September 17, 2014 marked the start of the Second Annual International Conference on Sustainable Development Practice (ICSDP) at Columbia University in New York City.
The two day event, hosted by The Global Association of Master's in Development Practice Programs in collaboration with the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), brought together Master of Development Practice (MDP) students and a wide variety of stakeholders from all over the world to discuss topics surrounding sustainable development.
Each day of the event featured keynote speeches from some of the most influential people in sustainable development, including world-renowned economist and Director of SDSN, Jeffrey Sachs, on day one and Bineta Diop, Founder and President of the non-governmental organization Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS) on day two.
The 2014 edition of the conference, with a theme of Advancing Evidence-Based Solutions for the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda, sought proposals highlighting practical solutions to the complex development challenges being faced at all levels. Master of Development Practice students from across the global network of 26 universities took centre-stage where they were able to present their research on evidence-based solutions in a range of thematic areas. Overall, there were over 130 presentations across 12 thematic areas with the University of Waterloo very well represented.
Featuring research conducted in INDEV608 - Water and Security, taught by Professor Larry Swatuk, MDP students from the University of Waterloo were granted a dedicated panel to present lessons that could be drawn from their work on water and security. The 90 minute panel session was moderated by University of Waterloo MDP Program Director Simron Singh and featured the following presentations:
- Jodie Baker - Water as a Threat and Solution: Improving health outcomes in developing country contexts (co-authored by Lisa Gaudry and Ashlea Webber).
- Adi Dunkelman and Meghan Kerr - The New Green Revolution: Enhancing Rainfed Agriculture for Food and Nutrition Security in Eastern Africa.
- Allison Elgie and Melanie Klein - An Alternative Water Governance Framework Bonding the Pathways to Deliver the Human Right to Water (co-authored by Xiaoxi Dou).
- Uzair Jaffer - In Search of the Green Economy: Water and Industry in Comparative Perspective (co-authored by Anil Dhakal and Khan Salahuddin).
- Amanda Joynt - Socioeconomic and Political Influences on the Implementation of the World Commission on Dams Recommendations (co-authored by Emma Rossi).
- Giuliana Miranda - Water Governance and Climate Change: Lessons from Cases in Canada, India and Peru (co-authored by Camellia Bhatti).
- Mikaal Wahab - Water Harvesting for Smallholder Food Security in Africa (co-authored by Francis Boursier).
The presentations in the session enticed plenty of discussion from the audience and much like other elements of the conference proceedings, offered thought-provoking real life examples of grassroots solutions to complex sustainable development challenges.