Pardee Center Director at the UN ECOSOC on Sustainable Development

Prof. Adil Najam addressed a special preparatory meeting for the 2008 High-Level Segment of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in preparation of the 2008 Annual Ministerial Review (AMR) of Development Cooperation.

Speaking on ways in which sustainable development integration and implementation within development policy could be achieved, Prof. Najam – The Frederick S. Pardee Professor of Global Public Policy at Boston University – highlighted the need to view “environment as a development challenge” and outlined a number of ways in which the AMR could advance this goal.

According to ECOSOC, the meeting was an opportunity to identify (1) next steps that ECOSOC could take in order to make the AMR a central forum for reviewing progress on implementation of the United Nations Development Agenda; (2) measures to make National Voluntary Presentations more effective and making them a process of continuous engagement rather than a one off event and; (3) major challenges in the area of sustainable development which require urgent action by Ministers at the AMR July session.

The session was attended by delegates from UN member states and other speakers included, Mr. Sha Zukand, Under-Secretary General, UNDESA; Amb. Antonio Pedro Monteiro Lima, Permanent Representative of Cape Verde to the United Nations; Mr. Eckhardt Deutscher, Chair for Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic-Cooperation and Development (OECD); and Olav Kjorven, Assistant Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The session was moderated by Jomo Kwame, Assistant Secretary General of the UNDESA.