Under the patronage of His Excellency the Minister of Education Prof. Yousef Al-Benyan, MU held the International Conference “Universities and Sustainable Development Goals 2030: Targets and Practices”, during the period from 22-23, January, 2024. The conference and the associated events were inaugurated by MU's rector, Prof. Saleh Al-Mezal in the presence of university rectors and many academicians from around the world.
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.
The four major themes of the conference are: Development and sustainability: goals, concepts and implications, sustainable development goals and the Kingdom's vision 2030, the role of universities in achieving SDGs: current and realities and proposed insights to activate the role of universities in achieving SDGs.
The main plenary session was moderated by 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 panelist of this session were Mr. Abdulaziz Al-Wasil, Ambassador & Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations, Eng. Mansour Hilal Al-Mushaiti, the Vice-Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture and Dr. Raja Al-Marzouqi, Chief Economic Advisor at the Ministry of Economic and Planning.
The first plenary session was chaired by Dr. Abdullah Al-Muheisen and presented by Prof. Magdy Salama, International expert and prominent scientist in electrical power systems, University of Waterloo, Canada, Prof. Jennifer Milam, Vice- Chancellor of Newcastle University, Australia and Executive Director of CIFAL in Newcastle, Prof. Ihab Al-Saadani, Director of Advance Power and Energy Center at Khalifa University for Science and Technology, UAE, Prof. Asif Ahmed, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Mirzyme Therapeutics, Prof. Silvia Neira, Vice-President of the Globaa Initiative of Ageing & CIFAL Malaga Director, Spain, and Dr. Jonas Richard, Coordinator of United Nations Academic Impact Program (UNAI), Kristu Jayanti College, India.
MU's rector, Prof. Al-Mezal, honored the panelists in the conference, sponsors and the center's logo designer, Ms. Layla Al-Huzaimy. On the sideline of the conference, the rector also launched the art exhibition and signed a number of agreements in the field of development.