Events
Rethinking Sustainability Beyond 2015: An Agenda for Citizen Action — Outcomes
Held October 2nd, 2014, 3:00-6:30 pm. ASAP Canada and the Politics and Governance Students Association co-organized this workshop.
Sustainability – defined by social, economic as well as environmental dimensions – is emerging as the centrepiece of the new global agreement that will replace the UN\’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) when they expire in 2015. In contrast to the MDGs, which focused on poverty reduction in developing countries, the post-2015 framework, with a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at its core, will be applicable to all countries.
Does the emerging post-2015 global framework accurately identify the multiple challenges of sustainability? How do the deepening inequalities at every level – local, national, global – affect our quest for ‘sustainability’? What forms of limits to corporate power are necessary to ensure sustainable production and consumption? How do we counter the false choice between sustainability and job creation that is presented by businesses and governments alike? Most importantly, how can citizens own these processes of transformative change?
The workshop featured brief presentations by academic experts and civil society leaders, and an intensive discussion period. Stephen Lewis, Distinguished Visiting Professor Ryerson University and former UN Special Envoy for HIV-AIDS in Africa, delivered the keynote address for the workshop. He discussed the future of global poverty and development beyond the Millennium Development Goals that expire in 2015. The video of his presentation is below.
