The challenges and opportunities that the Sustainable Development Goals create for least developed countries will be discussed at an event in London next month.

The Least Developed Countries Independent Expert Group, the International Institute for Environment and Development and the ESRC STEPS Centre will host a dialogue on Monday, 13 June to discuss the challenges and opportunities that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) create for LDCs and seek ways forward above and beyond the current implementation debate.

The one-day event in London, Reimagining Development in LDCs: what role for the SDGs? will include sessions on inclusive urbanisation and sustainable energy transitions for low carbon futures, as well as a round table debate on the politics of the transformations at the heart of the SDG agenda.

A new global agenda and opportunity for LDCs

Across the LDCs there are real opportunities for radical shifts in development pathways. The LDCs are not yet locked into unsustainable systems of production and patterns of consumption and rapid transformation towards sustainable models of development is possible.

The SDGs can provide an important political opportunity for mobilising ideas, plans and funds for alternative pathways to development, framed by the SDG ideals.

The Istanbul Programme of Action sets out a comprehensive agenda for LDCs: a review will be carried out in late May resulting in a declaration that is expected to reconfirm and strengthen the commitment of stakeholders in the light of last year’s global agreements on the SDGs and climate change, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (PDF).

The SDGs could provide a real opportunity for radical transformation in LDCs. But national SDG implementation processes could all too easily get bogged down in endless debates over bureaucratic procedures of target-setting, delivery and monitoring, and fail to achieve change.

The dialogue will bring together experts from across the globe to discuss how to ensure the implementation debates focus on the politics of transformation for which the SDGs have created space.

Contact

This event is by invitation only. To find out more, email [email protected].

Related publications

The Paris Agreement and the LDCs, Achala Abeysinghe, Brianna Craft, Janna Tenzing (20-16, IIED Briefing

A whole-landscape approach to green development in Africa, Mariteuw Chimère Diaw (2015), IIED Briefing

Financing inclusive low-carbon resilient development in the least developed countries, Dave Steinbach, Nanki Kaur, Neha Rai (2015), IIED Report

Impact of climate change on Least Developed Countries: are the SDGs possible?, Helena Wright, Saleemul Huq, Jonathan Reeves (2015), IIED Briefing

Transforming global development: An LDC perspective on the post-2015 agenda, Least Developed Countries Independent Expert Group (2014), IIED Report

Other resources

• News: What does the Paris Agreement mean for LDCs?
• Blog: What’s happening to aid to the Least Developed Countries?, by Andrew Norton
• Blog: Will the Sustainable Development Goals make a difference?, by Ian Scoones
• Feature: Unheard voices: what do the Least Developed Countries want from COP21? Nine interviews with leaders, experts, and civil society representatives from the LDCs on the reality that they face, the actions being taken, and the role for climate finance.