Summary:
The inaugural Forum on Resilience and Sustainable Development will be held on March 8, 2016 at Clare College, Cambridge. The Forum, hosted by the Centre for Rising Powers at the University of Cambridge, will launch the new research programme on Resilience and Sustainable Development (RSDP). At the event, we seek to identify and discuss evidence-based approaches that can support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the global resilience agenda. It will reflect on the distinctive threats and opportunities that the rise of new powers presents to sustainable development. The discussions will focus on the implementation of adaptive leadership models, the governance of sustainable policies, and the process of institutional innovations to pursue resilience and sustainability in the global value chain of power, politics and commodity. The forum will bring together stakeholders and experts from government, academia, international agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and grassroots organizers to share practical solutions towards the achievement of more sustainable and inclusive societies.
Key issues
The forum will highlight the key economic and environmental issues facing policy makers in large emerging economies. Experts and stakeholders will present the state of the art thinking in development economics, including research methods and policy recommendations, which are related to the three pillars of the Resilience and Sustainable Development Programme:
1. Improving resilient leadership and adaptive governance
2. Sustainable policy making and applied institutional innovations
3. Building a resilient society and a responsible economy for the poor
The forum speakers shall focus on the primary and secondary sector of emerging economies to highlight the pathways to attain sustainability. Both sectors are facing major transformations from climate change, population growth and financial crisis. The key objectives of the forum are to identify new directions that RSDP might want to focus on to define and influence potential courses of action for a resilient and sustainable future.
Key Participants, Speakers and Panellists
Tentatively confirmed speakers and panellists for the event include thought leaders on sustainable development from around the world. The following list includes the names of both confirmed speakers and experts who expressed tentative interest to join.
Professor Rajah Rashia (University Of Malaya) is a distinguished Professor of International Development at the University of Malaya, a member of the Malaysian National Science Research Council and an advisory member of the Export Committee of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, who has recently been awarded the Chair, Economics and Finance, Envisioning Malaysia in the 2050 foresight initiative (Academy of Sciences, Malaysia). He is the 2015 recipient of the Celso Furtado prize from the World Academy of Sciences for his seminal contributions in the field of social sciences (development economics).
Professor Steve Evans (University of Cambridge) is the Director of Research on Industrial Sustainability at the Department of Egineering. He has over 20 years of academic experience, including collaborative work with leading industrial and academic institutions from around the globe and supervising over 120 PhD candidates and MSc students. His research seeks a deep understanding of industry solutions that promote a sustainable future.
Dr Kun-Chin (University of Cambridge) is the Executive Director of the Centre for Rising Powers. His research focuses on the politics of market reform in developing countries, industrial organisation and labour relations, federalism and public goods provision, energy security, transport infrastructure development, foreign direct investment, political risk analysis, and regional and urban-rural distributive issues in the process of urbanisation. He is working on a book on the corporatisation of large Chinese state-owned enterprises into shareholding concerns in the late 1990s.
Steve McCauley (Executive Coach, DFID Senior Consultant) Steve McCauley provides strategic, board and Cabinet level advice to multi-national business and government clients. Steve, who is British, is a highly experienced international executive leadership coach and mentor to senior leaders in the worlds of government, business, finance and professional services. Steve has broad exposure to international affairs and development, as well as the worlds of business, politics and policy development.
Catherine Tilley (Cambridge University) joined the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) in January 2015 to lead the organisation’s range of educational programmes. Catherine previously spent 14 years at McKinsey & Company, where she held a series of posts, including working as a leader of the global Organisation Practice, and as Operations Director for the Strategy & Trend Analysis Centre. Catherine’s work experience spans a wide range of sectors, particularly in large, complex organisations. She holds an MA degree from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from Manchester Business School.
Dr Nazia Mintz-Habib (Cambridge University) Dr Nazia Mintz-Habib is a University Lecturer in Public Policy in the Department of Politics and International Studies and Senior Research Fellow in the Centre of Development Studies, a fellow of the Isaac Newton Trust and the Cambridge Malaysian Commonwealth Studies Center (MCSC). Prior to joining Cambridge, she was a Fellow in the Sustainability Science Program at Harvard University. Her research interests focus on identifying pathways to improve sustainable development in developing countries by scaling up global value chain of primary commodities and catching up on institutional innovations. She studies the political economy sustainable development as a comparative development approach.
Tentative Programme:
Date: Mar 8, 2016, from 9am to 5pm, followed by pre-dinner drinks and dinner at 7pm
Venue: Clare College, Cambridge