During the weekend of September 6 & 7 I was privileged to attend the first International Conference on Sustainable Development Practice (ICSDP) organized by the Masters in Development Practice Program (MDP). The conference was held in the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University.
As you may be aware, there are currently 24 MDP programs worldwide (www.globalmdp.org), each committed to a high-intensity program of teaching, research, innovation and practice that involves all parts of the world: 3 universities in Africa, 7 in Asia (including Tsinghua’s J), 3 in Europe, 3 in Latin America, and 8 in North America. The Global MDP association is guided by Jeffrey D. Sachs, who provided the keynote speech for the conference via video-conference as he was attending the G8 Summit in Russia. The conference also had David Donohue, incoming permanent representative of Ireland to the UN; Amina J. Mohammed, UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Post 2015 Development Planning, and Guido Schmidt-Traub, Executive Director of the UN’s Sustainable Solutions Network, as keynote speakers.
The Conference had the aim of sharing and identifying practical, evidence-based solutions that can support the UN Sustainable Solutions Development Network framework. Therefore the conference focused on thematic groups revolving around the topics of economic development, social inclusion, environmental sustainability and good governance. One of the sub-groups of the thematic groups was that of Sustainable Cities: Inclusive, Resilient and Connected. Consequently, I presented a paper based on my experience with the recovery and reconstruction efforts undertaken by the Chinese government following the Wenchuan Earthquake of 2008. I became familiarized with this through my internship with the World Bank. I was truly impressed by the vast knowledge and expertise that China has accumulated in dealing with natural hazards (China is the number one country in terms of loss of lives and economic losses as percentage of GDP with regards to natural hazards). Specifically, my goal was to share an experience where China could serve as a model for other countries.
I want to encourage others to consider presenting papers sharing the Chinese experience in the next years. As foreign students living in China, we have a different perspective of the situation of the country, one that can provide valuable insight to students and practitioners associated to the MDP network. It is worth noting that aside from Professor Liu Zhilin and a young lady from the UN in China, there were no other participants sharing the Chinese experience!!! I could not help but to feel this was such a pity given all the challenges and experiences that China faces with regard to sustainable development. At the same time, it is important to encourage wider student participation at the Conference. Many of the participants were faculty members representing their particular institutions. While this was extremely valuable, it is important that students actively contribute to making the MDP network stronger and more in line with their needs and expectations.
Finally, on the first day of the conference a meeting was organized by all the student representatives, with the support of the steering committee of the MDP network, to discuss governance issues related to student participation. An overview of the MDP network was shared with the students and emphasis was placed on the need to ensure that there is greater student participation in the organization of the programs. It was acknowledged that so far students are only interacting in the global classroom component of the MDP program and that there is limited to no interaction asides from that. Students were asked to think about what are our needs and what would we like to see happen with the MDP program. They were also asked to think about what could be non-traditional forms of governance that could be utilized to have administrators, faculty and students in the MDP network interact and collaborate together to create a better program.
While no conclusions have been made the future of the MDP network looks bright as it considers these issues. Hopefully next year many more of you will attend the conference and share your experiences regarding sustainable development in China.
Vivian Argueta Bernal, MID student
