On 26 March 2021, ACCORD’s founder and Executive Director, Dr Vasu Gounden, participated in the United Nation’s Global Festival of Action by participating on a panel on the G20 and the 2030 Agenda: a pathway to a sustainable recovery which was hosted by the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASvis) and the UN SDG Action Campaign.
The panel was moderated by Dr Gounden, Musonda Mumba, Director of the UNDP’s Rome Centre for Sustainable Development and included a video message from Enrico Giovannini, the Italian Minister of Sustainable Infrastructure and Mobility. Other members of the panel included Agnès Buzyn, Director-General’s Envoy on Multilateralism at the World Health Organisation, Agostino Inguscio, Senior Expert: Climate Change at the G20, President and CEO of One Campaign, Gayle E. Smith, Working Group Coordinator on SDG17 at ASvis, Gemma Arpaia and the Director of the UNSDG Action Campaign, Marina Ponti.
The panel discussion focused on the opportunities for sustainable recovery that the G20 will present in light of the pandemic. Given the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic, sustainability is increasingly being perceived as the key factor to enable a path of economic, inclusive and green growth, under the umbrella of the 2030 Agenda. In his presentation, Dr Gounden spoke about Pan-African solidarity and global collaboration which resulted in the timely development of a vaccine and could be seen in a positive development emerging out of the Covid-19 pandemic.
