Arab Environment Watch : On Sustainability, Prince Hasan and Ismail Serageldin

It has been a week since I returned from Bibliotheca Alexandrina after I participated in the "Future of Sustainability in the Arab World" debate held in Alexandria and organised by the IUCN Regional Office for West Asia and Middle East (WAME).

It has been a thrilling forum. Participants were relaxed outside the official frameworks they represent, and that was a recepie for good and open discussions. Representatives from the government, academia, private sector, NGOs and media were together in a dynamic structure and I hope that the workshop report that I am currently writing will capture and document the spirit of this brainstorming meeting.

One of the main highlights of the meeting was the opening address and the final talk. The opening speech was an audio visual recording by HRH Prince Hassan Bin Talal who is a well trusted thinker at both the regional and global level. His insight on sustainability and governance and change management was exciting. The richness of his speech will put extra pressure on me to extract the real value in the report without missing anything.

The final talk was given by the head of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Dr Ismail Serageldin and it was an encaptivating experience. Dr Serageldin is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge and has a remarkable ability to deliver his thoughts in a very well articulated manner and a high level of creativity. On his website he posts a rich diversity of lectures and presentations that encompass the most important issues of our life: water, energy, agriculture, climate change, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, etc..

I feel very mobilized and inspired by people like Prince Hasan and Dr Serageldin. Although the Arab World is a source of a lot of bad news and attracts all sorts of negative coverage, I always manage to find the positive element through the creative work of many leaders, thinkers and ordinary citizens in the Arab World who seek a better future for themselves and their children to live in dignity and seize fair opportunties which is the main objective of sustainable development.