When global crises in several areas and civil society mobilization for a just transition are multiplying, sustainability of development trajectories and the need for greater consistency of SDGs have risen to the forefront of many debates. Anchored in a context where economic issues often take precedence over longer-term environmental problems, these debates have contributed to bring the notion of strong sustainability - AFD's 15th International Research Conference flagship topic - back to the spotlight.
The conference’s multidisciplinary program is designed around three principles of strong sustainability: non-substitutability between capitals, multidimensionality, and the social construct.
The event comprises two academic days and one open discussion day: 7 plenary sessions and 13 parallel sessions will combine theoretical insights, testimonies, and recommendations for the public and private sectors to address better political, environmental, economic, and social challenges in the field of development.
This year, the event will be held in a hybrid format, with the possibility of attending the conference either in the AFD Nelson Mandela Auditorium at the Mistral (December 7th and 8th) and the Espace du Centenaire (December 9th) or from the dedicated digital platform. It will be composed of two academic days - fed by a call for papers - and an open discussion day.
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A strong sustainability approach to development trajectories
The conference program is structured around the three guiding principles of strong sustainability proposed by AFD to guide development trajectories’ construction. The first principle recognizes the non-substitutability between different types of capital (economic, social, and natural). Due to the irreversible nature of the "critical" components of natural capital, the latter is considered as non-interchangeable and unique in the way it contributes to the well-being and the possibility of life on Earth. In this frame, economic and social spheres - themselves interdependent via the knowledge or institutions - can no longer exist separately from the environment. Strong sustainability approach considers the need to respect social floors, recognizes planetary resources finiteness of the constraints that these limits pose to economic growth. Its approach is holistic and based on scientific analyses from several disciplines (principle 2). As a result of multi-scale deliberations, once the stakeholders involved have prioritized the scientific findings, a social construct describing a desirable sustainable state reconciling economic, social and environmental objectives can emerge (principle 3). Based on these principles, the conference is organized as follows.
4 plenary sessions and 13 parallel sessions will punctuate the academic days. During the first session, economists and climatologists will be questioned on the interplay between their disciplines, the notion of climate tipping points, and planetary limits, which provides a means of monitoring the environmental state of the Earth, through nine interconnected thresholds, six of which have already been exceeded.
After revisiting the concept of sustainability through integrated biophysical approaches, a Senegalese philosopher, a German sociologist, and a Nepalese ethnographer will seek to question, from an ontological, biophysical and socio-economic perspective, the posture of "development within limits" and the notion of post-development.
In the following plenary session, economists from South Africa, philosophers, and engineers will propose re-reading sustainability trajectories through structural changes. Then, a final panel of experts will discuss the social dimensions of ecological transitions and the notion of a social construct built around a “good state” reconciling environmental, social, and economic knowledge.
During the parallel sessions, researchers will present 39 academic papers. Each document will contain recommendations for action on various themes such as energy transition, climate damage, biodiversity constraints, transition risks, governance, and ecological planning.
This day will combine academic insights, interventions by policymakers, and testimonies from civil society around methodological issues of trajectories construction, public policy dialogue, but also financial instruments to carry strong sustainability trajectories.
Thus, this multidisciplinary conference objective is twofold: developing concrete recommendations for the public and private sectors, but also generating knowledge related to strong sustainability.
