Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Buthaina bint Ali Al Nuami (second right) and Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan H E Yalchin Rafiyev, (third right) with other dignitaries during closing session.
Doha, Qatar: Held under the theme “Building Shared Futures”, the Doha Forum: Youth Edition 2023 concluded yesterday, at Georgetown University, where participants came together to tackle a variety of issues.
Through engaging dialogue, the forum served as a platform to exchange diverse viewpoints and generate ideas to shape a better world.
The closing session brought together Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Buthaina bint Ali Al Nuami, Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan H E Yalchin Rafiyev, and several other senior figures along with members of QatarDebate Center, led by Executive Director, Dr. Hayat Abdullah Marafi.
Keynote speakers featured in the closing session included Sarah Almaadeed, a Qatar accomplished speaker and debator for Team Qatar; Bo Seo, a two-time world champion debater from South Korea and a former coach of the Australian national debating team and the Harvard College Debating Union; Omar Al Shogre, a Syrian public speaker and human rights advocate; and Reem Ali, a Sudanese-American advocate.
Inspiring the attendees, Sarah Almaadeed noted, “Thanks to good coaching, incredible teammates and a lot of hard work on my part, we made it to the World Championships and achieved success there like no ‘Team Qatar’ had before us.”
Speaking on the importance of effective debating, Bo Seo, commented, “Debate is a community; it is an activity premised on at least three commitments. The first is that disagreeing is a skill, we are not powerless against the differences that we have with our loved ones and our peers.”
The forum attracted a strong turnout with over 100 participants from over 75 countries attending the last day of the event, which featured a lineup of activities, including a skills session focused on policy drafting and an expert panel discussion titled “Cyber Security, Data Privacy and Artificial Intelligence”.
The panel comprised Dr. Houda Bouamor, from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar; Dr. Halima Bensmail, principal scientist at the Qatar Computing Research Institute; Dr. Mohamed Aburawi, founder and CEO of Speetar, an AI-enabled telehealth platform; and Abdul Abdulrahim, co-founder & COO of Stears, a venture-backed data and insights provider.
Abdulrahman Al Subaie, Outreach Programs Manager at QatarDebate Center, stressed the necessity of building effective skills to tackle growing global challenges, adding that the forum’s theme “Building Shared Futures,” highlighted the importance of reflecting on how to move forward to address these issues. Encouraging constructive dialogue to resolve issues is important, he said, “but we go beyond that to embody the role of youth and their centrality in influencing and formulating public opinion on many issues. Today, we reproduce the Doha Forum in its youth format, and we look forward to making a future impact on policy makers and decision-making circles.”
The Doha Forum: Youth Edition has brought together young bright minds, change-makers, and future leaders who have explored innovative ideas, and engaged in thought-provoking discussions on pertinent global and local issues that affect today’s generation. They were given an opportunity to share their valuable insights, perspectives, and solutions to address the challenges of today and shape a brighter future for tomorrow, with policy and decision makers.
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