World’s Largest Biennial Science Event on Global Science Policy
By Sameen Ahmed Khan
Dhofar University
Sultanate of Oman
The Eighth World Science Forum (WSF), the world’s largest biennial science event on global science policy, was held at Dead Sea, Jordan, recently (http://worldscienceforum.org/).
As the Dead Sea is 430m below sea level, it is the Earth’s lowest point on land! This year’s WSF attracted 3,000 attendees from 140 countries, including scientists, policymakers, Noble Laureates, academics and investors. This year’s theme for the WSF was “Science for Peace”.
Speaking from the lowest point on earth, leaders (Kings, Presidents, Princesses and Ministers) called for the nations of the world to work with the scientific community to address the challenges confronted by humanity today.
The WSF 2017 was held under the patronage of King Abdullah ibn Al Hussein of Jordan and (his cousin) Princess Sumayabint El Hassan, Chair of WSF 2017 and President of the Royal Scientific Society. Welcoming the audience to the event King Abdullah expressed his hope that Jordan will act as an accelerator of global scientific collaboration, opportunity, and peace. In a speech at the opening of the forum, Hungarian President JánosÁderobserved that “the region is extremely rich in historical lessons. In 21st-century societies adequate energy supplies are also vital for social harmony. Without energy it would be impossible to operate all the industrial, transportation, security and health infrastructure that we have created in recent decades. Depleted energy supplies could lead to social collapse and war.”
Princess Sumaya said, “We gather here this week to address the critical needs of our world, in which challenges are stark and shared… We attend with hope and ambition, and we must deploy all our energy to make science borderless to create solutions that demand our genuine commitment to collaboration.”
In his address, Prince Hassan bin Talal underlined the role of science in development and how it is deployed to serve humanity and the wellbeing of humankind.
LászlóLovász, president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, said that Jordan plays a vital role in the promotion of sciences in every field. The attendees also got to see the video message recorded by the International Space Station’s crew in which they stressed the importance of the forum and the role of scientists in building peace.
The World Science Forum series was inspired by the success of the prestigious meeting “World Conference on Science for the Twenty-First Century: a New Commitment”, held during 26 June to 1 July 1999 in Budapest, Hungary and convened by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Council for Science (ICSU), in co-operation with other partners. The First WSF was held during 8-10 November 2003 at Budapest and continued in alternate years till 2011. In the year 2013, the WSF was held for the first time outside Budapest in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, starting a rotation of venues between Budapest and elsewhere. The 2015 WSF was held at Budapest. The Eighth WSF was held at Dead Sea, Jordan second time outside Budapest and for the first time in the Arab World. The 2019 WSF is scheduled to take place in Budapest.
As per tradition, each WSF concludes with a declaration which is read out at the closing ceremony and made available to the media. A Declaration adopted at the end of the conference highlighted five main areas focusing on the theme of ‘Science for Peace’ for future implementation. The five main areas are:
1. An equitable and sustainable management of natural resources is essential to avoid conflicts and to promote peaceful development.
2. The preservation of scientific capacities, threatened by global migration trends, is key to peace, sustainable development, resilience and recovery.
3. Diversity is a key enabler of excellence in science, technology and innovation and is essential to optimize its relevance and impact.
4. We commit to the fulfilment of the universal right to science.
5. We support the launch of a regional science forum for the Arab World.
The fifth objective had the following details. “We recognize the importance of regional initiatives to strengthen cohesion within diverse scientific communities and to build partnerships among them. In this respect we support the organization and promotion of regional science fora as powerful tools to initiate positive change focusing on regional challenges to science systems. In this spirit we support the launch of an Arab Science Forum to draw together science and research communities, to focus scientific capacity to address regional challenges, and to connect regional science voices to the wider discourse of established regional fora. We as partner organizations and participants of World Science Forum 2017 commit our support to the establishment of the Arab Science Forum.” The Arab Science Forum is scheduled to be held every two years, the first one starting in Jordan in 2020.
The World Science Forum also serves as the venue for awarding the UNESCO Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Preservation. The 2017 Prize was awarded to National Parks Board of Singapore, which promotes biodiversity in a highly urbanized and land-scarce landscape, the recovery of habitats and species and supports the incorporation of biodiversity into all levels of the education system. The author is very thankful to the WSF for extending an invitation to attend and for the warm hospitality which he enjoyed throughout his stay at the WSF.
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