WEBINAR | IPPN Knowledge Café: Providing Insights and Aligning the SDGs to Chart Effective Policy Pathways – Lessons from Costa Rica and The Gambia

➡️ Back to the IPPN group!

Join us for the next IPPN Knowledge Café, a webinar series focused on building the IPPN members’ capacity to better understand a systems perspective on policy integration and acceleration; and integrated policy solutions, including curation of tools and resources that support the design and implementation of cross-cutting policy solutions.

About this webinar

In support of transformative, national SDG commitments at the mid-point of the 2030 Agenda, UNDP collaborated with 95 countries to identify areas and patterns that exhibit the strongest potential to help accelerate sustainable development progress – starting from national priorities, SDG progress trends, and the real-world challenges that constrain policy options. UNDP’s Integrated SDG Insights initiative aimed to bring together the most important analysis to tackle policy constraints head on – from the carbon intensity of growth pathways and restricted fiscal space - and seize opportunities to advance the SDGs. The Integrated SDG Insights Reports have zeroed-in on key policy combinations that accelerate progress across multiple fronts. The approach mixes methodologies, data innovation, AI and systems analysis to pinpoint interlinkages that have the most potential to accelerate progress – cognizant of the constraints that must be addressed in the process. 

Agenda

Join this session to learn about the Integrated SDG Insights approach and tools and how it can be used by the community of integrated policy practitioners. Participants will get an overview of the results and key findings from the initiative, hear insights from government officials in Costa Rica and The Gambia, and discuss how the methodology can be applied at country-level to support SDG acceleration.

This session will be moderated by Jörg Schimmel, Senior Programme Officer, Inter-agency Programme Facilitation, UN Development Coordination Office (UN DCO). The keynote speakers for this session include: 

• Laurel Patterson, Head, SDG Integration Team, UN Development Programme (UNDP) 
• José Pablo Céspedes, Advisor, Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy, Costa Rica 
• Lamin Bojang, Adviser, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, The Gambia 

Session materials

Watch the session recording, find the PPT presentations and all relevant links are posted in the comments section below.

About the speakers

Laurel Patterson is the Head of the SDG Integration Team for the UN Development Programme (UNDP)’s Global Policy Network. Prior to this role, Ms. Patterson has held several positions at the UNDP including Senior Global Policy Advisor, leading integrated policy development for SDG implementation in fragile and conflict-affected settings, Deputy Director of the UN System Affairs Group leading on UN reform, and several field-based positions including Chief of Planning in Somalia. Before joining UNDP, Laurel was the Associate Director of International Affairs at Simon Fraser University in Canada, where she led the university’s international development portfolio, focused on primary education in Africa and Southeast Asia. Ms. Patterson received a Master’s in International Relations from the University of Cambridge.   

José Pablo Céspedes is an economist with a degree from the National University of Costa Rica and experience in the development of public policies, economic development advisory, and education. He has worked as a public policy analyst at the Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS) and as a consultant on higher education at the International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC) under UNESCO. Additionally, he served as a legislative advisor to the Legislative Assembly of the Republic during the 2018-2022 period. Currently, he works as a professional advisor at the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy, where he is responsible for the analysis of development and the evaluation and monitoring of public policies. He also heads the Technical Secretariat for Development Goals and the negotiations for the Special Fund for Higher Education. He holds a Master's Degree in Economic Policy and Public Economics from the University of Valencia and a Master's Degree in Public and Social Policies from Pompeu Fabra University and Johns Hopkins University.

Lamin Bojang, a national of The Gambia, currently works as the Adviser to the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs of the Gambia. He worked with the World Bank Group from 2017 to May 2022 as an Advisor to the Executive Director. His areas of responsibilities were: Poverty & inequality, sustainable development, Transport & ICT, External and Corporate Relations, East Asia & Pacific (EAP), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and New Development Bank (BRICS Development Bank). Previously, he worked for the Office of the President of The Gambia, the National Planning Commission (NPC) and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs as the Director of Aid Coordination in The Gambia.

Connection details

Date: Wednesday, 25 October 2023

Time: 7:00 AM Panama | 8:00 AM New York | 3:00 PM Addis Ababa/ Amman/ Istanbul | 7:00 PM Bangkok

Register in two clicks to receive the Zoom connection details: https://bit.ly/IPPN_KC18. The registration for this event is now closed.

The Integrated Policy Practitioners' Network (IPPN) is a one-stop-shop for integrated policy practitioners, operating as a knowledge hub for the global community. IPPN aims to link existing efforts on SDG integration across UN agencies and beyond, and enabling cross-pollination and learning to enhance the UN System-wide capability to practice and deliver high-quality integrated policy support. IPPN is a joint effort under the auspices of the UNSDG Task Team on Integrated Policy Support.

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