact of climate change�

 

  

He suggested integrating sustainable development principles in the re-construction plans of countries that suffered from wars, conflicts or political upheavals, an approach advocated by AFED. You can check and download the presentations here.

 

 

Next to speak was Hussam Allam, from CEDARE. He explained the role of green economy in achieving the SDGs, with focus on the Arab region.

“We don’t see green economy impact but we feel its effect just like wind or electricity� Hossam Allam

In fact, Green Economy creates jobs and helps the shift towards cleaner production and the sustainable use of natural resources.

 

Ms. Sabine Ghosn, from the Lebanese Ministry of Environment, talked about how international and bilateral cooperation can help countries achieve the SDGs, taking the project she is managing as an example, with a special focus on concrete results. 

 

 

Ms. Ghosn manages the industrial pollution abatement project in Lebanon called LEPAP, funded by the World Bank and UNIDO in cooperation with Banque du Liban. The project enables factories to get soft loans to shift to cleaner production, provided they comply with conditions imposed by an environmental commitment certificate.

You can view and download her presentation here.

 

 

Then, Michèle Gendreau-Massaloux, responsible for inter-institutional relations in the Interacademic Group for Development (IGD), spoke about about how advancing education can help achieve the SDGs.  She introduced the different activities of the IGD including capacity building and technology transfer services. Michèle insisted that these activities are tailored to specific needs in response to specific requests.

You can view and download her presentation here.