"The best way to become acquainted
with a subject is to write a book about it."
Benjamin Disraeli
This is my fourth book about sustainability and the importance of including inclusive growth in any sustainability module. I have proved in practice that a clean and green economy is surely possible when you apply the three pillars of sustainability: environment, society, and economy. However, sustainable development has existed throughout the ages, albeit with limited concern, and has gained popularity in recent years, with journalists, philanthropists, and development workers frequently invoking the term.
This book contains real stories and best practices from around the world and is universal in its approach to a sustainable tomorrow. Most of its characters are not famous but rather from different backgrounds with distinct issues—what unites them is their dedication and approach towards achieving a sustainable future. The purpose of this book is not to praise a few men or women, but rather, to call attention to the role of a particular type of people who propel social changes and learn through their experiences.
In 1992, I led a humanitarian mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosnian War was characterized by bitter fighting, the indiscriminate shelling of cities and towns, ethnic cleansing, and the systematic mass rape of Muslim Bosniaks. During that time, my mind was filled with challenging thoughts about why humans seemed to be losing their basic values and fundamentals and could not accept each other because of their religion, belief system, color, and race. No matter how much I searched, no answer would satisfy me. These thoughts kept coming, and I felt I needed to do something at the global level to improve communication among the world’s people and bring peace and prosperity. Since then, I have believed that humanitarian aid can play a significant role in reducing conflicts and creating a better tomorrow.
Unfortunately, the Bosnian war was not the only issue challenging global leaders in those days. Civil wars, famine, and UN military and humanitarian interventions could be found in almost every corner of the globe. I decided to be a history maker and global shaper by dedicating the rest of my life to serving the causes of humans around the world. I was driven by Roy T. Bennett’s saying, “If you have a strong purpose in life, you don’t have to be pushed. Your passion will drive you there.” So, I decided to focus my efforts on African countries, such as Somalia and Sudan, as well as Asian ones, such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.
While writing this paragraph, one of the most shocking incidents that came to mind was the Rwandan genocide, known officially as the genocide against the Tutsi. This mass slaughter of the Tutsi people in Rwanda by members of the Hutu majority government killed an estimated 500,000 to one million Rwandans during the 100-day period spanning April 7 to mid-July 1994, amounting to approximately 70 percent of the Tutsi population, and 20 percent of Rwanda’s total population. The genocide and widespread slaughter of Rwandans ended when the Tutsi-backed and heavily armed Rwandan Patriotic Front, led by Paul Kagame, took control of the country. An estimated two million Rwandans, mostly Hutus, were displaced and became refugees.
During that time, I was serving as a volunteer in the role of general manager of Sharjah Charity International, where we created a small camp in Rwanda for almost 100 children who had lost their parents and had no identity at all. What a horrible memory!
On March 11, 2000, I was appointed by His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, a member of the Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates, the Ruler of Sharjah, as director general of a newly-founded organization called Hamriyah Free Zone, which is owned by the Sharjah government. The main objective of the Hamriyah was to attract foreign direct investment to Sharjah city by promoting its services and incentives at the local, regional, and global levels. I remember those early days when we had only 68 companies, mainly local small and medium-sized businesses.
I am a believer that the most peaceful language on earth is the language of business. I was quoted several times by media as saying, “If we want to bring peace, prosperity, and love, we must first create business.” I worked hard and smart, both day and night, to promote Hamriyah Free Zone and attract local and multinational companies without compromising sustainability principles.
In mid-2001, I discovered an article about the eight Millennium Development Goals, which are stated as follows: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; to achieve universal primary education; to promote gender equality and empower women, to reduce child mortality; to improve maternal health; to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; to ensure environmental sustainability; and to develop a global partnership for development. I was so inspired by these eight goals and their time-bound objectives and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions (income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion) while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human rights—the rights of each person on the planet—to health, education, shelter, and security.
The eighth goal, “Develop a global partnership for development,” is worth a special mention. This goal particularly attracted my attention and it was through this goal that I believed the Free Zone could best be marketed.
I was highly successful in my role as director general, and on April 22, 2014, I was transferred by His Highness to chair Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA). I left Hamriyah Free Zone a legacy of more than 6000 companies, a workforce of 45,000 people from 159 countries, and investments exceeding $25 billion. That was possible because we prioritized purpose over profit and were able to strike the right balance among what we called the Triple Ps: people, planet, and prosperity.
I summarized my journey in Hamriyah in a book called, My Green Journey in Hamriyah. It was my first book about sustainability, in which I emphasized that, with authentic leadership, we can make a difference and create a brighter tomorrow.
On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. With $639 billion in assets and $619 billion in debt, Lehman‘s bankruptcy filing was the largest in history, as its assets far surpassed those of previous bankrupt giants, such as WorldCom and Enron. Lehman was the fourth-largest US investment bank at the time of its collapse, with 25,000 employees worldwide.
Lehman‘s collapse was a seminal event that greatly intensified the 2008 economic crisis and contributed to the erosion of close to $10 trillion in market capitalization from global equity markets in October 2008—the largest monthly decline on record at the time.
During the collapse of the global financial market I, like millions of others, wondered why it failed. A bank with 158 years of operational experience had failed and gone bankrupt in such a short space of time. We thought it was “Too big to fail, too small to shake the whole world financial market.” We were wrong!
People were panicking about what to do. During that tough time, I had the idea to organize an event inviting thought leaders and local and regional speakers from the financial market to talk about the crisis, to educate the community about its impact, and how to be prepared for such crises in the future. I prepared a small plan for the event and emailed all my friends, colleagues, and business partners to get their support and feedback. To my surprise, almost all of them advised me to focus on and speak about sustainable development and inclusive growth.
I was overwhelmed by the quick feedback and support. Good friends and colleagues wanted to speak in the program, and they were ready to travel at their own expense, so I decided to flesh out my idea and named it the Sustainable Development Conference. But after deeper thought, I chose to call it the Sustainable Development Congress because a congress is a large formal meeting of representatives from countries or societies, at which great ideas are discussed and information exchanged.
I began by sending complimentary invitations to over 500 executives and business leaders to invite them to attend the congress. Again, I was overwhelmed by the response, with over 200 confirmed participants planning to attend and more than 32 executives wanting to speak.
With this number of speakers and such a large audience, one day would not be enough; therefore, I had to pursue a two-day program. We held the event on February 22–23, 2009, and it was so successful and well received by all 250 participants that the top recommendation that emerged from the Congress was to make it an annual event.
As the saying goes; “Success Breeds Success.” The first Sustainable Development Congress was a great opportunity for me and I was later invited by many local and regional organizations to speak and share my experience regarding the three pillars of sustainability through keynotes, presentations, and workshops about sustainability and inclusive growth.
My second book, entitled Sustainability: The Fourth Wave of Economy, has gained popularity and acceptance with sustainability leaders across the globe. It is worth mentioning here that the foreword of the first edition of the book was written by the former president of the Comoro Islands, H.E Ahmed Abdallah Mohamed Sambi. It is also worth mentioning that the foreword of the second edition was written by the late S.R. Nathan, former president of the Republic of Singapore, who left a great legacy behind him as a dear friend and Singapore’s longest-serving President.
The book explains that the world economy has witnessed a transition from the first wave—of mere survival of mankind through agriculture—to the second wave—of technology and industrialization. The recent and third economic wave has witnessed new highs of application of information technology with astounding ease of accessibility, timeliness, and networked information.
I, as a visionary and futurist, have foreseen a new and very important fourth wave of economy. I call it the Green Economy, with an overarching concept of sustainable development. In this phase, there is a paradigm shift toward more inclusive growth and sustainability that stems from the depletion of natural resources and the expected increase in demand from the teeming millions across the nations.
In the book, I spoke about my experiences in countries where I saw abject poverty and my conviction that the best investment is not in gold or real estate but in people, who should be central to any attempt at sustainability, keeping in mind the fact that there is no alternative to inclusive growth.
The work necessary to meet the Millennium Development Goals is far from complete, and we need to be even more ambitious about the post-2015 framework, in which the next set of development goals will be implemented. Continued financial support for institutions, such as the Global Fund and the World Bank’s IDA fund, is a key way to help countries build systems that can deliver universal health coverage and is the best way to end the scandal of unnecessary deaths. In the book, I wrote that in order to have sustained societies, the eight Millennium Development Goals are not enough; thus, we need to include additional goals and expand the list. My opinion was supported by other leading organizations and media houses, who questioned, “What have the millennium development goals achieved?” The question was not asked for the sake of debating; it was meant to find solutions to more pressing global challenges.
On September 25, 2015, the UN member countries adopted a set of goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years.
For the goals to be reached, everyone needs to do their part—governments, the private sector, civil society, and people like you. Yes, you!
My third book on sustainability, I Am Committed To the 17 Global Goals, outlined my full commitment to the latest publication of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. I am happy that the UAE Minister of Economy, H.E Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansoori, who is passionate about sustainability, was kind enough to write the foreword for the book. The book summarizes the 17 global goals with facts, figures, and targets for each goal and highlights the contributions made by the Alleem Foundation and Alleem R&D for each goal.
This book, Alleem Sustainable Development Goals, is a complement to the three aforementioned books, which are the fruit of my 25 years of experience in charity, government, and semi-government agencies, which has allowed me to travel to more than 60 countries around the world preaching sustainability and inclusive growth. My experience and life philosophy helped me while working on the ground in those countries led me to see that there is more work to be done. The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) are great, though they are not enough to overcome the global challenges, and I felt important goals needed to be focused on and added, such as happiness, tolerance, children’s rights, and more. You will learn more about these as you read on.
Through the Alleem R&D Center, I came up with a list of 21 new goals that support the UN 2030 vision of the new 17 SDGs to make the world a better place.
My 21 goals support the 17 SDGs and the UN’s 2030 vision, yet their foresight goes beyond 2030. Foresight is the act or power of foreseeing, prevision, or prescience.
Drawing on examples from a number of countries, this book includes many success stories about the world’s most influential companies, smart governments, cities, and foundations that lead, innovate, and outperform the demonstrated track record of successfully leveraging sustainability opportunities to achieve corporate, organiza-tional, and national competitive advantages and regularly win prestigious awards and recognition.
I have chosen to take a global focus because sustainable development is an essential and global phenomenon. The book teases out the diverse but intersecting domains of sustainability and emphasizes strategies, organizational characteristics, and personal qualities for action. This book possesses powerful ideas, and encouraging and instructive stories to solve problems, while it also acts as a boon for people whose dream it is to make a positive change on a large scale. Additionally, business people and nonprofit managers will see how sustainable development serves large markets without depleting natural resources. Policymakers will discover problem-solving models with a vision of national development. Professors, teachers, and students will discover stories as useful case studies for a range of courses that can inspire young people.
Through this book, I have sought broad changes and showcases detailed strategies for how those changes actually take place. It is my wish that this book may contribute to a better understanding of the degree of our responsibility toward our own planet, our own people.
Maybe my words will express the sentiments of many others who think and feel as I do, but who find it more difficult to speak out publicly.
Happy Reading!
Rashid Alleem
Sharjah, UAE
November 2017
