The Institute for Poverty Alleviation and International Development (IPAID) of Yonsei University and United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) jointly organized an International Conference on the Localization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Co-Construction of the Means of Implementation. Held in Yonsei University Wonju Campus in Korea between 23th and 24th February, the conference gathered more than 60 participants composed of policy-makers, practitioners, academics in the field of localization of the SDGs. 

Co-hosted by the Global Social Economy Forum (GSEF), the Asian Edition of the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy (UNTFSSE) Conference “Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals: What Role for Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) (I) and (II) was held as Special Sessions of the Conference in the afternoon of 24th February. This was the first occasion at global level for papers selected by the UNTFSSE Knowledge Hub’s Call for Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals: What Role for Social and Solidarity Economy to be presented. This panel aimed to discuss the ways in which SSE, broadly conceptualized impacts our ability to implement and localize the crosscutting nature of the SDGs in an Asian context specifically. Yonsei University, the co-host of the Conference generously funded the UNTFSSE special sessions by covering the presenters’ travel costs.

During the two-days conference, academics, policy makers and practitioner shared their experiences in localizing the SDGs: how to overcome challenges, identify opportunities and learn the best-practices from other countries in Asia.

In the Closing Plenary, the hosts, Prof. Moo Kwon Chung from IPAID and Dr. Ilcheong Yi from UNRISD, agreed that this conference showcasing different innovative ideas in localizing the SDGS from different countries was a successful commencement. Echoed by the participants, they would like to maintain and further develop this network and combine synergy towards SDGs. Prof. Marguerite Mendell, one of the keynote speakers in the conference, thought that the meaning of SSD was not clear until this conference in Asia. Learning during the conference, she found out that even stakeholders are using difference vocabulary, they are actually working towards the SDGs. Laurence Kwark, Secretary General of GSEF, was pleased to see that the agencies of the United Nations are engaged to localize the SDGs. She hoped that members of the UN will cooperate together to achieve the goals. She was looking forward to the development of research, cooperation and network of SSE since the latter could serve as an alternative way of sustainable development in the world.


The session descriptions, presentation topics, PowerPoint presentations and backgrounds of the speakers are now available online.


Please find the detailed information of the conference here.

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