Lunchseminarium: Goals for the rich – Making the next set of development goals relevant and aspirational for all

After 2015 – The road towards the next global development agenda

Goals for the rich – Making the next set of development goals relevant and aspirational for all 

Many people argue that the next set of development goals must be formulated for all countries and not – as the current MDGs – primarily focus on the developing world. With natural systems under severe stress and resource scarcity threatening the right to development of the world’s poor, is it time to devise goals involving the rich?

As more than three quarters of the extreme poor live in middle income countries and the global middle class is estimated to double in ten years’ time, North-South distinctions are increasingly blurred. Addressing inequalities within regions and countries is therefore fundamental. But how can “the rich” – individuals and nations in developing as well as developed countries – be brought on board?

How to tackle the complexity of sustainability in the next global development agenda looms large. Is it at all possible to fulfill the good intention to fuse economic, social and environmental dimensions into a whole, as agreed at the Rio conference last summer? What kind of development is possible without compromising the future of the planet? 

This seminar will address the challenge of framing the post-2015 agenda in ways that allow for a relevant and fair sharing of responsibilities across the globe;

• How can we establish a universal agenda that recognizes the diversity of challenges within and among countries?
• How should the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities be understood and implemented?
• How do we formulate goals to target the rich?

Participants:

Jan Vandemoortele, one of the main architects of the MDGs and former Director of the Poverty group at UNDP. Jan Vandemoortele has served in various capacities with the United Nations for 30 years (UNDP, UNICEF and ILO), both at headquarters and in the field.  He holds a Ph.D. in Development Economics and, after retiring from the UN, he now works as an independent researcher, writer and lecturer. Jan Vandemoortele has been an advisor to the UN Task Team on the Post 2015-process.

Sivan Kartha, Senior Scientist at Stockholm Environment Institute and co-leader of the research theme Managing Climate Risks. He is one of the authors of the Greenhouse Development Rights framework for burden-sharing in the global climate regime, an approach that places the urgency of the climate crisis in the context of the equally dire development crisis afflicting the world's poor majority. Dr. Kartha is serving as a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC, contributing to the section of next climate change assessment report dealing with Equity and Sustainable Development.

Roberto Bissio, Executive director of the Instituto del Tercer Mundo (Third World Institute) and coordinator of the secretariat of Social Watch, an international network of citizen organizations from around the world. A member of the civil society advisory group to the UNDP administrator and a trained journalist, Roberto Bissio has worked on development issues since 1973.

The seminar starts at 12:00, lunch sandwiches will be served from 11:30.

Please register for the seminar here.

For further information, please contact:
Monica Lorensson, UNDP,  at 0768 83 96 56, monica.lorensson@undp.org or
Annika Söder, Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, 0708 75 75 54, annika.soder@dhf.uu.se 

This event forms part of a seminar series on the post-2015 agenda, jointly organized by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and UNDP Nordic Office. The next seminar will address the topic “Beyond economic growth and global statistics – measuring real development”. 

More information to come!