Taking Stock of Sustainable Development at 20: A Principle at Odds with Itself?
[ Program ]
On Friday, November 16, and Saturday, November 17, the Center for Global Business and Development sponsored a symposium on "Taking Stock of Sustainable Development at 20: A Principle at Odds with Itself? It examined the development and current status of sustainable development, both generally, and through the lens of two specific applications.
Day One of the conference was sponsored by the Institute for Development of Legal Infrastructure. It considered the human-resources side of efforts to develop sustainably. In particular, it looked at the impact on sustainable development of the "brain-drain cycle" - in which younger, educated workers migrate from developing regions to metropoles - and outsourcing - in which back-office services migrate from developed economies to newly industrialized developing countries.
Day Two was sponsored by the Institute for Sustainable Development. By focusing on two key anniversaries, it traced the origins and development of the concept of sustainable development and its influence on state practice. Speakers examined the impact of the path-breaking Brundtland Commission Report, Our Common Future, 20 years after it made sustainable development the paradigm for reconciling efforts at environmental protection and economic development. Speakers also assess the contribution of the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses 10 years after its adoption by the UN General Assembly.