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Ideagen Radio
Ideagen Radio
Global Sustainability Initiative: Saudi Vision 2030 & Youth Leadership at Ideagen Summit
Ideagen Global, in partnership with Delos Arabia and The Sustainability Professionals of Saudi Arabia (SPSA), is excited to announce the upcoming Global Sustainability Initiative (GSI) Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Moderated by Delos Arabia Founder Shannon Dunn, the discussion features Dr. Mohammed Al-Surf of the Tilad Group alongside Saudi Model United Nations representatives: Ibrahim Junaid (President), Abdullah Edini (Founder), and Abbad Abduljawad (Head of PR). They explore the critical role of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their implementation in Saudi Arabia. With around 60% of the Saudi population under 30, our guests highlight the nation's strong commitment to the SDGs and the vision to use 2030 as a pivotal checkpoint for continued national and global sustainability efforts.
#ideagenglobal #Impact2030 #Delos #saudiarabia #SPSA #smuniswamy
Delos: https://delos.com/
SPSA: https://spsaonline.net/
Saudi Model UN: https://linktr.ee/Saudimunassociation
Shannon Dunn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-m-dunn-6647322a1/
Dr. Mohammed Al-Surf: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohammedalsurf/
Ibrahim Junaid: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ibrahim-junaid-228098282/
Abdullah Edini: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abdullah-al-edini-868581242/
Abbad Abduljawad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbad-abduljawad-7059902a4/
Watch the entire 2030 Global Impact Summit here: https://www.ideagenglobal.com/2024globalimpactsummit
Tanya Cushman Reviewer. Reviewer. Welcome to Athens, greece and the Ideagen Global Impact 2030 Summit. We could not be more thrilled to announce today here in Athens, the birthplace of democracy, the announcement of the Global Sustainability Initiative with our partners here. Shannon Dunn. Shannon welcome Shannon.
Speaker 2:Dunn, Thank you.
Speaker 1:Mr and Dr Mohamed Alsarf thank you, mr.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much for having us.
Speaker 4:Mr and gentlemen, would you introduce yourselves, Abdullah Al Hello everyone, I'm Abdullah Al-Adani, the founder of the Saudi Amirate Association Rahim.
Speaker 5:Junaid. Good evening everyone. I am Rahim Junaidh, the founding member of the Saudi Ammune Association and now serving as the president.
Speaker 6:Abad Abdel Jawad Al-. I am Abad Abdel Jawad, the head of public relations at the Saudi Ammune Association.
Speaker 1:The Global Sustainability Initiative, born in Saudi Arabia, highlights local to global solutions for sustainability. Dr Mohamed, why is this such an important initiative?
Speaker 3:Well, first of all, thank you for having us and giving us the opportunity to announce this amazing initiative. Basically, like what has been discussed today, there's lots of efforts, either locally or globally, focusing on the sustainability goals in general, and what we found is there's lack of communication between different stakeholders. Everybody's kind of like working in silos and in different cross sectors, so working with the market, with different stakeholders, we found that there's a need for it to initiate it from Saudi Arabia to the rest of the world. So it's a local initiative with global impact.
Speaker 1:Fantastic Shannon. Why is this so important to you?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm so grateful for the opportunity to live in Saudi Arabia, as you know, and to work with leaders like Dr Mohamed and everyone else on our team Dr Mohammed and everyone else on our team and it's honestly so motivating to be there and to be among the leadership and during such a period of tremendous transformation. Tremendous transformation, it's unreal and the vision of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a call to action and I'm hopeful that, with Dr Mohamed and with you and everyone else, especially young leaders like these three young gentlemen who are so impressive. They are responding to the call of action and I hope the GSI can also offer another platform for connection.
Speaker 1:That's right, and you are the future, and we're talking about the future, and the Global Sustainability Initiative will take place at the first summit. It will take place in Riyadh on October 30 and 31. How exciting is that. Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Amazing, can't wait.
Speaker 1:The announcement's been made. We'll see you all in Riyadh on October 30, 31, 2024. George Safakis, CEO and founder of IdeaGen Global.
Speaker 2:Shannon Dunn of DLS Arabia.
Speaker 3:Dr Mohamed Assarf of Tilad Group and founder of SPSA.
Speaker 1:And future global leaders.
Speaker 5:thank you, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Thank you everyone. See you in Riyadh.
Speaker 7:And now our next panel discussion is about growth, sustainability and integrity. It is an initiative framework within Saudi Arabia that focuses on promoting sustainable economic growth, environmental stewardship and ethical practices across various sectors. Please welcome Shannon Dunn of Delos Arabia, dr Mohammed Al-Surf of the TILAD Group, abdullah Eddini, ibrahim Junaid and Abad Abdullahi Wahaud of Saudi Model United Nations.
Speaker 2:I'd like to ask Abdullah Ibrahim and Abad if you can explain why the global goals are so critical for the planet.
Speaker 5:I think I'd like to start off on this Before we touch on the answer to this question. I would just like to touch on how fascinating the global goals really are, Because when 193 member states all come together as one and they realize that this is something bigger than them and then work towards that cause, then that truly shows that this is something special. And now to answer that question, the global goals are vital for the shared vision we have for a sustainable future, a future that the youth of today will inherit and shape. And, as the president of the Saudi Amir Association, I've witnessed firsthand the youth engagement when it comes to these pressing global issues.
Speaker 5:Since SMA's inauguration in the midst of 2023, we've seen a remarkable surge in modern nation conferences, from a mere five in the 2022-23 academic year to an impressive 20 in the last one. That's a 300% increase. And this increase shows how much the global goals resonate with the youth and that it does truly mean something special to them. And SMA has provided a platform for young minds to really show fresh perspectives on pressing global issues. And this enthusiasm is critical for reaching a sustainable future. And, as Winston Churchill once said, success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm and I'm sure in our journey towards a sustainable future we will encounter many failures, but we must not let that affect our journey and we must get back up, try again and again, and again until we reach our goal.
Speaker 2:Wonderful Thank you.
Speaker 4:Abdullah To me. I've always liked to have something to look up to, and I believe the global goals are the perfect example, having that set goal, that pinpoint you have to look at in order to achieve something that we all wish for, and I think those global goals are what inspire the youth, whether it was in Saudi Arabia, over here in Athens, in any place in the world. I think the global goals are a perfect pinpoint to reach global unity and global dreams.
Speaker 2:Wonderful, I couldn't agree more. And Abad.
Speaker 6:I think I'd like to reiterate what my colleagues Abdullah and Ibrahim said. Global goals are extremely essential in our modern world and I'm actually quite thankful that at SMA we have the opportunity to work directly towards implementing them into the Saudi youth and into the kind of youth culture of Nations sustainable development goals in our country and in our city.
Speaker 2:Wonderful and, for those of you who don't know, in Saudi Arabia, 70% of the population is under the age of 35. And part of Vision 2030 is focusing on education in an extremely impactful way, and these three young gentlemen are a testament to what they are doing right and Dr Mohamed as one of the top voices of sustainability. Why do you think it's so critical to focus on sustainability leading into 2030?
Speaker 3:That's actually a big question which I think we're going to need days to explain. But the Saudi vision, basically, when the Crown Prince Mohammed Salman announced it back in 2016, it was actually built on the three pillars of sustainability, a thriving economy, a prosperous environment and focusing on the society as well. So it was embedded in the DNA of the Saudi vision, which, again, was built on the sustainable development goals. So it encompasses all of what we're talking about today and it's a roadmap to reach 2030, but it's not the end by 2030.
Speaker 3:And this was stated by His Royal Highness in one of his interviews that what's after 2030? He said 2040. So 2030 is just kind of like, let's kind of like the checkpoint, where we see where we are, are we following our KPIs, are we achieving them and so on. So the importance of it, as you see here today, we have these youths with us, are representing what the global goals are and are ambassadors of the Saudi vision 2030. And they inspire us to actually move forward and do more. And that's why we are here today to actually celebrate and announce the Global Sustainability Initiative, to drive forward the initiatives that Saudi Arabia leadership has put forward.
Speaker 2:Wonderful yes and Ibrahim. Why are leadership and diplomacy so vital for the world to achieve the global goals?
Speaker 5:I think Adeni is better suited to answer this question, as he is an example of taking initiatives and showing leadership, so I think he should answer this question. Thank you, ibrahim.
Speaker 4:So, if we look at leadership and we look at democracy, those are two sides of a coin. A coin just like the one I have here has a pin. This pin is of Alexander the Great. He's a leader, a conqueror, who the entire world looked up to. Now this coin is like the coins you use in an arcade, where, without this coin, you won't be able to have the machine start and you won't be able to play the game.
Speaker 4:Alexander the Great contributed directly to democracy and those two sides of the coin have to work together. So without democracy, leadership won't exist, and without leadership, democracy won't exist. Now, looking at the aspect of global goals, global goals are something that will unite the front and it will advance a lot of aspects. So let's take, for example, sustainable development, goal number four, which speaks about education.
Speaker 4:Education is a really important part and, as a student who just graduated at Abad and Ibrahim, I wish you good luck in your senior year. It's going to be tough, I know, but I'm sure you'll go through it. It's a really important phase. It teaches us, it develops our skills, and those two aspects are incorporated in the education system, and that's a really great step. Now there's something also that I like to address, which is the idea of leadership. There's a huge misconception that only specific people can be leaders, but through my journey with SMA, meeting 15,000 students in our conferences, I was able to get to know that anyone can be a leader and every single human being has the ability to be a leader and their own core skills that can shine. And through the ability of leadership and democracy, going again to the side of the coin, through this we can achieve the global goals and have that true goal of advancement.
Speaker 5:And just to add on to what he said about UN SDGs, what we do when we help host a conference in Saudi Arabia is we make sure that the topics directly correlate to the UN SDGs, such as child poverty, child labor, human trafficking. These are just a handful of examples that are discussed in over 20 conferences, as I mentioned before. So when people have the opportunity, or the young people especially when they have the opportunity to discuss these topics, we get a new perspective on these problems.
Speaker 6:I think, if I was to add on something, something that a lot of people might realize that a way of the way me and Abdullah and Ibrahim discuss is in terms of a lot of ambition ambition of what we want to do as young leaders, or what expectations we have of ourselves towards our country and how we want to serve it, or, in general, how we want to serve the world. And one of the things that I really noticed and I'd like to add on to Abdullah's point is we've met a lot of people in the modern United Nations. It's a beautiful culture and it kind of builds a little society. And I've realized and I'm sure all of my associates here have also realized there are a lot of leaders and there is a lot of potential in the youth culture in Saudi Arabia and in general in society.
Speaker 6:And the only thing that's missing and I know a lot of people realize it, but it's taking the initiative to follow your passions.
Speaker 6:And following your passions and taking the initiative to actually do it is the first step to hoping to achieve some of these goals, no matter how big or small they are. So if we were discussing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the first step is really taking initiative, and on a smaller scale to the scale of our peers and associates back home in Saudi Arabia. Truly, the first step of leadership and the first step of prosperity is taking the initiative to try and reach it. So, and I'm very glad as well that at SMA, one of our goals, or one of the main pillars of what our work is, is we try and foster this passion inside of the youth culture we encourage, or what our work is is basically encouraging students to research these political issues and these global goals and these global issues and how they can contribute. So it's a really wonderful opportunity for students and this, or in my opinion, is how leadership is kind of formed in, not only in Saudi Arabia but globally as well.
Speaker 5:And just one more thing to add on as they say, the hardest step is the first step, the step of taking that initiative, and I encourage everyone that is watching this to take the first step, because only together can we reach a sustainable future.
Speaker 4:The way we see it is, every person is a seed, a seed that needs cultivating, and the only way to cultivate it is to take the first step.
Speaker 2:Beautiful to cultivate it is to take the first step. Beautiful, beautiful, Dr Mohammed. What is an example of a project in Riyadh that will impact sustainability for the planet?
Speaker 3:Honestly, there's multiple projects and each one of them competes with each other in terms of how impactful they can be. And with the Saudi vision, you know, and the public investment funds that have announced multiple projects throughout the past years, I probably would pick two projects that will actually have a big impact. One is for an outdoor project which is called Sports Boulevard and it's going to be the longest sports boulevard in the world where it's going to take kind of a pedestrian path from west to east, passing through the north. So it's a huge urban development scale project which actually promotes sustainability in all aspects, specifically in health and well-being and activity and community engagement, and the way of it is it connects the whole city fabric together and promotes activity and promotes health and well-being through cycling, walking, and achieves all of the sustainability impacts through utilization of local materials, local species of landscaping and all of that water efficiency features and all of that. So that's in terms of the urban scale development as a set-alone project.
Speaker 3:There's the Dera'iya Gate project, which is actually achieving sustainability in multiple facets, but one of the most important ones is heritage and culture and it preserves that, and the CEO of Dari'a Gate always says there's only one Dari'a, and it's true to its full extent. So the Dari'a Gate project is actually going to achieve sustainability because of its way of design. It uses the organic fabric of the old city of Dariya. Dariya is basically the birthplace of Saudi Arabia and it's where the royal family came up from and to preserve that, the kingdom and the leadership sought to actually develop it and preserve it and build around it and actually educate people, educate youth, educate you know, the coming generations of the importance of that specific project. So it it's going to achieve sustainability and different, as I said, facets and, uh, it's a huge opportunity to learn from, like what we have here. You know, in Athens, the birthplace of democracy, we have the Acropolis, for example. We can still see it. So same thing that will happen in Saudi.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm so glad you brought up the Reagate and, as we heard from Alexandra Mitsotakis earlier, ancestral intelligence might be my new favorite way to describe AI.
Speaker 3:And connecting the past with the future and consistency, exactly.
Speaker 2:How is the UN leading in bringing together the 193 member nation states of the UN surrounding the UN sustainability goals?
Speaker 6:Now, if you allow me to look at it from a more philosophical aspect, one piece or we all have to recognize one true fundamental nature about, in general, sustainability. What is the nature of sustainability and why do we try to achieve it? It is based on the idea that everything erodes, or everything erodes and needs to be maintained. This plant next to me needs to be maintained. This plant next to me needs to be watered or else it will die. The cultural sites which Mr George and Mrs Alexandria bring up quite often need to be maintained or they will be turned to rubble. Everything needs to be maintained. Now if we were to look at a broader aspect and a more, let's say, significant global aspect, if we were to look at political relationships or economic relationships or everything that kind of binds our modern world together, in the same way that these cultural sites need to be maintained and this plant needs to be watered, that too will erode and needs to be maintained. So the idea of sustainability, in my opinion, and in the concept or with relevance to the concept of erosion, brings up three things, or the United Nations, in my opinion, tries to push for three really important things. First of all, it creates a standard. It creates a standard for all countries, internationally, all businesses, all organizations and individuals should follow, all organizations and individuals should follow, and creating a standard is really important because it sets the tone for what countries are expected to be doing and what is kind of expected at the world stage. Now the idea and what's so great about setting an international standard is this standard can be implemented very easily and it's kind of automatic for countries to want to really adhere to it. So, for example, the most technologically advanced countries are ones that adhere to the highest standard of, for example, maintaining the environment or some of these other standards that are set by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and they're easy to implement because they can be based on numerical values. So we want to set a standard of a certain or X number of tons of carbon emissions every year, and those countries that don't abide by the standard are just not abiding by kind of what people or what countries are doing. So setting a standard is kind of one of the most important factors or one of the most important tools that the United Nations really uses to help achieve these UN SDGs Another really important thing that they like to get to or another really important aspect of what they do is accountability.
Speaker 6:There's a lot of accountability on the part of countries, organizations, individuals on what is expected by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and this really ties back into what standards they set. And there's accountability. Nobody wants to be the organization or the country or the individual that doesn't really adhere to the standard. So it sets accountability and it sets a standard, but most importantly, in my opinion, it fosters collaboration between countries.
Speaker 6:So setting a standard is not enough, or perhaps setting accountability is also not enough to really achieve these huge goals, that kind of pertain to every single individual in society. But making collaboration between these countries or having collaboration between these businesses, individuals and firms is the thing that really prevents that erosion that I mentioned earlier, the erosion of economic ties, political ties and all of these really important bases of our society. So I think the United Nations really has three modes of really ensuring that these United Nations sustainable development goals are implemented, and that is accountability and collaboration. And they set a basic standard that everybody is not only expected to adhere to but it's in their own interest to do it. So these are kind of the modes that they use to really interact wonderful.
Speaker 4:Thank you, abad abdallah um, in my opinion, the idea of having a united front, and this is exactly how I got the idea for the Saudi Amirate Association. Now for me. I started Model UN at a very young age. I started at the seventh grade, so I used to attend those conferences and then attend another conference, and there's a huge contradiction between the two conferences. One follows a specific rule, the other doesn't, and so, as a seventh grader, I got really confused. It's something I'm passionate about, but I'm confused, I don't have a guideline to go through with, and so, with time, I realized that there is a potential to have a united front, to have an association, an aspect to look forward to in order to have that standard. And this is exactly what the UN does, and I take great inspiration from this. It's a united front that everyone can go through, everyone can follow, and those goals are a inspiration for everyone.
Speaker 6:I think, if I was to add on one more thing, it's very important to address the erosion of civilization, the erosion of everything in nature or everything in society. So In addressing these natural occurrences, the erosion of these fundamental pillars of society, through accountability and through the international standard, the United Nations really sets a very optimistic future that we look into because they are taking care of it, or we as a society take care of this erosion through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Speaker 5:we as a society take care of this erosion through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. One last thing to add, like I mentioned earlier, about how fascinating the UN SDGs are, because it might be the only time when all 193 member states all come together and they agree on one thing, which is our future, because our future is the most important. It's something that our future, because our future is the most important. It's something that, as I mentioned earlier, something that the next generation will inherit, and when these member states are coming together, they realize this, and that is why it is quite fascinating how this is one of the only things that has everyone agreed to it.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's phenomenal. Thank you so much, Dr Mohamed. What does sustainability mean to you and why should everyone participate in global sustainability?
Speaker 3:Okay, that's a tough question again. Sustainability basically to me means life in a simple form. Basically to me means life in a simple form, preserving life and enhancing life and providing a better life for the future, and whatever comes within that terminology of life. Then you as a human being have the responsibility to basically do what you can with what you have to provide for the next generation and hand over the baton to future generations as well. Now, the global goals basically gave us a framework, gave us a definition of how to do that, and it's not a set rule, of codes or regulations that are mandatory. And this is again to reiterate about the 193 nations that came together and agreed upon it, not by force but by choice. And then we saw another achievement in COP28 in UAE, where actually the definition of climate change and global warming was agreed upon, and that in itself is an achievement for humanity.
Speaker 3:So when I look back to, you know what the rationale of sustainability means to me. I see it. You know we're still going to have some challenges ahead, but you know what we have as tools education. You know youth that can help us to achieve these goals. I see you know a bright future ahead.
Speaker 2:Wonderful, thank you. Why is the Global Sustainability Initiative exciting for you as we lead into 2030?
Speaker 3:It's an absolutely exciting time for me personally and, I think, for us, to collaborate on the Global Sustainability Initiative because throughout the past decade and a half, I've been working in Saudi Arabia on different fronts, promoting sustainability in the country and in the region sustainability in the country and in the region and I was lucky enough to be one of the first people in Saudi basically to actually practice that and promote that in different sectors and through different platforms. So through the years, I know what the challenges were in the market, and one example is education and the youth have faced and the knowledge transfer in the market. So it was time to actually cultivate all of that experience and see how we can provide a source of solution and give the right tools for everybody to actually achieve sustainability for the 2030 vision for Saudi Arabia, for example. And the reason we're focusing on Saudi Arabia is because it's actually setting an example for the world in different fronts and different achievements, Like, for example, the LINE project. It's a one-of-a-kind.
Speaker 3:I think it's much easier to go back to the moon than it is to actually, you know, achieve the Lime Project.
Speaker 3:But our leadership, Prince Mohammed Salman and his team, you know, are ambitious and we have the ambition we have, the initiative that you mentioned to really go forward and achieve those goals.
Speaker 3:Go forward and achieve those goals. So from that, I think all of those pieces to the puzzle came together and we worked together on achieving this goal and the Global Sustainability Initiative to actually have an action plan and set the track and the path for governments, the private sector, NGOs, education all of the sectors that we're going to see in October in Riyadh is basically a way forward of how people can actually communicate together and take those goals and take those guidelines and actually act upon them, from a country who is the biggest oil producer in the world, which should be the biggest polluter but they're working towards to be the biggest diversified economy and the cradle of really the carbon neutral that was announced by Saudi Arabia to be carbon neutral by 2060. So all of those announcements I think it was, you know, by default, we should do something, and that's where the Global Sustainability Initiative came into the picture.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and I'm excited for it, along with George Safakis, because we can have another time, like we've had here in Athens, to bring people together, to make connections and, to your point, to make unlikely connections, like Saudi Arabia, with sustainability. You have to learn a little more to realize what is actually happening there and the model that's being set for the kingdom and the region, but on a global basis, and I've enjoyed my time in Saudi Arabia so much because of the active participation of leadership and a global community coming together to visit Saudi Arabia at wonderful gatherings that bring the best of the best talent from all sectors and convene and communicate and connect, and I think that's what we've done here today, thanks to IdeaGen and George Safakis and his team, and ACS and Dr Peggy Polonis and her team. Thank you very much and I hope you'll all join us in Riyadh October 30th and 31st. Thank you.