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Summer School 2015

The post-2015 development agenda: manifesto for an age of global inequality and turmoil?

15 – 18 June, University of Leeds

Fifteen years ago, all 189 member nations of the United Nations approved the adoption of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aimed at eradicating extreme poverty and hunger around the world by 2015. Well, it is now 2015. Only some of the MDG targets have been reached; and the MDGs have been rigorously criticized for being overly focused on measurable targets, with too little attention to issues of justice and redistribution. Nevertheless, the United Nations plans to launch a new set of benchmarks, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Will these goals, seeking new remedies, make a difference? While new global challenges are emerging, new ways forward for global development are being hotly debated.

So, big questions remain of how best to tackle escalating global inequality, the impact of climate change on livelihoods and cultures, complex wars fought on varied fronts, continuing global economic recession, widespread corruption and fraud, governments hostile to their people, the challenges of mega cities, among others. Meanwhile, there are also signs of progressive economic and social change, people fighting the schemes of the powerful, social justice activism, governments challenging the one size fits all policy prescriptions…

Join us for our 2015 Summer School, which asks – Can the post-2015 agenda make a difference to development? Do they symbolise a new era for development, or is it business as usual? Can they open up opportunities for progressive change? What role international targets play in shaping the focus of development? What opportunities are there to tackle global inequality and deliver transformative development with justice for the Global South?

We invite you to take part in an exciting four-day programme, delivered by a range of expert presenters, researchers, practitioners, activists and academics, who work in the areas of gender, conflict, social movements, health, education, among others. Alongside your fellow students, we will debate the major issues from these various disciplinary areas, in order to reflect on the challenges and opportunities for the future of development. You will broaden your knowledge in a range of development disciplines, deepen your capabilities and skills related to critical thinking and analysis, research, group work, and communication. All learning will take place in a friendly and stimulating atmosphere.

Sessions to include: Poverty and inequalities, Natural resource use and climate change, Conflict and humanitarian crises, Health and education challenges post-2015, Sustainable development and social justice (Detailed programme to be confirmed)

Confirmed guest speakers: Sabina Alkire, Director of Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) James Foster, Professor of Economics and International Affairs - authors of forthcoming book ‘Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and Analysis’ (OUP, 2015)

Summer School 2015 Programme

Monday 15th June

9am Registration

Introduction and Programme discussion, Dr. Polly Wilding (Director, Centre for Global Development) & Laura Smith (Centre for Global Development)

Session 1: What is Sustainable Development and what opportunities and challenges does a Sustainability framing create for development? Dr. Susannah M. Sallu (Lecturer in Environment & Development and Deputy Director of the Centre for Global Development)

Session 2: The High-Level Political Forum and the Sustainable Development Goals: The future we want? Dr. Jamie Van Alstine (Lecturer in Environmental Policy, Co-Director of the Sustainability Research Institute) and Dr. Stavros Afionis (Research Fellow, Sustainability Research Institute)

Session 3: SGDs: Moving ahead with Gender equality? Dr Polly Wilding (Lecturer in Gender and International Development and Director of the Centre for Global Development)

Social Event

Tuesday 16th June

Session 4: Debating Food Security

Food security in the context of war, economic reform and environmental transformation in Near East and North Africa’ Professor Ray Bush (Professor of African Studies and Development Politics)

Integral perspectives on food security in South Africa - a replicable global model ? Professor Michael Rudolph, (Director of Wits Siyakhana Initiative for Ecological Health and Food Security, South Africa)

Session 5: Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and Analysis Masterclass Sabina Alkire, James E. Foster, Suman Seth and Paola Ballon (Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative)

5pm to 6.30pm Book Launch Event: Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and Analysis

Wednesday 17th June

Session 6: Education for Social Justice and Rural Transformation in Nepal: Research Implications Dr. Michael Wilson (School of Education)

Session 7: Donors and the new global aid architecture Dr. Simon Lightfoot (Senior lecturer in European Politics)

Session 8: Religion and the post-2015 development agenda Dr. Emma Tomalin (Director of the Centre of Religion and Public Life)

Session 9: Gender, Conflict and Peacebuilding Dr. Lata Narayanaswamy (Lecturer in International Development, POLIS)

Summer School Dinner

Thursday 18th June

Session 10: Exploring adaptive capacity in mangrove social ecological systems of rural Vietnam – implications for environmental justice Dr. Steven Orchard (Sustainability Research Institute)

“Voices of Transition” film showing

NGO panel discussion – Climate Change Challenges and the SDGs

Summer School presentations: lobbying the UN Secretary General

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