Supreme Committe for Delivery & Legacy
In 2019, B4Development closed its third year of operation and entered its fourth in full swing. The past 12 months culminated with a milestone development for our unit: official incorporation as a foundation, broadening our global footprint and mandate to promote the use of behavioral science for evidence-based policymaking in Qatar and beyond.
Since our launch in 2016 as the first behavioral insights and nudge unit in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region – formerly as the Qatar Behavioural Insights Unit – we've laid the groundwork for partnerships, experimentation, knowledge dissemination and industry-wide contributions in behavioral science for social impact, inclusive growth and national governance.
On both the domestic and global fronts, our focus was three-fold: experiments with impact, capacity building at scale, and the dissemination of industry knowledge and thought leadership.
In Qatar, healthy and sustainable living was central to our experimental work in 2019, notably in the FLW (food loss and waste) area. In January 2019, we partnered with one of the largest international luxury hotel chains in Qatar for an experiment aimed at gauging patrons' propensity to waste food when updated daily on the amount and impact of their waste. In September, our behavioural intervention with the Qatar Green Building Council tested the impact of smaller plate sizes on food waste among students during an event for the Eco-Schools Sustainability Programme – our preliminary directional findings from this study suggested that such measures could reduce food waste by as much as 3Our local initiatives were equally centered on capacity building at scale; efforts that we extended to regional and global platforms in 2019. In Qatar, we targeted young talents and professionals across national organisations with a slew of training tracks, building up their applied knowledge and technical skillsets in behavioural science and policy experimentation. In collaboration with Qatar Foundation, we organised two successful workshops on the application of behavioural insights to health, education and sustainability – the outcomes of which were applied into our food waste experiment during the Eco-Schools Sustainability Programme event. Joining hands with the United Nations Development Programme, we also held our "Nudging for Peace" workshop for students at Hamad Bin Khalifa University's Empower Conference.
Also, in 2019, we forged partnerships with a laser focus on bridging the gap between academia and professional development in the behavioural economics field. This summer saw the launch of the B4D Internship Programme, where visiting students from leading universities – including the University of Oxford, Yale and Harvard – were actively engaged in our experiments in Qatar. In December, we also delivered an educational track on the application of behavioural insights tools for PVE (preventing violent extremism) and conflict resolution, under the "E-Analytics & Innovation Course" organised by Hamad Bin Khalifa University's Qatar Computing Research Institute and the UN's Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA).
These initiatives were two of many outreach efforts we invested into scaling our knowledge exchange and thought leadership platform across the region in 2019. In September, we partnered with the Lahore School of Economics for the Symposium on Behavioural Economics in Policymaking in Pakistan. At the Behavioral Public Policy Conference organised by Turkey's Behavioural Act in November, we showcased our success and lessons learned in setting up the MENA region's first behavioural insights and nudge unit. In Beirut, we co-hosted our flagship BX Arabia event with Nudge Lebanon, gathering behavioural science experts to address national policy challenges. At the Oman 2040 National Conference, we shared our cases in the application of behavioural science to nationwide policy plans.
The year 2019 also marked our prominent presence on the global stage. We participated in leading industry events in London, Beirut, Amman, Baku and, most recently, Turkey and New York, rallying policy stakeholders and decision-makers behind the use of behavioural science in promoting workers' welfare, social inclusion, PVE and sports for development. We were joined by a league of the world's leading policy and humanitarian actors, including the Qatar Mission to the UN, United Nations Institute for Training and Research, United Nations Development Programme and the International Organisation for Migrants.
Locally, we took to the Qatar Public Health Conference stage to discuss the convergence of traditional and behaviourally informed policy models for public health education. At the World Innovation Summit for Education, we showcased Radicalise, our groundbreaking PVE game and case study of "psychological vaccination" against radical extremist groups, developed in partnership with Nudge Lebanon, Jon Roozenbeek, Sander van der Linden and DROG. This first pilot was launched under a thesis by Nabil Saleh, visiting fellow at B4Development, at the London School of Economics.
As we take on an expanded global assignment, our focus remains on growing our network of behavioural experts, governmental and non-governmental organisations, regional counterparts and academic partners to support with the setup of next-generation nudge units, build up knowledge and human capital in behavioural science, and shape policymaking in Qatar and beyond.