The Norad Conference 2021: A new start – together or every state for itself?
- Revisit the Norad Conference 2021 - day one with keynote speakers and panels on global health and COVID-19
- Revisit the conference at Norads Youtube channel
A global pandemic, economic stagnation, greater inequality, and threats to democracy and freedom of speech all marked 2020. The whole world was thrown into crisis at the start of the decade. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking as an even greater crisis looms large: anthropogenic climate change.
At the Norad Conference 2021, we ask: Are we heading towards a future with more cooperation or more ‘going solo’? How can we achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, and are we really on the right track? Will this be the decade of joint solutions to global challenges, or are there more likely to be growing tensions and more nationalism?
With a stellar team of Norwegian and international experts, we will shed light on important topics regarding health, climate and the economy.
Digital conference
The Norad Conference will bring together important voices, and will highlight the most important issues. Like everything else during the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference will be slightly different this year – it will be a digital event. This will make it easier for an international audience to follow the conference live.
The conference is divided over two days, Tuesday 26 January and Wednesday 27 January.
The programme on Tuesday 26 January is primarily in English. Speeches in Norwegian will be texted in English. In addition to several key note speeches, the agenda this day addresses the topic of Global health and ‘Vaccine nationalism and global distribution’. See the full agenda below.
As for Wednesday 27 January the programme and debates are primarily in Norwegian with a few expections. The topics to be discussed are Climate and ‘Green reconstruction and Norwegian development assistance’ and Economy and ‘Growth and jobs within planetary boundaries’.
Agenda 26 January
10.00 CET: Welcome by Mr. Bård Vegar Solhjell, Director General, Norad
10.15 CET: International Cooperation: Strengthening Economic Institutions for Sustainable Development.
Keynote speech by Ms. Antoinette Sayeh, Deputy Managing Director, IMF
10.30 CET: Building Forward Greener and Better: after the COVID-19 pandemic and towards 2030. Keynote speech by Mr. Pavan Sukhdev, President, WWF International
10.45 CET: A world without hunger: from conflict to cooperation by 2030. Keynote speech by Mr. David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme
11.00 CET: 15 MIN. BREAK
11.15 CET: Collective Action in the Age of Coronavirus. Keynote speech by Minister of International Development, Mr. Dag-Inge Ulstein
11.25 CET: COVID-19: A defining moment for global solidarity. Keynote speech by Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General, WHO
11.35 CET: Panel 1 - Vaccine nationalism and global distribution
- Dr. Lia Tadesse, H.E. Minister of Health, Ethiopia
- Dag-Inge Ulstein, Minister of International Development
- Dr Richard Hatchett, Director of CEPI
- Dr Ole Fritjof Norheim, Professor, University of Bergen
- Moderator: Amanda Glassman, Executive Vice President, Center for Global Development
12.10 CET: Panel 2 - What is the impact of COVID-19 on other essential services and the utilization of these?
- Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, Board Chair, The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health
- Joy Phumaphi, Executive Secretary, African Leaders Malaria Alliance
- Leslie London, Professor of Public Health at the University of Cape Town
- Dr Ole Fritjof Norheim, Professor, University of Bergen
- Moderator: Amanda Glassman, Executive Vice President, Center for Global Development
Agenda 27 January
The following speeches will be presented in English on Wednesday 27. January:
10.20 CET: During the session on Climate and ‘Green reconstruction and Norwegian development assistance’:
Can humanity thrive in the Doughnut? by Kate Raworth, Senior Research Associate, Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute
11.40 CET: During the session on Economy and ‘Growth and jobs within planetary boundaries’: The Post-Covid Landscape. Keynote speech by Ms. Carmen Reinhart, Vice President and World Bank Group Chief Economist, The World Bank
Please join us digitally for the annual Norad Conference. We can promise unique, up-to-date knowledge in the field, as well as good discussions and debate.