Advancing the UN Goals: Leadership in the Post-2015 World

On October 14, a workshop on Leadership in the Post-2015 World was held in Barcelona aiming to determine what kinds of leaders are needed to implement theSustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The event, organized by the Sant Pau Knowledge Center in collaboration with the International Leadership Association, discussed how participants can engage others leaders and institutions at this new scenario of the 2030 Agenda. International organizations with its offices at the Sant Pau Art Noveau Site such asGUNi, UN-Habitat, the European Forest Institute and the UNU-GCM were present at the event.

During the first part of the event, speakers presented an overview of the United Nations Post-2015 Agenda, including its main issues and challenges. José Antonio Alonso, Professor of Applied Economics at Complutense University of Madrid, talk about the 2030 Agenda and whether will be able to produce radical changes worldwide. According to Antonio Alonso, this agenda can only promote major changes if really is a universal process and goes beyond development cooperation.

After the presentations, small groups were set up to discuss the Post-2015 Agenda. Structured around 5 themes (Healthy Lives for all; Education for Development Goals; Water, Sanitation and Development; Inclusive, Safe, Resilient and Sustainable Cities; Sustainable Uses of terrestrial Ecosystems; Sustainably Management of Forests), participants exposed questions and trends to respond challenges of the SDG’s and how to engage institutions to take part of this effort.

The group on Education for Development Goals, led by Josep M. Vilalta, Executive Director of GUNi and Executive Secretary of the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP), discussed issues such as the kind of university professors are needed and how to train them to the future. Furthermore, participants highlighted the importance of education at the new SDG’s and how higher education and research institutions can be improved to respond to complex problems related to the SDG’s.

This initiative comes a few weeks after the approval of the SDG’s during the UN Sustainable Development Summit, held last 25 of September in New York and its part of an International Conference to be held next 11 of November in Barcelona under this framework.

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