ONLINE: Towards Inclusive Sustainable Development and Global Health: The Contributions of Human Rights, Gender Analysis and Indigenous Knowledge

press release: The Global Health Tuesday seminar series hosts researchers and practitioners from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and across the world. The speakers showcase the complexity of global health challenges and the many kinds of expertise needed to address them. By sharing their experiences with the campus and Madison communities, these guests provide insights into global health, encourage conversation, and help connect colleagues locally and globally.

On June 29, GHI Associate Director Lori DiPrete Brown, MSPH, MTS, moderates a panel that will explore a new model for sustainable development that integrates human rights, gender equity and Indigenous and local knowledge. DiPrete Brown is joined by Sumudu Atapattu, director of Research Centers and senior lecturer at UW Law School; Claudia I. Calderón, faculty associate in the UW-Madison Department of Horticulture, and Marie-Josée Houenou, founder, WESISAH, 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow and city advisor for Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) in C40 Cities. Panelists will present results from their 2020 study published in the journal Sustainability that proposes a three-dimensional model for sustainable development integrating human rights, gender equity and Indigenous and local knowledge.

The work stems from a 2019 International Gender and Climate Change Workshop at UW-Madison that brought together participants from across disciplines and around the world to look at sustainable development. “In a world where our environment is the floor or foundation of a sustainable future, we have posited that human rights, gender equity and Indigenous and local knowledge are three essential, complementary and congruent dimensions of analysis,” they concluded. Human rights includes tools for redress, and legal and policy strategies for implementation. Human rights, gender sensitive approaches and Indigenous knowledges build on each other “to aid local communities, regions, nations and the world to achieve a most just and enduring quality of life, while sustaining the earth for future generations.”

The panelists have worked locally and globally:

• Sumudu Atapattu, LLM, Ph.D., teaches in the area of International Environmental Law and Climate Change and Human Rights. Her books include: “Human Rights Approaches to Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities,” “International Environmental Law and the Global South” (co-editor) and “Emerging Principles of International Environmental Law.” She is affiliated with UW-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, the Center for South Asia, and the 4W Initiative and was a visiting professor at Doshisha University Law School, Japan, in summer 2014 and Giessen University, Germany in summer 2016. She is also the Executive Director of the Human Rights Program at UW-Madison. She also worked with the Law & Society Trust in Sri Lanka, with the Center for International Sustainable Development Law and edited “Sri Lanka: State of Human Rights 2002.”
• Claudia I. Calderón, Ph.D., focuses her research on the intersection of agroecology, sustainability, climatic resilience and food security. She works using participatory approaches that empower women in rural areas of Central America. She also supports inclusive-agriculture growth that is respectful with the environment, where food production and exchange occur for reasons beyond capital accumulation.
• Marie-Josée Paula Houenou holds master’s degrees in International Environmental Law, Business Law and Business Administration and specializes in international environmental law. She works with cities, governments and civil society to implement climate change strategies in Côte d’Ivoire. She also founded WESISAH, a foundation to inspire, support and showcase green sustainable initiatives and coordinated the 2019 Local Conference of Youths on Climate Change. She has worked on sustainable development with the World Resources Institute, UNESCO, the Francophone Institute for Sustainable Development and the Ivorian Ministry of Environment with a project supported by the European Union.
• Lori DiPrete Brown, who is also director of the 4W (Women & Well-being in Wisconsin & the World) Initiative, focuses her scholarship on global health, especially the health and well-being of women and children in vulnerable situations. She teaches in the Department of Civil Society and Community Studies in the School of Human Ecology. She is lead author and editor of the textbook “Foundations for Global Health Practice” and has worked internationally to develop quality improvement strategies for health and development programs.