The QatarDebate Centre held a debate on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos in collaboration with The New York Times under the theme of global co-operation and whether it has become obsolete.
The session featured industry experts, businesspeople, thought leaders, decision-makers and high-ranking officials headed by HE the Minister of State for International Co-operation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lolwah bint Rashid AlKhater, alongside representatives of the QatarDebate Centre, a statement said.
New York Times president and chief executive Meredith Kopit Levien and New York Times Company president (International) Stephen Dunbar-Johnson delivered inaugural remarks before the session.
QatarDebate Centre outreach programmes manager Abdulrahman al-Subaie also addressed the session.
He said that the QatarDebate Centre has proven to the world that it has succeeded in conveying its message after years of having witnessed milestones and expansion in building bridges of co-operation with global institutions of more than 80 states, in addition to engaging tens of thousands of young people in initiatives and programmes.
Organised by the QatarDebate Centre, the debate was squarely convened before a jury, as per the Oxford method, with the participation of international speakers in a variety of fields and moderated by *New York Times climate change and the environment correspondent David Gelles.
The debate features open discussions between those who supported the laid-out issue and those who rejected it that primarily revolved around ways to restore confidence in global organisations that started to crumble, as well as programming them to be more effective.
The debaters also touched on the significance of converging the perspectives of active parties and attendees through offering the state-of-the-art evolutions in science, industry, and society.
The jury committee was made up of former US vice-president Al Gore, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) president Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, alongside former Dow Chemical Company of Midland chief executive and chairman Andrew N Liveris, the statement read.
Female speakers in the debate included the director of Programme Advocacy and Communications, Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Alaa Murabit, GAYO Uganda country manager Betty Osei Bonsu, visiting Professor of Practice at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government Rachel Kyte, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London Prof Mariana Mazzucato, co-president of the Club of Rome Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, and alongside The B Team chief executive and chief change catalyst Halla Tomasdottir.
The debate wrapped up by unanimously voting for the conviction that global co-operation does still exist and has not become obsolete, but through enacting some laws on reforms.
