11 Dec. 2023

The 21^stEdition of Doha Forum, held under the patronage of Amir of State of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, concluded today. The two-day premier policy gathering saw top diplomats, experts, and changemakers grapple with critical challenges that face our world, focusing on this year’s theme, ‘Building Shared Futures’. The event saw the participation of 3,500 individuals from over 120 countries, including over 270 speakers.

Drawing attention from the world’s most influential leaders, this year’s participating guests included Hussein Mwinyi, President of Zanzibar; Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations; Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh, Prime Minister of Palestine; HE Ayman Al Safadi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Iran; Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Russia; Ali Sabry, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka; Husam Zomlot, Ambassador, Palestinian Mission to the UK; Dr. Nasser Yassin, Minister of Environment, Lebanon.

The forum officially drew to a close Monday evening with remarks from Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, Minister of State, Qatar, ‘As we conclude this year’s Doha Forum, I am humbled by the richness of our discussions and our commitment to shaping a more resilient and cooperative future for the Middle East and the world.”

Presenting the latest trends, analyses, challenges, and opportunities in humanitarian action, day two of Doha Forum 2023 kicked off with the panel discussion, ‘Putting People First: Humanitarian Diplomacy in a Challenging World’, in partnership with United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh al-Khulaifi, Minister of State at Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stressed ‘In a world filled with unprecedented challenges, we must come together to tackle those obstacles that hinder our ability to provide aid and assistance to those in need.”

Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator remarked “As we approach 2024, almost 300 million people around the world are in need of humanitarian assistance, equivalent to the third most populous country in the world. Humanitarian assistance cannot be the entire solution, everyone has to be part of the process […] it is one that we share from the outset, it is time that we make a reality in the field, not in a panel discussion.”

In the first Newsmaker session of the day,  Guy Ryder, Under Secretary General for Policy, Executive Office of the Secretary-General, United Nations Secretariat argued that the world still needs the structure of the UN to address its challenges. “We are in a world which faces multiple simultaneous crises; we face crises of war, a crisis of climate change and of development,” he said. “We are falling short in resolving them as we wish. There is no disputing the fact that the UN cannot be more than the aggregated will and actions of its member states. That is the reality that the UN lives with. We nevertheless have in the UN the instrument that can help us do better.” He added that the UN has convened a summit of the future next September that is designed to re-dynamize the organization.

In Palestine Has Become a Global Crisis – Does It Have a Global Solution?, held in partnership with Middle East Council on Global Affairs and U.S./Middle East Project, Husam Zomlot Ambassador, Palestinian Mission to the UK argued that politicians focused on ‘the day after’ the war ends are distracted from the most critical issue in Gaza today.

“We need to talk about today, about the need for permanent and comprehensive ceasefire, because every day will cost us dearly. Already, the situation is beyond control,” he said. “We need to also talk about the day before and not the day after. Our entire conversation needs to focus on the siege, settlement, occupation, violence, the Netanyahu system that undermines any element of a two-state solution.” 

Ambassador Zomlot also berated governments ‘lecturing us on a two-state solution, without recognizing the state of Palestine,’ adding “We must leave the issue of who leads and governs to the Palestinian people. There was never in our history a president who wasn’t chosen by his people.”

He concluded by noting that the movements around the world calling for a ceasefire and an end to the occupation were unprecedented, remarking “We can turn this moment into a historic moment, to turn this tragedy into a great opportunity, because the people of the world will suck the oxygen out of this occupation.”

Daniel Levy: President, US / Middle East Project warned that ‘this can still get worse. It is getting worse everyday. If you provide more weapons and vetoes at the UN Security Council, Israel will do its worse. You have to introduce accountability. If you want the Israelis to change direction, you have to introduce cost and consequence. The US is clearly woefully inadequate at that task.”

He added, “It is important that there are Jewish voices saying ‘not in my name’; those who say this can’t be a religious war – and it is not in my name.”

Dr. Comfort Ero: President & CEO, International Crisis Group, said “We are in a crisis of peacemaking in itself and Gaza shows that. The Security Council has become dysfunctional. That didn’t start today in the name of Israel and Palestine, it was there on Ukraine and on other conflicts. There is a lack of leadership.But there will be a day of reckoning for the US and the UN. There will be a reckoning for others who have sat and watched without working hard to find a two-state solution.”

The panel discussion Securing Data in an AI Driven Era, in partnership with National Cyber Security Agency, addressed the challenges and strategies of ensuring privacy within AI systems, exploring both technical safeguards and ethical considerations.

Highlighting that AI is outpacing regulation, His Excellency Abdulrahman Ali Al-Malki, President of the National Cyber-Security Agency, said, “In the near future, it is difficult to agree on regulations on the use of AI because it is rapidly changing and evolving.”

“One of the key issues of new AI systems is ‘hallucination’ […] these models make up information and lie in a convincing manner, and this is the biggest inhibitor of using this technology in a business construct,” said Amr Awadallah, CEO & Co-Founder, Vectara, Inc.

“Another issue [with AI systems] is explainability, it needs to explain how and why it arrived at this solution, and why it is the right diagnosis,” he added.

Wilson Center’s Towards a Multilayered World: Rethinking Alliances saw panellistsdebate whether a shift to more issue-based regional and intraregional alliances can serve as steppingstones for resolving gridlocks in multilateral organizations.

Tim Watts: Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, Australia commented, “When Australia looks at the world and how we would like it to operate in the international system, we want a peaceful, prosperous, secure world, a world underpinned by agreed norms, rules and international law, but really importantly a world were countries can make their own decisions.”

Ville Skinnari: Former Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Finland noted that a NATO membership for Finland is a natural next step, saying “it is not against anybody; it’s just to really convince ourselves that Finland is a security provider and not a consumer.”

With the world’s temperature predicted to rise by 1.5°C, Governing our Climate Future– hosted in partnership with STIMSON – reviewed key takeaways from the recent COP28 and how we should be setting humanity on the path toward sustainable green growth and climate sustainability.

Maria Fernanda Espinosa: Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Defense of Ecuador, former President of the UN General Assembly expressed her frustration, saying,“Planet earth can live very well without us, but we cannot live without planet earth. And after 28 times that COPs have met, our emissions continue to grow steadily, and we have to operate in emergency mode.” She added, “We want to raise ambition but there is no ambition without the means of implementation for developing countries.”

Chido Mpemba: African Union Youth Envoy, stressed, “We have all these meetings of COP year-by-year but it needs a proper implementation plan and action as a state of emergency.”

In A Multilateral Dialogue on Regional Security and Diplomacy,Dr. Huiyao Wang, Founder and President of Center for China and Globalization (CCG) – a session partner, alongside Middle East Institute – and Dr. Justin Vaïsse: Founder and Director General of Paris Peace Forum, looked at the need for multilateral and inclusive dialogue in a time of heightened conflict and rising tension in the MENA region.

“We are losing trust between all the major players to come up with a resolution. China can play a bigger role now,” remarked Dr. Wang. “The country has been doing business, it doesn’t occupy and has never had these problems. The Saudis and Iranians talked about ending rivalry but who would have done the peace deal? With China sitting at the table, a deal was made.”

Dr. Vaisse added,“There was a sense that stability might happen after the Abraham Accords but now we see that it did not happen. Israel-Arab peace is not Israel-Palestine peace. It happened between Egypt and Israel long ago and there is always this idea that Arab peace with Israel means it will have peace with Palestine but that has not been the case.”

The session Vaccine Innovation and Global Health Resilience: Lessons from COVID-19 and Beyond discussed vaccines’ role in healthcare systems, development, and distribution, focusing on COVID-19 lessons and future health emergency plans, moderated and in partnership with the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH).

Prof. Sir Adrian Hill: Director of the Jenner Institute, Oxford University, commented, “COVID-19 was a global disaster in many senses but for those of us involved in vaccine RND it provided funding that we had never had before and a global understanding of what vaccines can and cannot do.” Noting that the malaria vaccine took 30 years to develop, he added, “There were many learning points [from COVID]; one is that we can develop vaccines much faster than we normally do.”

Lady Roslyn Morauta: Chair of the Board for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria said, “We need mechanisms where agencies work together just like they did during COVID, when all the major multilateral health organizations cooperated very well in a way that they probably hadn’t before to try to ensure more critical access to COVID tools.”

Launching the 2023 Future Readiness Economic Index, a special report commissioned by Google and Produced by Descartes Institute in cooperation with the Communications Regulatory Authority of the State of Qatar, Building a Digital Economy: Is Your Country Future-Ready? revealed key results and rankings.

Ahmad Al Muslemani: President of the Communications Regulatory Authority, Qatarspoke of Qatar’s use of digital communication to provide an enhanced visitor experience to fans at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. “Another successful example [of digital transformation] is the major effort by the Government of Qatar to migrate to the cloud. Today, more than 40% of the consumed services are powered by artificial intelligence,” he added.

“Successful countries in terms of future readiness, like Singapore, adopt a holistic approach. It’s not about being the leader in specific technologies but understanding the broader impact on education, international competitiveness, and other components. It’s a comprehensive perspective,” noted Dr. Bruno Lanvin: Founder and CEO, Descartes Institute.

During State Agency and Multilateral Institutions in Times of Multipolarity panellists questioned how the Gulf and Europe are navigating a changing geopolitical order, embracing a multipolar shift and focusing on strengthening international and multilateral institutions for stability during crises.

Dr. Vjosa Osmani: President of the Republic of Kosovo, stated, “Despite of everything that we have to go through, we need to make sure that our children and everybody’s children never have to go through what we have to go through, and for that purpose we need to understand that the underlying principle of peace is not revenge, the underlying principle of peace is justice.”

Sudan’s civil war, centred in Khartoum and Darfur, has already killed thousands and displaced millions. The panel Sudan at War from the International Crisis Group explored methods for lasting ceasefires, political processes, and reducing conflict impact.

Hanna Tetteh: UN Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa, stressed that “It has to be an unconditional ceasefire there are no terms or preconditions that ought to come into play before that happens. But it is also important to recognize that the government of Sudan will have to be a government that reflects Sudan and that’s the reason why it is the civilian actors that should be consulted as part of that process to get the outcome that is desired.”

In the second Newsmaker interview of the day, H.E. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Iran emphasized Iran’s position towards the Gaza crisis, stating “According to international law if Israel wanted to retaliate, they should have observed the principle of differentiation and proportionality. They should differentiate between military and non-military targets.”

He continued, “The only thing that we have in common with the occupying regime of Israel that neither of us believes in a two-state solution. There needs to be one ruling system in the Palestinian territories. Israel also believes that. In Biden’s time we see that in practice, the two-state solution has been ignored. The original people of Palestine, Jews, Christians, and Muslims should decide the fate of Palestine.”

Asked about Iranian relations with the rest of the region, he said, “Our policy towards the neighbouring countries is one based on cooperation, peace and maximum security in the region. And within the framework of this policy, we strive for the peace and progress of the region. Our dialogue and cooperation with countries like Egypt is in line with our efforts to have more stability and lasting security in the region.”

Chatham House’s session US-China Competition – How Should Middle Powers Respond? delved into one of the 21^st century’s great power rivalries – the United States of America and China – coining potential strategies and responses from so-called middle powers. Ambassador Julian Ventura, Former Mexican Ambassador to China, remarked “An inescapable reality is that both players are so deeply interwoven into the global system that those dynamics can’t be ignored or avoided.”

Prof. David Monyae: Director, Centre for China Africa Studies, University of Johannesburg, added, “I think one of the greatest events in the recent past was the BRICS summit…we see a much stronger global South, and the power has shifted from the US.”

Among other panelists were Hina Rabbani Khar, former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Pakistan and Dr Park, Head of Diplomatic Academy of South Korea.

“The Middle East was before known as a US-centred region but it has now changed with China entering the region. The US is becoming less reliable and less predictable, which made its role in the region very different nowadays.”  noted Galip Dalay: Non-resident Senior Fellow, Middle East Council on Global Affairs in The Middle East’s Fragile Reset: What Future?, a partnered session with Middle East Council on Global Affairs.

Assessing how international influences, global stakeholders, and strategies can help prevent protracted conflict and facilitate peaceful resolution, Prospects for Peace in Ukraine saw panellists compare conflicts. Jacek Siewiera: Secretary of State, Head of the National Security Bureau of the Republic of Poland, argued “We cannot escape any form of comparisons between the war in Gaza and in Ukraine, there are many differences, but the most visible one is that the positions in the War in Ukraine and the strategic expectations of both sides were openly expressed in the beginning of the war.”The session was held in partnership with CCG and European Policy Centre.

The session Advancing Sustainability & Improving Governance in Fragile States from Center for Strategic International Studies explored how energy innovations and technologies are enabling small-scale solutions to advance climate goals, bolster civil infrastructure, accelerate economic development, and promote peacebuilding in fragile states.“Globally there is good investment in renewables, but when you come to Africa you see a very small portion of these funds coming to Africa,” noted Dr. Balgis Osman Elasha: Chief Climate Change and Green Growth Specialist, African Development Bank. “In 2021 $444 billion was invested globally. Only 0.6 % of it came to Africa, although Sub-Saharan Africa has 44% of the global potential for solar energy.”

“Ignoring and dismissing the two-state solution is simply not an option. Mass expulsions are not acceptable, the reoccupation of Gaza is not acceptable, the increased settlement violence in the West Bank is not acceptable,” stressed H.E. Dr. Bisher Khasawneh, Prime Minister of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, during the last Newsmaker session of this year’s forum.“We’re hoping this [Israeli aggression on Gaza] will be a wake-up call that would fundamentally place things back on track.”

Mirroring this year’s theme, Building Shared Futures, the last panel investigated the need for multilateral institutions to evolve and address future challenges, focusing on inclusive systems, norms, and technologies for effective cooperation.

“Speaking as a Palestinian-American, America has lost credibility long before the last three weeks in terms of what human’s rights actually are. We failed every single moral claim about where we [the United States] stand in the world,” said Dr. Omar Suleiman, Founder and President, Yaqeen Institute. “We are in a time where talk of peace is often heard in forums where political power postures are directly used to suffocate the work of justice.”

“It is important for us not to let Islam or Christianity or Judaism to be scapegoats,” he continued. “Religious voices are able to continue to clear the lens to make sure that people are able to see clearly and be touched by the suffering of a child, and mobilize the masses towards that, rather than allowing religion to become a mechanism or a means by which hatred becomes especially flammable.”

“Many countries have found more power, more voice, and have wanted to exercise these voices and that has meant that the world is not as broken up in simple blocks as it used to be,” said Bronwen Maddox, Director and CEO, Chatham House. “We’re looking at reversal of decades of globalization. Progress is not enough but I wouldn’t give up on the ability of countries to reach an agreement when there’s a crisis.”

The forum was closed by His Excellency Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh al-Khulaifi, Minister of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“As we draw the curtain on this year’s Doha Forum I am humbled by the richness of our discussion and our commitment to shaping a more resilient and a more cooperative future for the ME and the world,” he said. “As we reflect on the actionable insights that come from this forum, the power of this moment lies in our ability to translate knowledge into actions. Now is time for us to take this action.”

Day two also witnessed the signing of an agreement between Qatar Charity and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The forum’s media partners included Al Jazeera, Al Qabas, Al Monitor, CNN, Foreign Policy, and NTN 24.

For more information about Doha Forum, or to watch previous sessions, please visit: https://dohaforum.org/