More than 500 scholars from nationally and internationally renowned institutions attended the conference, which was held from November 9 to 11. The conference attracted scholars with diverse and interdisciplinary backgrounds to discuss the best approaches for implementing and assessing progress towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Dhongde presented a paper entitled, “Rapid Economic Growth but Rising Poverty Segregation: Will Vietnam Meet the SDGs for Equitable Development?” Vietnam is widely regarded as a success story for its rapid economic growth and significant decline in poverty in the last two decades.

However, Dhongde and her collaborators, which included researchers from the World Bank and National Economics University at Hanoi, found evidence on rising inequality within provinces in the country. The authors concluded that poverty in Vietnam is increasingly concentrated in certain provinces with larger shares of ethnic minorities.

First ratified by the U.N. General Assembly in 2015, the SDGs comprise 17 international goals that span a wide variety of social, economic, and environmental issues. Numerous Atlanta civic and academic institutions including Georgia Tech committed to furthering the SDGs after Atlanta was designated as a Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE). RCEs support implementation of the SDGs at the regional level through education and training.

The School of Economics is a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.