Project Tag: UNGC

Moushtarayat (4th Government Procurement & Contracting Conference & Exhibition)

The 4th edition of the Government Procurement and Contracting Conference and Exhibition (Moushtarayat 2019) organized by
Qatar Development Bank (QDB) took place from 31/3/2019 to 2/4/2019 at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC).

Source: Qatar-tribune.com

Building on the momentum of its preceding editions, Moushtarayat 2019 ushered in a wave of new opportunities for the government-private sector cooperation. The expo welcomed members of the private sector, particularly small and medium enterprises (SME), that attended and participated in a wide range of public tenders, publicly announced throughout the year.

A key aspect of the conference was to educate the local SMEs about the procedures involved in existing public tenders extended by big buyers, such as larger private sector companies, semi-governmental and governmental bodies.

I was happy to take part in a panel discussion on SME friendly public procurement procedure.

I emphasized on the importance of public and private procurement from SMEs for being the engine of the economies and their role in innovation, creating job opportunities and their socially responsible nature in many cases. I also tackled the importance of being socially responsible across the different activities of the supply chain, upstream and downstream. My talk also tackled the history and growth of the United Nations Global Compact, the SDGs and 2030 agenda.

Breakthrough Innovation for the SDGs

On Jan. 31st, representatives from Global Compact networks from all over the world met at the UN city in Copenhagen to help in designing Global Compact Young SDG Innovators program. The round table was attended by CEO and Executive Director of UNGC Lise Kingo, top directors and experts in the field of sustainability.

This program will be Launched in many countries around the world including Lebanon. This program in addition to SDG Youth pioneers were initiated due to the UN emphasis on youth as the future change agents.

The 1st of Feb. was a special day for the Danish network which was able to organize a big forum with more than 400 attendees including youth from all over the world.
Engaging youth in building the business of tomorrow was the theme. The forum started with a keynote by CEO and Executive Director of UNGC Lise Kingo and a welcome note by Anne-Marie Skov, executive director of the Tuborg Foundation.


Innovation for the SDGs in private sector companies was one of the discussed topics with case studies from Grundgos and Calsberg Group. Development requires partnerships and innovation hence was a talk by Danish Minister for development cooperation.

With the executive directors of Brazil, South Africa, and USA I participated in a panel discussion on SDG innovation Around the World as a representative of Lebanon. The Lebanese example was able to wow the audience.


A keynote by John Elkington tackled breakthrough innovation and the final panel gathered young entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs who were able to make impressive initiative at the global level.