Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi at the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference on Tuesday. Lee Hoagland / The National
Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi at the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference on Tuesday. Lee Hoagland / The National

UAE aims to add sustainability to humanitarian aid



DUBAI //

With an increasing number of refugees and complex aid situations in the region, and an urgent need for a sustainable solution, Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi said Masdar was currently working on developing clean energy solutions.

“With solar power increasing at such rapid rates, it will only be a matter of time until solar energy can be used to solve problems in emergency operations, schools, refugee camps and hospitals,” she said at the opening of the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference (Dihad) in Dubai on Tuesday. “This is the type of innovation that we all are looking forward to at Dihad this time. Innovation is the key to finding solutions to the most complex aid situations.”

She said aid communities faced a common problem of how to provide relief to the needy in increasingly complex situations and she was working with her team to solve it.

“To a certain degree, innovation has become an overused buzzword but it can be heard expressed with equivalent enthusiasm in boardrooms, universities, NGO offices and other environments alike,” Sheikha Lubna said. “The UAE Government have been mobilised to encourage innovation by providing the environment and resources to think innovatively. I am responsible for making this happen at the Ministry of International Cooperation and Development.

She said Masdar was working on solutions, especially as climate change was increasingly leading to natural disasters and environmental hazards.

This year’s Dihad theme will focus on opportunity, mobility and sustainability in humanitarian aid and development.

“In the same way that this theme will enable Expo 2020 to become a springboard for inaugurating a progressive and sustainable vision, it aims to stimulate thought and dialogue for the sustainable development goals, climate change, disaster reduction, renewable energy, humanitarian logistics and forced displacement,” Sheikha Lubna said. “It is my hope that discussions and outcomes from Dihad will feed into the World Humanitarian Summit in Turkey next year.”

Princess Haya bint Al Hussein, UN Messenger of Peace and wife of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, said more work needed to be done.

“Last year I visited refugee camps in Ethiopia,” she said. “The situation was shocking. More than 90 per cent of refugees were women and children and most struggled across the border arriving on the edge of starvation. For these, there was no opportunity, no mobility and no sustainability.”

Prince Hassan bin Talal from Jordan questioned why every region in the world had a bank for reconstruction and development except the Middle East.

“The reality is that sovereign wealth fund managers have to develop a conscience in terms of human security of this region,” he said. “The correlation is not between development and sustainability in material terms, it is human dignity. The real security threat to our region is people who are the vectors of ideas, good or bad.”

By the end of 2013, the UN estimated there were more than 51 million people displaced due to warfare, violence and persecution, more than half of which were women and children.

“And here we are talking about democracy and citizenship,” Prince Hassan said. “The future is based on human dignity. I hope this meeting is not just about talking at each other but talking to each other, listening to each other and developing one more modest step of hope for those who are important – the millions who look at us and wonder what it is we are doing for the future generations.”

cmalek@thenational.ae

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Other workplace saving schemes
  • The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
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  • National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
  • In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
  • Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.

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Ain Dubai in numbers

126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure

1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch

16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.

9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.

5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place

192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.

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Fixtures All matches start at 9.30am, at ICC Academy, Dubai. Admission is free

Thursday UAE v Ireland; Saturday UAE v Ireland; Jan 21 UAE v Scotland; Jan 23 UAE v Scotland

UAE squad Rohan Mustafa (c), Ashfaq Ahmed, Ghulam Shabber, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Boota, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Shaiman Anwar, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Qadeer Ahmed, Mohammed Naveed, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan

Zakat definitions

Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.

Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.

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Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.

Cryopreservation: A timeline
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Name: HyperSpace
 
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DMZ facts
  • The DMZ was created as a buffer after the 1950-53 Korean War.
  • It runs 248 kilometers across the Korean Peninsula and is 4km wide.
  • The zone is jointly overseen by the US-led United Nations Command and North Korea.
  • It is littered with an estimated 2 million mines, tank traps, razor wire fences and guard posts.
  • Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un met at a building in Panmunjom, where an armistice was signed to stop the Korean War.
  • Panmunjom is 52km north of the Korean capital Seoul and 147km south of Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.
  • Former US president Bill Clinton visited Panmunjom in 1993, while Ronald Reagan visited the DMZ in 1983, George W. Bush in 2002 and Barack Obama visited a nearby military camp in 2012. 
  • Mr Trump planned to visit in November 2017, but heavy fog that prevented his helicopter from landing.
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