Mary Robinson delivered a major speech on international development, social justice and climate change at Queen’s University Belfast.
On 30 September, Mary Robinson delivered a major speech on international development, social justice and climate change at Queen’s University Belfast. She was speaking at the Irish African Partnership for Research Capacity Building workshop which was hosted by the University.
The three-day conference brought together over 100 senior academics and researchers from the island of Ireland, South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda to discuss how universities in Ireland and Africa can work together to tackle poverty in Africa through projects in health, education, gender, environment and ICT.
In her address, Mary Robinson called for political leaders around the world, and women leaders in particular, to insist that climate and development challenges are addressed in tandem. She said: “This means, for example, integrating national Millennium Development Goals and Poverty Reduction Strategies with the national-level climate change adaptation plans of action being put in place in countries around the globe – a process that happens all too infrequently today.”
Other speakers at the event included Tom Arnold, Chief Executive of Concern Worldwide, who spoke on hunger and food security; Myles Wickstead, the former head of Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa; Dick Spring, the former Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs; Professor Brian O’Connell, Vice Chancellor of the University of the Western Cape in South Africa; and Professor Yunus Mgaya, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
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