Interview with Bergen Summer Research School 2015

CROP VIDEO INTERVIEW: Poverty as the “greatest global challenge facing the world today” and how this relates to the Bergen Summer Research School 2015.

CROP has interviewed Tore Sætersdal, Scientific Director at UiB Global and Rune Nilsen, Scientific Director at the Bergen Summer Research School (BSRS) to learn more about their views on poverty eradication and global development challenges as part of the BSRS’ topics for 2015. 

  

The questions and answers below provide a summary of the video interview conducted by CROP: 
 

“Why have you chosen “2015: Sustainable Development Goals to meet Global Development Challenges” as the central theme for the BSRS 2015?”

Nilsen said that global development research has been a focus area for UiB for the last 25 years. It was therefore a natural choice to link it to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, while Sætersdal emphasised the long-term involvement that many UiB departments have had in the Global South.

How is this topic of “poverty as the greatest global challenge facing the world today” (as defined by the UN Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals) going to be addressed by the BSRS?

Nilsen explained that although there are no specific courses on poverty, the issue of poverty is a cross-cutting issue through many courses at next year’s summer school. Sætersdal added that the Summer School will address issues such as health, governance and social science that are all important in the fight against poverty.

How will the programme of the BSRS examine the notion of sustainable development proposed by the international community?

Sætersdal and Nilsen both believe that a PhD level education is crucial and that interdisciplinary research represents a unique framework to approach this subject.They also emphasised the importance of the inclusion of the whole world as part of the knowledge society that is needed to combat extreme poverty.