Tomorrow: SDG A-Z Guide book launch & SDG Taskforce meeting
Yi hyun Kang
Dear all,
This is a gentle reminder of our invitation to the presentation of the newly published open-access book, Essential Concepts for Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals: An A–Z Guide, followed by a meeting of the SDG Taskforce, on 16 October (Thursday), 14:15–16:00 CEST via Zoom.
The event will begin with the book presentation, featuring brief interventions from several contributing authors (14:15–15:00). This will be followed by the SDG Taskforce meeting, focusing on the group’s next joint product and the reorganization of the working groups (15:00–16:00). Below is a detailed concept note for the event.
Kindly let us know your participation by registering for the Zoom meeting: https://lu-se.zoom.us/meeting/register/9uItQqthSjOGFjHnTrHVGA#/registration
Best regards,
Yi hyun, on behalf of SDG TF co-conveners
14:15-14:25 Welcome by co-conveners Carole-Anne Sénit, Frank Biermann, Thomas Hickmann, Yi hyun Kang, and Yixian Sun
Both the United Nations and experts in academia share a similar diagnosis: the 2030 Agenda with the SDGs designed to steer societies towards sustainability transformation, is in an acute crisis. On the one hand, many countries are not on track to achieve the goals by 2030. On the other hand, the SDGs have been publicly disavowed, with the most notable cases including the current US administration and a few other countries led by “libertarians” such as Argentina. Beyond these striking cases, we more generally witness a worldwide backlash against sustainable development initiatives in various areas and an increasing trend towards autocratization. At the same time, the United Nations, the European Union, and several countries from the Global South continue to use the SDGs in their policy frameworks. We therefore posit that beyond their integration in sustainable development policy discourses, the SDGs have gained some ground in different political-administrative systems across governance levels. Our newly published book, Essential Concepts for Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals: An A-Z Guide, supports this assumption by offering up-to-date knowledge on, and engaging critically with, the most central concepts related to the implementation of the SDGs. This highly accessible and user-friendly volume showcases short explanations of such concepts and terms written by leading scholars to inform students and practitioners on the main challenges and opportunities related to SDG implementation.
14:25-15:00 Interventions by some contributing authors
- Pamela Chasek, Professor of Political Science at Manhattan University, United States
- Rodrigo Führ, Cities and Climate Change Expert Coordinator, UN-Habitat
- Grayson Fuller, Senior Manager at the SDG Index, data and statistics at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), Paris Office, France
15:00-16:00 SDG Taskforce Meeting
The new policy briefs series draws key lessons from the past decade of implementing the SDGs and charts new directions in sustainability governance and politics especially as the international community is in the process of developing a post-2030 Agenda. Recognizing the overall lack of progress in implementing the SDGs, the policy briefs aim to identify real achievements in specific sectors and countries and examine how they have come about despite the many current obstacles, from Covid-19 to rising authoritarianism, and geopolitical conflicts. The ambition of the policy brief series is to make concrete policy recommendations to revitalize SDG implementation in key governance areas and to inform the debate on sustainability governance and politics beyond 2030. The policy brief series will be led by the six new working groups and each working group compiles one policy brief to be published consecutively over a year. Potentially, the six policy briefs will provide the basis for a perspectives piece in a high-profile journal that seeks to inform the discussions on the post-2030 agenda.
Yi hyun Kang, PhD
Postdoctoral researcher | Environmental politics
Department of Political Science at Lund University, Sweden