Invited Guest Lecture Series- Jeff Sachs

 

IES and IEDP hosted a joint guest lecture today by Jeffery Sachs. Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 100 countries.

Professor Sachs serves as the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He has authored three New York Times bestsellers in the past seven years: The End of Poverty (2005), Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (2008), and The Price of Civilization (2011). His most recent book is To Move the World: JFK's Quest for Peace (2013).

Professor Sachs is widely considered to be one of the world's leading experts on economic development and the fight against poverty. His work on ending poverty, promoting economic growth, fighting hunger and disease, and promoting sustainable environmental practices, has taken him to more than 125 countries with more than 90 percent of the world's population. For more than a quarter century he has advised dozens of heads of state and governments on economic strategy, in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

His talk was entitled 'Education and Sustainable Development'. Sachs has been deeply involved in the talks around the new sustainable development goals, which will set the international development agenda for 2016-2030. He sees education as having a prominent place in these goals. Sachs defines sustainable development as meaning a holistic approach to development. One that encompasses economic, social and environmental objectives. A fundamental strategy for sustainable development would include investment in five areas:
    Human capital
    Business capital
    Infrastructure capital
    Social capital
    Natural capital

Each one of these depends on the others and therefore you cannot bring development without addressing all five areas. Several times during his talk Sachs brought up the connection of education and fertility rates. In many places around the world, especially Sub-Saharan Africa there is extremely high fertility rates. The population is now increasing at such a profound rate that the region cannot absorb the resulting increase in demand for food, medicine, education etc. "This is not sustainable", Jeff says. There is immediate need to get children, especially girls, into school because we have seen that education does have an influence on lowering fertility rates.

Sachs stressed the importance of setting clear goals and then getting people to see them. He recently wrote a book about JFK entitled JFK's Quest for Peace. JFK was an inspiration to Sachs early in his life and showed him the importance of goal setting.