News
Environmental Stewardship in Qatar: Working together for greater impact
On 20 October 2020, the UNESCO Office for the Gulf States and Yemen (UNESCO GCCY) hosted an online roundtable event themed “Environmental Stewardship in Qatar: Working Together for Greater Impact.” The roundtable event was born out of the need to improve national awareness of environmental issues – such as biodiversity loss, climate change, and unsustainable use of natural resources – and to examine how to better promote and mainstream the concept of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
The online roundtable event brought together over 80 participants, including key Environmental Education (EE) stakeholders from the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Qatar National Commission, universities, local non-governmental organizations, international development agencies, and public and private sector entities.
Undertaken within the context of Target 4.7 of Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Agenda for 2030 and the UNESCO ESD 2030 Framework, the roundtable affirmed that EE is one of the most transformative tools for advancing sustainable development in Qatar. The wide range of presentations and interventions explored innovative coordination approaches for strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships and alignment of ESD activities amongst all stakeholders and actors in Qatar’s education sector.
The importance of ESD is well reflected in a wide range of legal and policy instruments in Qatar, especially the Qatar National Vision (QNV) 2030. Given this strong emphasis, EE projects, programmes and activities are on the rise in the country, aiming at promoting holistic, lifelong and systematic understanding and knowledge of environmental issues amongst the entire population of Qatar.
The roundtable demonstrated a clear need for a national EE network that will bring together all environmental educators, policy makers, institutional leaders, parents, community groups and other stakeholders in Qatar to share resources, ideas and information.Several of the questions and discussions focused on the need for proper alignment of environmental sustainability activities at all educational levels and bringing together all EE actors to collaboratively advance ESD initiatives. Discussants also identified the need to integrate strong Qatari content into ESD initiatives. In addition, one of the key barriers identified for the implementation of a coherent and comprehensive program of EE initiatives was a lack of structured communication and collaboration between the various EE actors. There is currently no database, platform or website where all activities relating to ESD in Qatar can be accessed. Consequently, information on ESD resources, activities, actors and events are sparse and fragmented.
Despite the clear impetus for an EE network in Qatar, its success will, to a large extent, depend on the ownership of the initiative by local institutions and availability of financing and resources for its short and long term objectives. To achieve the desired impact, UNESCO and prospective EE network members will need to work together to strengthen investment and alignment with global best practices in ESD.
The online roundtable event brought together over 80 participants, including key Environmental Education (EE) stakeholders from the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Qatar National Commission, universities, local non-governmental organizations, international development agencies, and public and private sector entities.
Undertaken within the context of Target 4.7 of Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Agenda for 2030 and the UNESCO ESD 2030 Framework, the roundtable affirmed that EE is one of the most transformative tools for advancing sustainable development in Qatar. The wide range of presentations and interventions explored innovative coordination approaches for strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships and alignment of ESD activities amongst all stakeholders and actors in Qatar’s education sector.
The importance of ESD is well reflected in a wide range of legal and policy instruments in Qatar, especially the Qatar National Vision (QNV) 2030. Given this strong emphasis, EE projects, programmes and activities are on the rise in the country, aiming at promoting holistic, lifelong and systematic understanding and knowledge of environmental issues amongst the entire population of Qatar.
The roundtable demonstrated a clear need for a national EE network that will bring together all environmental educators, policy makers, institutional leaders, parents, community groups and other stakeholders in Qatar to share resources, ideas and information.Several of the questions and discussions focused on the need for proper alignment of environmental sustainability activities at all educational levels and bringing together all EE actors to collaboratively advance ESD initiatives. Discussants also identified the need to integrate strong Qatari content into ESD initiatives. In addition, one of the key barriers identified for the implementation of a coherent and comprehensive program of EE initiatives was a lack of structured communication and collaboration between the various EE actors. There is currently no database, platform or website where all activities relating to ESD in Qatar can be accessed. Consequently, information on ESD resources, activities, actors and events are sparse and fragmented.
Despite the clear impetus for an EE network in Qatar, its success will, to a large extent, depend on the ownership of the initiative by local institutions and availability of financing and resources for its short and long term objectives. To achieve the desired impact, UNESCO and prospective EE network members will need to work together to strengthen investment and alignment with global best practices in ESD.
3 December 2020
Last update:20 April 2023
