Global South Nexus (GSN) 3^rd International Conference is planned to be held in Odisha (India), during 23-25 January 2024. The theme of GSN 3 is “Creating Responsible Professionals for Advancing SDGs: Inputs from Global North and South”. This theme is a logical continuation of GSN 2 which focussed on “Localising SDGs for Built Environment and Communities: A North South Exchange”. The Conference is being hosted by Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha and co-hosted by Curtin University, Perth, Australia.

Localising and advancing SDGs have become buzz words in the realm of moving towards the 2030 targets. The complexity of challenges in achieving the targets is already being debated all over the globe. One of the challenges is to identify the right kind of professionals to anchor and direct the implementation of SDGs.  The success of achieving SDGs, therefore, strongly depends on the right and responsible professionals and their preparedness in taking the goals forward effectively. The conference aims to redefine the roles of universities, professional institutes, and government agencies in creating responsible professionals for sustainable development.

The objectives of the conference are as follows:

• Providing a platform for dialogue and collaboration on sustainable development (best practices, research findings, and innovative ideas) amongst Professional Institutes, Universities and Governments in the Global North and South
• Understanding and developing the role of Professional Institutes and Universities in raising technical and cultural awareness in promoting sustainability
• Redefining Professional Institutes’ and Universities’ role as members of the civil society concerned with protecting /promoting the community interest and SDGs
• Detailing the modalities for collaboration among accreditation institutions, Universities, Professional institutes and society at large to promote sustainability.

The overarching goal of the conference is to revisit accreditation institutions in understanding their role in promoting SDGs in Higher Educational Institutions.

The conference seeks contributions in the form of abstracts/papers, but not limited to the following topics:

• Integrating Sustainability into Education
• Green Technologies and Innovations
• Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability 
• Sustainable Urban Planning and Community Development
• Financial Inclusion and Economic Empowerment
• Social Inclusion and Governance – participation, empowerment, gender, financial inclusion rights etc.
• Cultural rights
• Collaboration among various stakeholders in promoting SDGs
• Sustainable waste management, circular business, and supply chain
• Net zero emissions and decarbonsing the built environment

UNCTAD Circular Economy Side Event:

The UNCTAD Circular Economy Side Event at the GSN 2024 will focus on seeking innovative solutions for material circularity in a global south context, including materials that can substitute plastics and services that reduce plastic usage in the economy. As part of the FCDO-UNCTAD Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Pollution (SMEP) Programme, the Side Event will raise discussions on plastic substitutes, resource efficiency, and circular economy practices across various manufacturing industries in the African, South Asian, and Indo-Pacific regions based on empirical learnings from SMEP Programme activities.

The conference will be held in hybrid mode for three days.

• January 23rd (Presentation Day 1)
• January 24^th (Presentation Day 2)
• Juanary 25^th (Study tour of places in and around Bhubaneswar to see the SMART city initiatives and other activities aligned with the SDGs)

About GSN

The United Nations has set up a global agenda – to guide the world toward sustainable development – with a focus on reducing poverty and inequality and promoting inclusion. This has come in the shape of policy directions like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and UN-Habitat’s New Urban Agenda. These global agendas serve to influence the direction for much of future research, especially in the disciplines/areas of urban planning, architecture, construction management, urban governance, environmental management and community resilience. However, there is an ongoing debate among both academics and practitioners on translating global agendas into local contexts. There is also an increasing realisation of the need to promote an exchange of knowledge and sharing of best practices and experiences between Global North and Global South. Focusing on vital development scenarios that characterise the Global South, the Global South Nexus (GNS) was founded in April 2021 within the School of Design and the Built Environment (DBE). GSN aims to promote a series of advanced and alternative theses around the production and management of a sustainable built environment in the Global South. The Global South Nexus encourages global north-south research within Curtin and beyond, supported by an international advisory board. We promote debates on various approaches to – and theoretical positions on – north-south dichotomy. The nexus will generate north-south reality-based interdisciplinary knowledge to promote SDGs globally. We search for theories relevant to Global South ground realities that can inform practices to promote global sustainable development while shaping the built environment through effective planning, management and governance. The platform will search for solutions that enable good governance through effective policy and regulations, set appropriate codes and design criteria, and, most importantly, encourage emancipated voices and debates among global stakeholders of development across the Global North and South.

For more information on GSN, please visit: https://www.gsnconference.com/about