 Okay, hello everyone. So my name is Patrick Paul Walsh and So I have a little job here of just a few things to say The first thing is obviously a huge welcome to everyone from the hosts, which is the Sustainable Development Solutions Network and also the Global Association of MDP or Master of Development Practice programs. So everybody's very welcome today and yesterday was a I think a very successful day in faculty house and again a lot of Appreciation to the scientific committee who organized all the papers, but most importantly Congratulations to all the presenters. There was high energy and it's great to see the MDP students and master students from across the network in General and staff presenting such excellent work And we will have best paper awards announced at the end of today at 5 p.m So if you think you're going to win a best paper remember to stay till the end of the conference So I want to do a few housekeeping things first The first thing I want to do is this is a free conference for for most of the students, etc And I just want to thank the sponsors. So in particular Artur Granda Padula, 3M, EDF, the Columbia World Leaders Forum, the Kappos-Kinsey Development Lecture Series, which is European Commission and UNDP, Unilever and Gitti Group So we are very appreciative of the the funding and sponsorship of this Conference. The next thing I want to say is that we're a very proud member at this ISCD joined up with the Global Citizen and Climate Week Events and we are very very proud to be part of that at this year And What I want just for the only way to ask questions to people on the stage is to actually go on to Twitter So if you go on to hashtag ICSD 2019 hashtag ISD 2019 you can actually ask questions and the moderators will be monitoring that and they will be picking up questions From from the Twitter from the hashtag feed. So if you have questions, it's very very important to use the hashtag ICSD 2019 and this segment of the conference is will also have the Kappos-Kinsey Lectures So you might want to use hashtag CapTalks that's going to be quite important as well because then people from the European Commission and UMDP can follow the conversation as well So lunch today will be on your own But you can ask at the desk or go to the website to get great ideas where to go and there's lots of free stuff Seemly at the back that you're that you're free to take So I just want to say something a little bit motivational and then introduce The somebody from the European Commission So one thing we can be very proud of SDSN is a man called David Smith Professor David Smith He was one of the scientists the one of the expert scientists the 12 scientists who wrote the Global Sustainable Development Report Which has been highlighted in the in the General Assembly this week, okay? So for the first time the HLPF Which is normally under the Office of the Economic and Social Council is actually at the General Assembly because we want it To actually have all the work done on the STG is presented to the leaders and one thing that's center stage over there over the two days is that the suggestions in the framework Offered by the Sustainable Development Report is very much dictating the dialogues and the work program and the motivation Over the two days of the STG summit and we can be very proud of David Smith as one of the architects of that And he will be on stage later on when John Waits chairs a science policy interface session There's two points that come from this when we were listening to the young activists and a couple of points came out One is that we have to move away from this sort of Negative story of tipping points where we know the science where if we don't get something done We're going to have irreversible consequences where will not be a safe operating space for humanity, right? And we've got to change the messaging to tipping points which are created by What we call the science policy What are the tipping points where we have the science and the actual transformations we need in society environment in the economy So that we can reverse this and this is should be the focus The focus has to be reaching those tipping points through our transform changes and the general secretary and Jeffrey Sacks And everybody has to find these key transforms to changes which we will talk about during the conference But I think it's going to be so important that we do that The second point that the students are making is they're on the scientist side and in a sense they're representing us and In every disaster movie, you know the scientists aren't listened to but eventually the sciences have to get into the situation room And in a sense, this is going to be very the work of STSN through its centers It's thematics through all its members is very much about that It's very much getting to the legislator and getting this job done Okay, there's only one warning sign though Which I want to give you is that when we all use this term the moon shot This has been used now in in European policy for the next round of Horizons euro funding. It's we have missions to achieve these transformations in core areas, right? but one of the scientists on the moon shot was a woman called Hamilton and Her job was software and she was given the task of doing the backup saw landing gear backup software On the shuttle before it landed that the problem with that job was that normally backup computers are two football pitches But she had to do on board our in-flight science She had to do new science, right? And when we get into the situation room when we start to do our work to get this job done Working with policy and working with young people in particular all the MDP students were young professions capable of doing this We have to be capable of being doing in-flight science and to be that adaptable and that good, right? And it's going to be we are going to be called on very very soon And this is what this conference and this is what all this network is about, okay? Now So I want to introduce you to Henirette Geerger So as a European, this is a very European session for the first session, which is great Henry Regretta is the director of people and peace in DJ Defco What's great about her role is that she is the advocate or she has responsibility in the European Commission for all the people and peace SDGs that's her job, right? And it's very important and Europe will take a lot of leadership in this She's great background. She's worked throughout the Europe the UN system boat in the secretaries in UNICEF She's worked in all the elements of the European like European Council the European Commission And one of the things that's of interest all the students here particularly outside of Europe She runs the Erasmus Mundus program and I've had some fabulous students coming to UCD doing their masters and PhD Who've come to do their masters of funded outside of Europe from Africa from Asia from Latin America coming to Europe To do their studies funded to the Erasmus Mundus and she is responsible for that Which is going to nearly triplets budget in the in the coming years So without further ado have a great conference and I'm going to introduce you to Henrietta Gerger We'll be give her a round of applause Good morning ladies and gentlemen It is a great pleasure for me to be here today at Columbia University and On behalf of the European Commission I would like to thank all those who were involved in the preparations of this event in particular the United Nations Development Program and Columbia University for hosting today's Kapuczynski development lecture It is my great privilege to welcome for this lecture two prominent SDG advocates today Her Majesty the Queen of the Belgians as well as Mr. Edward endopu Let me spend just a few words to tell you what these lectures are all about Since 2009 the European Commission has been associated With UNDP and some of the most prestigious Universities around the world to finance and promote a series of lectures that touch upon the many facets of international cooperation and development and so far more than 130,000 people have followed them The development lectures honor the name and legacy of the talented Polish journalist and writer Richard Kapuczynski He's often quoted as saying that a journey after all neither begins in the instant we set out Nor ends when we have reached our doorstep once again It starts much earlier and it is really never over Because the film of memory continues running on inside of us Long after we have come to a physical standstill This is very much like the journey of the sustainable development goals our Collective efforts to attain the 17 goals by 2030 The message of the SDG summit this week is clear We have to considerably accelerate to meet our targets the newly elected president of the European Commission Ursula van der Leyen just declared the EU's firm intention to be a frontrunner for the SDG implementation both at home and abroad Now allow me to give you a brief insight in how the European Union and its member states are responding to the 2030 agenda through our international cooperation Two years ago the EU adopted a new European consensus on development setting out a shared apprehensive policy framework for the EU institutions and its member states Gearing our development cooperation in support of the sustainable development goals and just a few months ago We published our first joint synthesis report outlining how we are delivering on this vision Transforming lives and communities on issues such as gender youth and very importantly climate We are also putting the SDGs at the heart of our most recent flagships in its initiatives such as our Africa Europe Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs The European external investment plan and the EU UN spotlight initiative Our external investment plan is helping leveraging private investment through blending of grants with loans and guarantees and we set ourselves a target of 44 billion euros of new investments by 2020 in Africa and the European neighborhood and We have proposed to go up to 500 billion euros across the developing world between 2021 and 2027 The spotlight initiative is investing 500 million euros to eradicate violence against women and girls around the globe partnering with the UN SDG 5 Gender equality has become a top Priority for the EU as it is a key enabler for the attainment of all other SDGs You may know that the EU and its member states with close to 60 percent of ODA is the biggest global provider of official development assistance in the world and While ODA remains a key tool to fight global poverty It is abundantly clear that this is entirely insufficient to meet the tremendous and growing needs This is why we increasingly work with a mix of aid private investment and domestic resource mobilization and We are partnering with all other development stakeholders in implementing the SDG agenda By working hand-in-hand with our partners within a strong multilateral system, this is