The volume Eco-Social Contracts for Sustainable and Just Futures. Mobilising Collective Power to Deal with the 21st Century Polycrisis brings together the research and insights of activists, politicians, academics, artists from around the world. Our discussion on Contestation Movements and the Emergence of Eco-Social Contracts in India and Nepal demonstrates the immense challenges for progressive…
Read MoreCategory: ideas & commentaries
Kickstart? Imaginings towards a beyond-2030 “development” agenda
The 2030 Agenda and recent follow-ups As is well-known, in 2015 the UN General Assembly adopted, by acclamation, an Agenda for sustainable development (2015 to 2030). The 2030 Agenda followed a continuous series of development decades, since 1960 in fact. Since 2015, the UN secretariat itself launched follow-on processes, such as Our Common Agenda which…
Read MoreAfter the World Social Summit: Where are we and what can we do?
“In rich countries, floods mostly destroy property. In poor countries, floods mostly kill people.” (Sham Jaff in her Newsletter #373) Where are we now? We are shocked by the horrifyingly accelerating aggressions against the human rights of the peoples in Afghanistan, Myanmar Iran, Sudan, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gaza, Ukraine, Greenland, Venezuela, Minneapolis,…
Read MoreNaveen Gautam: Onwards from the World Summit for Social Development – A CDWD Youth Vision
Author: Naveen Gautam For centuries and ages, Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (CDWD) have lived at the harshest edges of social and economic exclusion. Yet across regions, from Dalit and Burakumin communities in South Asia to Roma settlements in Europe, from Haratin groups in Mauritania to Palenque and Quilombola territories in Latin America, youth…
Read MoreTwo Summits – two dynamics – social development and climate justice
The city of Doha, its glass skyscrapers rising overwhelmingly, and menacingly, from desert lands, hosted the 2nd World Summit for Social Development (3 to 6 November). Belém, at the mouth of the lush green Amazon river, was the site for the 30th Climate COP (10 to 22/23 November). The venues of the two Summits obviously…
Read MoreSome reflections on the 2nd World Summit for Social Development
The commitments made at the Doha Summit for Social Development … Approximately 40 heads of state and government, around 200 ministers and officials, and approximately 8,000 representatives from civil society and the business world gathered in Doha during the week of November 3 for the Second World Summit for Social Development. The assembled governments agreed…
Read MoreDer Weltsozialgipfel in Doha
Die Zusagen des Doha- Gipfels für soziale Entwicklung … Circa 40 Staats- und Regierungsoberhäupter, an die 200 Minister:Innen und Beamt:Innen und circa 8000 Vertreter:innen aus Zivilgesellschaft und Businesswelt kamen in der Woche vom 3. November in Doha zum 2. Weltsozialgipfel für soziale Entwicklung zusammen. Die versammelten Regierungen einigten sich in einer moralisch-verpflichtenden – aber…
Read MoreWhy Care About Care?
This contribution is published as part of the UNRISD Think Piece Series Beyond Copenhagen: Rethinking Social Development for the 21st Century, which supports UNRISD’s efforts to shape the agenda of the upcoming Summit in Qatar in November 2025. This series brings together experts from academia, advocacy and policy practice to critically explore the achievements and…
Read MoreUN social summits as Global Social Policy?
In 2025, multilateralism is under great pressure. Many United Nations (UN) member states violate the binding principles of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, often only superficially commit to non-binding declarations such as the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development or the Paris Agreement, and are delaying or even cutting funding…
Read More
One health symposium at Munich’s Centre for International Health