ECONOMIC SECURITY
Economic security sits at the heart of individuals’ and communities’ resilience and quality of life. As we look to the next 75 years, and the UN mission, it is vital we have a discussion of how to deliver economic security across the globe. A key pillar of economic security is employment; to expand economic security, we must expand employment opportunities and inclusion in a sustainable manner.
Sustainable, inclusive employment growth was the overarching topic of this workshop. Not only is it vital to broadly delivering economic security, but as an issue it encompasses many related themes that affect economic security. These are:
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Risks from environmental degradation and climate change
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The need for access to capital, and the problem of excessive indebtedness
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The impact of culture on economic inclusion, and the barriers gender, race, and social class can create
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Emergent economic changes and the future of work
We discussed these themes through the lens of our workshop’s topic, and developed action steps that we can all advocate for at the national and international level, and implement ourselves together in our communities.
ECONOMIC SECURITY TEAM
MANAGER: Rahul Sinha
CHAIR: Lord Stewart Wood
Lord Stewart Wood of Anfield
Fellow, Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
Chair, UN Association UK
Lord Wood served as a member of the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2001-2007, and then as Senior Special Adviser to Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2007-2010. From 2010-2015 he was Chief Adviser to Ed Miliband, the Leader of the Labour Party. He has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2011, where he serves on the International Relations Committee & the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. Stewart is a Fellow in Practice at the Blavatnik School in Oxford, where he teaches European politics & public policy. He is also Chair of the United Nations Association, and serves on the Board of Janus Henderson Diversified Income Trust, and the Royal Court Theatre.
PANEL 1: ENCOURAGING INCLUSION
Mary Kawar
Dr Mary Kawar was formerly Minister for Planning and International Cooperation for the Kingdom of Jordan. Prior to that, she served as East Africa Director for the International Labour Organisation.
Aletheia Donald
Aletheia Donald is an economist working at the Gender Innovation Lab, within the World Bank's Africa Chief Economist Office. Her research focuses on identifying and addressing gender-based constraints to productivity, property rights and prosperity, and improving the quality of their measurement. Before joining the World Bank, Aletheia was a Research Fellow at Harvard’s Evidence for Policy Design and Head of Research for the NGO Empower Dalit Women of Nepal.
Matthew Saltmarsh
Matthew Saltmarsh is London-based Senior External Relations Officer at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. He previously worked for UNHCR in Geneva, covering the Middle East, including the Syria and Iraq situations. Matthew has also worked as a journalist and spent eight years, latterly as a Staff Correspondent, at the New York Times in Paris.
PANEL 2: CREATING GROWTH
Adriana Poglia
Adriana Poglia is Executive Director of Peace Child International. She was previously Managing Direct of Eden Stanley, a communications agency specialising in CSR and the not for profit sector.
Dame Barbara Stocking
Dame Barbara Stocking is President of Murray Edwards College Cambridge. She was formerly the Chief Executive of Oxfam.
Timothy Jones
Timothy Jones is Director of Policy at the Jubilee Debt Campaign. Before joining Jubilee Debt Campaign in 2010, Tim worked for Global Justice Now for 8 years, campaigning on debt, trade agreements and climate change.
Jeremy Lefroy
Jeremy Lefroy founded and runs Equity for Africa, a charitable trust which seeks to alleviate poverty in a self-sustaining way by creating jobs through investing in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa. He previously served as MP for Stafford from 2010-2019.
PANEL 3: RESILIENT EMPLOYMENT
Lata Narayanaswamy
Dr Lata Narayanaswamy is a Lecturer in International Development at the School of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) at University of Leeds. She is currently involved in applied, interdisciplinary research related to climate change, water security and decolonising development.
Nisha Krishnan
Dr Nisha Krishnan is an expert on climate finance within the Climate Resilience Practice at the World Resources Institute. Prior to joining WRI, Nisha previously worked at the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law, ICF International, and Resources for the Future.
RAPPORTEURS
Alan Lockey
Alan Lockey is the head of the Future Work Centre, housed in the Royal Society of Art. He was formerly the Research Director for Demos, a leading cross-party think-tank in London.
Rahul Sinha
Rahul Sinha leads Inquiry, a development consultancy specialising in evaluation and research on governance and education programmes. He was formerly a senior policy advisor to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington DC. He is heading the Economic Security team.
Shammah Gwedegwe
Assistant Manager, UN75 Economic Security. Shammah Gwedegwe heads the Social Media Team for What Next UN alongside her role as the Youth Expert for the Economic Security workshop with special emphasis on Youth inclusion and intergenerational dialogue.