ICSD 2019

  • September 24 – 25, 2019 Faculty House & Lerner Hall, Columbia University, New York, USA
  • @ICSD_Conf #ICSD2019

The ICSD 2020 will take place on September 21-22, 2020 in New York City, USA. Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates on the call for abstracts and when registration will open.

You can view the full 2019 video from the 25th (plenary) below or you can watch different segments of the day here. Pictures from both days are available here. Conference proceedings are now available here.


Featured Speakers

  • Her Majesty The Queen of the Belgians

    Her Majesty the Queen was born in Uccle on 20 January, 1973. She is the daughter of Count and Countess Patrick d'Udekem d'Acoz. She studied speech therapy and psychology, and worked as a speech therapist from 1995 to 1999. She married Prince Philippe on 4 December, 1999, and they have four children. The Queen assists the King in carrying out his functions as Head of State. These include numerous visits to institutions, contacts with the population, ceremonies in Belgium and abroad, state visits, promoting Belgium's image abroad, audiences with representatives of various groups in society and countless trips all over the country.

    Apart from her activities in the company of the King, the Queen also devotes time to issues that are close to her heart. The Queen deploys the Queen's Charities to offer help to citizens who are struggling to cope with financial hardship in their daily lives and often turn to her as a last resort. She takes part in the social debate on subjects of relevance to the population. She has a particular concern for vulnerable people. As Honorary President of the Queen Mathilde Fund, the Queen endeavours to assist the weakest members of our society.

    The Queen is Honorary President of Child Focus, Foundation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children. Children’s well-being is for Her a fundamental principle and she dedicates herself in the fight against abduction and all forms of sexual abuse. The Queen is Honorary President of UNICEF Belgium and of the Breast International Group, a non-profit organisation for breast cancer research groups from around the world. She was the World Health Organisation Europe's Special Representative for Immunisation.

    In 2016, the Queen was invited by the UN Secretary General to join the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Advocacy Group. This group of eminent personalities supports the United Nations Organization in mobilizing the international community to take action to achieve the SDGs by 2030. The Queen received the Honorary National German Sustainability Award 2017 for her years of social and humanitarian commitment as well as her contribution to the debate on the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In 2018 Queen Mathilde became the Honorary President of the Federal Council for Sustainable Development.

  • Chandrika Bahadur President, SDSN Association & Director, SDG Academy

    Chandrika Bahadur is the President of the SDSN Association. Previously she was Director of Education Initiatives at the UN SDSN. From 2008-2011, she was advisor to the Chairman and Managing Director at Reliance Industries, where she helped set up Reliance Foundation, a non-profit philanthropic foundation focusing on areas of education, health, rural development, and urban renewal.

    From 2001-2008, Chandrika worked with the United Nations in different roles. In her last assignment, she was a Policy Advisor at UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy in New York, working in Africa to help Ministries of Finance and Planning align their strategies to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), across 20 countries. From 2003-2006, she was part of the leadership team of the UN Millennium Project, an advisory group convened by the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to recommend strategies for the MDGs. From 2001-2002 she worked on trade and HIV and AIDS programs at the United Nations. She has prior teaching experience at Harvard and Columbia universities.

    Chandrika holds a Masters degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a BA (Honours) in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University.

  • Matias Bendersky Chief, Resource Mobilization Division, Office of Outreach and Partnerships, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

    Matias Bendersky is the Chief of the Resource Mobilization Division of the Office of Outreach and Partnerships at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where he is responsible for mobilizing financial resources and partners for the IDB Group. He also works in identifying, developing, and expanding the IDB Group’s strategic alliances with public and private sector partners and supervises the work of a team of professionals that deal with sovereign and non-sovereign co-financing operations. Prior to joining the IDB in 2007, Mr. Bendersky worked for the World Bank in various capacities for the South East Asia and Latin America regions. Previously, Mr. Bendersky worked for 6 years as a corporate and transactional attorney in both Buenos Aires and Washington D.C. Mr. Bendersky holds a JD from the University of Buenos Aires and a Joint Degree Masters from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and Law School, Chicago.

  • Pat Brown CEO & Founder, Impossible Foods

    Patrick O. Brown is CEO and founder of Impossible Foods, a company at the forefront of making nutritious, delicious meat and dairy products from plants to satisfy meat lovers and address the environmental impact of animal farming.

    The idea for Impossible Foods came to Pat while he was on sabbatical from his position as an HHMI investigator and professor of biochemistry at the Stanford University School of Medicine. In reflecting on how he could use his training and experience to make the largest positive impact on the world, he realized there was a way to make delicious, affordable meat and dairy products, directly from plants – that would be better for the environment and for consumers. In 2011, Pat chose to devote himself full time to Impossible Foods.

    After receiving his BA, MD and PhD (in Biochemistry) at the University of Chicago, Pat completed a residency in pediatrics at Chicago’s Children’s Memorial Hospital. As a fellow with Mike Bishop and Harold Varmus, he defined the mechanism by which HIV and other retroviruses incorporate their genes into the genomes of the cells they infect.

    At Stanford, Pat and colleagues developed DNA microarrays – a new technology that made it possible to monitor the activity of all the genes in a genome – along with the first methods for analyzing, visualizing and interpreting global gene expression programs.

    He pioneered the use of gene expression patterns to classify cancers and improve prediction of their clinical course. He has also been a leader in making scientific and medical research results freely available to scientists, physicians and the public. With Harold Varmus, then Director of the National Institutes of Health, and Berkeley professor Michael Eisen, he founded the Public Library of Science, a nonprofit scientific publisher that has transformed the publishing industry by making scientific and medical research results freely available to the public.

    He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine and recipient of the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor. He is also the co-founder of Lyrical Foods, Inc., maker of Kite Hill artisanal nut-milk-based cheeses and yogurts.

  • Maria Cortes-Puch Director, Networks Program, SDSN

    María Cortés Puch is the Director of the Networks Program for the SDSN. She leads the SDSN efforts to build a global network of universities, research centers and civil society organizations to support the sustainable development goals. The Networks Program works with the members of the SDSN, organizing them around National and Regional Networks. These Networks pursue sustainable development innovation locally through research, degree programs, executive training, public education, demonstration projects, convening of social stakeholders and incubation of new companies.

    Prior to joining the SDSN, María worked for UNESCO at the Science Policy and Sustainable Development Division. Previously, she coordinated the European energy and transport programs at the Polytechnic University in Madrid, and worked for two years as a Scientific Officer at the Spanish Office for Science and Technology in Brussels, analyzing EU policies for international cooperation, transport and energy. She began her professional career with the National Institute of Aerospace Technology in Madrid as a Technology Transfer Officer.

    Maria holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Columbia University (Fulbright scholar) and BSc. and MSc. degrees in physics from the Complutense University in Madrid (with one year at Paris VII as an Erasmus scholar). She currently lives in Ottawa with her family.

  • Henriette Geiger Director, Directorate People and Peace in the Directorate General for Development and Cooperation of the European Commission (DG DEVCO)

    Henriette Geiger is the Director of Directorate People and Peace in the Directorate General for Development and Cooperation of the European Commission (DG DEVCO), implementing the European Commission’s development cooperation on human development including migration, security, gender equality, human rights, education and health.

    Previously she served in different positions as Head of Unit in DG DEVCO, responsible for bilateral development on cooperation with Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Pacific.

    In the European External Action Service she was responsible for the political dimension of the EU’s relations with the Horn of Africa, East Africa and the Indian Ocean

    Before joining the European Commission, Ms Geiger held positions in the European Union's Council of Ministers, the United Nations General Secretariat as well as the private sector and NGOs.

    Educated in both Germany and the United States, she obtained two master degrees in social sciences and earned a distinction as Fulbright Scholar.

  • Andreas A. Hutahaean Deputy Director, Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs of Indonesia

    Andreas A. Hutahaean, PhD, is deputy director at The Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs, Indonesia. Before the current position, he was a senior researcher at the Research Center for Coastal-Marine Resources under Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. He is driven by a strong interest in Oceans and People, with more than 15 years experience working on this issue from both scientific and policy perspectives. Andreas is very active in developing program on Ocean, Climate Change and Coastal Livelihood, in particular related to Blue Carbon and Coastal Ecosystem Services. For those issue, he has received several grants from GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), The Global Environment Facility (GEF), and JST-JICA SATREPS (Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development), etc. He is one of the pioneers of Coastal Blue Carbon in Indonesia and a Coastal-Ocean Climate Change Negotiator in the UNFCCC. 

    Prior to his current position, Andreas worked at several research institutes, such as the Max Plank Institute (MPI) and The Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) in Germany, as well as in the Hydrospheric & Atmospheric Research Center (HyARC) in Japan. He holds a PhD in Oceanography (Marine Biogeochemistry) from the University of Nagoya, Japan, with predicate Summa Cum Laude Bachelor and MSc degrees from Bogor Agriculture University (IPB) in Indonesia and the University of Bremen, Germany,
    respectively. Until now, was a lecturer in the Marine Science Postgraduate Program at Bogor Agriculture University (IPB).

    Andreas have taken up responsibilities of increasing complexity that require analytical and strategic thinking for actions to achieve Indonesia Ocean Agenda Goals (SDG 14) on Marine Plastic Debris, Coastal Resilience and Livelihood at national and regional scales. For the past three years, he has been working together with the World Bank in Jakarta for the establishment and implementation of an Ocean Multi Donors Trust Fund (Ocean-MDTF).

  • Radhika Iyengar Education Sector Director, Center for Sustainable Development, The Earth Institute, Columbia University

    Radhika Iyengar has a Ph.D. in Economics of Education from Teachers College in 2011. She received a distinction from Teachers College, Columbia University on her dissertation Social capital as a determinant of schooling in rural India: A mixed methods study. Her dissertation uses econometric models and Hierarchical Linear Modeling approaches in the quantitative section, along with case study in the qualitative tradition. While the quantitative sections use nationally representative survey data, the qualitative data collection is based in one of India’s most marginalized districts, Jhabua (with an overall literacy rate of 37 percent), and attempts to observe how social capital plays out in this district in rural India which is dominated by “tribal” or indigenous populations. Her study is well received in India, parts of which were also printed in India’s daily newspapers. She has also presented her dissertation in various conferences like the Comparative International Education Society, and was awarded the New Scholars Fellowship-Comparative International Education Society for 2010.

    Prior to her Ph.D. at Columbia University, she has a Masters degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, India. Her professional experience also includes working in an India based non-profit organization- Pratham, for multiple years. At Pratham, Radhika brought cutting edge research into operation in the program management and implementation areas. She also collaborated with researchers from Imperial College, London and University of California, Berkeley to design and implement a pivotal randomized experiment study on the impact of health interventions on cognitive and other educational outcomes of pre-schoolers in India. Radhika was also instrumental in collaborating with the Indian Government education officials to implement and monitor a remedial education program implemented by 150 government primary schools for reaching to 8,000 children. She also was responsible to manage a team of 30 full time activists, implementing an education program that directly reached out to 10,000 children. Her role required her to forge public-private partnership efforts towards school improvement broadened her understanding of the functioning of a large system. She continues to support NGOs in India by conducting technical capacity building workshops in India. She also serves on the Board of advisors of NGOs affiliated with the Government of India working towards rural educational literacy and women’s empowerment.

    Along with a rich practical experience of six years, Radhika has also made a contribution to the scientific community focusing on international educational development. She has published numerous articles in reputed journals in her field and also has been referred to by others in her field. Her latest article “After the Smoke Clears: Towards Education for Sustainable Development in Bhopal, India, in the Comparative Education Review is well received by the scientific community and also has got the attention of the Government of India. Along with published articles, she has co-authored numerous reports that are being used by both domestic and international stakeholders. This also includes her work as a Research Fellow with the Assessment and Evaluation Research Initiative at Teachers College which is showcased on the University website. At Teachers College, she was also given the opportunity to teach a graduate level course on Evaluation Research Methods, which helped to sharpen her abilities both as a scholar and a teacher.

    Radhika has been an active leader both at Teachers College, Columbia University and beyond. She took the initiative to organize a series of Lectures in International Development (LID) at the University. Given the overwhelming response to the lectures, she was able to establish DISHA (Development in South Asia), an active researchers-group based at Teachers College. DISHA has a membership of 170 members from South Asia and continues to invite scholars and practitioners to discuss relevant educational issues. Radhika was also elected as the Program Chair of the South Asia Special Interest Group (SIG) at the Comparative International Education Society (2011-2013). Her duties include selection of research papers for panels organized SIG and lead discussions at the yearly conference. She envisions the SIG of becoming a platform for exchanging ideas and collaborating with NGO’s and governments’ to fill the existing gaps in research, policy and practice.

    In her role as an Education Specialist, Radhika was successful to work collaboratively with teams and handle multiple research responsibilities. Radhika was able to build successful partnerships with the Education Head at the MDG Office in Nigeria and effectively include their perspective in the planning and operations of Education Sector in Nigeria-Scale-up Project. Radhika was successful in bringing a more scientific rigor to the project by merging her developing country experience with her technical training at Teachers College. She has also been able to form partnerships with faculty at Teachers College with researchers and program administrators from the Earth Institute. Her work will be critical in shaping the directions of the Education Sector at the Earth Institute. Her research interests in conducting evaluation of educational programs and international educational development is in line with her role and responsibilities at the Earth Institute.

  • John Lavis Director, McMaster Health Forum, McMaster University

    John N. Lavis, MD PhD. He is the Director of the McMaster Health Forum (and Forum+), and Professor in the Department of Health Evidence and Impact at McMaster University. John Lavis is relied on by policymakers and stakeholders in Canada and a broad range of countries internationally to harness research evidence, citizen values and stakeholder insights to strengthen health and social systems and get the right programs, services and products to the people who need them. He founded and continues to direct the  McMaster Health Forum and has now launched Forum+ to expand
    the Forum’s work into social systems and supporting the achievement of the Sustainable Development
    Goals. He holds an MD from Queen's University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a PhD (in
    Health Policy) from Harvard University.

  • David Lipton Acting Managing Director, International Monetary Fund

    David Lipton was appointed Acting Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund on July 2, 2019, when Christine Lagarde temporarily relinquished her duties as Managing Director.

    Mr. Lipton assumed the position of First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund on September 1, 2011. On March 28, 2016, Mr. Lipton was reappointed for a second five-year term beginning September 1, 2016. Before coming to the Fund, Mr. Lipton was Special Assistant to the President, and served as Senior Director for International Economic Affairs at the National Economic Council and National Security Council at the White House.

    Previously, Lipton was a Managing Director at Citi, where he was Head of Global Country Risk Management. In that capacity, he chaired Citi’s Country Risk Committee, worked for the Senior Risk Officer, and advised senior management on global risk issues. Prior to joining Citi in May 2005, he spent five years at Moore Capital Management, a global hedge fund and, before that, a year at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

    Lipton served in the Clinton administration at the Treasury Department from 1993 to 1998. As Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs — and before that as Assistant Secretary – Lipton helped lead the Treasury’s response to the financial crisis in Asia and the effort to modernize the international financial architecture.

    Before joining the Clinton administration, Lipton was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center of Scholars. From 1989 to 1992, he teamed up with Prof. Jeffrey Sachs then at Harvard University, working as economic advisers to the governments of Russia, Poland and Slovenia during their transitions to capitalism.

    Lipton began his career with eight years on the staff of the International Monetary Fund, working on economic stabilization issues in emerging market and poor countries. Lipton earned a Ph.d. and M.A. from Harvard University in 1982 and a B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1975. He is married to Susan Galbraith and has three children, Anna, Sasha, and Gabriel.

  • Siamak "Sam" Loni Global Coordinator, SDSN Youth

    Sam Loni is the Manager of SDSN Youth, coordinating all global youth and student activities in the network, including the Local Pathways Fellowship, the Global Schools Program, the SDG Student Program and the Youth Solutions Community.

    Sam is also a leading member of SDSN’s new Financing for Sustainable Development initiative – Move Humanity, where he helps coordinate efforts to mobilize global funding and resources to close the SDG financing gap.

    Previously, Sam worked at the Monash Sustainable Development Institute (MSDI), one of the leading interdisciplinary research and education institutes for sustainable development around the globe.

    Sam has received a number of awards and honours for his leadership, including the John Bertrand Leadership Series, the Harvard WorldMUN Diplomacy Award and the Resolution Project’s Social Venture Challenge. In 2015, he was shortlisted for the Victorian Student of the Year Award – Internationalisation, and in 2017, he became a finalist for the Sir John Monash Scholarship Awards.

    He has served as an advisor to several prominent working groups, including the Alpbach-Laxenburg Group, Harvard Social Venture Challenge, Commonwealth Science Industry Research Organisation (CSIRO) National Outlook Project and the Australian government’s innovationXchange program. He is also a contributor to the Huffington Post (US) and News24, covering issues such as human rights, peace & security, sustainable development and international law and was recently recognised as a young peacebuilder by the Nobel Peace Prize Forum for his work.

  • Edward Ndopu Special Advisor, RTW Investments

    Mr. Ndopu is an award winning, internationally acclaimed activist and humanitarian. Diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy at age two and given only five years to live, he has gone on to become a beacon of hope and possibility for people with disabilities around the world. Mr. Ndopu currently serves as Special Advisor to RTW Investments, a leading investor in scientific and medical innovation. He has also advised organizations such as the World Economic Forum, UN Women and Amnesty International. Mr. Ndopu holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Oxford University and is currently setting in motion plans to deliver a televised address to the UN from Space, in an effort to inspire greater ambition around the SDGs. This will make him the first physically disabled person to travel into space.

  • Beth Simone Noveck Director, The Governance Lab (GovLab)

    Beth Simone Noveck directs the Governance Lab (GovLab) and its MacArthur Research Network on Opening Governance. She is a Professor in Technology, Culture, and Society and affiliated faculty at the Center for Urban Science and Progress at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering and a Fellow at NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge. New Jersey governor Phil Murphy appointed her as the state’s first Chief Innovation Officer in 2018. She is also Visiting Senior Faculty Fellow at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. Previously, Beth served in the White House as the first United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer and director of the White House Open Government Initiative under President Obama. UK Prime Minister David Cameron appointed her senior advisor for Open Government.

    At the GovLab, she directs better governance programs, including work with public institutions on public engagement in lawmaking (CrowdLaw), expert-sourcing innovative solutions to hard problems (Smarter Crowdsourcing), co-creation between cities and citizens (City Challenges). She also coaches "public entrepreneurs." working with passionate individuals to take their public interest projects from idea to implementation.

    A graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, she is a member of the Scholars Council of the Library of Congress, the Center for Open Science, Open Contracting Partnership and the EPSRC Centre for the Mathematics of Precision Healthcare. Beth also serves on the International Advisory Board of the NHS Digital Academy and the Yankelovich Democracy Monitor as well as a member of the Inter-American Development Bank President’s Commission on Transparency and Corruption and the Global Future Council on Technology, Values and Policy for the World Economic Forum. She is a member of the Steering Committee for the Collective Intelligence Conferences and GIGAPP (Grupo de Investigación en Gobierno, Administracion y Politicas Publicas). She is co-editor of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Digital Government Research and Practice journal.

    In 2018, Beth was awarded a Robert Schumann Fellowship at the European University Institute and a Richard von Weizsaecker Fellowship by the Robert Bosch Foundation. Beth was named one of the “World’s 100 Most Influential People in Digital Government 2018” by Apolitical. Previously, she was selected as one of the “Foreign Policy 100” by Foreign Policy as well as one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company and “Top Women in Technology” by Huffington Post.

    Beth is the author of Smart Citizens, Smarter State: The Technologies of Expertise and the Future of Governing (Harvard Univ Press 2015) and Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger and Citizens More Powerful (Brookings 2009) and co-editor of The State of Play: Law, Games and Virtual Worlds (NYU Press, 2005). Her next book, Public Entrepreneurship: Training the Next Generation of Public Leader and Problem Solver, will appear with Yale Press. She tweets @bethnoveck.

  • Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, Government of Indonesia

    Luhut is currently the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs of Indonesia. His tasks and duties are very important for Indonesia as the largest archipelagic state in the world. Previously, he was appointed as the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs from 12 August 2015 to 27 July 2015. He was also appointed as the Presidential Chief of Staff by President Joko Widodo on 31 December 2014.
    Luhut also hold cabinet-rank office as Minister for Industry and Trade in the cabinet under the late President Abdurrahman Wahid. He was Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore in 2000.

    Luhut was born in September 28th, 1947 in Simargala, North Sumatera, graduated as the best cadet from the National Military Academy in 1970. He read Public Administration at George Washington University in which he has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. He spent most of his military career in the Kopassus (Army Special Force), and was the first commander of the Kopassus’ 81th anti-terrorist detachment.

    He had various military trainings both domestic and foreign, including in United Kingdom with SAS, in West Germany with GSG-9 and also in USA with various Army Special Forces units in Fort Bragg and Fort Benning as well as in the US Army John F Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School during 1970s and 80s. He led Indonesia’s Garuda contingent serving under United Nations in Port Suez, Egypt in 1974 in the earlier stage of his career and ended his military service as the Commander of the Army’s Education and Training with the rank of Lieutenant General in 1999. He received the rank of Honorary General in 2000.

    Luhut started his business in 2004 as one of the founder of PT Toba Sejahtera Group, a listed company in the stock exchange in 2012. PT Toba Bara Sejahtera has wide array of business activities, including
    energy, mining, coal, oil and gas, plantation and electricity. He is married to Devi Simatupang and is blessed with four children and six grandchildren.

  • Mari Pangestu Former Minister of Trade, Indonesia; Adjunct Senior Research Scholar, Columbia University

    Professor Mari Pangestu served as Indonesia’s Minister of Trade from 2004 to 2011, and as Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy from 2011 until October 2014. As Minister of Trade she led all the international trade negotiations and cooperation for Indonesia. As Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, apart from the tourism portfolio, she was in charge of developing the newly created strategy for developing the Creative Economy in Indonesia.

    She obtained her Bachelor and Master degrees in Economics and Doctor HC degrees from the Australian National University (ANU), and her PhD from the University of California, Davis, in 1986 where she specialised in macroeconomics, and international trade. In 2013 she was awarded a Doctor of Letters honoris causa, College of Business and Economics, Australian National University on the grounds of outstanding contributions in the service of society, and the Bintang Mahaputra, the highest public service award by the President of Indonesia.

    Prior to being a minister she was one of Indonesia’s well-known economists attached to Indonesia’s leading think thank Centre for Strategic and International Studies as well as teaching at the Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia. She has done academic research and policy studies in the areas of international trade, financial sector, macro-economics and reforms.

    She was and continues to be active with the second track fora such as Pacific Economy Cooperation Council (PECC) and other international leadership fora such as Davos World Economic Forum (including being on various Global Agenda Councils), China Boao Forum for Asia, and the Asian Economists Panel.

    Professor Pangestu worked with Jeffrey Sachs on the UN Secretary General Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Review (2003-2005), was the WTO Group-33 Chairperson (2005-2011), nominated as a candidate for the WTO Director General (2013). In December 2014, she was awarded the “lifetime achievement in leadership” award during the World Chinese Enterprise Forum in Chongqing China.

    Currently she is a Professor of International Economics at the University of Indonesia and on the Board of Directors, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta. She currently serves on the Leadership Council of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN); panel of the UN WHO health initiative, Equal Access Initiative (chaired by Pascal Lamy); distinguished fellow Asia Global Institute, University of Hong Kong; board member to Australia Indonesia Council; continues to be on the editorial board of Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, ANU and member of Women International Council on Women’s Business Leadership (Chaired by Hilary Clinton).

    As for the private sector, Mari Pangestu is a Commissioner on the Board of Astra International; sits on the International Advisory Board of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and McLarty Associates, Washington DC; Board Member of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Paris and is also active as an advisor to various other social and business organizations.

  • Aromar Revi Director, Indian Institute for Human Settlements

    Aromar Revi is the founding Director of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) India’s prospective interdisciplinary national University and Institution of Eminence, focused on urbanisation. Over a decade, he has built IIHS into one of the world’s leading education, research, training, advisory and implementation-support institution, focusing on the multi-dimensional challenges and opportunities of sustainable urbanisation.

    He is an alumnus of IIT-Delhi and the Law and Management schools of the University of Delhi. He is a global practice and thought leader, and educator with 35 years of interdisciplinary experience in sustainable development, public policy and governance, human settlements, global environmental and technological change.

    Aromar is a international expert on Sustainable Development; Co-Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), from where he helped lead a successful global campaign for an urban Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 11) as part of the UN’s 2030 development agenda.

    He is a member of the Ubuntu Advisory Board of the UCLG President. UCLG is the global voice of local and regional governments, representing 0.24 million towns, cities, metropolises and regions. He is a member of UN-Habitat’ Stakeholder Advisory Group tasked with global stakeholder engagement (2019-21). Aromar is a former member of the Managing Board of Cities Alliance, the global partnership for sustainable cities and urban poverty reduction.

    Over the last decade, Aromar has delivered over 250 keynote addresses, speeches, and seminars and made public, TV and radio appearances, across the world. He has addressed special sessions of the UN Open Working Group on the SDGs, the 71st UN General Assembly on the New Urban Agenda on Sustainable Cities, in 2014 and 2017. He has lectured and taught at over 90 (9 of the top-10) leading Universities, across all six continents.

    Aromar’ policy, practice and research work lie at the interface of sustainability and climate science; and the emerging discipline of ‘urban science’ that he is helping define internationally. He is a member of the UCL-Nature Sustainability Expert Panel on science and the future of Cities that issued its 2018 report on the global state of the urban science-policy interface. He is Co-PI on two significant international urban research programmes that will help define the future of urban science (PEAK) and responses to urban inequality (KNOW) bringing together leading universities and researchers from four continents.

  • Jeffrey Sachs University Professor, Columbia University; Director, Sustainable Development Solutions Network

    Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 100 countries. He is the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership, and many other international awards and honors. He has twice been named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders. He was called by the New York Times, “probably the most important economist in the world,” and by Time magazine, “the world’s best known economist.” A survey by The Economist in 2011 ranked Professor Sachs as amongst the world’s three most influential living economists of the first decade of the 21st century.

    Professor Sachs serves as the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He is University Professor at Columbia University, the university’s highest academic rank. During 2002 to 2016 he served as the Director of the Earth Institute. Sachs has served as a Special Advisor to United Nations Secretaries-General António Guterres, Ban Ki-moon, Kofi Annan. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria.

    Sachs is currently Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network under the auspices of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and a Commissioner of the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Development. He is Chair and Founder of SDG USA, a non-governmental initiative to promote the Sustainable Development Goal concepts in the United States. Sachs is also co-founder and Chief Strategist of Millennium Promise Alliance, and was director of the Millennium Villages Project (2005-2015).

    Sachs has authored and edited numerous books, including three New York Times bestsellers: The End of Poverty (2005), Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (2008), and The Price of Civilization (2011). His recent books include: To Move the World: JFK’s Quest for Peace (2013), The Age of Sustainable Development (2015) and Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair & Sustainable (2017).

  • Gayle Schueller Vice President for Sustainability and Product Stewardship and Chief Sustainability Officer, 3M

    Dr. Gayle Schueller is 3M’s Vice President, Sustainability and Product Stewardship and Chief Sustainability Officer. Gayle started in 3M’s corporate laboratory as a product development engineer and has over 25 years of technical and business leadership experience. Her career spans a broad range of businesses from electronics to healthcare to consumer industries. She has led technical and business teams from around the world including Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America.

    Gayle’s previous assignments include Vice President of New Platforms for Growth and Commercialization, Director General for 3M Mexico, Vice President for Global Sustainability, and Vice President of Research & Development and Design for 3M’s Consumer and Office Business. She is passionate about making a positive impact in the world through science and technology.

  • David Smith Coordinator, Institute for Sustainable Development, The University of the West Indies

    David C. Smith, PhD (Zoology) is the Coordinator of the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD) and Director of the Centre for Environmental Management (CEM). He is also Coordinator of the University Consortium of Small Island States (UCSIS) and Caribbean Coordinator for the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UNSDSN). He is a member of the Independent Group of Scientists who will prepare the 2019 UN Global Sustainable Development Report.

    Dr Smith has many years of experience in academia, civil society, the private sector and the United Nations, focusing on Sustainable Development, Biodiversity Conservation, Climate Change, and Disaster Risk Reduction. He initiated Jamaica's first debt-for-nature swap and played a key role in establishing the Jamaica National Parks Trust Fund and the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica. He was instrumental in the successful development of proposals for a number of UWI projects in sustainable development research, distance teaching, knowledge management, disaster risk management and hazard mapping. He is also one of the Principal Investigators for the Enhancing Knowledge and Application of Comprehensive Disaster Management (EKACDM) Initiative, a regional project.

    Dr Smith has worked at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Jamaica Country Office, from 2002 to 2008, where he had responsibility for Energy, the Environment, Climate Change and Disaster Management. He was also Co-Chair of the UN technical team on disasters in Jamaica. At the UNDP, Dr Smith developed and managed a programme folio which included two regional projects operating in multiple countries within the Caribbean: The Integrating Watershed and Coastal Area Management project jointly managed with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which strengthened watershed and coastal zone management in eight Caribbean countries and the ECHO-funded Weather Radar project which strengthened capacity for early warning mechanisms in Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In September 2007, he was appointed Assistant Resident Representative (Programme). During his tenure at the UNDP, he raised funds for National Capacity Self Assessments, National Biodiversity and Action Plans, Protected Areas and the obligations of Jamaica and the Bahamas under the Montréal Protocol. He also established the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme for Jamaica and managed its establishment in the Bahamas.

    Dr Smith is a past president of the Caribbean Conservation Association, served on the Association’s board for five years and was the regional Councillor for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with responsibility for North America and the Caribbean, chair of the Business Committee of the IUCN’s council and member of the steering committees of the IUCN commissions on Species Survival, Protected Areas as well as Communication and Education. He is also a former Executive Director of the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust, a position he held for ten years. He sat on several Jamaica government policy development committees and the Council of the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica (PSOJ). He has done several Environmental Assessments and was instrumental in the design and implementation of Green Globe certified Environmental Management System in a major resort in Jamaica. He has also privately consulted on verification of Carbon emission reductions.

  • Audrey Tang Minister without Portfolio, Republic of China (Taiwan)

    Audrey is known for revitalizing the computer languages Perl and Haskell, as well as building the online spreadsheet system EtherCalc in collaboration with Dan Bricklin.

    In the public sector, Audrey serves on Taiwan National Development Council’s open data committee and K-12 curriculum committee; and led the country’s first e-Rulemaking project. To join the cabinet as Digital Minister on Oct 1st, 2016.

    In the private sector, Audrey works as a consultant with Apple on computational linguistics, with Oxford University Press on crowd lexicography, and with Socialtext on social interaction design.

    In the third sector, Audrey actively contributes to Taiwan’s g0v (“gov-zero”), a vibrant community focusing on creating tools for the civil society, with the call to “fork the government”.

  • John Thwaites Professorial Fellow, Monash University

    John Thwaites is a Professorial Fellow, Monash University, and Chair of the Monash Sustainable Development Institute (winner Banksia Award Research and Academia 2018) and ClimateWorks Australia. He is also Chair of Melbourne Water and the Peter Cullen Water and Environment Trust. John is a Co-Chair of the Leadership Council of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (“SDSN”) launched by the Secretary General of the United Nations to provide expert advice and support to the development and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2013, John was named as one of the 100 Global Sustainability Leaders by ABC Carbon Express. John Thwaites was Deputy Premier of Victoria from 1999 until his retirement in 2007. During this period he held various Ministerial portfolios including Health, Planning, Environment, and Climate Change. He was the Minister for Water during the Millennium drought.

  • Patrick Paul Walsh Chair of International Development Studies, University College Dublin

    Patrick Paul Walsh is the Chair of International Development Studies in University College Dublin, Ireland, and a former Visiting Scholar at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is a Government of Ireland, Marie Curie (Brussels), IZA (Bonn), RSA (London) and REPOA (Tanzania) Fellow.

    During 1992-2007 Walsh worked in Trinity College Dublin. He left Trinity College Dublin as a College Fellow and Dean of Social and Human Sciences. He was a Visiting Professor at K.U. Leuven during 1997-1999 and a Research Scholar in the Department of Economics, Harvard University, during the academic year 2002-2003.

    He is the chair of the Academic Steering committee of the Global Association of Masters of Development Practice that is based at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is a member of the Social Science Committee for Science Europe. Amongst other journals he has published in the Review of Economics and Statistics, Economic Journal, Journal of Industrial Economics, International Journal of Industrial Organization, and Journal of Comparative Economics.

    His current research is on Agricultural Productivity in East Africa, Social Security for all, Socioeconomic impact of HIV/AIDS in clinical trials, Election Outcomes in Malawi, Patterns of Post-Conflict Resolution in the Great Lakes Region, Cartels and Global Food Security and issues surrounding the proposed Sustainable Development Goals, among other issues.

Agenda

  1. Pre-Conference Event: Education for Sustainable Development: Culture, Cities & Communities for SDGs

    *Separate registration required for this free event*

    UNESCO’s Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development aims to contribute to the 2030 agenda in two ways: (1) Re-orienting education and learning so that everyone has the opportunity to acquire the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that empower them to contribute to a sustainable future, and (2) Strengthening education and learning in all agendas, programmes and activities that promote sustainable development.

    Adopting this framework, through conversations with speakers in this event, the Columbia Center for Sustainable Development seeks to establish that education and the environment need to become inseparable, both in and out of classrooms, to lead to a more sustainable planet. Join us in this movement and share your ideas and questions!

  1. DAY 1 - PARALLEL SESSIONS

    LOCATION: Faculty House, 64 Morningside Drive
    Enter through the campus gate on 116th between Amsterdam & Morningside. Directions.

  2. Registration

  3. Parallel Sessions

    A final program of the parallel sessions and the abstract book for oral presentations is available now!

  4. Coffee Break

  5. Poster Presentations and Networking Lunch

    Lunch will be served. The poster abstract book is available now!

  1. DAY 2 - PLENARY SESSION

    LOCATION: Alfred Lerner Hall, 2920 Broadway
    (between 114th and 115th Streets)

  2. Registration

  3. Kapuscinski Development Lectures

    Learn more about the Kapuscinski Development Lectures online, or follow them on Twitter @kapulectures or #KAPTalks.

  4. Welcome Remarks

    Patrick Paul Walsh, Professor of International Development Studies, University College Dublin; Chair, Academic Steering Committee, Global Association of Masters of Development Practice

    Henriette Geiger, Director of Directorate People and Peace in the Directorate General for Development and Cooperation of the European Commission (DG DEVCO)

  5. World Leaders Forum Keynote

    Her Majesty the Queen of the Belgians

  6. Culture, Cities, & Communities Panel

    Radhika Iyengar, Columbia University (Moderator)
    Andreas A. Hutahaean, Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs of Indonesia
    Aromar Revi, Indian Institute for Human Settlement

  7. Leaving No One Behind – SDG Advocates in Conversation

    Edward Ndopu, RTW Investments
    Jeffrey Sachs, Sustainable Development Solutions Network
    Patrick Paul Walsh (Moderator)

  8. Coffee Break

  9. SDG Leadership Discussion

    Pat Brown, Impossible Foods
    Jeffrey Sachs, Sustainable Development Solutions Network
    Patrick Paul Walsh (Moderator)

  10. Science for Sustainability Solutions

    Gayle Schueller, 3M
    Jeffrey Sachs, Sustainable Development Solutions Network
    Patrick Paul Walsh (Moderator)

  11. Strengthening the Research-Policy Interface for the SDGs Panel

    John Thwaites, Monash University (Moderator)
    John Lavis, McMaster Health Forum
    Beth Simone Noveck, The Governance Lab (GovLab), New York University
    Mari Pangestu, Columbia University and Former Minister of Trade of Indonesia
    David Smith, University of the West Indies

  12. Lunch Break

    Lunch on your own (not provided).

  13. Keynote Address on Sustainable Development In Indonesia

    Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, Government of Indonesia

    This session will also include the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Columbia University and the Coordinating Ministry of Maritime Affairs of Indonesia, supported by Alison Miller and Joaquim Goes of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University.

  14. SDSN Youth Presentation

    Siamak “Sam” Loni, SDSN Youth

  15. SDG 17: Launch of the IDB Course on Partnerships

    Chandrika Bahadur, SDSN Association
    Matias Bendersky, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
    Maria Cortes-Puch, SDSN

  16. One-on-One Conversation: Jeff Sachs and David Lipton

    Jeff Sachs, Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and David Lipton, International Monetary Fund (IMF), will discuss a range of topical issues concerning the SDGs, including financing the SDGs and the climate goals, sustainable financing, and the IMF’s involvement in the SDGs.

  17. Closing Session

    Video message from Minister Audrey Tang of Taiwan

    Presentation of Best Paper Awards by Lucia Rodriguez and Patrick Paul Walsh

  1. SIDE EVENTS

  2. Side Event on Sustainable Development in Indonesia

    This ICSD Side Event on Indonesian Sustainable Development will take place from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm, immediately following the speakers presentation on the conference main stage. The topics covered will include conservation, sustainable use of natural resources, and achieving the SDGs in Indonesia. Space is limited for this side event, and so kindly register in advance, and cancel your ticket should you no longer be able to attend.
    This event is co-sponsored by the Indonesian Delegation and Artha Graha Peduli. Speakers include:
    • Mr. Luhut Pandjaitan, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs
    • Mrs. Mari Pangestu, Former Minister of Trade and Former Minister of Creative Economy
    • Mr. Budiadi, Dean of University of Gadjah Mada
    • Mr. Sugeng Bahagijo, Director of INFID (International NGO Forum on Indonesia)
    • Mr. Ardi Bayu Firmansyah, Artha Graha Peduli Group
    • Representatives (TBC) from the NTT Group focusing on Komodo Island
  3. Columbia International Investment Conference – Aligning Corporations with the Sustainable Development Goals

    *free but separate registration required*

    This conference aims to clearly and rigorously define SDG-aligned corporate activity to bring coherence and rigor to SDG measurement, reporting, and tools. This conference will take stock of what has already been achieved in terms of identifying relevant metrics and indicators, and in ensuring meaningful reporting and assessment in accordance with those indicators, so that new voluntary and regulatory efforts can build on optimal approaches, and fill gaps where they exist.

  4. Gender in Culture, Cities & Communities practicing SDGs

    *free but separate registration required*

    This event aims to celebrate individuals and organizations who keep the mission to support women and men in their daily endeavors while reflecting on the gaps that persist in their endeavors. Speakers and panelists will discuss gender equality from culture, cities and communities lens, to shed light on efforts for advancement and representation of women as well as ideas and discussions on what factos need to be further considered going forward.

  5. Nigeria Kaduna State Government's Data Systems for SDG Implementation

    *free but separate registration required*

    The partnership of Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Development (CSD), School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), SIPA’s Master of Public Administration (MPA-DP) and SIPA Pan-African Network (SPAN) is delighted to welcome Kaduna State government of Nigeria in SIPA’s Master of Public Administration in Development Practice (MDP) Seminar series.

    The delegation from Kaduna State government will discuss the SDG implementation taking place at the state level, with a focus on highlighting the use of data in guiding policy and SDG implementation decisions. The event will also be live streamed.

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