03 december 2019. Lezing door Dr. Jan Vandemoortele 'The Sustainable Development Goals of the UN: Mission Impossible?'

03 december 2019

Some five years ago, world leaders adopted the SDGs. Since then, the pace of progress has been glacial. It is increasingly likely that the world will not meet them by the year 2030 and that the shortfall will be considerably greater than with the Millennium Development Goals. The lecture will explore the reasons for these trends. Its main argument will be that the SDGs are Mission Impossible because of the growing inequality in most countries, to which the SDGs only pay lip service.

Jan Vandemoortele, PhD in Development Economics, served in various capacities with the United Nations for over 30 years. He is the co-architect of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a topic on which he published widely. He is now a critical friend of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focussing on inequality. He regularly speaks at universities across the world, at international conferences, at NGO and donor workshops, at high schools and for cultural associations. He is member of the advisory board of various development institutes and global initiatives, and a referee for various peer-reviewed journals. He lives in Bruges, Belgium.