Rethinking society for the 21st century

On the 23rd of November 2016, the DPAD/DSP unit organized a Development Policy Seminar where the draft report of the International Panel on Social Progress (“Rethinking society for the 21st century” – working title) was presented by Professor Marc Fleurbaey (Professor of Public Affairs and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University and Member of the UN Committee for Development Policy). Ms. Diana Alarcon (Chief, DPAD/DSP) chaired the seminar. Professor Fleurbaey explained how the report, written by 300 scholars from all continents, was meant to somewhat parallel the IPCC reports on climate change, but focusing on “social change”. The report analyzes current global social trends and builds towards “conditional recommendations”, that is, policy recommendations that clearly state the underlying values associated to them. It is scheduled for publication in 2018. After the presentation, a Q&A followed with the audience, comprised of DESA colleagues.