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AMMAN – December 2, 2015 - At the Resilience Development Forum organized by UNDP, HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh emphasized during his participation in the High-Level Panel on Engaging the Private Sector that the relationship between the United Nations and the business sector should be a real partnership, as is the case in the partnership forum between the UN and Jordan business sector as well as the partnership between the UN in New York and the international business sector represented by Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAG-Org) for promoting digital technologies for sustainable urbanization.

The Resilience Development Forum (RDF) aims to create a fundamental shift in the way the international community is responding to the continuing crisis in Syria and the surrounding region.

In his speech, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh called for changing our culture in terms of dealing with the refugees, first by not calling them refugees but “guests” and realizing the benefits of their existence instead of dealing with them as a burden. He recalled that the most advanced countries have hosted other nationalities, most notably the United States of America, Germany and others, which considered “guests” as cultural and productive addition which contributed to their development and growth. 

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh reminded attendees that he himself is a Palestinian refugee who is always proud of the countries that hosted him and owes gratitude to the United Nations which gave him a university scholarship due to his educational excellence. 

He also stressed the need to form a permanent taskforce to follow up the issue of guests as we will have to deal with their issue for several decades, if not permanently. This necessitates establishing permanent institutionalized departments to address this issue.  

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh also stated the need for technological solutions to build cost-effective housing units, praising the prefabricated quick build houses that Finland works on developing. 

In addition, and in his capacity as the Chair of the Honorary Council of the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization (CSU), Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh called the architectural and technological community to invent houses at the same cost of tents to maintain the dignity and convenience of “guest” refugees. 

In terms of the necessary needs of “guest” refugees, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh emphasized that the first need is education and capacity building which are equally important to food, housing and medical treatment needs, so that those guests become a productive tool while they are hosted and when they return back to their homeland.

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh also made clear that education and capacity building have become available through digital learning and that TAG-Org is currently performing this duty in partnership with the UN organizations and the European Union.