Student debates for the UN Debate Cup took place in Ashgabat
On the eve of United Nations Day the student debate over the statement “Economic growth to achieve sustainable development of the country” were held in United Nations Resident Coordinator's Office in Ashgabat.
In her welcoming remarks, the United Nations Resident Coordinator, Resident Representative for UNDP and UNFPA in Turkmenistan, Elena Panova, stressed: “At the UN we place great importance to the active involvement of youth in making the world a better place to live, the world which is peaceful and sustainable for all. In Turkmenistan, it has become a good tradition to celebrate United Nations Day among young people, to conduct debates among students on topical issues. Youth is the future of the world. It is very important for us to hear your opinion on issues of concern to humanity. It is important to understand from the point of view of the youth what our world should be like.”
The teams of six universities from the Turkmen State University, Oguz Khan University of Engineering Technologies, the Institute of the International Relations, Institute of World Languages, International University for Humanities and Development, and the National Institute of Economy and Management conducted debates in English on economic factors in the country's sustainable development.
The Heads of student teams presented their arguments in support, or against the debate motion regarding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In the second round, the remaining participants could also help to consolidate the ideas of their team, giving arguments in defense of the thoughts expressed.
Members of the jury evaluated the performance of teams on such criteria as “content”, “logic and consistency”, “clear confidence”, “persuasiveness”. According to the jury, it was very difficult to make a choice, as each university team clearly defended their point of view. In particular, the Head of the OSCE Center in Ashgabat, Natalya Drozd, stressed that the future of Turkmenistan is in this beautiful young generation, to which she wished to develop in the same spirit.
As a result of the intense debate, the winner was the team of the Turkmen National Institute of World Languages named after Dovletmammet Azadi, which received the UN Debate Cup. It should be noted that this institute was already the winner of such debates in 2014 as well.
After the Cup Ceremony and joint photo-taking for memory, an interactive tour was organized to familiarize with the work of all UN Agencies, including United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), UN Women, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA).
At the end of the event, Elena Panova shared with us that she was really impressed by these young students, full of enthusiasm, and this is not only about their level of erudition and fluency in English.
“Of course, I expected the students to come well-prepared; however, I am pleasantly surprised by the depth of their thought. They brought such weighty arguments, and some statistical data they voiced allowed to learn something new and interesting”, she said in an interview to Orient. “I am very happy that such thinking young people are growing in Turkmenistan. Speaking on the topic of the debate, it really is very difficult to say that the economic growth is enough to achieve sustainable development, or, on the contrary, to declare that the Goals can be achieved without economic progress. As they say, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
But most importantly, that economic growth itself is not sufficient to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). It is necessary to take into account other factors, such as ecology, social development, human rights, etc. It is important to note that the fundamental principle of the global Agenda 2030 is “no one should be left behind”. Only the complex integration of all key aspects of life in a single system allows achieving sustainable development”.
On the example of the Turkmen state, we can see an integrated approach to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This is evidenced by the Declaration on Encouragement of valuable contribution of the Refugees Olympic teams to consolidation of peace and human rights, adopted on the initiative of our country at the 36th session of the UN Human Rights Council. It should also be noted that Turkmenistan regularly provides humanitarian assistance to neighboring Afghanistan. Under the patronage of the United Nations our state stands for stabilization of the situation in this country, for a political settlement, calling on the world community to assist in the socio-economic reconstruction of Afghanistan.
Speaking about the Turkmen model of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), we can say that Turkmenistan is among the first countries (UN members) that have officially accepted all 17 points of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the resulting 148 objectives, as well as 193 indicators for their practical implementation.
