Sakiko Fukuda-Parr Speaks on Social Development at the United Nations
Last week at the 54th session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development, experts gathered to brainstorm ways to strengthen social development in the contemporary world.
It was a task well suited to Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Professor of International Affairs, chair of the Development concentration in the Julien J. Studley Graduate Program in International Affairs, and one of the world’s leading development economists.
At the session—a follow up to the 1995 World Summit for Social Development and to the 2000 Social Summit+5— Fukuda-Parr was involved in a number of events: the Civil Society Forum: Inequalities and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, where she served as keynote speaker; and the UNESCO event on The Social Dimension of Agenda 2030 UN General Assembly, for which she served as a panel speaker. On Thursday, she sat on a panel at the United Nations General Assembly special event on the Least Developed Countries.
Fukuda-Parr is a development economist interested in human development and capabilities and the broad question of national and international policy strategies. Her current research includes projects on public policies and economic and social rights, and the impact of global goal setting on international development agendas. From 1995 to 2004, she was lead author and director of the United Nations Development Programme Human Development Reports. Prior to this, she worked at the World Bank and UNDP on agriculture, aid coordination in Africa, and capacity development.