(+84) 093 164 51 30   69/68 Dang Thuy Tram Street, Ward 13, Binh Thanh District, HCM City

SDGs Training Session IDEBATE Season 2 Recap

Sunday, March 12th, 2023                                                                                                        Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam

On March 11, 2023, just one day right after the opening ceremony of IDEBATE season 2, Van Lang University’s International Education Institute (Vietnam) hosted its first training session in a total of four for this season of IDEBATE. With the central theme of IDEBATE ss2: “Sustainable Development Goals”, the championship organizers have prepared for the candidates 4 workshops with different topics designed to enhance their knowledge and skills needed for this year’s championship, where speakers from various professional backgrounds are invited to host the workshops.

The first training session goes around the SGDs topic. What is different this year is applicants attend the workshop before the 1st round. This change was made to equip candidates with the basic knowledge of Sustainable Development Goals, which will definitely help them get a better understanding of IDEBATE ss2’s topic to elevate and perfect their performance for the 1st Round.

The workshop was hosted online via Zoom by Associate Professor Iftekhar Ahmed from the University of Newcastle, Australia. IDEBATE is honored to have him here since his field of study really has a close link to the SDGs topic, therefore Ifte is the perfect speaker for this training session.

Assoc. Prof. Iftekhar Ahmed

Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed is an associate professor and a former program convenor at the University of Newcastle, Australia’s Master of Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Development. He teaches about the built environment’s resilience, catastrophe risk reduction policy, and sustainable development.

His specialties in research include urbanization, sustainability, disaster risk reduction, post-disaster housing, and disaster risk reduction in the Asia-Pacific. His approach to his study in catastrophe resilience and sustainable development is genuinely immersive since he thinks that research shouldn’t be limited to theory only.

While Ifte first pursued a standard architectural career, he soon changed his focus to catastrophe resilience and sustainable post-disaster housing systems. It is not a surprise that Ifte’s research is international, given his multicontinental academic background, which includes a Bachelor of Architecture from IIT in India, a Master of Science in Architectural Studies from MIT in the US, and a Doctorate from Oxford Brookes University in the UK

In addition to participating in numerous research and assessment initiatives on catastrophe resilience and sustainable development, he is the author of numerous books and numerous peer-reviewed publications. “Disaster Resilience in South Asia: Facing the Odds in the Sub-Continental Fringes,” a recent book, is written primarily by him (Routledge, UK, 2020).

Sustainable Development Workshop

In this training session, candidates get a chance to learn more about Sustainable Development Goals. Assoc. Prof. Iftekhar Ahmed has prepared very detailed content with 73 slides of the presentation by himself in order to deliver a useful and informative session. Throughout the workshop, Dr. Ahmed provided participants with not only theoretical information but also real examples and comparisons, which help listeners can have a better understanding of the matter.

Dr. Ahmed has introduced to IDEBATE candidates about 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which he then catergorized into 5 main section, which he called the 5xP Sustainable Development Goals:

  • Planet
  • Peace
  • Partnership
  • Prosperity
  • People

He then gave an insight into the 2023 Agenda for Sustainable Development and helped listeners to update about the current vision and plan of the world in an effort to have more sustainable growth of economy, society, and environment.

Dr. Ahmed gave participants a full introduction and explaination of 17 different sustainable development goals

Moreover, he also presented detailed graphs and data to further explain the concept of SDGs:

Some detailed slides that Dr. Ahmed had prepared for the workshop

In conclusion, the workshop was a success, drawing in more than 50 participants attended. Even though it was a virtual session, everyone engaged with Dr. Ahmed and other attendees with enthusiasm. Our young participants really demonstrated their eagerness to learn and desire to get the most out of this workshop through the many thought-provoking questions they asked the speaker throughout the session, such as whether or not the SDGs are hindered from progressing, whether they have an impact on other SDGs or not, and whether or not they were thought of as spillover indicators.

IDEBATE and the co-organizer, the University of Newcastle, has successfully provided candidates with fundamental information about SDGs as a result of this SDGs training session. IDEBATE hopes that the workshop will enable applicants to elevate their performances, which will strengthen the grade of their Round 1 videos.

Don’t Forget that IDEBATE still has 3 more training workshops during the championship. If you love to share your thoughts about opinions on global matters and joining exciting activities, don’t hesitate to join the International Debate Championship IDEBATE season 2 to gain experience and win big prizes.

Check out our website and fan page to learn more about IDEBATE!

For further information about IDEBATE season 2, please contact: 

  • Website: https://idebate.vlu.edu.vn
  • Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/IdebateVLU
  • Email: idebate@vlu.edu.vn
  • Whatsapp: +84 931 757 104 or https://chat.whatsapp.com/LWkAoowCtlzJ0udczrkVpg

Author: IEI

Photos taken by: Van Lang University’s International Institute


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

VAN LANG UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION INSTITUTE

69/68 Dang Thuy Tram Street, Ward 13, Binh Thanh District, HCM City