Trade, Debt and Finance Knowledge Group
Interactive Workshop on the Rights of Future Trade
The third and final session of our 2016 Knowledge Group on Trade, Debt and Finance Knowledge was on 19th January 2017 at Shearman & Sterling.
The first and second sessions of this Knowledge Group explored the ways to improve access to financial services and integration into the global economy. Our first session offered a critical perspective on the microfinance industry, while the second session looked at cash transfers as a method for poverty reduction.
This third session took the format of an interactive workshop, in which participants were invited to take part in a collective thought-exercise to explore the meaning, utility and intent of trade law in supporting the sustainability of international trade, and long-term equitable access to markets.
We welcomed practitioners in trade law or who have a familiarity with trade law and explored their role, as lawyers, in promoting sustainable practices in global trade.
The workshop was led by Joss Tantram, Partner, Corporate Sustainability, Terrafiniti LLP.
Joss is a recognised practitioner and commentator on best practice in sustainability and in new models of enterprise and economy for a sustainable future. He is the author of the Towards 9 Billion eBook series – presenting big, hopeful, playful and creative ideas for a sustainable, equitable future.
Joss is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar an inaugural Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (ICRS).
About the workshop:
Laws governing enterprise and competition could be said to be the most comprehensively and consistently enforced regulations on the planet. The rights of enterprise, private trade and market activity are important and worth protecting.
However, given the environmental and social challenges of the next few decades, how likely is it that such rights can be protected in the future?
The concept of the Rights of Future Trade is intended to help explore and address this issue. It suggests that trade over the long term would, by its nature, require conceptions of longevity and sustainability and that trade law may provide a solution to the delivery of global equity and sustainability.
In this unique and creative workshop, we explored the following questions:
- What are the current barriers which are likely restrain the rights of future generations to enterprise and exchange for personal and common gain?
- Can we imagine a system of trade law that rewards sustainable practices and punishes unsustainable ones, in order to guarantee the rights of future trade?
- What are the challenges of establishing legal responsibility for environmental degradation when this phenomenon is largely a result of aggregate factors?
- Can businesses with strategic intentions of establishing the sustainability of their operations contribute to changing the rules by which all business must operate?
You can read more about the concept of the Rights of Future Trade here.
When? January 2017
Where? Shearman & Sterling, 9 Appold Street, London EC2A 2AP
Knowledge Group Coordinators: Akofa Tsiagbe and Addison Pierce (Shearman & Sterling LLP)
Previous Group Events
Cash Transfers for Poverty Reduction
Tuesday, 27 September 2016 at 18:30
Shearman & Sterling LLP – 9 Appold Street, London, EC2A 2AP
In 2016, the A4ID Trade, Debt and Finance Knowledge Group explored improving the access to financial services and the Sustainable Development Goals.
A4ID had four knowledge groups in 2016. Each met three times during the year.
in 2016 the A4ID Trade, Debt and Finance Knowledge Group explored methods to improve access to financial services for the poor, in view of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1: Eradicating Poverty.
Our first session in May explored how microfinance can be a problematic approach to poverty reduction.
Our second session explored whether cash transfers—simply giving cash to those in need—can help reduce poverty. What are the achievements and limitations of such an approach? Should cash transfers be conditional and selective? Should they be a response to a crisis, or rather a long-term strategy administered by states?
Our speakers presented the different approaches to cash transfers and hard evidence of the impact of such approaches.
Speakers:
Dr Stephen Kidd is a Senior Social Policy Specialist at Development Pathways and has more than 30 years experience working on social security and social development in over 25 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific. He was previously Director of Policy at HelpAge International and a Senior Social Development Adviser at DFID, where he led the Social Protection and Equity and Rights policy teams. He has published extensively on social security, including on issues such as targeting, conditions, pension systems, child vulnerability, disability and the political economy of social protection.
Dr Jessica Hagen-Zanker is a Research Fellow in Social Protection Programme at ODI. Her main research interests lie in social protection and migration. She has extensive experience in the analysis of social protection programmes and policies, migration, remittances, design and analysis of household surveys in low-income countries, quasi-experimental impact evaluations and developing and executing rigorous, evidence-based literature reviews.
Group Coordinators:
Akofa Tsiagbe and Addison Pierce (Shearman & Sterling LLP)
Join our Linkedin Discussion group to find background reading materials and resources on the topic, including reports authored or co-authored by our speakers. Join the conversation!
If you have any questions about this event, please contact A4ID’s Learning Department: [email protected]
SDG1: Eradicating Poverty
Thursday, 12 May 2016 at 18:30
Shearman & Sterling LLP – 9 Appold Street, London, EC2A 2AP
In 2016 the A4ID Trade, Debt and Finance Knowledge Group explored improving the access to financial services and the sustainable Development Goals.
A4ID had four knowledge groups in 2016. Each met three times during the year.
The first session provided a ‘legal topic update.’ This was delivered by a legal expert in order to provide participants with an understanding of the law surrounding the topic area.
Speaker:
Dr. Philip Mader, Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex
Group Coordinators:
Akofa Tsiagbe and Addison Pierce (Shearman & Sterling LLP)
Join our Linkedin Discussion group to find background reading materials and resources on the topic, including reports authored or co-authored by our speakers. Join the conversation!
