On October 20, 2023, the republican training seminar "Sustainable Development Goals in Geographical Education" was completed at Abai KazNPU. For four days in a row, invited speakers, as well as teachers of the Department of Geography and Ecology of the Institute of Natural Sciences and Geography conducted a detailed analysis of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals and gave recommendations on their implementation in the educational process in the lessons of the subject. On the fifth day, the game "Mission 2030" was held, the purpose of which is to identify priorities for sustainable development, as well as to increase awareness of SDG issues. This business game was developed according to the methodology of the UNDP by the Institute of Economic Research under the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Institute is the Secretariat of the National Commission on SDGs. Leading experts of the SDG Secretariat Nurzhanova M.B. and Abuov A.Zh. were specially invited to conduct the game.
The game was played offline, but the rest of the audience could follow the process of the game online. 5 teams of 6 people participated in the game. They were teachers of Almaty and Talgar schools, teachers of the Institute of Natural Sciences and Geography, students, undergraduates and doctoral students of the Department of Geography and Ecology. Each team chose one SDG, and then one task from the selected goal. At the end of the Mission 2030 game, one participant from each team spoke and answered the questions, which goal out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals they had chosen, what proposals they had for achieving it in Kazakhstan and why it was so important to them.
"In the training seminar on the SDGs, I chose Goal 15 and task 15.3: to combat desertification and restore degraded lands by 2030. This problem is acute all over the world, and our Kazakhstan is no exception. To solve the problem, we must use modern technologies, for example, the technology of calling artificial rains. This experience is widespread in Arab countries. And I believe that this technology will help us solve the problem of desertification and land degradation," said R.E. Espaev, geography teacher of the private school "Elite School KZ" (Tuzdybastau village of Talgar district of Almaty region).
"At the Mission 2030 business game, we chose SDG 9 and Task 9.4: modernize infrastructure and industrial enterprises for sustainable development. By 2030, modernize infrastructure and re-equip industrial enterprises, making them sustainable by increasing the efficiency of resource use and wider use of clean and environmentally friendly technologies and industrial processes, with the participation of all countries in accordance with their individual capabilities. Because this is the most important aspect of development. By regulating these problems, it is possible to achieve fundamental changes in development and minimize harm to people and the environment," said E.A. Mi
