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Qatar Green Building Council ( QGBC) focused on the vital role women play in sustainable development an d environmental management at a joint event with Qatar University (QU) a t the Qatar National Convention Centre on 25 March 2013.
\nA numbe r of industry-leading experts from QGBC and QU took part in the discussi on\, affirming women's critical contributions to Qatar's sustainable dev elopment\, and proposing actions to strengthen their role by eliminating social and logistical obstacles to equal participation.
\n"\; Despite facing a number of hurdles\, women are as capable as men in lead ing the construction industry in Qatar. They continue to be underreprese nted in the mainstream media as well as in the scholarly written materia l\,"\; said Eng. Rasha Al-Sulaiti\, Vice Chair of QGBC who is also P roject Management Director at Qatar Foundation's Capital Projects and Fa cilities Management division &ndash\; a department where the ratio of Qa tari women versus men now stands at 52 percent to 48 percent respectivel y.
\nHowever\, at the national level the picture is very different . According to Qatar Statistics Authority's recent survey of the nearly half a million people working in the construction sector\, only 2\,800 a re women\, including just 143 Qataris.
\n"\;When you enter a c onstruction company (in Qatar)\, you realise very quickly that all your colleagues are men and you hardly find a woman\, except in administrativ e tasks\,"\; said Sheikha Athba bint Thamer Al Thani\, who\, since j oining QDVC in June 2010\, has advanced to become Chief Support Services and Sustainable Development Manager.
\n"\;Before I joined QDV C\, not one woman was present in the executive committee. I want to high light why we experience this situation and how we can convince both men and women that females have a role to play in an industry representing b illions of Qatari Riyals\,"\; said Ms Al Thani\, before drawing atte ntion to cultural limitations\, long working hours\, gender bias and a v ariety of other restrictions hindering the potential of women in sustain able development.
\nProviding an alternative perspective on the is sue\, Dr Yasser Maghoub\, an Associate Professor at Qatar University who spoke on design for recycling said\, "\;I don't think the problem i s that they are women. The job market has its own demands\, limitations and directions. The market needs fresh talent and fresh minds. The marke t is growing\, especially with the projects for 2022. It doesn't have ti me to train people\, and so they bring professionals from outside (of Qa tar). Our efforts are underway to train as quickly and professionally as possible to meet the demands of the current market."\;
\nDr M aghoub's students were on hand with their peers from QU's Engineering De partment to offer their own insight as young women studying the field. T he students presented their projects on a range of topics in sustainable design and development\, including wetland remediation and food product ion at Abu Nakhla\, vertical farming at the Lusail Towers in West Bay\, and community gardens and productive public spaces at The Pearl-Qatar\, Qatar University and Al Zuhoor compound.
\nQU professors Dr Anna G richting and Dr Hussam Salama facilitated discussions with the students on their projects\, before a lively panel debate reviewed the day's key theme and messages with an engaged audience.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20130521T094730Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20121017 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20121019 SUMMARY:Two-day workshop - 17th & 18th October 2012 TZID:Asia/Qatar UID:20130521T094731Z-uidGen@ganymede.local LOCATION:Doha - Texas A&M University\, Education City DESCRIPTION:The Problem with Greening the Existing Building Stock - Exper iences from Texas\, Seoul and Doha COMMENT:Qatar Green Building Council\, in collaboration with Texas A&a mp\;M University at Qatar and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea invit es you to a two-day workshop that examines many of the technical and pol icy issues that underlie the challenge of making the existing building s tock more sustainable.
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