 OK, everyone, welcome to the next session. So this is going to be a conversation between S to G advocates. And Professor Jeffrey Sachs will be here in a few moments. He was just caught in New York traffic, but he will be here in a few moments. So I'm just going to temporarily fill in, just temporarily. But today, this is what we call the Kasperskinski lecture. And it's actually a big honor to do this lecture. So thank you. And it's actually been webcast throughout the European Commission and the UNDP. So we can welcome them as well as our own audience here. And Kasperskinski was obviously this great Polish writer who documented issues in Africa for all of us. So it's a very nice lecture series to be about. Thank you. So I just want to introduce you to Edward Endupu. And he's basically an award-winning activist, humanitarian, and public intellectual. And he's one of the UN Sustainable Developers advocates. So I think what's interesting, particularly for young people, I always think he's a young person himself. But just to tell his story about the role to activism and the role that you have at the moment. So just to hear that story, I think would be interesting. And we are going to try and have an interactive dialogue. So please put your questions on the hashtag ICSD219. And I think you do want to hear from them and to answer their questions as well. Wonderful. So first of all, let me just say how tremendously delighted I am to be with all of you here today. I'm extraordinarily honored. And particularly to be here in my capacity as one of the UN Secretary General's advocates for the Sustainable Development Goals. Perhaps I'll start by making a bit of an admission. My activism, like so many people around the world, has been informed by my own lived experience. I was diagnosed at the age of two with a severe degenerative condition called spinal muscular atrophy. This is a motor neuron disease that affects the voluntary muscles and it results in progressive weakness. And so very early on, I realized that I needed to become my own advocate. I needed to teach the world how to treat me as a person with a physical disability. And I realized that by advocating for myself, I became deeply aware of the structural and social barriers that people with disabilities face all over the world. And so when I fought for my own access into mainstream education, I realized that I had an opportunity to amplify the voices of other disabled people, particularly disabled young people. And little did I know that many years later, I'd end up becoming the first African with a degenerative disability to graduate from the University of Oxford. Hi, Jeff, how are you? Hi, Paul. Hi, everybody. We're having a conversation. Yes. So nice to have you here. Yeah, thank you. Professor Jeffers-Axe is joining us, so a big welcome as well. Thank you. And I tell you, I'm going to leave you to... No, no, don't worry, you wanted to stay. Oh, come on. I tell you, I'll watch the trigger. It's nice to see you, Paul. Don't leave. Yeah, OK. Yeah, so my activism was informed by my own lived experience. And I think that is the magic of activism and advocacy, that it is about human stories, real people, with real aspirations, real fears, real anxieties. And it's about, you know, flipping. I'm always curious about the Mazzo hierarchy of needs and how we say that people first deserve adequate housing and infrastructure and then they need safety. But I truly believe that we need to really spend more time inversing that and focusing on self-actualization because in the most neglected and vulnerable parts of the world, poor people and marginalized people are also artists and philosophers and thinkers and dreamers. They're full human beings. And in so many ways, I think the public policy needs to recognize that. We need to underscore the humanity and the value of people. And so that's what I do in my own advocacy is recognizing that people with disabilities. You know, I'm a 20-something. I'm a millennial. And you know, I want young disabled people to feel like young disabled people, to be able to do all the things that our non-disabled counterparts do. And so I think that's part and parcel of the work. It's really about affirming the humanity. You know, we often rattle off all of these statistics. I come from a region in the world where approximately 90% of children with disabilities have never seen the inside of a classroom. You know, about 32 million children with disabilities have no access to education whatsoever. And these are horrifying statistics. But I think what's more horrifying is the way that we've sort of normalized that. We've sort of made it seem as though, oh, OK. Well, you know, they're kids and they're disabled and they're poor, but we don't recognize that that is potential that the world has been deprived of. And so in my work, it really is about underscoring those human stories. I may have come late, but did you tell your own personal story a little bit the early years because I'm very curious. It's not easy your early years, not only your diagnosis early on, but with your mom. How did you escape the fate of so many people that would have been in your position that would have been basically without hope? Sure. So my mom's in the audience, actually. And I'm quite delighted that she's. Yeah. See? We saw this year from your mom. Right, right. And I'm sure she, I mean, there is a memoir or two or three that's within my mom. And I'm sure she'll tell that story one day. But I often share a very poignant moment that occurred in my own life. And it must have occurred when I was about five or six years old. I remember, and I've shared the story many times. And then my mom knows this. But I remember sitting on the linoleum floor of our home in Vintook, Namibia. And it was this late afternoon. And I would wait for my mom to get back from her hard days of work and then I'd wait for her at home. And I remember sitting in front of the television screen, but it was completely switched off. And I was just staring at this blank TV screen. And my mom walked in and she sort of asked me, oh, well, what's wrong? Why are you looking at the TV screen that's blank? And I sort of paused for a moment. And again, my mom asked the question, what's up? What's wrong? And I looked at her. And at the time, so we're two brothers. I have a younger brother. And at the time, he was in kindergarten. And I looked at my mom and I said, I want to go to school. I want to be like my younger brother. And that became, without me realizing it at the time, a seed was planted in terms of my own yearning for an education. But I think beyond that, it was a yearning for more, right? And my six-year-old brain didn't have the language to articulate it at the time. But I think what it was yearning for, again, coming back to what I said earlier, was a deep sense of self-actualization, a deep sense of knowing that I could be worthy, that I could live a dignified life, despite having a severe disability. And the nature of my disability is such that the older I get, the weaker I become. And I just was not having any of it. I was like, I am going to grow up. And I am going to become everything that my imagination desires. And I think that became a catalyst. And I realized that there's something there. Yeah. Wind Hook was able to help you, because that's also unusual. No, Jeff, they were not. Not sorry to be so naive. But what happened then? What's the story? Well, no, it's a good question, because so at the time, like so many African cities and cities all over the world, the mainstream education schools were completely unprepared and were running scared. You know that there were moments when my mom was looking everywhere asking people, do you know of schools that could accommodate my boy who wants to go to school? And there were so many no's. There were so many rejections. And eventually, there was one school that sort of took a risk. They were like, we have no idea how this is going to work. But we're prepared to walk this journey with you. We're going to try and make it work. And I think that that is. Was that a public school? It was a public school. It was a very under-resourced school. So all the fancy schools were like, oh, no, this is not going to work. I mean, who's going to take care of him? And eventually, the compromise, the reason why they accepted me into this particular school, was that my mom said, well, I will find a caregiver to accompany him to school. The caregiver will sit in the class. And if he needs to use the bathroom or something like that, we'll make it work. This time as well, they said that I should be sequestered into a special section of the class. But something really funny happened. On the first day, I was super excited. And all the kids were being shown how to write our names. And I did something that the other kids couldn't do. I was actually able to write my name. And the teacher looked at me and she said, you don't belong in this section of the class. You should be with all the other kids. Yeah, and that was the beginning of, yeah. Amazing. And then did you continue through public school the whole way? I did throughout. So I mean, there was no looking back. At that point, I continued on the path in mainstream school. And eventually, the family, we moved back to South Africa. That's where my mom is from. So here we are, post-apartheid South Africa. I'm continuing on this trajectory. And I eventually ended up doing really well in school. No kidding. I excelled and I got a scholarship to the African Leadership Academy and then got another scholarship to go to Canada, graduated with high distinction, and then ended up going to Oxford a few years later. So here's where you were, Carl, by the way. So OK, I have to say something here. So this feels so surreal being on the stage because exactly 10 years ago, I applied to Columbia. I applied to Columbia. I've never been on the admissions committee. And I was on the waiting list. I didn't get in. But it's all good. I'm here now. So during that same time, I obviously applied to other institutions as well. And I think, again, the biggest challenge was around accommodating my degenerative disability. So I need assistance with pretty much everything. Feeding. You name it. I mean, yeah, everything. And again, it became a challenge. Many institutions of higher learning were kind of scared. They were like, can we do this? And I was like, of course you can. So Carlton University in Canada, they had this very interesting model where students would play the role of they would essentially be caregivers. And it's this 24-hour service, seven days a week. And they'd work in shifts. And they would actually provide the care. And it's integrated into the entire university. So that was very innovative. And I thought, well, that's the place I want to be. And it was a life-changing moment. Because during those years, I think I really began to shift my own worldview in relation to myself and how I saw myself. I think it was the first time in my life that I was truly independent those years. And it was transformative in everything. Did you come across Carlton had a big Millennium Development Goal program, student program? Did you come across that? I did. I did. And at the time, I think that's what really ignited my activism and my advocacy. I began really caring about the world in a very deep way. You know Brian Turner, by the way, do you know the name? Of, yeah. But no, we've never met. So it was a. Carlton had done a wonderful thing. A student there had started a campaign, actually, that students would contribute a certain amount each semester to the Millennium Development Goals. A wonderful young man started that. And I went to Carlton a couple of times to speak to the students. And I was amazed at the ethos of the campus. And I think you're explaining that also. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And I think it's a sense of interdependence, the recognition that we all need one another in the world. And I realize that the world sort of speaks about independence as though there are no structural conditions that make independence possible. So everything is designed to accommodate non-disabled people, right? But you sort of tell yourselves that you're independent without recognizing the structural conditions that make independence possible. And I realize that actually that's a bit of a misnomer, that we need to create conditions that support independent life, that support autonomy and human agency and human dignity. And that ethos, I think, really helped me think that through. Eddie and I are lucky to be part. You may have explained it, part of the advocates for the Sustainable Development Goals. So this is a great thing. So let me get your advice. What should we be doing on the issues of inclusion for disability? Systematically, how should we be reorganizing? Sure. That's a great question. And I must say, I'm tremendously delighted to be serving with you in this capacity. And we're delighted to. I mean, the whole group is thrilled that you're part of this and your leadership is part of it. Thank you. So I think what needs to happen in the context of inclusion is so several years ago, I found myself being incredibly frustrated by the entire conversation around inclusion and access and disability. And for the longest time, I didn't know where my rage was coming from. And I was really enraged. And then I realized I was enraged because I felt that we were talking about access to the built environment and we end the conversation there. I didn't feel as though I had adequate access to joy and belonging and intimacy. And I figured that there was something a bit off about the way we're speaking about disability. It's as though if you're able to get on a bus and public transit or if you're able to get into the building, hooray, we've accomplished inclusion for people with disabilities. And I found myself being incredibly annoyed. And then I realized, oh, what's happening is that people with disabilities around the world are operating at negative 10. But zero is the aspiration for what is possible for our humanity. And I was frustrated because I want to move beyond zero. I want to move beyond compliance. I want to move beyond the ramp. And I realized that public policymakers tend to set the bar very low, particularly when we speak about the global south. Which is terrible that we never quite reached the bar also. You might as well set the bar higher so that you're reaching more. And I think that's precisely the tragedy of where we are. It's that you're absolutely right, Jeff, is that we're not even getting to zero. But we're speaking about human beings. And human beings are not going to be satisfied with just zero. Because they see other human beings living beyond zero. And so they're like, well, wait a minute. Our humanity is the same. And we say that we all embody inalienable rights. Then surely we should all be aspiring for more than negative 10. And so this concept of moving beyond zero, I think crystallized for me that when we speak about inclusion and representation, that we need those that are the furthest behind the line to come to the front. But not just come to the front so that we all feel good about ourselves, but to come to the front because we recognize leadership within them. We recognize humanity. We recognize value. And so for me, I want to see a world where people with disabilities are able to achieve extraordinary things. I want them to be able to not just get education, but to have access to employment and decent work. And so the SDGs, for me, offer us an opportunity to look at people in a very holistic way, in a very comprehensive way, not in a very basic kind of sense of international development, but we recognize that there is possibility for the world to converge to higher standards of living, but also to converge to a sense of human agency and self-actualization. What do we do next? What do you do next? Hi, yeah, yeah. How do we help? So yesterday, we kick-started the general debate at the UN General Assembly. And I found myself, it was a little bizarre, wasn't it? Well, oh yeah, that was very interesting. If you start with Bolsonaro and Trump, you're in for a surreal morning. And that's exactly how we started. So it was really quite a picture of the world. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's exactly what I said. That was surreal, but I think what was also surreal for me was looking around the hall and seeing all of these leaders. It was the most powerful room in the world that day, right? And I looked around and I was the only person in a wheelchair in the entire hall. And I was a little emotional and I kind of held back tears because I was like, there are 1.3 billion people with disabilities, approximately 15% or so of the global population. At least 15% of this room should have. I also recognize that some disabilities are invisible, but still there was a profound lack of representation, meaningful representation. And so to your point, to answer your question in terms of what we need to do next, I think we need to support leaders from neglected, vulnerable, and marginalized disciplines of society to be able to have meaningful participation and to seat at the table where the future of humanity is being decided, right? And if we are serious about leaving nobody behind and we want to give credence to this notion of leaving nobody behind, then it becomes a moral imperative as well as well as a political imperative. But it becomes a more, it's an ethical, the ethical thing to do is to really open the doors so that people who are underrepresented are able to have a seat at the table, right? Last year, by the way, I don't know if you know President Moreno of Ecuador. He is in a wheelchair. He was shot and partially paralyzed many years ago. And he went up to the podium at the General Assembly. He was very beautiful. You weren't there last year. I wasn't, no. He started out. He's very funny also, by the way. He's got a great sense of humor. He's hilarious. But he started out in a very moving way, saying that you're in a wheelchair. You may feel sorry for me. Don't. My life is very good. And it's very different if I were standing. I would be looking down on you, but I'm sitting and I'm looking face to face with you. And that's much better for me and much better for you. And it was a very moving, beautiful, beautiful remark. And I think the greatest president this country ever had, by far, was in a wheelchair, Franklin Roosevelt. One of the most gifted statesmen leaders in modern history who invented the UN, among other things. And your point is very well illustrated by that precisely. So I think, but how do we ensure that it's not just two or three people in history that are able to access that building? I mean, we now speak about universal design. And we can modify buildings in such a way that we're able to really accord access. I was kind of sitting on the side. There was sort of a space because the seats aren't. They're all sort of collapsible and all these barriers around them. And because of that, I didn't have access to the translation. So it's not that it's the very practical thing. You didn't miss that much, by the way. So I was told, somebody said to me, yes, it's like, actually, I don't think it would make a difference. You were saying, is that really what they're saying? I read the transcript after. OK, I think maybe I was fine. But I guess the point that I'm trying to make is that I think that we are at this incredible moment in history where we're able to leverage the wonders of science and technology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution to be able to, in a very meaningful way, bring about inclusion in the way that we design our buildings and the way that we configure spaces that radically transform them to bring about equity and equality. And so that's what I hope to do with the platform that I have now. We'll give it all the help possible. And I was reminded something very interesting, but I think it's replicated everywhere in the world. Two of our colleagues here, Karen and Erwin Redlener. I don't know if you know them, but they're both wonderful leaders of public health at Columbia University. They did a survey of kids coming into New York City public schools for disability, but just basic eyesight correction, for example, hearing, and so on. And kids are not even screened at all for things that could completely improve their lives, improve their, I mean, make it possible for them to study, and so on. So they've instituted a screening program, but it's not even scaled up yet in this city. So I think also thinking about those kinds of mechanisms, survey data, ways to make sure that kids are seen properly to be helped and so on is something we could take up. There's a question from the audience. I think it's a very good one. So they're saying, it's Ava, can anything be done by ordinary people, or is it only the responsibility of government for people with disabilities? So you could say this about the SDGs as well. What do you think? What can they do, rather than waiting for somebody else to do? Well, I think we're already doing, you know, people, we're working on the SDGs every day without even realizing it. Our deep concern about the climate crisis and how visceral and emotional and scary that feels for our own lives. We take action by integrating our full selves into the discourse and into the conversation. It does not exist outside of us. We are living in this moment that requires of us to reach for the SDGs in a very meaningful way. And I think maybe the disconnect or the disjuncture is in public policy makers speaking about these issues as though they exist as this sort of very abstract, nebulous thing that's not in any way connected to our lives. We're in an actual fact. The moment we leave our homes and go out into the world to work or to go to school or to live our lives, we are confronted with injustice every day. We're confronted with the reality of the climate and of all of the big major issues that we are trying to grapple with. We're living them every day. So I think it's about connecting to the issues and asking yourself what kind of world do you want to live in or what kind of world do you want to live for your children? So we need that emotional connection to these issues and to speak out against injustice. I mean, I am incredibly inspired by young people all over the world right now who are just speaking truth to power in the most incredible way. And so I'm not worried. I'm actually like, yeah, it's happening whether you like it or not. We are changing the trajectory of humanity and that's exciting. There's another question, but I'm not sure. This is this idea of how do people in a sense learn this idea of the victim mentality for people? How do we get over this when we're chatting with people with disabilities? That's an interesting question. And I want to be careful how I answer that because I think we often individualize experiences of exclusion without looking at the structural conditions that made victimization happen. And so I think it's both. I think that we need to promote empowerment so that people feel good about themselves. We need examples. It was hard for me because there were very few people I could turn to in my own life. I had no point of reference. I had to become my own point of reference in my own example of possibility. And I realized that my job now is to be a point of reference and to be able to demonstrate to children, particularly children, with disabilities that they can grow up to become the protagonists in the story of their own lives, that they are the ones that they've been waiting for. So I know how important having a point of reference is in role modeling in order to build your self-esteem. But in the absence of that, I think that falling into a kind of victimization mentality is almost inevitable. And I kind of wish that we were a little bit more gentle and a little bit more compassionate with people who are experiencing grave trauma and grave injustice to really empathize with them in a very meaningful way. And in a very genuine way, I just think about how one has to be resourceful when you have no idea where your next meal is coming from and what that does to a person's sense of self and emotional well-being. So yes, I don't see myself as a victim, and I'm compassionate towards people who find themselves victimized by injustice and inequality. Does that make sense? Yes, beautiful. That only makes sense. I want to meet your mom because she's right there in the second hour. She must be pretty amazing. She is. What does your brother do, by the way? My brother. So my brother was recently diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy. So this is as an adult. So he has type 3 SMA, which means he was diagnosed much later, I think now a good four or five years ago. And it's a different experience because this is all I've ever known. I've always lived with SMA. I've always been disabled. And so it's so much a part of who I am and my identity. But I guess for somebody who's lived their lives able-bodied for such a long time, there's a different devastation and a different trauma that kicks in. So my younger brother is incredibly intelligent. He's the smartest person I've ever met. Somehow I'm not shocked that he's intelligent. And so in terms of what he does, I think he's processing. He's coming to terms with his new life and trying to figure out the best way he can how to navigate that. And I feel that I can support him by really showing him what's possible, by showing him. So I'll just mention this because I think it's a really good segue. So I'm currently working on this crazy, ambitious goal. I'm setting the wheels in motion, no pun intended, of becoming the first physically disabled person to travel into space. And the goal, and I want to be careful here because people hear that and they're like, oh my god, that is so cool. You're going to have this great adventure. But space, I want to harness my voyage to deliver a message to the world from space, a live broadcast beamed to the UN and addressing world leaders on the importance of leaving nobody behind, but also as a symbol of possibility. I describe it as my love letter to the enduring power of the human spirit. And so that impossible feat, and in so doing so, I mean, there's another point. It's like, if we can send a person with a disability into space, then we can also fix some things here on Earth and reach the SDG. So this is the goal that I'm working on, and I hope to do that next year. With Branson? We're in conversation. All right, great. Can you smuggle some other SDG advocates on board? Well, I'm looking at you now because I think you can hop me with messaging as well. I'm going to call on you. I'm going to call on you for help. But that sounds like this massive goal. But it has to be massive. It has to be bold and larger than life, because I think what I'm depends that is a really simple message that the human spirit can really achieve extraordinary things. And as an SDG advocate, I think that's what we are assisting the Secretary-General with, as we approach this decade of action and delivery, it seems impossible. And it seems like there's no way we're going to reach all of these things by 2030. But if we can illuminate examples of possibility and create this positive feedback loop where the more extraordinary moments we have results in greater ambition and that results in greater ambition and greater ambition, then it's perfectly doable that by the year 2030, we're able to deliver on the agenda for sustainable development. I have to ask you one more question before we finish. Where did you get that absolutely cool SDG badge? Because yours sparkles. Mine doesn't. Actually, Jeff, I think they have one for you. Do you think so? Could you swing that? I could. I've got you. So this was designed by the Swarovski company. And the crystals are sustainably sourced. And so Nadia Swarovski was at the UN, so she gave a whole bunch of us needs. Whoa, I knew there was a good answer to that. No, no, OK. I'm going to need your poll for that, but I want one of those. Eddie, thank you so much. Your leadership is absolutely inspiring, and it's such a joy to be doing this together with you. Thank you. Thank you so much.