Islam in a Global World

Maker Majlis: Islam in a Global World was an event that took place from September 22-25, 2019. The focus of the innovative space was a fusion of:

1. Global Goals (UN Sustainable Development Goals - SDGs)
2. Qatar National Vision 2030
3. Islam and Faith

The event focused on localizing SDGs and making them relevant to the Muslim world and Qatar in particular. Connecting the youth in Qatar to these global goals makes them relevant to their lives, aspirations, and way of being.

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Event Agenda

High School SDGs Workshops

Students were invited to experience activities including workshops by ibTECHhar, a refugee tent experience, Halaqa talks, and various booths and activities in the gallery area. The workshops were an open-ended project-based learning experience where participants were free to express and create solutions aiming to spread awareness about the SDGs using technology tools and engaging activities.

As for the refugee experience, students had the opportunity of stepping into refugees’ shoes to get a better understanding of the process of their registration in host countries.

In the gallery area, students watched short virtual reality documentaries and visited the booths displayed by many of the Maker Majlis partners.

Refugee Experience

Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) simulated a life-like refugee zone with multiple tents and a community hospital. The students went through the zone and learned about various difficulties refugees face in finding places within a refugee camp. The tents showcased registration processes and health checks, as well as other health-related issues with simultaneous guidance from QRC experts.

Workshop by UNDP

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) was represented by four youth delegates. The delegates led a training program for three days titled, "How to Become an SDG Ambassador".

Workshop by Bedaya

Bedaya provided a one-day training program on social entrepreneurship. As a leading entity in youth empowerment and capacity building, Bedaya ran free workshops for participants who had a keen interest in social entrepreneurship, business models, and social impact.

Workshop by QCRI

The Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) provided a one-day training program on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for social good.

It is argued that AI can bolster capabilities to tackle cases across all 17 of the UN’s SDGs, potentially helping hundreds of millions of people in both advanced and emerging countries. The workshop tackled pressing worldwide social problems by using cutting-edge technology.

Workshop by QGBC

Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC) delivered a workshop on how to transform university campuses into an eco-campus. They gave more insight and suggestions on how educational communities can make their learning spaces more environmentally friendly.

SDG Comic Zone

This initiative attempted to make the SDGs accessible to citizens around the world through comics, to help educate people about the global goals and empower them to create positive and lasting change in their own communities and worldwide. Comics Uniting Nations is an affiliate of Project Everyone, in partnership with UNICEF.

The World's Largest Lesson is a global initiative aimed at bringing the SDGs to the classroom through lesson plans, videos, comics, and other creative content – available freely and in a multitude of languages for educators to download, use or adapt for their classrooms. The inspiration behind the World's Largest Lesson is that the SDGs must be brought down to local realities if they are to succeed in changing the world for the better by 2030. Children, youth, families, and communities must internalize how the issues represented by the SDGs affect their own daily lives and environments, whether they be in improving health and nutrition; the importance of early learning and quality education; fostering more peaceful communities where children live free from violence; or establishing more sustainable approaches to use and preserve natural resources. When this understanding happens, people of all ages can be inspired to take action, resulting in sustained progress of these goals and shifts in social norms and behaviors in the long term.

High-Level Talks

The high-level talks were presented by the following experts in the field of SDGs:

• Dr. Richard Falk: Professor of International Law and Practice, Emeritus at Princeton University, member of the Editorial Boards of The Nation and The Progressive, and Chair of the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
• Dr. Nader Hashemi: Associate Professor at Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver and Director of the Center for Middle East Studies.
• Dr. Azza Karam: Senior Advisor on social and cultural development at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
• Dr. Hugo Slim: Head of Policy at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva.
• Mr. Jason Pronyk: Regional Manager of the United Nations Volunteer Program in the Arab States, Europe and CIS.
• Dr. Umar Oseni: Associate Professor at Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah (Faculty) of Laws, International Islamic University Malaysia.
• Muyesser Taqi-Eddin: International marketing consultant and co-founder of Innovation Catalysts Institute.
• Dr. Omneya Abdelsalam: Professor at the College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Founding Director for the Ethical Finance Research Centre at Durham University, and Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy - Advance HE

Braindates

This platform gave HBKU students a chance to informally meet with leading academics, experts, and practitioners. Braindates was designed to facilitate meaningful connections between participants and ensure that everyone left with actionable tools and ideas to affect positive change. Students had a chance to register and interact with inspirational figures to learn about their area of expertise and explore the potential for future collaborations.

Halaqa Talks

Halaqa Talks were short, 10-minute ‘TED-style’ talks about global problems and local solutions. Every day, members nominated by our partners gave a short presentation outlining an SDG-related problem and a possible local solution. Halaqa talks represented local tradition imbued with a global twist, which fostered inspirational and innovative thinking among youth.

Virtual Reality Experience

“Clouds Over Sidra,” an innovative interactive experience designed by UNICEF's own Chris Milk and Gabo Arora, is the 2015 winner of the Sheffield Doc/Fest Award in the interactive category. With just a smartphone and a virtual reality (VR) viewer, students were able to see the story of a refugee child — Sidra, a resident of Zaatari Camp in Jordan.

SDGs Awards

The goal of the SDGs Awards was to recognize individuals, civil society organizations, subnational governments, foundations, networks, and private sector leaders who were advancing the global movement for the SDGs in the most transformative, impactful, and innovative ways. Five major categories of the awards included:

• People
• Planet
• Prosperity
• Peace
• Partnership

Additional partner awards were dedicated to Silatech, Akhlaquna, QGBC, and Qatar Social Work.

Exhibitions (Various Local Organizations)

In the exhibition area of the Maker Majlis, the following entities had booths to present their activities to visitors:

• Green Maasai Troupe
• Quranic Botanic Garden
• Qatar Green Building Council
• Akhlaquna
• Qatar Social Work, NAMA, TAMM Network
• Global Shapers
• EdClude
• Qatar Science and Technology Park
• SDGeneration
• Mission20
• Thimun Qatar
• Green Institute
• Greener Future
• Qatar Red Crescent
• UN Volunteers
• Quranic Botanic Garden

Qatar University SDG Law Exhibition

The Voices of Gulf Women in Law History Project and Competition was a joint initiative between Qatar University College of Law, HBKU’s College of Law, and Qatar Foundation (QF).

This project aimed to memorialize the stories of women pioneers within Qatar’s legal field, whose early entrance into the field presented unique challenges and dilemmas. This project was based on the ABA Women Trailblazers in the Law Project (WTP) from the United States.

The overall aim of the project and competition was to increase the historical documentation regarding women’s participation in Gulf society. The goal was to contradict popular stereotypes regarding Gulf women by providing an accurate history of their societal participation.

The collection will be donated to Qatar National Library (QNL) to preserve these experiences and observations for future generations of Qatar.

Makeathon

Makeathon was part of the Maker Majlis 2019 event, in collaboration with Qa¬tar Development Bank (QDB), where groups of university students designed projects based on SDGs, which resulted in various pro¬totypes, applications and other outputs, which could later be utilized to achieve social and economic impact.

The four projects presented were:

• Moms4moms: A project to help mothers obtain affordable and/or free clothing in a credible and trustworthy environment.
• Food2go: A platform for suppliers to advertise discounted products close to the expiry dates to reduce food waste before reaching end consumers.
• Envirogame: An application where users can learn about interactively helping the environment.
• EcoQatar: A website and guide for people to learn all about how to be environmentally friendly and connect with other people who share similar values to¬wards the environment.

Shared Studios

The Portable Inflatable Shared Studio, provided by the Doha Debates, allowed visitors to enter a portal and come face to face with refugees abroad as if they were in the same room. The goal was to connect people separated by distance and difference, which presented participants with an exciting opportunity to meet new people across the globe, live.