Expo 2020 Dubai holds Global Goals Week to promote UN Sustainable Goals
Event seeks global collective action to create a future of peace, dignity and health
Dubai: Expo 2020 Dubai is bringing the world together to drive collective progress towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for a better and more equitable future for all by 2030. This is the focus of Expo 2020 Dubai’s Global Goals Week.
To celebrate the new approaching record of ten million in-person visits, Expo 2020 Dubai is offering single-day entry tickets for Dh10 only.
Running from January 15-22, Global Goals Week, which is held in association with UN, is a platform for different players — from world leaders and policy-makers, to business leaders and citizens — to connect and work towards achieving the SDGs at a critical time of uncertainty in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Organisers said: “With less than nine years left to deliver the goals, this week of hybrid events will highlight how the world’s fundamental challenges are interconnected and can only be addressed through reinvigorated multilateralism.”
Global collective action
Reem Al Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director General of Expo 2020 Dubai, said: “The UAE believes in the importance of global collective action to create a future where everyone can thrive in peace, dignity and equality on a healthy planet. By bringing the world together, Expo 2020 Dubai provides a launchpad to solve humanity’s greatest challenges, in the spirit of hope, resilience and optimism.
“Hosting the UN Global Goals at Expo 2020 is yet another further testament to our aligned vision for equitable, inclusive and sustainable communities for all,” she underlined.
Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General, noted: “At the core of the 2030 Agenda is the need for urgent action to tackle growing poverty and inequality, empower women and girls and address the climate emergency. The world has still not embraced the pace and scale of change required to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
She added: “Kicking off year two of the Decade of Action, Global Goals Week launching at Expo 2020 in Dubai presents a critical opportunity to demonstrate, at every level, our raised ambition and commitment to keeping alive and achieving the Global Goals, ensuring we leave no one behind and that we recover better from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Impactful events
Global Goals Week will feature impactful events — from the opening speech by Amina J. Mohammed and a showcasing of youth around the globe sharing their SDGs commitments on the world’s largest 360-degree projection screen at Al Wasl Plaza on January 15, to Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week’s Opening Ceremony and the Zayed Sustainability Prize awards ceremony on January 17.
The ‘Global Goals for All’ flagship event, co-curated by Project Everyone, will welcome Mariam Hareb Almheiri, UAE Minister of Climate Change and the Environment; Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth; and virtually, Bill Gates, Co-Chair, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The panel will address the facts and solutions needed to inspire action around the world’s most prominent issues, including gender inequality and the climate crisis, on 16 January.
Women empowerment
On January 17, SDG 5: ‘Achieve gender equality and empower for all women and girls’ will be the focus of the Women’s World Majlis — A Better Future for All: Leaving No One Behind. It will feature discussions with Epsy Alejandra Campbell Barr, Vice-President of Costa Rica, and Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand and a global leader in sustainable development and gender equality, who will participate virtually.
Other World Majlis sessions include Everyday (S)heroes, in collaboration with Hungary; Extending the Revolution to Every Desk and Doorstep: Fourth Industrial Revolution for Everyone, in collaboration with Morocco; and Power to Change the World: Fuelling a Sustainable World in 2030, in collaboration with Australia.
Economic prosperity for all
On January 18, the Global Goals Business Forum, co-curated by Dubai Chamber of Commerce (Official Business Integrator of Expo 2020 Dubai), Estonia and UN Global Compact, will examine how the global community can foster economic prosperity for all, while ensuring the SDGs are achieved by the 2030 deadline. Speakers will include His Excellency Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, Chairman, Dubai Chamber of Commerce; Sanda Ojiambo, CEO and Executive Director, UN Global Compact; and Eva-Maria Liimets, Estonia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.
From January 18-19, a trilateral summit titled ‘Coming Full Circle: Water, Food, Energy Summit’, co-curated by Jordan, the Netherlands and the UAE, will bring together heads of government and policy-makers. Its aim is to increase the collective understanding of the interdependent relationships between water, food and energy security, and solutions that integrate the three, amid on-going collaborations between the three co-curating countries.
Global best practices
On January 20, the Global Best Practice Assembly will spotlight all 50 Global Best Practice Programme projects selected by Expo 2020 Dubai from around the world that have provided impactful and sustainable interventions, with a view to expanding them elsewhere.
Global Goals Week is the seventh of ten Theme Weeks under Expo 2020 Dubai’s Programme for People and Planet, offering an exchange of inspiring new perspectives to address the greatest challenges and opportunities of our time.