The Lebanese University, through the Dean of the Faculty of Economics & Business Administration, Professor Selim Mekdessi, participated in an international webinar organized on 19 June 2020 by the College of Business Administration at the “University of Bahrain” entitled "Sustainable Environment for Sustainable Education: What path for the future?".

This webinar aimed at increasing awareness of the international community about SDGs 4, 5, 6, 13 and 15 through a group of international experts who offered a thorough background about the topics of Climate Change, Life on Land, Clean Water & Sanitation, Quality Education and Gender Equality.

In addition to Dean Mekdessi from the Lebanese University, Dr. Hanan Elguindy, UNDP Development Management & Leadership Expert, Dr. Erin Kelly, Associate Professor in Forestry at Humboldt State University, Dr. Paul Ouedraogo, Ecologist Expert and Director of Programs, Institute to Support Development (IAD), Dr. Hasan Youness, University professor and Sustainability & CSR Expert and Dr. Naglaa Fathy El Dessouky, webinar organizer, all participated in the event.

In the first session, the webinar presented the experience of California-USA which has taken a much bolder approach to addressing climate change than other states, especially through forestry projects and reducing carbon emissions. The participants discussed the protection of water-related ecosystems and biodiversity through some preliminary results of the implementation of the SDG Target 6 in Africa between 2015 and 2018. Furthermore, the webinar embraced the challenges facing SDGs and the modes which have to be undertaken by governments, private sector, individuals and civil society organizations to alleviate and confront these challenges.

In the second session, the webinar presented the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for Quality Education. This session assured that Higher Education Institutions play a critical role in achieving the 2030 SDG agenda through teaching and learning, research outputs, and academic initiatives. In this regard, the Lebanese University was presented as an interesting model.

The event ended with several recommendations, the most important of which were:

·         Formulating serious policies to address climate change and creating a dynamic carbon cap-and-trade market to be compulsory for all carbon-emitting industries;

·         Formulating rational policies to protect water-related ecosystems and biodiversity through networking between key players;

·         Proposing an initiative for a networking process between the University of Bahrain and other African universities to manage this file;

·         Undertaking more efforts by the international key actors to reach the UN 2030 agenda and serious networking between the governments and the civil society.

Regarding the sustainable education goal, the webinar recommended that universities have to play a vital role for the achievement of the SDGs goals through their curriculum, researches and operations. An initiative was suggested for a networking between the University of Bahrain and the Lebanese University for this purpose.

The participants recommended that educational institutions have to take into fully consideration the goals of sustainable education for the benefit of students regarding employability, gender equality and the necessity to integrate the “SGDs indicators” into the operations of educational institutions to achieve better international ranking and social impact.