Spotlight

AFED Board of Trustees chairman Dr. Adnan Badran was honored as Man of the Year by the Shoman Foundation at a ceremony in Amman today. Ministers, university presidents and researchers who have worked with him for decades spoke about him. In a speech entitled “Policy at the Service of Development”, AFED Secretary General Najib Saab spoke about his experience with him as one of the founders of the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) and Chairman of its Board of Trustees. “Badran embodied in his continuous work the principle that civilisation is accumulation and continuation, not passing uprisings. This principle is precisely the first thing we need for revived Arab Renaissance, which has long since turned into bubbles followed by silence. On the threshold of his 90th year, Adnan Badran is still living his life in its fullness. He was a pioneer in education as the founder and president of universities, as well as successful minister and prime minister. But he did not harness science and education to serve political ambitions, but rather put politics in the service of science, education, environment and development, and never gave up his principles for a political position.”

Saab stressed how lucky AFED has been to work with Adnan Badran since the first day of its establishment. “He embodied all the principles we dreamed of, and was a strong supporter of our eagerness to declare the truths without restrictions, and to propose alternatives that help develop policies that preserve the integrity of the environment and care for resources to ensure their renewal, and at the same time ensure the sustainability of balanced development. It was not an easy job to announce the facts unambiguously, based on science, in an effort to turn ideas into policies. The task would not have been possible if people who combine science and political experience, at the forefront of whom is Dr. Adnan Badran, did not meet around it, thus securing “political protection.”

After presenting examples of his contributions to the work of AFED, Saab concluded by thanking Badran “because the AFED would not have had this position and influence if it were not for your wisdom, knowledge, integrity and humility, and harnessing your political stature to serve development and the environment, as well as harnessing it to serve education and science.”

The full text will be published in a book issued by the Abdul Hamid Shoman Foundation.