Beirut Arab University

SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals

University and Community Alignment Report | Lebanon

Evidence review updated 19 October 2026

Understanding the goal

SDG 17 concerns the cooperation, knowledge, capacity and institutional arrangements needed to achieve sustainable development. For a university, relevant targets include scientific cooperation, shared learning, multi-stakeholder partnerships and useful evidence. A partnership contributes most clearly when it has a defined purpose, reciprocal roles and outputs that partners can use.

Evidence: United Nations SDG 17 targets

BAU’s contribution

BAU’s contribution includes international curriculum projects, cross-sector dialogue, comparative urban research, shared educational resources and an institutional coordination framework. Students, academic staff and administrative employees participate in different ways. The university’s strongest evidence connects a named collaboration with an observable output, while wider policy or community impact requires further follow-up.

Students staff and community

Students participate in shared learning and supervised projects. Academic staff develop research and curricula with partners. Administrative employees sustain agreements, mobility, finance and reporting. Governments, NGOs, industry and international universities contribute complementary knowledge and resources, making reciprocity and continuing communication central to effective cooperation.

Evidence approach: dated activities and research from 2021–2026 are prioritised. Standing services are identified as such; policies and agreements have no date cutoff. Original links accompany the evidence. The final page proposes improvements and does not claim they are already implemented.

Institutional coordination and cross-sector dialogue

A structure for university-wide cooperation

BAU’s Sustainability Committee terms bring together academic, research and operational responsibilities. The published remit includes policy coordination, monitoring, education and community engagement. It provides a basis for connecting faculty work with facilities, finance, human resources and communications. Its terms describe expected responsibilities; meeting and follow-up records are needed to show implementation.

Evidence: BAU Sustainability Committee terms of reference

Research dialogue with public and community partners

BAU’s October 2026 Advancing Research for a Sustainable Future conference was organised with CNRS-Lebanon and the Hariri Foundation. It brought research, policy and industry participants together around health, innovation, social sustainability and climate-resilient communities. This is a delivered cross-sector dialogue platform; subsequent agreements and policy effects require separate evidence.

Evidence: BAU Advancing Research for a Sustainable Future October 2026

A recurring setting for civil-society engagement

The Human Rights Center’s Eighth NGO Fair, held on 29 April 2024 with the Lebanese National Commission for UNESCO, brought 20 NGOs together with students and other partners around rights and the SDGs. The numbered series provides evidence of recurring engagement rather than an isolated contact.

Evidence: BAU Eighth NGO Fair April 2024

Dialogue is useful when participants can identify questions and opportunities that none could address as effectively alone. Academic staff contribute expertise, community organisations contribute practical knowledge and students bring learning and participation. Administrative coordination helps ensure that contacts, decisions and commitments can be followed after an event.

BAU can strengthen this contribution by recording the purpose and next step of each major dialogue. The immediate output may be shared understanding or a new project proposal. Distinguishing those outputs from later social change helps partners judge what has been achieved and what still needs work.

Additional public and international links in 2026

BAU hosted ICONET26 in October 2026 as the IEEE Computer Society Lebanon Chapter’s scientific event, involving researchers from more than 13 countries. It provided a recent international exchange platform linking academic and technological communities.

Evidence: BAU ICONET26 international conference October 2026

The September 2026 agreement with Saida Municipality assigns complementary roles for urban studies and student projects, including university expertise and municipal information and field support. It is a partnership framework whose delivered results will require follow-up.

Evidence: BAU and Saida municipal urban cooperation September 2026

International capacity building and comparative learning

MORALE and NGO-management education

BAU coordinated the Erasmus+ MORALE project with universities and NGO partners in Europe and the Middle East. The collaboration addressed curriculum development and lifelong learning for NGO management, with a refugee-inclusion focus. Its design links higher-education capacity with the needs of organisations working in challenging social contexts.

Evidence: University of Alicante MORALE project and partners

At the January 2023 Alicante consortium visit, partners reviewed progress and agreed to use visit outcomes in project reports and to revise lifelong-learning courses. This is a specific example of comparison and exchange being connected with educational development.

Evidence: BAU MORALE Alicante study visit January 2023

A May 2021 MORALE training led through the University of Alicante addressed social-impact assessment. Sharing a method for assessing outcomes can help partner organisations move beyond reporting activity counts. It is evidence of capacity-building work, rather than proof that every partner subsequently achieved a measured social impact.

Evidence: MORALE shared social impact assessment training in 2021

Comparing artificial intelligence and robotics education

DeCAIR’s joint programme survey compared international undergraduate provision to inform curriculum development in artificial intelligence and robotics. BAU participated in the wider project, and its representatives shared their experience at the December 2023 final conference. The survey and dissemination demonstrate comparative learning and exchange.

Evidence: DeCAIR joint international degree programme survey | BAU DeCAIR final conference December 2023

International cooperation is useful when lessons are adapted to local teaching, staff skills and student needs. Administrative teams enable mobility, reporting and agreements; academic staff turn comparison into course decisions; and students experience the resulting learning. Each group contributes to whether a funded project leaves a continuing institutional benefit.

A stronger partnership record would show which learning resources or course changes remain in use after project funding ends. This helps assess sustainability of the collaboration itself and provides practical lessons for future partnerships.

Shared research educational resources and wider dissemination

Urban research across national settings

The University of Kassel’s 2023–2025 Urban Acupuncture project includes BAU in a multinational collaboration examining small interventions and wider urban change. Such work allows methods to be compared across places while retaining attention to local conditions. A research framework should be distinguished from construction of every proposed intervention.

Evidence: University of Kassel multinational Urban Acupuncture project

A BAU case in an international learning resource

The University of Lausanne identifies BAU academic participation in Healthy Urban Systems, and the delivered Coursera syllabus includes BAU’s Urban Lab as a systems-approach case. This provides evidence that university knowledge has become part of an international educational resource.

Evidence: University of Lausanne Healthy Urban Systems research project | Delivered Healthy Urban Systems course with BAU case

Published experience and institutional reporting

BAU authors contributed a chapter on sustainability practice to Springer’s Handbook of Best Practices in Sustainable Development at University Level. This is international dissemination through a scholarly publication. The 2023 and 2024 publication records refer to editions of the same contribution and should not be counted as separate projects.

Evidence: Springer BAU authors SDG best practice chapter 2024 edition

BAU’s 2025 report hosted by the International Association of Universities shares SDG 9 activity and future priorities. It provides a public channel for institutional learning, while individual results still need supporting evidence.

Evidence: BAU 2025 SDG 9 activity report hosted by IAU

Connecting research and local application

The March 2025 LIRA workshop introduced applied research and industry opportunities. Alongside international projects, it illustrates the importance of connecting knowledge exchange with potential users in the local economy. A workshop is a starting point; funded projects and adopted solutions require later records.

Evidence: BAU LIRA Innovation Program 2025 workshop

These examples show several partnership outputs: comparative methods, teaching material, published experience and opportunities for applied work. Their value depends on whether others can understand and use them. Public access conditions, clear authorship and appropriate follow-up help make shared knowledge a continuing resource.

Priorities for strengthening the contribution to SDG 17

BAU’s partnerships span public authorities, civil society, industry and international universities. The following recommendations would strengthen coherence and make the contribution of each collaboration easier to follow.

Manage partnerships around shared outcomes

A university register could identify each partnership’s purpose, lead office, partners, period, outputs and next review. Agreements should be linked to delivered activity without assuming that signing alone establishes implementation. Partners should help define success and be able to comment on the usefulness of the work.

Support the people who sustain cooperation

Academic staff need recognition for responsible partnership work and time to maintain relationships. Administrative employees need clear processes for agreements, mobility, budgets and reporting. Students need defined roles and appropriate supervision so that participation produces learning and a useful contribution rather than an unclear volunteering obligation.

For research partnerships, BAU could publish accessible output summaries and explain how results are shared. For dialogue events, a brief action record could state the questions raised and any agreed next steps. For curriculum projects, later reviews could identify which resources remain in teaching and what students gain from them.

BAU’s contribution to Partnerships for the Goals is the ability to connect knowledge, people and institutions around defined needs. Continuing evidence of reciprocal work and the use of shared outputs would strengthen the university’s contribution across all seventeen SDGs and support a more convincing account of sustained public benefit.