Time: 5:30pmVenue: Arts Two Lecture Theatre, Arts Two Building , Mile End Campus, Lodnon E1 4NS
Guest Speaker: Dr Georgios Kostakos, Executive Director, Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability (FOGGS)
Bio: Georgios Kostakos holds a PhD in International Relations and a Mechanical Engineering degree. He served on the secretariat of the UN Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (GSP) as Senior Adviser and Acting Deputy Executive Secretary, and on many other positions at UN Headquarters, UN field missions, the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and the University of Athens. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability (FOGGS). His areas of expertise include global governance and sustainability, climate change, UN reform, conflict resolution, peacekeeping and peace building He maintains a current affairs blog: www.kostakos.net
Abstract: Sustainability is an often-used term in recent years, especially following the Rio+20 Conference of June 2012 and in view of efforts to arrive at a set of Sustainable Development Goals for the post-2015 period. One important element of sustainability and its three interconnected dimensions - namely social, economic and environmental - is resilience, the capacity of communities, institutions and individuals to bounce back after severe shocks. In an era of climate change, financial crises, food price hikes and water scarcity this is a key ingredient of sustainability, although not the whole of it. However, in the pursuit of growth and efficiency this is often forgotten or relegated to secondary importance. The seminar will focus on how sustainability and resilience are reflected, or not, in the public-private partnerships increasingly concluded at the global level, between international organizations and big private sector entities. Issues of delivery, representativeness, division of labour, respective responsibilities and capabilities, as well as overall accountability will be reviewed in this light, with suggestions for the future.
Research themes: Globalisation; Ethics and Politics; Public Management Group
Chaired by: Dr Stella Ladi
http://www.busman.qmul.ac.uk/newsandevents/events/items/125136.html