Watch the 2021 SDG Conference Bergen

• Watch the Day Zero opening session.

Greetings and opening by Rector Margareth Hagen, UiB 

Day Zero Keynote by Åsa Persson, Deputy Director of the Stockholm Environmental Institute

Almost as soon as the pandemic and economic crisis broke out, calls were made to use it as an opportunity to build back better and advance on the SDGs. So far, the world is not taking this opportunity and we are slipping backwards. In this talk, I suggest how we need to move from economic recovery to sustainability reforms, by focusing on two grand challenges that determine the fate of the SDGs: reducing inequality and valuing nature.

Day Zero Debate 

Moderator: Dorothy Dankel, UiB

Discussants:
Siri Vatsø Haugum, University of Bergen
Siddharth Sareen, University of Stavanger
Cristina Dorador, University of Antofagasta

• Go here for information on Day Zero workshops.

• Watch the day 1 opening sesion, keynote 1 and SDGs in action.

Welcome and formal opening of the SDG Conference Bergen 2021

Ms. Ine Eriksen Søreide, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Government of Norway

Dr. Margareth Hagen, Rector, University of Bergen

Mr. Andreas Trohjell, President, National Union of Students in Norway

Keynote lecture 1

It's time to create regenerative and distributive economies

Dr. Kate Raworth, Professor at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford

The repeated crises that have marked the start of the 21st century call for a new vision and compass for human prosperity. The Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries offers such a vision and is gaining traction internationally. 

In order to get into the Doughnut, we must transform the dynamics of our economies: from degenerative to regenerative; from divisive to distributive, and will present examples - from cities and businesses to teachers and communities – that are already putting it into practice.

Discussants:
Dr. Clive Spash, Professor of Public Policy & Governance at WU Vienna University of Economics. Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Value 
Ms. Aili Keskitalo, President of the Norwegian Sami Parliament
Ms. Vilde Friis Ruud, Student at the Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen

SDGs in action

From ‘Drivers of change’ to ‘Narratives for change’: broadening the debate

Dr. Roger Strand, Professor at the University of Bergen

Dr. Lorenzo Benini, Expert in Systems and Sustainability Assessments, European Environment Agency (EEA)

A key message from “The European Environment - State and Outlook 2020” report of the European Environment Agency is that responses to sustainability challenges face many barriers that prevent the desired change. Consumerism and growth policies are among these barriers. There is a need to broaden the policy debate. 

Benini and Strand presented a joint initiative to provoke a re-thinking of practices and values in our society called “Narratives for Change”.

Watch the parallel sessions

Session 2: A global perspective on inequality in reformulating SDGs (Vimeo)

In changing global circumstances, various forms of inequalities co-exist and intersect. These impact not only how the current pandemic unfolds but also indicate where emphasis may be put to establish pathways out of the current impasse. 

In this session, we will address how multiple dimensions of inequality—especially related to economy, social systems, politics, culture, environment and knowledge—may be successfully understood and addressed in order to prevent a future where (pandemics hit) vulnerable people, with few alternatives, are exploited. An overall aim is to produce, convey and discuss critical as well as actionable research on post-COVID-19 inequalities relevant for pursuing the SDGs. Drawing on cross-disciplinary work, we ask: 

Key questions

1. How can we, in a globally inclusive way, best mobilize knowledge and research about complex and intersecting inequalities? 
2. What are the current impediments to establishing globally relevant and inclusive ‘best practices’ and collaboration in research on inequalities, the sharing of knowledge and transformation? 
3. Which critical re-thinking and re-formulation of the SDGs needs to be undertaken in order to understand and tackle changing forms of inequality post-COVID-19? 
4. Reflecting the discussions in this session, what are the three most important recommendations for policy development and reform addressing global post-COVID-19 inequalities? 

Programme and participants

Introduction
Bjørn Enge Bertelsen, Global Research Programme on Inequality (GRIP), Bergen

"Continuums of violence: Perspectives on intersecting inequalities"
Rachel Sieder, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS), Mexico City

"Decolonising SDGs and the need for alternative ontologies"
Divine Fuh, Humanities Institute for Africa, University of Cape Town

"The Sociality of Inequalities"
Sundar Sarukkai, India Centre for Society and Policy (iisc.ac.in)

Discussion organized by moderator

Questions from chat, interaction with digital participants

Session organizer and resource persons    

Moderator /session organizer: Bjørn Enge Bertelsen, GRIP
Discussant: Professor John-Andrew McNeish, Norwegian University of Life Sciences. 
Secretary: Elina Troscenko, Global Research Programme on Inequality (GRIP)

Session 3: Integrated and Inclusive SDG City Transitions in the Global South (Vimeo)

Cities in the global south are fast becoming the main context for human life and constitute the primary battleground for sustainable development and COVID-19. Recognizing global urbanization as a key context, how does highly unequal access to housing, services, and citizenship present challenges that need to be addressed to achieve integrated inclusive and sustainable city transitions? What are different possible policy directions to address urban inequalities and what knowledge gaps exist? Finally, what is the role of educational and research institutions in supporting integrated and inclusive SDG city transitions in the Global South?

Key questions

1. Which critical re-thinking and re-formulation of the SDGs needs to be undertaken in order to understand and tackle changing forms of inequality post-COVID-19?
2. Reflecting the discussions in this session, what are the three most important recommendations for policy development and reform addressing global post-COVID-19 inequalities?

Programme and participants

Introduction: Rolee Aranya, NTNU
Presentation 1 – Renu Khosla, Centre for Urban and Regional Excellence
Presentation 2 – Shuaib Lwasa, Makerere University
Presentation 3 – Salim Rouhana, World Bank
Presentation 4 – Faranak Miraftab, University of Illinois

Discussion organized by moderator Hilde Refstie, NTNU.

Summary: Marianne Millstein, OsloMet

Session organizer and resource persons  

Session organizers: Hilde Refstie, Rolee Aranya, Stig A. Larssæther and Annemie Wyckmans, NTNU
Moderator: Hilde Refstie, NTNU
Discussant: Marianne Millstein, OsloMet
Secretary: Marcin Sliwa, University of Oslo

Session 4: Indigenous Peoples’ Capacity to Act for Sustainability (Vimeo)

The well-being of indigenous people depends on healthy ecosystems and resilience to climate-related extremes and other shocks and disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Indigenous peoples are doubly affected in the sense that factors such as poverty, literacy capacity, access to health care, and gender inequality affects their capacity to act adequately for sustainability. The focus on sustained economic growth in the face of the pandemic lock-down also renews conflicts between development projects and indigenous communities.  The need for a continued focus on indigenous peoples’ land and resource rights, as well as their capacity to take political action and participate in knowledge production, including adequate access to knowledge and education, is thus more important than ever. A central goal for the session is to discuss how the SDGs can be reformulated to address these issues.

Key questions

1. Which critical re-thinking and re-formulation of the SDGs needs to be undertaken in order to understand and tackle indigenous peoples’ capacity to act for sustainability?
2. Reflecting the discussions in this session, what are the three most important recommendations for policy development and reform addressing indigenous peoples’ in the post-COVID-19 context?

Programme and participants                                                       

Introduction Camilla Brattland, UiT – the Arctic University of Norway

Artistic contribution by Ms. Risten Anine Kvernmo Gaup 

“Sustainability and Indigenous Peoples post-covid- 19”
Ms. Christina Henriksen, President, Saami Council

“Indigenous peoples’ literacy capacity and sustainable development”
Professor Anders Breidlid, OsloMet

“Capitalism, mining, and inequality: who’s sustaining who?”
Charles Roche, Murdoch University, Centre for Responsible Citizenship and Sustainability, Australia 

“Uranium mining and the myth of ‘clean energy’: Rehabilitating Ranger Uranium Mine, Australia”
Dr. Rebecca Lawrence, Sydney Environment Institute, University of Sydney, and Stockholm Environment Institute.  

Discussion in Árdna, the Sámi cultural venue at UiT – the Arctic University of Norway

Participants

• Mrs. Aili Keskitalo, President of the Norwegian Sami Parliament
• Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed Larry, Master of Philosophy in Indigenous Studies, UiT
• Ms. Eva Marie Fjellheim, PhD fellow, Centre for Sami Studies, UiT
• Mr. Knut Marius Uddu Skjerve, advisor, UN Association of Norway

Session organizer and resource persons  

Session organized by: Camilla Brattland, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway and Anders Breidlid, OsloMet
Moderator: Torjer Olsen, Head of Department at the Centre for Sami Studies, UiT – the Arctic University of Norway

Session 5: Social justice, sustainability and the SDGs: What role for economic growth? (Vimeo)

Is infinite economic growth in all countries, qualified by adjectives such as ‘sustainable’ and ‘inclusive’ (SDG 8), one of the ‘bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path’ (SDGs, preamble)? Or is it a distraction away from the fundamental questions of transformation and redistribution necessary for achieving a safe and just world for humanity (Leach, Raworth and Rockström, 2013)?

The Human Development Report, originally a reaction to the limiting monetary approach of measuring countries’ success through Gross Domestic Product (GDP), has come under criticism of not engaging with the ecological limits of our planet (see e.g. Hickel, 2020). In 2020, a new version of the report has come out where it for the first time engages with the natural world, leading to a degrading of countries like Norway, while no countries occupy the space for states that are successful both in terms of environmental protection and human development. What role is there then for economic growth in the further discussion of how to achieve a sustainable future?  What will the transition to sustainability require of us as global humanity? And is there an ‘us’ or are we – as scientists and scholars in the privileged and so unsustainable part of the world – defining yet again what is the way forward for everyone?

Key questions

1. How can we, in a globally inclusive way, best mobilize knowledge and research about complex and intersecting inequalities?
2. Which critical re-thinking and re-formulation of the SDGs needs to be undertaken in order to understand and tackle changing forms of inequality post-COVID-19?
3. Reflecting the discussions in this session, what are the three most important recommendations for policy development and reform addressing global post-COVID-19 inequalities? 

Programme and participants

Welcome
Beate Sjåfjell, University of Oslo

‘Social justice in a post-pandemic world with (still) decreasing natural resources’
Associate Professor, Dr Sarah Cornell, Stockholm Resilience Centre

‘Vulnerability and resilience’
Professor Louis Kotzé, Faculty of Law, North-West University, South Africa

Discussion

Concluding reflections

Session organizer and resource persons  

Moderator/session organizer: Beate Sjåfjell, University of Oslo
Discussant: Giulia Testa, ERASMUS exchange student at University of Bergen

Session 6: How does inequality post-COVID-19 affect Coastal Communities? (Vimeo)

The past few years have shown great global focus on ocean issues. The High-level panel of sustainable Ocean Economy, the Our Ocean Conference and, not least UN Decade of Ocean Science are important expressions of this. As important as the world’s oceans are for the globe and a growing global population, we must also keep in mind the people living of and by the sea. This session will focus on inequality in distribution of ocean wealth within and among coastal communities, and on inequality in access to data among northern and southern universities.

COVID-19 have forced us to rethink and stimulate a transformation process. We therefore need to search for opportunities for blue stimulus. One way can be investing in Costal and Marine Ecosystem Restoration and protection. This can in the short term, mean creation of new jobs. How can we use the effect of this disaster as a trigger to create more resilient nations and solutions than before?

Key questions

1. Which critical re-thinking and re-formulation of the SDGs needs to be undertaken in order to understand and tackle changing forms of inequality post-COVID-19?
2. Reflecting the discussions in this session, what are the three most important recommendations for policy development and reform addressing global post-COVID-19 inequalities in health?

Programme and participants:

Welcome: Lise Øvreås, University of Bergen

Introduction to panel: Ragnhild Overå, University of Bergen

“To what extent will we see inequalities both between and within countries becoming increased as a result of the Corona outbreak?”
Mr. Fe`iloakitau Kaho Tevi, Consultant to the governments of Vanuatu and Solomon Islands

“How will post-COVID-19 affect small-scale fisheries globally?”
Professor Ratana Chuenpagdee, Memorial University of Newfoundland

“In a post –Covid world, lessons in living must come from the Ocean”
Professor John Kurien, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, India and WorldFish Center, Penang, Malaysia

“Global Capasity for Ocean Sceince & Data post COVID-19”
Professor Director Sheila Heymans, European Marine Board

Discussion with all speakers, organized by moderator Professor Ragnhild Overå, University of Bergen

Session organizer and resource persons  

Session organizer: Lise Øvreås, University of Bergen
Moderator: Ragnhild Overå, University of Bergen
Discussant: Marine Director Amund Måge, University of Bergen

• Watch the debating the parallel sessions.

The conference addresses how diverse inequalities can be understood, challenged and engaged in a post-COVID-19 light. From various perspectives, six parallel sessions probe this issue and its impact on the 2030 agenda. Approaching this from diverse perspectives, six commentators will bring the main conclusions and key points into a joint debate following these sessions. Such a panel debate will revolve around two questions:

1. What are the three most important recommendations for policy development and reform addressing global post-COVID-19 inequalities?
2. Drawing on the parallel sessions, which critical re-thinking and re-formulation of the SDGs needs to be undertaken in order to understand and tackle changing forms of inequality post-COVID-19?

Participants:
Session 1: Professor and Leader of CHAIN Terje Andreas Eikemo, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Session 2: Professor John Andrew McNeish, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)
Session 3: Researcher Marianne Millstein, OsloMet
Session 4: Associate Professor Camilla Brattland, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway
Session 5: Student Giulia Testa, ERASMUS exchange student at University of Bergen
Session 6: Marine Director Amund Maage, University of Bergen

• Watch Day 2 opening session and keynotes 2 and 3.

Opening address

Progress Through Science: The Pivotal Role of Youth in the Decade of Action

Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayake, United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth

In this opening session of Conference Day 2, we welcome the UN SG's Envoy on Youth. The theme of the interview will be the pivotal role science and innovation driven by young scientists play in the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.

Interviewed by student Hibaq Mohamed from the Faculty of Law at the University of Bergen.

Keynote lecture 2

Public engagement, scientific literacy and the science-society nexus

Dr. Daya Reddy, President of the International Science Council and Professor at the University of Cape Town

The spectrum of inequalities constitutes a major obstacle to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. This has been further exacerbated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this context the scientific community faces challenges both in relation to their scientific work and at the interfaces with society and policy. The successful pursuit of integrated approaches to the SDGs and to the goals of robust and equitable post-pandemic recovery and resilience require mitigation of inequalities in access to knowledge and participation, and effective routes to public engagement. The presentation addresses these challenges as key components of scientific responsibility.

Discussants:
Dr. Andy Stirling, Professor of Science and Technology Policy, University of Sussex
Dr. Zora Kovacic, Postdoctoral fellow, University of Bergen

Keynote lecture 3

Urban Pathways to SDG Success

Dr. Edgar Pieterse, Director of the African Centre for Cities and Professor at the University of Cape Town

The success or failure of the 2030 Agenda will depend on the ability of governments and supra-national regions to recognise that sustainable urbanism lives at the intersection of most SDGs. The talk will substantiate this claim by analysing the institutional and spatial inter-dependencies between the SDGs and make a case for accelerating city-level innovation systems that can serve as living laboratories to figure out new modalities of infrastructure provision (at the nexus of circular, social and platform economic principles), land-use, citizen empowerment and intelligent regulation. Examples will be drawn from regions with the most pressing urbanisation pressures because we need international cooperation and solidarity where the challenges are most acute, and solutions most urgent.

Discussants:- Dr. Aromar Revi, Director for the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) and Co-Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)- Ms. Astrid Haas, Policy Director, International Growth Centre- Ms. Mrudhula Koshy, PhD Candidate, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

• Watch the Rector Debate and end of conference here.

NOTE! The session starts at 18:50 in the video.

The Rector Debate: How are universities mitigating inequalities in access to knowledge?

As always, the rectors at the Norwegian universities behind the SDG Conference Bergen will close the conference by discussing the role of research and higher education for the SDGs. Last year the rectors discussed the report “Sharing of best practice for the SDGs” and outlined ambitious goals for educational reforms. How far has this work come? What has been achieved?

This year’s conference has discussed the need to work systematically with the science to society nexus and need for universities to work much more rigorously in communication of science. As keynote speaker of the SDG Conference Bergen 2021, Professor Daya Reddy, states, equitable access to scientific knowledge is central to achieving developmental objectives in a fully participatory manner. How are universities mitigating inequalities in access to knowledge nationally and globally?

Participants:

• Rector Svein Stølen, University of Oslo
• Rector Anne Husebekk, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway
• Rector Sjur Baardsen, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)
• Rector Anne Borg, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
• Rector Margareth Hagen, University of Bergen
• Andreas Trohjell, President, National Union of Students in Norway (NSO)

Closing remarks / End of Conference

Closing remarks by Professor Bjørn Enge Bertelsen, leader of the Programme Committee for the 2021 SDG Conference Bergen and Director of The Global Research Programme on Inequality, and Vice-Rector for Global Relations at the University of Bergen, Professor Annelin Eriksen.