Dr Esuna DUGAROVA

Policy Specialist, UNDP

Esuna Dugarova is a Policy Specialist at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), New York, where she specialises in social policy and social protection in transition economies and broader issues of sustainable development including poverty reduction, gender equality and active ageing. She has worked as a Research Fellow at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) in Geneva, as an external expert at the European Commission, as a research associate at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and as a consultant at the World Bank. Originally from the Republic of Buryatia in Russia, Esuna holds a PhD degree in Asian Studies from Cambridge University and is fluent in Russian, English, Chinese and French, and also speaks Burmese and Spanish.

Date of CARES visit: June 2015

Presentation title: Socially sustainable development: global perspective

Abstract: Ever since the concept of sustainable development was popularised by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987 and further taken up by the Rio+20 Earth Summit in 2012, there has been a tendency to associate sustainability with economic growth and environmental protection, neglecting its social dimensions, despite the fact that the three dimensions (i.e. social, economic and environmental) are intimately interlinked.

Despite progress in economic performance, reduction of poverty and expansion of educational opportunities around the world, today we face multiple crises and challenges related to rising inequalities, exclusion and unemployment, among others. This talk will discuss key issues related to social dimensions of sustainable development and shed light on what social dimensions are, how they can be addressed and why they matter for sustainable development. It will reflect on achievements and challenges from a global perspective and also provide examples from the transformative experience of Singapore.

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Visiting Scientists