For every project or new initiative, the buzzword is ‘sustainability’. Corporates and government entities underline the mantra of sustainability to ensure the protection of nature from adverse impacts and the project’s continuity for a longer time.
The United Nations has set forth 17 interrelated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); each of them has other special goals, which in total represent about 169 goals, and cover a wide range of social and economic development issues aimed at eliminating challenges facing the world.
Sustainability is nothing but a goal set by society aimed at perfect harmony and coexistence of humans along with the environment and creatures on the Earth.
Sustainable development implies achieving human goals vis-a-vis sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend over time. It envisages development that aims to pay attention to a reciprocal relationship between man and his natural surroundings and society and its capabilities.
Globally, sustainable development goals are meant to eliminate the world’s challenges, especially those related to poverty and inequality, protect the planet from the effects of climate change and environmental degradation, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
The Sultanate of Oman, along with other countries, approved the 2030 SDGs at the UN Summit in September 2015 and has become one of the member states to work actively to achieve these goals. The main pillars of Oman’s 9th Five-Year Plan have been incorporated into them, including the first voluntary national report.
The country observes Oman Sustainability Week from March 12 to 16 as a national platform that aims to highlight the country’s commitment to sustainability leadership through innovative strategies aligned with SDGs and engage the national development stakeholders to present Oman as a new model for sustainable development.
These sustainable development goals are distinguished by their comprehensiveness as the key to achieving one goal is closely linked to the other goals. It includes everyone without discrimination, as well as requires solidarity and cooperation between countries to achieve sustainability in the world.
“The current situation demands the need to pay attention to the implementation and dissemination of sustainable development goals in our societies, especially in education, then education, and then education,” says Abdel Ghaffar, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Regional Network for Social Responsibility.
He added that this is allowing for the transformation of education programmes from theory to the practical application so that graduates are ready for the labour market in a way that is happy to reduce the number of job-seekers.
“The importance of sustainability is inexplicable,” said Engineer Mohammed al Gharibi, Director of External Affairs and Communications at Petroleum Development Oman (PDO).
He stressed that the field of application of the foundations of sustainable development is wide, and we need to fully understand the experiences and ideas and visions in a way that bridges a gap in the field of coordination and integration of efforts among the GCC countries that share religion, language and destiny.
As for Oman, there is a promising opportunity to harness the momentum in following the SDGs to stimulate various development sectors, especially the private sector, to support the national economy in the country, along with other countries in the GCC.
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