13th Development Dialogue

Professor Sakiko Fukuda-Parr

SDGs - a course correction?: Widely criticized by the development community as 'bloated', the SDGs improve on the MDGs which were highly reductionist. They also reflect a different political dynamic, being no longer an aid agenda but a universal aspiration for development that is inclusive and socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. This lecture explores the potential and pitfalls that lay ahead as the SDGs hit the ground.

Short Bio: Development economist concerned with global poverty and inequality. She explores these problems from the perspective of human development and human rights. She is currently conducting research for a book on the role of Millennium Development Goals in reshaping international development agendas and another on a new index with which to measure economic and social human rights. From 1995 to 2004, she served as lead author and director of the United Nations Development Programme Human Development Reports.

Professor Rolph van der Hoeven

Can the SDGs stem the growing inequality in the world?: Goal 10 of the SDGs refers to reducing inequality, but in this lecture this goal is questioned. One can ask how this goal can be implemented given the rather vague targets related to it.

Short Bio: Professor of Employment and Development Economics at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS). His work concentrates on issues of employment, inequality and economic reform, and focus amongst others on problems related to basic needs, structural adjustment, and globalization and poverty alleviation. He is member of the Committee on Development Cooperation of the Dutch Government and of several other Dutch development organizations. Earlier he was Director Policy Coherence and Manager of the Technical Secretariat of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization at ILO Geneva.

Special event

Dr Kees Biekart

This year’s Development Dialogue sees an exciting addition in the form of a dialogue session called The Fishbowl, chaired by Dr Kees Biekart of ISS. The Fishbowl provides the opportunity for dialogue among conference participants and the wider audience on a specific topic, creating rich outputs in a short time frame. Participants are organized simulating a fishbowl, with four chairs in the center and a ring around the chairs, where the audience take their place.

There are two main rules: 1) one of the four chairs has to remain empty, and 2) there is a time limit for each intervention. The dynamic seeks to generate an equal chance for every interested person to participate in the dialogue.

Following this year’s conference theme, the Fishbowl will encourage a dialogue between researchers and development practitioners about the strengths, challenges and the future of UN’s Development goals, as prompted in MDGs and SDGs. As an output we work to retrieve a joint reflection that should inform critical reflections about development.