Master of Development Practice program organizes its first conference | School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED)

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The School of Environment, Enterprise and Development's Master of Development Practice (MDP) program, which launched this past Fall, is already organizing its first international conference. Bruce Frayne, Director of the MDP program here at Waterloo, is excited about the opportunity to start contributing to the development practice field so soon after launching.

The International Conference on Sustainable Development Practice (ICSDP), to be held in New York at Columbia University in September, will not be hosted by the MDP program alone. It is a collaborative effort led by the Global Association of Masters in Development Practice programs, a network of 23 development practice programs from around the world.

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) is also helping with conference organization. The United Nations will be a prominent presence at the conference, running back-to-back with the 68th session of the UN General Assembly and featuring Jeffrey D. Sachs (pictured right) as the keynote speaker. Sachs is Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Millennium Development Goals.

This first year will focus on the theme of Advancing Evidence-Based Solutions for the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda. Organizers are accepting abstracts and registrations now. For more information, visit the ICSDP website.