Arab News, Thursday, Aug 13, 2020 | Zul Hijjah 23, 1441
Saudi body to help UN devise policies for sustainable living
Saudi Arabia:
A professional association from Saudi Arabia will play a key policymaking
role at a UN governing body addressing the importance of environmental needs.
Following careful assessment and consideration of the commitments and
engagements of the Saudi Green Building Forum (SGBF), the nonprofit organization
has been granted accreditation as an observer at the governing body of the UN
Environment Program (UNEP). SGBF will play a role as an observer at all public
meetings and sessions of the UNEP and its subsidiary organs.
Speaking to Arab News, Faisal Al-Fadl, founder of the nonprofit organization,
said that the forum’s mission has been developing for the past 10 years and this
accreditation was considered an important step in strengthening the role of
Saudi civil society institutions, locally and internationally. This was in line
with Vision 2030, which has not only played an integral role in the NGO’s
mission but also paved the way for the Kingdom’s people to go the extra mile in
building an advanced and resilient society.
SGBF was initiated in 2010 and established in 2014. In 2017, it became the first
professional body from Saudi Arabia in consultative status with
the UN.
“The Saudi Forum was an advocacy group with an honest voice to bridge the gap;
through UNEP we now have the tools to become the policymakers,” Al-Fadl said. It
is a challenge that the group founder says will be met by providing communities
with the proper tools to implement commitments.
As the observing body on the environmental framework at the UNEP, SGBF’s role
will include promoting its concepts and goals to be reflected within the
community of change. For change to happen, people of a community at a grassroots
level who have committed to the preservation of moral codes of conduct are key
to changing mentality and behavior to guarantee a future for the next
generations, Al-Fadl said.
“As an open platform, our role is being the honest voice of bridging the gap.
Economic and social progress accompanied by environmental degradation and
pandemics are endangering the very systems on which our future development and
our survival depends,” he said.
SGBF represents the Kingdom and its call to communities, stakeholders, and
policymakers to build on the principles of volunteering, advocacy and
sustainable development.
For the NGO, their next step is increasing the engagement of civil society,
finding solutions to the problem of volunteer integration in societies, and to
prioritize and address social challenges for women, youth and the elderly,
calling on member states to increase their role in building and developing
practices that minimize the negative impact on the planet.
Al-Fadl added that protecting the planet and building resilience was not easy.
Without bolstering local action, including volunteers to accelerate the
implementation, it would be a long time until goals were met and result seen, he
said.
“UN member countries have the responsibility in confronting the human crisis of
inestimable proportions, which impose its heaviest tolls on the supply chain for
those marginalized and
most vulnerable in cities and communities around the world,” Al-Fadl
said.