UNDP Regional Director for Europe and the CIS attended the SPIEF-2021
On June 3, 2021 Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, UNDP Regional Director for Europe and the CIS took part in a panel discussion “Quality of life as a key driver of contemporary development” within the framework of St.-Petersburg International Economic Forum.
In her speech she stressed the growing role of Humankind in changing the environment and appealed to revisiting human interactions with the planet. Giving a reference to the experimental Human Development Index adjusted for planetary pressures, which for the first time was introduced in the UNDP’s Human Development Report for 2020, she emphasized that no country has yet managed to combine high human development and low planetary pressure and mentioned the new UNDP offer within the framework of the Report findings consisting of expertise and tools, integrated programmatic and financial support, and tailored national and local policy dialogues.
Mirjana Spoljaric Egger concluded: “Our future is not about choosing between people or trees. It’s about choosing to do things differently. That is the next frontier for human development”.
UNDP regularly participates in the Forum. In 2013, the delegation was led by Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator; in 2016, the UNDP Deputy Regional Director delivered a speech at the session “Improving Results with Clean Technologies”. In 2017, Cihan Sultanoğlu, UNDP Assistant Administrator, took part as a panel member in several sessions. In 2018, Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator, spoke at the opening ceremony and two sessions: “Global food security: who will feed the growing population of the planet?” and “Transformation of the public and private sectors in the new economy.” In 2019 Mirjana Spoljaric Egger made speeches at two sessions: “The Global Climate Challenge: Limiting or Driving Development” and “Cooperation between the private and public sectors to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”.