Title: Sustainable Development Goals in the Perspective of Political Philosophy
Lecturer: Thomas Pogge (Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs, Yale University)
Chairperson: YU Zhenhua (Fellow of Si-mian Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities; Professor and Director of Department of Philosophy, East China Normal University)
Date: 3 pm, October 15th, 2014 (Wednesday)
Venue: Room 5303, Building of School of Humanities, Minhang Campus, ECNU
Sponsor: Si-mian Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, ECNU
Abstract of the Lecture:
Adopted in 2000, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were an attempt, within the UN system, to commit all governments to a concerted effort to make progress against poverty on a clear schedule subject to objective tracking. Because the MDGs will expire in 2015, seventeen “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) have now been proposed to guide development efforts from 2016 till 2030. As these draft goals are being discussed at the United Nations and elsewhere, we should learn from the experience with the MDGs. Their tracking was entrusted to politically vulnerable and exposed agencies which predictably succumbed to political pressures to deliver rosy trend lines achieved through repeated redefinitions and methodological revisions. And rather than clear goals assigned to specific agents, the MDGs were a detached wish list, which allowed the affluent countries to avoid any concrete responsibilities. Getting serious about poverty requires formulation of precise and well-targeted institutional reform goals monitored by politically independent expert groups employing pre-set standards and methods. Otherwise the SDGs will be another propaganda exercise of little consequence for the world’s poor people.
Brief Introduction of the Lecturer:
Thomas Pogge, Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs, Yale University. Ph. D., Harvard University (supervisor: John Rawls). Main publications: Politics as Usual: What Lies behind the Pro-Poor Rhetoric(Cambridge: Polity Press, 2010); John Rawls: His Life and Theory of Justice (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007); World Poverty and Human Rights: Cosmopolitan Responsibilities and Reforms (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002, 2008); Realizing Rawls (Cornell University Press, 1989).