Committed to the Sustainable Development Goals for UN
Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation, 15 years of positive influence.
By: Dr. Abdelouahhab Zaid, Prof., Secretary General of the Khalifa Int’l Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation.
Introduction:
The 17 (SDGs) Goals adopted by UN member countries, in 2015, are considered as a roadmap and a global commitment. As it is a global plan to achieve the sustainable development goals, and which includes all sectors, and consists of 17 global goals, 169 targets, indicators, and means of implementation.
Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation General Secretariat, seeked since its establishment in 2007, to have a consistent vision, goal, and message with the development goals (2000-2015) and with the sustainability development goals (2015-2030), where the Award succeeded in developing the date palm cultivation, and agricultural innovation sectors’ infrastructure at the national, and international levels.
Award’s Vision, Mission, and Objectives:
Presenting the vision, mission, and objectives of Khalifa International Award, reflects the wide compatibility with the United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). Where the Award’s vision comes to support and develop the date palm cultivation, and agricultural innovation sectors’, in order to achieve the sustainable development, 2030, while the Award’s message is to honor the distinguished efforts made to develop the agricultural sector aiming for sustainable development for us and the future generations, and to establish national, regional and international cooperation between concerned organizations in the fields of date palm cultivation, and agricultural innovation , and also spreading the date palm cultivation knowledge among various target groups regionally and internationally.
While the Award’s main objective comes to highlight to the world the great interest of H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, "May God protect him", in date palm cultivation and agricultural innovation, and His Highness’ generous initiatives in organizing activities to support research in this field, and to embrace the UAE’s leading role in supporting creativity and innovation in the agricultural field in general, and date palm cultivation in particular. The Award also pays great attention to environmental protection, fighting poverty, and increasing green areas, to achieve sustainable development. In addition to supporting scientific research, encouraging and appreciating professionals working to develop the date palm and agricultural sectors, in the UAE and worldwide. The Award is also benefiting from various previous experiences to improve the agricultural and date palm sectors in accordance with the best international practices.
This confirms that the Award’s vision, mission, and objectives had great benefit globally, and efficient implementation, where the Award’s General Secretariat has wisely used its great relationship with expertise and international organizations, to serve and develop the date palm sector regionally and internationally, in coordination with local partners in each country, to promote the growth of this sector and specialists working in it, create new employment opportunities, economic growth and better quality of life, within the criteria of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG17).
Award’s Activities and Achievements:
Following the directives of H.H. Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Presidential Affairs, and the continuous follow-up of H.E. Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, Chairman of the Award’s Board of Trustees, all the national efforts were guided to support and develop the date palm cultivation sector, by launching a set of initiatives and development projects, aiming to enhance food security and achieve sustainable development, that could be briefly presented as follows:
- Organizing 14 Sessions of Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation (2009-2022), with the participation of 1,769 candidates, representing 56 countries from around the world.
- Organizing 4 sessions of the Distinguished and Innovative Farmer Award, (2018-2022), with the participation of 321 farmer, form across the UAE.
- Organizing 13 sessions of “The International Date Palm Photography” competition, with the participation of 4,224 photographer from 54 countries.
- Organizing 06 sessions of “The International Date Palm Poetry” competition, with the participation of 1212 poets and representing 20 countries.
- Organizing the International Egyptian, Sudanese, Jordanian, and Mauritanian Date Palm festivals, annually.
- Organizing the annual Abu Dhabi International Date Palm Exhibition (2015-2021).
- Organizing the International Date Palm Conference, every four years, (1998-2022), with the participation of 2,229 researcher, from 43 countries.
- Organizing a Ministerial conference for date producing countries to develop a framework strategy for the eradication of the red palm weevil, (2019).
- Launching the Abu Dhabi Declaration to Combat Red Palm Weevil, and establishing a trust fund under the supervision of (FAO), (2019).
- Establishing refrigerated date stores in AL Wahat Al Bahariya, in the Arab Republic of Egypt, with a capacity of 4,000 tons, (2019).
- Rehabilitation of the Siwa government dates factory, in the Arab Republic of Egypt, with a production capacity of 10,000 tons per year, (2017), and the New Valley Dates Complex, with a production capacity of 5,000 tons per year, (2019).
- Launching the largest electronic library, which includes 299 scientific sources in both Arabic and English, specialized in the fields of date palm cultivation, and agricultural innovation.
Idea behind the Arab Date Festivals:
Organizing date festivals in date producing areas, in the Arab countries, is mainly based on the Award’s vision, which considers the improvement of job opportunities and living standards of date producing families. Where to achieve this vision, the Award’s General Secretariat coordinates with the concerned ministries and investors in the date-producing countries, to develop the date palm cultivation infrastructure, and improve living areas of date producing families, through establishing multiple development projects, such as refrigerated date stores, and guiding farmers on how to produce organic dates according to internationally recognized standards, without undermining natural resources, which contributes to expanding the scope of communication, and the availability of Arab dates in the global markets. As a result, the Award gained a significant role in achieving the sustainable development goals 1 - The Eradication of poverty, and the sustainable development goal 2 - The Eradication of hunger.
Goals 1 and 2 (To End Poverty) and (To End Hunger):
The Award’s general secretariat worked for several years to host date palm farmers from various date producing countries, within the date festivals and exhibitions it organized in several Arab countries, with the aim of providing an opportunity for small farmers and date producers in the Arab region to participate in festivals and date exhibitions in order to exchange experiences between farmers from date-producing and processing countries, and to provide the opportunity to export Arab dates to various countries across the world, through direct communication with international date trading organizations, hosted by the Award in Each exhibition, and this, in turn, has a direct result on the improvement of the Arab dates reputation internationally, and thus the increase in global demand for Arab dates, which what has been highlighted in official statements by senior officials in this sector in the Arab countries.
The Award also worked to improve the quality of Arab dates to be in line with the requirements of the international markets, by supporting and rehabilitating more than 200 date palm farms in Siwa Oasis in the Arab Republic of Egypt to obtain an organic farming certificate for dates (Ecocert) accredited by the European Union, which in turn contributed to enhancing the competitiveness of Arab dates, with other international dates. This all contributed to improving the income level of the small farmers, and even eliminating hunger and poverty among the farmers and date producers in the Arab countries.
Goal 8 (Appropriate work and Economic growth):
The Arab dates exhibitions and festivals held, (more than 16 festivals and exhibitions in six countries), contributed to enabling a wide commercial activity of date palm growers, producers and processors in the Arab countries, by promoting comprehensive, diversified and productive rural economies that creates decent job opportunities and increases the income. This has been implemented in Siwa Oasis in the Arab Republic of Egypt, where the International Festival of Egyptian Dates in Siwa, which took place for four consecutive years (2015-2018), and contributed to improving the lifestyle and increasing the productivity capacities. It also led to an increase in the number of date packaging factories, where this is supported by a number of performance indicators, for example, the Egyptian date exports increased during the festival’s organization period to 17%, while the amount of dates imported from outside the country decreased by about 25%. This indicates the contribution of the Award's activities and events to increasing the economic growth of the date palm cultivation sector in order to achieve sustainable development for agricultural communities. As the Award has extensive knowledge, experience, and high-level partnerships with international organizations that it relies on to support the development of value chains of the Arab dates.
Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure):
The Award also contributed to promoting innovation in the agricultural sector, at both the individual and institutional levels, in support of sustainable development goals, by encouraging innovation and providing the opportunity for innovative agricultural entrepreneurs to compete for one of the Award’s categories (The Pioneering and Advanced innovations serving the Agricultural sector). Where each year, the Award receives hundreds of innovative agricultural projects, and the winner receives a trophy, an appreciation certificate, and an amount of more than 200 thousand USD. The number of participations in this category has reached more than 298 participant, from 56 countries from across the world. These innovative projects contributed to improving the quality of life, work systems and sustainable production in the agricultural sector.
Goal 12 (Responsible production and consumption):
The Award also contributed to creating a balance between the production and consumption systems in the date palm cultivation sector, to a more sustainable practice, through the knowledge transfer, by holding a series of workshops for the farmers, where the Award hosted more than thirty international experts in cooperation with international organizations in the field of date palm cultivation, and agricultural innovation.
Goal 13 (Climate Effects) And Goal 15 - (life on earth):
The Award’s projects at the regional and international levels, had a direct positive impact on the development of the agricultural sector in general and the date palm cultivation in particular in the date producing countries, as it directly contributing to enhancing climate awareness for workers in this sector. The Award’s investment in sustainable farming methods in date-producing countries, by encouraging farmers and dedicating traditional farming patterns, contributed to better preserving of the natural resources, and increasing the ability of cultural agricultural systems to adapt to climate change. This also contributed to achieve Sustainable Development Goal13 (Climate Effects) and goal 15 (Life on Earth).
Goal 17 (Partnerships to achieve the goals):
The Award’s General Secretariat, signed more than 48 memoranda of understanding, during the period from (2015-2022), with a number of concerned ministries in the date palm cultivation sector, and agricultural innovation, as well as a number of international organizations, civil society organizations, and private sector companies. This has built a framework to the partnerships with those ministries and organizations, with the aim to extend communication and cooperation, and promoting comprehensive, diversified and productive rural economies, including business areas related to the date manufacturing and trading, through the implementation of a number of initiatives and projects or organizing Conferences or festivals, where this allowed analyzing those projects and initiatives implemented by the Award in several Arab countries, in order to develop the date palm cultivation sector, and agricultural innovation in those countries, and achieving food security and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG17).
Conclusion:
Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation, has become one of the most important institutions concerned with supporting and developing the date palm cultivation, and agricultural innovation sectors, and working in accordance to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in cooperation with regional and international organizations, under the directives of the wise UAE’s leadership.
Date Palm International Photography Competition
Date Palm Poetry Competition
