17 Rooms

In this seventeenth interview of the “17 Rooms'' podcast, Jean Duff and Blessing Omakwu discuss their efforts to accelerate the positive influence of faith actors for gender equality. Duff, president at the Partnership for Faith and Development and Omakwu, deputy director of Goalkeepers at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, moderated Room 5 focused on Sustainable Development Goal number 5—on gender equality—during the 2021 17 Roo...

In this sixteenth interview of the “17 Rooms” podcast, Jamie Drummond and Kennedy Odede discuss shifts in power, process, and funding to uplift proximate leaders and value local knowledge and community-based solutions. Drummond, co-founder of ONE and Odede, CEO and co-founder of Shining Hope for Communities, moderated Room 11 focused on Sustainable Development Goal number 11—on sustainable cities and communities—during the 2021 17 ...

In this fifteenth interview of the “17 Rooms" podcast, Elizabeth King and Urvashi Sahni discuss the power of learning teams and their efforts to move education systems beyond the one teacher, one classroom model. King, nonresident senior fellow at the Center for Universal Education at The Brookings Institution and Sahni, founding president and CEO of the Study Hall Educational Foundation, moderated Room 4 focused on Sustainable Dev...

In this fourteenth interview of the “17 Rooms” podcast, Martín Abregú and Elizabeth Sidiropoulos discuss how COVID-19 vaccine inequity could be improved globally and how it reveals the underlying issues of global inequality more broadly. Abregu, vice president for International Programs at the Ford Foundation and Sidiropoulos, CEO at the South African Institute of International Affairs, moderated Room 10 focused on Sustainable Deve...

In this thirteenth interview of the “17 Rooms'' podcast, Clare Boland Ross and Todd Moss discuss new “measurable metrics” to reframe SDG7 energy targets to be more ambitious and location-specific. Ross, managing director of the Power and Climate Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation and Moss, executive director at the Energy for Growth Hub, moderated Room 7 focused on Sustainable Development Goal number 7—on affordable and clean...

In this twelfth interview of the “17 Rooms'' podcast, Elizabeth Andersen and Sarah Mendelson discuss bridging local, national, and global layers of action to assess and foster accountable COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts that reduce inequalities and increase access to justice. Andersen, executive director at the World Justice Project and Mendelson, professor at Carnegie Mellon University, moderated Room 16 focused on Sustainabl...

In this eleventh interview of the “17 Rooms'' podcast, Lisa Dreier and David Obura discuss their efforts to develop a framework that can help local communities identify and catalyze systemic action that benefits people, ocean biodiversity, and ocean-based economic activities. Dreier, managing director of the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard and Obura, founding director for CORDIO East Africa, moderated Room 14 focused on S...

In this tenth interview of the “17 Rooms” podcast, Letitia Obeng and Jennifer Sara discuss reframing sanitation from “out of sight and out of mind” to a resource for humankind. Obeng, chair at the Water Integrity Network and Sara, global director of the Water Global Practice at the World Bank, moderated Room 6 focused on Sustainable Development Goal number 6—on clean water and sanitation—during the 2021 17 Rooms flagship process.

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In this ninth interview of the “17 Rooms" podcast, Lucy Harris, Sanjay Jain, and Liv Marte Kristiansen Nordhaug discuss how digital public goods can enable digital cooperation, sustainable development, and innovation. Harris, co-lead of the Digital Public Goods Alliance, Jain, partner at the Bharat Innovation Fund, and Nordhaug, co-lead of the Digital Public Goods Alliance, moderated Room 9 focused on Sustainable Development Goal n...

In this eighth interview of the “17 Rooms'' podcast, Steve Davis and Pardis Sabeti discuss the uptake of participatory digital health tools for pandemic preparedness and response. Davis, senior strategy advisor and Interim China Country director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Sabeti, professor at Harvard University, moderated Room 3 focused on Sustainable Development Goal number 3—on good health and well-being—during th...

In this seventh interview of the “17 Rooms” podcast, Michael Faye and Minister Cina Lawson discuss building digital cash transfer infrastructure for emergency response and adaptive social protection. Faye, CEO and co-founder of GiveDirectly and Lawson, Minister of Digital Economy and Digital Transformation in Togo, moderated Room 1 focused on Sustainable Development Goal number 1—on no poverty—during the 2021 17 Rooms flagship proc...

In this sixth interview of the “17 Rooms'' podcast, Amar Bhattacharya and John Podesta discuss a “breakthrough” agenda on climate finance, which is necessary to deliver on greater climate ambition and ensure synergy with the sustainable development agenda. Bhattacharya, senior fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development at The Brookings Institution and Podesta, chair and founder of the Center for American Progress, moderated R...

In this fifth interview of the “17 Rooms” podcast, Rosina Bierbaum and Richard Florizone discuss near-term opportunities and challenges for scaling nature-based solutions. Bierbaum, professor at University of Maryland and University of Michigan, and Florizone, president at International Institute for Sustainable Development, moderated Room 15 focused on Sustainable Development Goal number 15—on life on land—during the 2021 17 Rooms...

In this fourth interview of the “17 Rooms'' podcast, Matthew Bishop and Raj Kumar discuss the role of business journalism in accelerating a data and reporting ecosystem to unlock private capital’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals. Bishop, co-founder of the Social Progress Index, and Kumar, founding president and editor-in-chief at Devex, moderated Room 12 focused on Sustainable Development Goal number 12—on consump...

In this third interview of the “17 Rooms'' podcast, Jane Maland Cady and Pradeep Prabhala discuss frameworks for investors to channel investments into the food system in a way that optimizes for the “True Cost/True Value” of food. Cady, program director at the McKnight Foundation, and Prabhala, partner at McKinsey & Company, moderated Room 2 focused on Sustainable Development Goal number 2—on Zero Hunger—during the 2021 17 Rooms fl...

In this second interview of the “17 Rooms'' podcast, Marcela Escobari and Ethan Rouen discuss elevating the “S” in ESG through a streamlined set of firm-level metrics that capture job quality and economic mobility. Escobari, senior fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development at The Brookings Institution, and Rouen, professor at Harvard Business School, moderated Room 8, alongside Otis Rolley of The Rockefeller Foundation durin...

In this first interview of the “17 Rooms” podcast, Kristen Leanderson Abrams and Carsten Stendevad discuss the role institutional investors can play in the fight against forced labor and modern slavery. Abrams, senior director for combatting human trafficking at the McCain Institute, and Stendevad, co-CIO for Sustainability at Bridgewater Associates, moderated Room 17 focused on Sustainable Development Goal number 17—on Partnership...

“The world feels pretty stuck in taking on its biggest issues—things like poverty, climate change, inequality,” says Brookings Senior Fellow John McArthur in this debut episode of “17 Rooms,” a podcast about actions, insights, and community for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the people driving them. In this new podcast, McArthur—who directs the Center for Sustainable Development at Brookings, and co-host Zia Khan—seni...

Welcome to 17 Rooms, a podcast about actions, insights, and community for the Sustainable Development Goals and the people driving them. The podcast is part of the 17 Rooms initiative, where diverse participants meet in their own “Rooms,” one for each of the SDGs, to identify concrete actions they can take over the next 12-18 months toward the Goals.

In the podcast, co-hosts John McArthur—senior fellow and director of the Center fo...