Instigating Debates on SDGs for Ongoing Dialogue and Evolving Projects: Lebanon Case Study

Have you felt a sense of gratification from being a mentor or sharing knowledge and insight? In Fast Forward 2030 Lebanon, we make it our mission to open space to introduce and discuss Sustainable Development Goals.

We were approached through our network by a teacher looking to challenge her students to engage in social and environmental issues, know more about the global challenges we face, and create projects that will allow her students' applications for colleges to be distinguished. We jumped on board, not knowing how our workshop would be received... 

Making facts and guidelines appealing...

Will the students be interested in reciting United Nations conventions and agreements with all the statements and technical details? Do they risk finding it boring being at the passive receiving end? We introduced sustainable development goals and how they serve people, the planet, prosperity, peace and partnership.

But how will they be engaged in the purpose for which the goals are meant to serve? Hence, we decided to animate our workshop by integrating discussion sessions and making sustainable development goals interactive by inviting reflection and personal answers: "What are the world's most prominent challenges?" allowing the students themselves to pinpoint the issues the world is so eager to solve. 

Opening space for self-expression...

Effectively, the debate was vivid and portrayed how concerned and aware their generation was with all our challenges: They touched on social injustice such as the wealth distribution gap, sharing how appalling they find how neglected the city of Tripoli is, known for being the poorest city on the Mediterranean coast, when there is such great potential to create jobs.

Another student sparked such intelligence and avid activism by talking about how frustrated he is with excessive fuel consumption that led to air pollution and the greenhouse effect, causing global warming while we can use clean energy resources. Others expressed concern about water pollution and scarcity, their aching for the gradual disappearing of forests and green areas they long for.

Tapping into the richness of diversity...

What is beautiful about that discussion is that it gradually brought out their diverse individual colours, which each particularly cared for and was passionate about. Above all, it highlighted their empathy and awareness of how much those challenges will affect their lives and the urgency of addressing the underlying dangers they will reap.

Choosing which sustainable development goal to focus on is subjective and relative to each person’s experience. And that was put in value when the students were assigned in groups to create their projects tackling global goals.

After all, sustainable development goals are derived from the core of our everyday life. They need to be related to them from our daily observations and experiences. They’re also directly related to cultivating empathy and a sense of purpose henceforth, we must also continue to question and find new points to address so global goals may be an ongoing dialogue and evolving projects.

For that, I encourage us to further integrate these goals into our conversations and make them a core education component.