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Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen on the Sustainable Development Goals

World leaders are now meeting at a special UN summit  from 25–27 September to formally adopt the SDGs, which will then be implemented from 1 January 2016. 

Last week during the UNU-WIDER 30^th anniversary events – Mapping the Future of Development Economics conference and the 2015 WIDER Annual Lecture – we interviewed some distinguished participants for their views of the past and future of development.

We asked Nobel laureates in economics Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen for their views on the SDGs. 

SDGs are important in setting global norms

Joseph Stiglitz welcomes the new goals as they apply to all countries, and the SDGs embrace a wider meaning of development than simply growth in GDP. He also welcomes the number of goals, which are a testament to the influence this framework has in setting global norms that will underpin international development efforts.

Democracy a key to achieving sustainable development

Amartya Sen emphasized democracy and human rights as keys to sustainable development, and talks about what makes for good development goals (which might not always be quantifiable). 

For more interviews from the event got to the event website or the UNU-WIDER channel on Youtube.