ILO trains MENA Business Schools Alliance for Sustainability (MEBAS)

From 30 April to 2 May 2024, the ILO organized a comprehensive training workshop on mainstreaming labour issues in business education for the MENA Business Schools Alliance for Sustainability (MEBAS), a network of fourteen business schools across eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Professors from the following institutions participated in the event: University of Dubai, Ajman University, ESCA (Morocco), Prince Sultan University, UAE University, Princess Sumaya University for Technology, Kuwait University, King Saud University, University of Cyprus, American University of Kuwait, Qatar University, and American University in Dubai. The diverse disciplines represented at the workshop included procurement, productivity, operations, human resources, ethics, supply chain management, and logistics.

Over the course of three days, the ILO shared university-level materials on sustainable supply chain management. Discussions revolved around adapting these materials to fit the local contexts in the MENA region which students are most likely to work post-graduation, as well as tailoring the content to the specific disciplines taught by the attending professors.

The educational materials discussed will soon be available on a digital platform developed by Qatar University. This platform will also serve as a hub for professors to share additional resources they have created or translated into Arabic. Furthermore, the participants plan to collaborate on a publication that will feature case studies exploring labour issues in a range of disciplines addressing sustainability.