The Jakarta Global Sustainable Development Conference will be a cross-boundaries platform for the various stakeholder to review the MDG performance and share lessons learned from MDG to find common properties and interests, blend perspectives to draft a direction of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the urban context.
The conference is organized by the Sustainability Transformation beyond 2015 Project (POST-2015), a research project supported by the Ministry of Environment, Japan. This project conducts research from as many perspectives as possible about this debate, with the purpose of making an intellectual contribution toward the realization of a sustainable world. The post-2015 project was launched in mid-2013 and is the backbone of the work on SDGs in the Earth System Governance global research alliance. See for more: SDG.earthsystemgovernance.org.
Conference background
The 2015 deadline is approaching for the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In this context, the pace of international discussions is accelerating regarding global development goals and related issues after 2015. Given the fact that Jakarta is one of the mega cites in the world, the extensive discussion for possible SDGs in light of urban issues is of direct relevance to the conference location.
The proportion of the global population who live in urban areas is rapidly growing and by 2050 the figure will be around 68% for global population (UN, 2009). In order to explore the appropriate sustainable development goals, the issues related to urbanization including water, energy, and food security should be addressed with much attention and in a holistic manner. The Nexus perspective allows stakeholders to have better understanding of interdependencies and better ability to integrate the management and governance across sectors.
Different participants who have different perspective and interests will have the opportunity for discussions with various stakeholders, as in addition to the post 2015 team members coming from academic institutions, research institutes, think tank, and the governmental sector, the conference will be attended by representatives from international organizations and other practitioners.
Having the conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, provides an opportunity for the Indonesian MDG Stakeholders to voice their national perspectives. Academic scholars may both provide and receive input for the MDG related researches, whereas the NGO may have the opportunity to bring their priorities into attention. The topic, “Addressing development nexus issues in urbanization era” would also give the opportunity of Indonesian urban case studies to be heard in the international community.
Ultimately, the conference will be a small contribution to the 8th MDG: “Develop a global partnership for development” as well as a step towards reaching the 3rd and 4th goal of the POST-2015 project: “Addressing the lack of communication between research communities dealing with environmental issues and development issues” respectively “becoming an international research center through relevant international collaboration and networks”.
