Building a Bridge Between Academia, Decision Makers, and Society To Enhance Sustainability

At the heart of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 17 (SDG17) is the need for enhanced partnerships on environment, climate change, education, and other issues to advance collective action on all the UN SDGs. 

Strong multistakeholder partnerships – globally, regionally, and nationally – developed through cooperation between stakeholders and decision-makers from education, international development, business, and other sectors, will enhance the multiscale action needed to accelerate sustainability and social transformation at all levels. 

Against this background, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), through the College of Law, was recently selected by the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to establish a Chair on Environmental Law and Sustainable Development with the prime objective of building policy linkages and a bridge between academia, decision makers, and society on sustainability issues. 

The UNESCO Chair program was first launched in 1992 to foster strategic collaboration between UNESCO and institutions of higher learning across the world with proven competence in one or more priority areas related to the organization’s activities. There are currently around 830 UNESCO chairs in over 110 countries, covering 70 disciplines.

The Chair established at HBKU is the first chair that focuses on Environmental Law. It is also one of the very first in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to focus on the Sustainability Science aspect of UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme.

Building on the existing institutional commitment to sustainability across Qatar Foundation and at HBKU, the UNESCO Chair at HBKU advances research, training, public dialogue, and international cooperation on environmental law and sustainability. Locally relevant research, training, workshops, conferences, and community outreach programs will serve one of the Chair’s crucial objectives: to develop, train, and equip homegrown policy leaders capable of steering the continuous application and implementation of environmental and sustainability instruments, especially the UN SDGs, in Qatar and the MENA region. 

Under the leadership of the UNESCO Chairholder, Dr. Damilola S. Olawuyi, SAN, a Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Research at HBKU’s College of Law, the Chair will work closely with the HBKU Executive Education Center to provide tailored research and training across all domains of sustainability. These include clean technology entrepreneurship, law and behavioral regulation, culture and heritage law, green procurement, corporate social responsibility, business and human rights, and sustainable aviation, among others. 

The UNESCO Chair program at HBKU is highly innovative and fills a significant gap. The critical mass of research, publications, and public dialogue by the Chair is set to contribute to evidence-informed decision-making on environment and sustainability issues in the MENA region, especially in Qatar. 

This comes at a time when the increasing global awareness on sustainability is placing greater impetus on business enterprises to advance environmental protection and address sustainability risks in their value chains. For example, Qatar National Vision specifically aims to promote a “knowledge-based economy” capable of achieving sustainable development by 2030. The vision identifies the need to “build and strengthen public awareness about environmental protection.” With the rise in environmental protection laws being put in place in Qatar and across the world, integrating sustainability considerations into business operations and risk management is now a necessity. 

Through mission-driven research and training on sustainability innovations, many emerging from HBKU’s colleges and research institutes, the Chair is positioned to provide tailored support to business enterprises and Qatari stakeholders on the essential strategies for integrating sustainability into all aspects of their operations and value chains. 

“Motivated by the urgency of achieving an inclusive and sustainable future, the UNESCO Chair at HBKU will be at the forefront of galvanizing multistakeholder cooperation and partnerships for the SDGs, in Qatar and beyond, for the next several decades.”