Our mission and values
The MENA Sustainable Development Forum is a non-political open think tank for cross-region cooperation to promote and catalyze market-based solutions for sustainable development.
The Forum engages the regional thought leaders, investors, and young entrepreneurs to cultivate regional common grounds and foster nexuses.
As an open think tank, we aim to be a decartelized community-based platform governed by our three values:
- We act and inform positive action, but we do not campaign;
- We build on common grounds and avoid conflicts of all types;
- We encourage cross borders collaborations and do not focus on specific community groups of any kind.
We believe that progress happens by bringing together people to collaborate on common grounds in a decentralized fashion focusing on results not on creating noise.
Our key strategies:
To make sustainable development goals a reality in our region, we apply three key strategies:
- Cultivating regional knowledge and expertise through collaborative platforms;
- Integrating thoughts with investment and entrepreneurship through special market-based solution projects that bridge gaps;
- Widening development impact by adopting cross-boarders mentality.
How do we do our work?
As a decentralized open think tank, we encourage forming short term cross region taskforces around projects with focused scope. All generated intellectual works has to be copyrighted as creative commons or similar manner to make it available for others to build on it and take it further.
The MENASDF uses several platforms for collaboration such as:
- Online networks
- Through insights (blog, special reports, and podcasts)
- Special projects
- virtual forums
Our regional focus:
The boundaries of MENA region has gone through many definitions. for us, MENA is the people of a region that have shared common culture, interests, and fate for centuries.
What makes us unique?
We are not unique or special in any way and this will never be part of our vision. Unique and great things only happen when small positive everyday actions accumulate over time.
MENA SDF is a home for people with knowledge, entrepreneurial sense, or capital who wake up every day with intention to act positively and share it with their neighbors.
About the Founder
Sustainable Development Strategist and Pragmatic Advisor from Saudi Arabia.
Abdurahman holds a higher Diploma in International Environmental Law from United Nation Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and a BSc> in Chemical Engineering from King Saud University (KSU), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He is also a Certified Circular Economy Life Cycle Assessment professional from Circular Economy Lab (CircEL), University College London; and a certified, Responsible Investment professional, from UN PRI.
He has worked with major global players in Oil & Gas (Shell), Aerospace (BAE Systems), and Mining industry (Saudi Arabian Mining Company Ma’aden). Lately he extended his advisory services to some governmental agencies and giga projects around national policies development and programs strategy in collaboration with the World Bank.
His work is centered around promoting aspects of Stakeholder Capitalism, Sustainable business-models, and Socioeconomic impact.
Since 2010, he has been sharing his views and publishing his reports through MENA Sustainable Development Forum website (menasdf.org) which he is developing it to become the regional open think tank to promote cross-boarders sustainable development agenda.