Due to global demand, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) operates in more than 170 countries. Yet across the world, development spending is being cut—this conversation explores why our shared future depends on caring beyond our borders.
UNA-UK hosted Assistant Secretary-General Susan Brown, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau for External Relations and Advocacy at UNDP for a roundtable discussion with civil society representatives. The conversation focused on the Sustainable Development Goals and the future of development cooperation in a constrained global context.
During her visit, Susan spoke with UNA-UK CEO Jane Kinninmont, to share her insights on why international development—and collective action—remain as vital as ever.
Jane: Susan, thanks for being here with us today. Obviously, we’re in this context where development spending is being slashed by many. So I wonder if you can take us back to basics and say, why is it that we do need to be spending money and investing in international development?
Susan: Well, we need to invest in the world that we want to have, in the life that we want to have, in a belief for equity, in a belief for living within planetary boundaries. We’re not in that situation yet. So we have to work together in collaborations, constellations all around the world in order to get to that space.
We work primarily with governments, but also with civil society and with other organizations. We’re in 170 countries, and we have demand-driven work.
We have governments, organisations that come to us, that want to work towards the sustainable development goals, that want to work towards more equitable spaces, that want and need social protections, that want to live within their land, their seas, their resources in such a way that’s sustainable. And while ever that need and that demand is there, we need to find ways to work together to achieve it.
Jane: Could you give us a specific example, maybe from your recent travels of something that UNDP is doing on the ground that you can really see as making a difference?
Susan: Well, I mean, I was in Lebanon recently and there was previously a water facility for 126,000 people, that facility was bombed, it’s no longer there. So, there’s 126,000 people who need water. And we’re working with local authorities there to rebuild the water system there, so that people have something which is a basic human right and need in order to survive.
Jane: Just to build on that, you know, it seems like if you’re a human being and your neighbour needs water, you’d give them water. But there’s something about it being far away that people don’t feel. How can we get around that? How do you have that sense of connection to incentivise people to care about the stranger on the other side of the world, who’s a fellow human being who needs something to drink?
Susan: Yeah, look, I think many people do care. I mean, maybe I’m going from the particular to the general, but people do care about people.
But it is a matter of priorities. If my child is struggling to find a job in the economy that we have, or if people don’t have housing, these are very proximal needs. If cost of living is going up, if it’s hard to get the health services that I need, these are really proximal. And so you need to solve these day-to-day problems, and maybe you’re not thinking or prioritizing about people who have even less, further away.
But again, you know, we’ve got one planet. Borders are porous, people move across borders, ideas move across borders, money moves across borders. We are connected in so many ways now, so it’s a matter of finding ways to show people that these connections count. They do matter. They matter to our security, but they also matter to the sorts of values that we want.
Do we believe in a world where there’s equity, where people have a chance for human dignity and to meet their best quality of life?
Do we believe in a world where we’re mitigating carbon and we’re finding a way to live within the boundaries of fresh water and atmosphere that are there? If we do believe in that, then we need to find ways to work on that together.
Jane: And what specific advice, as a final question, would you have for young people that are seeing all these problems in the world, worrying about them, not sure if they can make a difference? What can people do to help?
Susan: Well, I’d say you have to be persistent and organize. Demand the world that you want to see.
Show politicians that you care about it. They’re the ones who are having to make the decisions on the revenues, the tax dollars, on the incentives that they provide for the governance that they give us.
So, I would say mobilize, organize, learn, be persistent, work together. Because the planet that we need, the life that we need, is not just going to come and be delivered to us. We have to work for it and we can’t give up.
Jane: Thank you. That’s a fantastic message. Really appreciate your time today, Susan.
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