Integrating the Sustainable Development Goals – A holistic approach for the UN Development System

The Sustainable Development Goals – or SDGs – are the cornerstone of the global development agenda. The goals urge governments and all stakeholders to eliminate poverty and hunger, promote health, education, gender equality, peace and justice, provide clean water, energy, and decent work, and address climate change. While the 17 goals that are broken down into 169 targets and measured by 233 indicators provide a holistic system of how to understand sustainable development, it is clear that from the climate crisis and pandemics to rising inequalities and protracted conflict – these challenges cannot be dealt with in isolation.

Haoliang Xu, UN Assistant Secretary-General, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, will provide deep insights into SDG integration as an approach to development that targets systems – not just thematic sectors – to address all aspects of a complex challenge, including its root causes and its ripple effects across economies, societies and natural ecosystems. Assistant Secretary-General Xu will elucidate how UNDP supports a system-wide approach to implement the SDGs in an integrated way to help countries tackle complex challenges and lay out a more sustainable future.

Zoom information:
https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/j/94457526845?pwd=QXJMVzVFb0ZpRTZwREN3cTJJY3o0Zz09


Speaker Bio
Haoliang Xu was appointed UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director for the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support by the United Nations Secretary-General in July 2019. Previously, Mr. Xu was UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific since September 2013. Prior to this, he served as Deputy Regional Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States in New York since 2010; UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Kazakhstan (2007-2010); Country Director in Pakistan (2005-2007); Deputy Resident Representative for Programme, Pakistan (2004-2005); Country Manager and Senior Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP Timor-Leste (2002-2004); Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP Iran (2000-2002); Programme Manager, Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, New York (1997-1999); Programme Officer/Junior Professional Officer, UNDP Kazakhstan (1997-1999).

Before joining the UN, Mr. Xu was a computer-aided design engineer with Louis Berger International Inc. in New Jersey and an assistant lecturer at Tongji University in Shanghai, China.

Mr. Xu, a Chinese national, holds a Bachelors in Engineering from Tongji University in Shanghai, and a Masters’ of Science in Management from the Stevens Institute of Technology. He also holds a Masters’ of International Affairs in Economic Development and Policy Analysis from Columbia University.