Amman- 7 December 2021
The School of Applied Humanities and Languages (SAHL) - Department of Social Work at the German Jordanian University (GJU) held a workshop entitled "Society, Religion and Sustainable Development in the Arab World - Ideologies, Ethics and Practice.” A project with the Humboldt University of Berlin HU, represented by the RCSD Research Program in Communities for Sustainable Development.
The President of GJU, Prof. Ala’aldeen Al-Halhouli, valued the importance of the topic to exchange ideas and to discuss strategies on how to create a network in the region to give more emphasis to the most pressing issues in the region, stressing the importance of networking in research and paying attention the religious communities and their role in the process of sustainable development.
The workshop addressed the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a guiding framework for the holistic improvement of life in all areas that are widely used by states and NGOs for policy-making and social and humanitarian work as there is a growing interest in engaging religious communities in collaboration on sustainable development goals.
This interest in religious communities stems from their great potential as factors of change such as the participation of religious communities in health care, education, poverty alleviation, and other areas. At the same time, they can also stand in the way of sustainable development, for example, when traditional roles conflict Unisex with egalitarian values or when radical religious thinking encourages conflict rather than peace.