Programme

View the updated full programme and agenda.

Wednesday, 9 May

Opening plenary

8:30-10:30

  • The UN Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR): knowledge for transformations between global challenges and local realities
  • How will Africa meet the SDGs – what are key challenges and opportunities?
  • The SDGs in Africa: important tensions, contradictions and opportunities

 

Refreshment break

10:30-11:00

 

Parallel Session: Digital futures in Africa: science, policy and action

11:00-12:30

  • Harnessing the 4th Industrial revolution to advance the SDGs in Africa (Plenary room)
  • Data governance in SDGs in Africa: Principles and steward-ship (Breakout room D1)
  • Evidence-informed implementation of the SDGs: Challenges and opportunities (Breakout room D2)

 

Lunch, Featuring a panel discussion on SDGs and the private sector

12:30-14:00 (Plenary room)

 

Parallel Session: Seeding sustainability I: pathways for change

14:00-15:30

  • Pathways to sustainable land systems: land as the nexus for optimising co-benefits of SDG interactions (Wood room)
  • A call for ethically grounded transdisciplinary approach for aquatic ecosystem health research and management (Breakout room D1)
  • Transforming African food systems to achieve sustainable food and nutrition security (Breakout room D2)
  • Shaping sustainable urban futures in Africa through a proactive science-practice- policy interface (Plenary room)

 

Refreshment break, Featuring Art in the Seedbeds conference

15:30-16:00

 

Plenary

16:00-17:00

  • Transformations towards a more sustainable future in Africa: Perspectives from UNECA ‘Road map’, from Day 1 to Day 2 of Seedbeds
  • Introducing the SDG labs concept (Lunch venue C1)

 

Panel

17:00-18:00

Global Sustainable Development Report 2019: the role of science in translating global governance into regional policy (Lunch venue C1)

 

Conference dinner; Featuring FameLab National Finals

18:30-21:00 (Plenary room)

Thursday, 10 May

Plenary

8:30-9:30

Recent IPBES Assessments: a report from the front lines

 

Parallel Session: Seeding sustainability II: Pathways for change

9:30-11:00

  • The potential of ecosystem-based adaptation approaches in supporting transformational change (Wood room)
  • Supporting regional ocean planning in the Northern Mozambique Channel (Breakout room D2)
  • Methods-lab on knowledge co-production: learning from African cases (Breakout room D1)
  • Regime shifts: how changes in the structure and function of social-ecological systems could undermine the potential for achieving the SDGs (Plenary room)

 

Refreshment break

11:00-11:30

 

Parallel Session: Power and equity dimensions of the SDGs

11:30-13:00

  • How power relations affect vulnerable groups, understanding critical intersections in cities (Wood room)
  • Innovations in transgressive social learning for social ecological sustainability in times of climate change (TLearning) (Breakout room D1)
  • Poverty discourse, policy, practice, and development in Africa: Traversing critical challenges (Breakout room D2)
  • Things are not as they seem: Exploring tense links between SDGs (Plenary room)

 

Lunch

13:00-14:15

 

Plenary

14:15-15:45

An African perspective on ‘dancing’ with tensions, contradictions and opportunities in the implementation of the SDGs. Part 1 – Exploring and mapping the space (Plenary, Breakout rooms D1 and D2, and Wood room)

 

Refreshment break

15:45-16:15

 

Plenary

16:15-17:30

An African perspective, Part 1 continued.

 

Evening cocktail mixer – Reflections from early career change makers

17:45-19:00

Friday, 11 May

Plenary

8:30-9:00

Introducing the Transformations Forum ‘Road map’, from Day 2 to Day 3

 

Parallel Session: Seeding sustainability III: pathways for change

9:00-10:30

  • Exploring futures methods for creating transformative spaces: visions of a good Anthropocene in southern Africa (Plenary room)
  • Collaborative long-term research at the interface: a catalyst for transformational change towards sustainability in Africa (Breakout room D1)
  • Exploring the potential of renewable energy technologies to avoid conventional (centralized- utility) energy development models in Africa and its implications for the SDGs (Breakout room D2)

 

Refreshment break

10:30-11:00

 

Parallel Session: Joining the dots – connecting and collaborating

11:00-12:30

  • How can research networks of the Future Earth framework effectively contribute to implementation of the SDGs in Africa? (Breakout room D1)
  • SDG Labs: Applying innovative approaches to addressing sustainability challenges (Breakout room D2)
  • Art and imagination in transformational processes (Plenary room)

 

Lunch

12:30-13:45

 

Plenary

13:45-15:30

An African perspective on ‘dancing’ with tensions, contradictions and opportunities in the implementation of the SDGs. Part 2 – From mapping to reflections and action Sense-making: Hearing and responding to tensions, contradictions and opportunities (Plenary, Breakout rooms D1 and D2, and Wood room)

 

Refreshment break

15:30-16:00

 

Plenary

16:00-16:30

An African perspective, Part 2 continued.

 

Closing session: Art and transformations

16:30-17:45 (Plenary room)

 

 

Saturday, 12 May

Global Sustainable Development Report Consultations of Multi-stakeholders in Africa

(by invitation only)