Background
As part of phase 2 of the Recipe of Change (ROC) campaign and following the appointment of Chef Leyla Fathallah as UNEP Advocate on Food Waste in West Asia region, the United Nations Environment Program - Regional Office of West Asia (UNEP ROWA) has developed a media campaign under the title of Sustainable Ramadan to raise awareness on food waste and trigger behavioral change.
According to the State of Food Waste in West Asia report “During Ramadan, 30-50 per cent of the food prepared in Saudi Arabia is thrown away; these shares reach 25 per cent in Qatar and 40 per cent in the United Arab Emirates.” This increase in food waste is attributed to the preparation of big quantities of food with leftovers being thrown away. This is common in the West Asia region, a region with socio-cultural traditions and annual religious festivals.
Objective
The objective of holding this media campaign throughout the Holy month of Ramadan, is to raise awareness about the adverse impacts of food waste on the environment, on food security notably in a region that relies heavily on imports, and on climate change. The campaign will also include information on ways to reduce food waste and to promote action towards achieving SDG 12.3 in an interactive and visually appealing manner.
The campaign will be rolled out through the various social media accounts (Instagram ,Twitter, Youtube,) and website of UNEP (mainly ROWA, but also UNEP global channels). In addition, the campaign toolkit (including social media cards, posts, animated content, and flyers…) has been shared with relevant stakeholders to mark their participation in this campaign by showcasing the package on their social media channels. These would be various NGOs, governmental bodies, academia, and the private sector notably through the Ho.Re.Ca industry. UN agencies have been engaged through the UNCT and RC framework, to ensure coordination and act as one UN.
The campaign features our advocate Chef Leyla Fathallah who will assist UNEP ROWA in promoting the material to reach the maximum audience possible as she currently has over 1.4 million followers on Instagram and 2 million on Facebook. The campaign was launched on 21 March 2023 and will run on a daily basis throughout the Holy month.
This campaign is supported by GO4SDGs
Impact
The campaign’s visibility and reach went far & beyond social media, as the Recipe of Change Campaign’s materials, messaging, and logo were featured at the venues of critical stakeholders in the Ho.re.ca. sector, such as the Conrad Hotel in Dubai along with the Waldorf Astoria Doha Hotel & the Hilton Hotel in Riyadh, during the launch event and all throughout the Holy Month. A dedicated Sustainable Ramadan toolkit was developed and made available for the partners.
Outreach numbers hit a new record with the Sustainable Ramadan campaign content reaching more than 200,000 accounts, with the vast majority being youth (under 35 years old age range). Chef Leyla Fathallah’s (UNEP Food Waste Advocate for West Asia) reels were the most successful during March, having the biggest reach and interactions: her zero-waste brioche recipe reached 94,568 accounts, the zero-waste Mouloukhiyeh recipe reached 51,768 accounts in total.
The launch event of the Sustainable Ramadan Campaign hosted at Conrad Dubai and the partnership of UNEP ROWA with Hilton within the Green Ramadan initiative were featured in more than 50 news platforms, and 6 outlets interviewed the Regional Director. This came to the attention of the media and brought interest to other news outlets to dedicate full episodes and interviews on the topic of food waste in West Asia, thus greatly increasing the audience and impact of the initiative.
As for the Green Ramadan initiative rolled out with Hilton and Winnow, putting in place food waste measuring, nudging and messaging for clients, as well as menu engineering, the average post-consumer waste was reduced by 60%-65% over the Holy Month in the three engaged outlets Conrad Dubai, Waldorf Astoria Qatar, and Hilton Riyadh.
