When the United Nations adopted Agenda 2030 last September, it brought for the first time issues of peace into the development framework. Of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that Agenda 2030 pledges to achieve over the next fifteen years, Goal 16 seeks to ensure peaceful, just and inclusive societies, access to justice, and accountable institutions. SGPIA Professor Erin McCandless has participated in both the advocacy and dialogues that led to the infusion of peace within this framework, and a range of other related policy and scholarly projects at the intersections of sustainable development, peacebuilding and statebuilding.
Recently she spoke on two panels at The World Bank Fragility Forum held March 1-3 in Washington DC. The World Bank’s Senior Vice President Mahmoud Moheildin and government and civil society officials from Afghanistan and Somalia joined Professor McCandless for the first panel, “Safeguarding Inclusivity and the Role of Civil Society in Conflict Affected States: Lessons from the New Deal for SDG Implementation.” The panel incorporated a room document authored by Professor McCandless, which aims to have impact around the constructive roles of civil society, including the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (IDPS)/New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States process where Professor McCandless serves as a civil society representative.
An IDPS Steering Committee meeting was also held during this period in which Professor McCandless presented on how the aforementioned New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States, an agreement between states, international development partners and civil society, can best align with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
Professor McCandless will wrap up the activities of this busy month by presenting at the International Studies Association (ISA) on several peace related topics, and she will also give a keynote at the Society for Humanistic Psychology annual conference on “The State of World Peace: Challenges and Opportunities for Transformative Change.”
Read more about Professor McCandless’ work here.
