December 2022 - You are accessing an archived version of our website. This website is no longer maintained or updated. The Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform has been migrated here: https://sdgs.un.org/

Ensuring that no one is left behind - Fostering economic growth, prosperity, and sustainability
Monday, 11 July 2016
4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Trusteeship Chamber

Official meeting

Biographies
Statements
Statements
Economic growth is a critical element for reducing poverty in all its dimensions and for ensuring that no one is left behind. Sustained growth is required, particularly in the poorest regions, to catch up with decent living standards and to live a life of dignity, opportunity and hope. In developing countries, for example, growth can create the conditions for enhancing people’s access to products and services required to meet urgent needs. A critical channel from growth to prosperity relates to the capacity of growth to generate productive employment and decent work. This is critical in order to leave no one behind.

The 2030 Agenda recognizes that economic growth is not sufficient to ensure that all human beings can enjoy prosperous and fulfilling lives. Growth must be approached holistically, with attention to social inclusion and support as well as to the environmental imperative to protect the planet from degradation so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations.

The hallmark of the 2030 agenda is the integrated nature of all the SDGs, and economic growth is a topic that illustrates very clearly the need for an integrated approach to development. Economic objectives like productivity through diversification, the upgrading of technology and innovation, and expanded employment and entrepreneurship will be achieved only with simultaneous progress in gender equality, education and reduced inequality, for instance. Global resource efficiency in consumption and production is also critical, to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation.

Decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation is a cornerstone element for sustainable development. In that regard, sustainable consumption and production provides a systemic approach to achieving sustainable growth and managing the related trade-offs. The 2030 Agenda highlights the need to ensure sustainable consumption and production, including through the implementation of the 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns, and encourages all countries to take action, with developed countries taking the lead, taking into account the development and capabilities of developing countries. The 2030 Agenda also highlights the key role of private business activity, investment and innovation, and international trade for economic growth.

The session aims to stimulate discussion on ways to foster economic growth, prosperity and sustainability to implement the 2030 Agenda and ensure that no one is left behind. It will present different perspectives on the way in which economic growth relates to prosperity and sustainability, including sustainable consumption and production, reflecting the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. The discussion will cut across different perspectives to provide policy guidance on the implementation of the Agenda.

Possible questions for discussion:
  1. What factors can influence the transition to a global economy that creates wellbeing, sustainability and reduction of inequality?
  2. What types of strategies and policies have proven effective for the promotion of inclusive and sustainable economic growth?
  3. What mechanisms would ensure a faster transition to sustainable consumption and production patterns?

Chair:
  • H.E. Mr. Sven Jürgenson, Permanent Representative of Estonia to the UN and Vice President of ECOSOC

Moderator:
  • Mr. Vinicius Pinheiro, Director of the NY Office of the International Labour Organization (ILO)

Panellists:
  • Mr. Tim Jackson, Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) and Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey
  • Mr. Bart Verspagen, Director-Dean of the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG) at Maastricht University and Director of United Nations University – Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT)

Lead discussants:
  • Mr. Dyborn Chibonga, Chief Executive Officer at the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi (NASFAM)
  • Mr. Wellington Chibebe, Deputy General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
Biographies
Mr. Bart Verspagen
Director-Dean of the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG) and Director of UNU (UNU-MERIT)
Mr. Bart Verspagen

Director-Dean of the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG) and Director of UNU (UNU-MERIT)

Mr. Verspagen is an economist specialised in the economics of innovation, growth and development. Since 2012, he is the Director of the UNU-MERIT, a research and training institute of United Nations University, which collaborates closely with Maastricht University and carries out research and training on a range of social, political and economic factors that drive economic development in a global perspective. The institute is also a UN think tank that has the mission, among others, to research how countries can catch up in the unequal global playing field of the 21st century, without increasing inequality and social exclusion. Verspagen’s research interests are centred around the process of economic growth and development, especially its relation to innovation and technological change. His research field also covers areas such as international trade, development economics, industrial dynamics, economic history, and applied econometrics, statistics and mathematical modelling, including simulation modelling of international economies.

Mr. Dyborn Chibonga
Chief Executive Officer at the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi (NASFAM)
Mr. Dyborn Chibonga

Chief Executive Officer at the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi (NASFAM)

Mr. Chibonga manages the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM) as Chief Executive Officer. He has served in this role since June 1999, managing the membership association of over 100,000 farmer members and a staff of about 390 in 19 locations across the country. NASFAM pioneered the establishment of The Agricultural Commodity Exchange for Africa (ACE) in 2004, entered into Fairtrade production of peanuts in 2005 and won the Yara Prize for an African Green Revolution in 2009. Mr. Chibonga holds a Masters Certificate in NGO Management and M.Sc. in Landscape Ecology Design and Maintenance from Wye College (University of London). He also has a B.Sc. (Credit) and Diploma (Credit) from Bunda College of Agriculture (University of Malawi).

Mr. Tim Jackson
Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) and Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey
Mr. Tim Jackson

Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) and Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey

Mr. Jackson is Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey and Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). He currently holds a Professorial Fellowship on Prosperity and Sustainability in the Green Economy (PASSAGE) also funded by the ESRC. He has been at the forefront of international debates about sustainable development for over two decades and has worked closely with the UK Government, the United Nations, and numerous private companies and NGOs to bring social science research into sustainability. Between 2004 and 2011, he was Economics Commissioner on the UK Sustainable Development Commission, where his work culminated in the publication of his controversial best-seller “Prosperity without Growth: economics for a finite planet.” His research interests focus on the economic and social aspects of the relationship between people’s lifestyles and the environment. In addition to this Tim is an award-winning playwright with numerous radio-writing credits for the BBC.

Mr. Vinicius Pinheiro
ILO Special Representative to the United Nations and Director of the ILO Office for the United Nations
Mr. Vinicius Pinheiro

ILO Special Representative to the United Nations and Director of the ILO Office for the United Nations

Mr. Pinheiro is the ILO Special Representative to the United Nations and Director of the ILO Office for the UN since February 2016. He is also the Executive Secretary of the Social Protection Interagency Board and the ILO representative in the United Nations Development Group. From 2012 to 2015 he was the lead advisor on employment and social protection issues to the UN negotiations on the Agenda 2030 supporting member states in the definition of goals and targets in the area of decent work. Before moving to New York, Mr. Pinheiro served as the Executive Secretary of the Social Protection Floor Advisory Group, led by Ms. Michelle Bachelet, whose work led ultimately to the adoption of the ILO Recommendation 202 on National Floors of Social Protection. From 1999 to 2002 Mr. Pinheiro was Vice-minister of Social Security of Brazil and State Secretary for Social Security responsible for a major pension reform and for measures to extend the social protection coverage.

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.

Statements
Statements
Commons Cluster
United Nations