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Review of SDGs implementation: SDG 1

This session is the first of the sessions to look in-depth into one of the SDGs but at the same time not losing sight of inter-linkages among the rest of the SDGs. The session will examine interlinkages and implication for policy-making and implementation to realize this goal bearing in mind in particular that to eradicate poverty, its causes and manifestations must be fully understood and addressed. Poverty eradication can only be achieved when interconnected factors are addressed together. Such factors include inclusive growth, livelihoods and decent work, social protection, access to basic infrastructure and services, food security, nutrition, health, education, empowerment of women and girls, environmental sustainability, governance and more equitable access to opportunities and distribution of income and wealth. Poverty eradication demands cross-cutting, coherent initiatives that make people less vulnerable, reduce the risks of setbacks, break patterns of discrimination, and enable all women and men to fully participate and benefit from economic growth. Concerted effort is needed to tackle the most prevalent and reoccurring constraints to eradicating poverty and these will be examined by a panel of experts that will facilitate an interactive discussion among all participants at the meeting and provide recommendations to policy-makers based on latest information and data, as well as experiences and lessons learned that have worked in a number of countries.

Proposed guiding questions:

  • Extreme poverty, as well as poverty measured by national definitions, has fallen in many countries over the last decade. Will these approaches continue to be successful in achieving SDG 1, or do things need to change? If so, how?
  • There is hardly any SDG which is not connected to the objective of eradicating poverty for all time and for all people. Which of the other SDGs, in your opinion, would be the most effective in accelerating progress towards SDG 1?
  • What are your top three recommendations for helping reach SDG 1?

Presiding Officer

  • H.E. Mr. Frederick Musiiwa Makamure Shava, President of Economic and Social Council

Moderator:

  • Ms. Carolina Sanchez-Paramo, World Bank

Statistical Snapshot

Panellists:

  • Prof. Martin Ravallion, Edmond D. Villani Professor of Economics, Georgetown University
  • Mr. Yang Zhi, Mayor of Jingzhou, China
  • Mr. Yaw Ansu, Chief Economist, African Center for Economic Transformation Ghana
  • Prof. Janet Gornick, Professor, Political Science and Director, Stone Center on Socio Economic Inequality, CUNY

Lead discussants:

  • Ms. Deborah Greenfield, Deputy Director-General for Policy, International Labour Organization
  • Mr. Wellington Chibebe, Deputy General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation

Interactive discussion

Biographies
Mr. Wellington Chibebe
Deputy General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
Mr. Wellington Chibebe

Deputy General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)

Wellington Chibebe was elected Deputy General Secretary of the ITUC in 2011. Prior to taking up that position, he served as Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). He joined the ZCTU in 2001 having previously served as President of the National Railway Workers’ Union, which he joined in 1988 after serving his apprenticeship as a diesel plant fitter.
He holds a Bachelor of Laws Degree (LLB) from the University of South Africa (UNISA).
Wellington Chibebe has represented Zimbabwe’s trade union movement on numerous occasions at the annual ILO International Labour Conference and various other major international meetings. A champion for democracy and development, he was awarded the inaugural Arther Svensson International Award for Trade Union Rights by the Norwegian Chemical Workers’ Federation in 2010.
In 2014, Wellington Chibebe was re-elected as ITUC Deputy General Secretary.

Mr. Yang Zhi
Mayor of Jingzhou, China
Mr. Yang Zhi

Mayor of Jingzhou, China

Mr. Yang Zhi is currently the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Jingzhou Municipal Congress of China. He has more than 30 years of experience at the municipal government of China, having served as the Director-General of the Yichang Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the President of the Yichang Commercial Bank, the Deputy Mayor of Yichang, the Deputy Mayor of Huanggang and Mayor of Jingzhou Municipal Government, Hubei Province.

Mr. Yang was extensively engaged previously in a broad range of urban economy related issues. Among his various assignments, Mr. Yang has obtained outstanding performance in finance management, capital operation and economic development.

Mr. Yang graduated from the Southwest University in China and has a PHD degree in Law and Policy.

Mr. Yaw Ansu
Chief Economist, African Center for Economic Transformation Ghana
Mr. Yaw Ansu

Chief Economist, African Center for Economic Transformation Ghana

Yaw Ansu is Chief Economist at the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), where he leads the implementation of an extensive research program focused on analyzing and promoting economic transformation in African countries. He was the principal author of ACET’s 2014 African Transformation Report: Growth with Depth. Prior to joining ACET, Dr. Ansu spent over 26 years working at the World Bank in various capacities including, Research Economist, Country Economist, Country Director, Director for Economic Policy and Head of the Economists Sector Board, and Regional Sector Director for Human Development for Africa. Ansu led several World Bank teams in helping countries formulate and implement economic growth, transformation and export diversification strategies and to respond to macroeconomic crises. As Regional Sector Director, he led over 150 staff to deliver World Bank programs in education, health, population, nutrition and social protection. Yaw Ansu holds a B. A. in Economics from Cornell University, and an M.S. and a PhD in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University.

Ms. Carolina Sanchez-Paramo
Global Director for Poverty, World Bank
Ms. Carolina Sanchez-Paramo

Global Director for Poverty, World Bank

Carolina Sanchez, a Spanish national, is currently the Senior Director of the Poverty and Equity Global Practice (GP) at the World Bank. Prior to this assignment, she was the Poverty and Equity GP Practice Manager in the Europe and Central Asia region. Carolina has worked on operations, policy advice and analytical activities in Eastern Europe, Latin America and South Asia, and was part of the core team working on the WDR2012, “Gender Equality and Development”.

Her main areas of interest and expertise include labor economics, poverty and distributional analysis, gender equality and welfare impacts of public policy. She has led reports on poverty and equity, labor markets and economic growth in several countries, as well as social sector operations. She has published articles in refereed journals and edited books on the topics described above. Carolina has a PhD in Economics from Harvard University.

Ms. Deborah Greenfield
Deputy Director-General for Policy, International Labour Organization
Ms. Deborah Greenfield

Deputy Director-General for Policy, International Labour Organization

Deborah Greenfield is the Deputy Director-¬General for Policy. In that capacity she leads the ILO’s policy, research, and statistical work across the range of labour and employment issues addressed by the organization. Before joining the ILO, Ms. Greenfield served as the Deputy Solicitor for the U.S. Department of Labor, where she had major responsibility for management of the Office of the Solicitor, a 750-person nationwide enforcement agency that includes trial and appellate lawyers, legal advisors, and support staff. She advised the Secretary of Labor and other senior officials in the Obama administration on a range of legal and policy matters related to worker rights and protections, employment and training, and international labor issues.

Ms. Greenfield led the Department’s efforts on a number of priority initiatives, including regulatory protections for low-wage, foreign temporary workers and employment discrimination protections for LGBT workers. She also provided critical legal and policy advice to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs on issues such as enforcement of labor provisions in free trade agreements and international labor standards and led a government delegation to Haiti under the HOPE II legislation to assure implementation of worker protections.

Ms. Greenfield has more than 30 years of experience as a labor and employment attorney. She was an Associate General Counsel for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations from 1998 to 2009, where she provided advice on issues of domestic and international law. Prior to her work with the AFL-CIO, she was an appellate lawyer for the Department of Labor, a supervising attorney for litigation for the Association of Flight Attendants, and an attorney for the Communications Workers of America. She holds a J.D. with honors from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. from the University of Sussex, and a B.A. with high honors from Swarthmore College.

Prof. Janet Gornick
Professor, Political Science and Director, Stone Center on Socio Economic Inequality, CUNY
Prof. Janet Gornick

Professor, Political Science and Director, Stone Center on Socio Economic Inequality, CUNY

Janet C. Gornick is Professor of Political Science and Sociology. She also serves as Director of the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, as Director of the US Office of LIS, and as LIS Senior Scholar. Professor Gornick has been associated with LIS, the cross-national data center in Luxembourg, for over 25 years, serving as LIS’ overall Director from 2006-2016. She brings extensive expertise on working with the LIS data to the Graduate Center community.

Prof. Martin Ravallion
Edmond D. Villani Professor of Economics, Georgetown University
Prof. Martin Ravallion

Edmond D. Villani Professor of Economics, Georgetown University

MARTIN RAVALLION holds the inaugural Edmond D. Villani Chair of Economics at Georgetown University. Prior to taking up this position in December 2012 he had been Director of the World Bank’s research department, the Development Research Group, since 2007. He joined the Bank’s staff as an economist in 1988 and worked in virtually all sectors and regions over the subsequent 24 years. Martin’s main research interests have long concerned poverty and policies for fighting it. In 1990 he proposed what has come to be known as the “$1 a day” poverty line, and since then he and his colleagues at the Bank have monitored progress against global poverty by this and other measures. He has advised numerous governments and international agencies on poverty and policies for fighting it, and he has written extensively on this and other subjects in economics, including three books and 200 papers in scholarly journals and edited volumes. He currently serves on the Editorial Boards of ten economics journals, is a Senior Fellow of the Bureau for Research in Economic Analysis of Development, a Founding Council Member of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, USA. Amongst various prizes and awards, in 2012 he was awarded the John Kenneth Galbraith Prize from the American Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

Statements
Statements
South Africa
Presentations
Mr. Yang Zhi, Mayor of Jingzhou, China
Mr. Yaw Ansu, Chief Economist, African Center for Economic Transformation Ghana
Prof. Janet Gornick, Stone Center on Socio Economic Inequality, CUNY
Prof. Martin Ravallion, Georgetown University
United Nations