Sheikha Amthal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Head of Voluntary Work Center in Kuwait, Honorary Chair of the Higher Advisory Regional Committee, inaugurated the World Urban Forum and delivered a speech during the opening session addressing more than 8.000 participants as well as heads and members of delegates of more than 145 countries.
In her opening statement, Sheikha Amthal extended the greetings of HRH Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jabir Al-Sabah, Prince of the State of Kuwait, to the forum. Sheikha Amthal Al-Ahmad stressed on the importance of global and Arab solidarity in order to meet the challenges of urban development and the negative results and their environmental impact. Sheikha Amthal also pointed to the development efforts and steps taken by different funds in the Arab region, particularly the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic and Social Development and the commitment of the State of Kuwait and its people towards the developing world and the cooperation for poverty alleviation and provision of infrastructure and decent livelihood for disadvantaged countries.
Sheikha Amthal also stressed the need to encourage voluntary work and to enable a wider range of volunteers to participate in relief work and support development projects around the world. Sheikha Amthal called for consolidated and coordinated humanitarian efforts to ensure the effectiveness of the humanitarian contributions and their impacts for a better future of distressed areas.
Sheikha Amthal Al-Ahmad concluded her speech by expressing her appreciation to UN-Habitat for the organization of the forum, and to the regional office of UN-Habitat in Kuwait for the coordination of the Arab participation and to the Italian government for hosting the forum.
Sheikha Amthal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah also inaugurated the Youth and Women Forum that took place on September 2nd, and stressed the important role of youth and women in development work and decision-making, in addition to highlighting the need to enable them to become active agents in voluntary work.
The World Urban Forum included a number of side events for the Arab region, including the international launch of the State of Arab Cities Report 2012 under the auspices of Sheikha Amthal Al-Ahmad, this event was attended by the heads of all Arab delegations participating in the forum, preceded by HRH Prince Mansour bin Mot’ab, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Being Honorary Chair of the Higher Advisory Regional Committee of UN-Habitat, Sheikha Amthal also attended the signing ceremony of the cooperation agreement for the establishment of a new office for the agency in the Kingdom of Bahrain, which has taken place at the Bahraini section in the World Urban Forum Exhibition.
