Pro­fes­sor of Ur­ban and Re­gion­al Plan­ning at The UWI, Pro­fes­sor Michelle My­coo, has achieved sig­nif­i­cant in­ter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion through her re­cent ap­point­ments by the Unit­ed Na­tions Ed­u­ca­tion­al, Sci­en­tif­ic and Cul­tur­al Or­ga­ni­za­tion (UN­ESCO) and the Unit­ed Na­tions En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­gramme (UN­EP), ac­cord­ing to a state­ment is­sued by the Uni­ver­si­ty.

Pro­fes­sor My­coo is a not­ed au­thor­i­ty on Cli­mate Change.  Her ex­ten­sive re­search spans ur­ban­iza­tion and ur­ban pol­i­cy, cli­mate change adap­ta­tion, wa­ter re­sources man­age­ment, coastal zone man­age­ment, and dis­as­ter risk re­duc­tion.

“She has brought a rich, mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary per­spec­tive to these roles,” The UWI’s state­ment not­ed, adding, “Pro­fes­sor My­coo’s ap­point­ments and her in­flu­en­tial con­tri­bu­tions to these sig­nif­i­cant glob­al ini­tia­tives are a tes­ta­ment to her ex­per­tise and The Uni­ver­si­ty’s com­mit­ment to fos­ter­ing in­ter­na­tion­al aca­d­e­m­ic col­lab­o­ra­tion and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment.”

In 2022, Pro­fes­sor My­coo was ap­point­ed Vice Pres­i­dent of UN­ESCO’s Sci­en­tif­ic Ad­vi­so­ry Com­mit­tee of the Man­age­ment of So­cial Trans­for­ma­tions (MOST) Pro­gramme.

“Pro­fes­sor My­coo is one of just nine in­ter­na­tion­al­ly ac­claimed ex­perts from di­verse So­cial Sci­ences fields. With her ex­ten­sive back­ground as a Ge­o­g­ra­ph­er, Ur­ban Plan­ner, and Cli­mate Change Sci­en­tist, she plays a piv­otal role in this in­flu­en­tial ini­tia­tive,” The UWI ex­plains.

“Her con­tri­bu­tion is crit­i­cal in bridg­ing the gap be­tween re­search and pol­i­cy, as well as be­tween knowl­edge and ac­tion, a fun­da­men­tal part of dri­ving pos­i­tive so­cial change for in­clu­sive and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment. In her ca­pac­i­ty, Pro­fes­sor My­coo is in­stru­men­tal in con­cep­tu­al­iz­ing pro­grammes, craft­ing strate­gies, and of­fer­ing sci­en­tif­ic ad­vi­so­ry re­search, par­tic­u­lar­ly in re­la­tion to MOST projects,” the Uni­ver­si­ty said.

Pro­fes­sor My­coo was se­lect­ed in 2023 as one of 20 dis­tin­guished schol­ars from across the glob­al sci­en­tif­ic com­mu­ni­ty by a UN­ESCO-In­ter­na­tion­al Sci­en­tif­ic Com­mit­tee Fore­sight Ex­pert Pan­el.

Ac­cord­ing to the re­lease is­sued by the Uni­ver­si­ty:

“Co­in­cid­ing with her achieve­ment, the Unit­ed Na­tions is ac­tive­ly pur­su­ing a trans­for­ma­tive agen­da. De­scrib­ing its mis­sion, the UN em­pha­sizes its com­mit­ment to “be re­ju­ve­nat­ed by a for­ward-think­ing cul­ture and em­pow­ered by cut­ting-edge skills for the twen­ty-first cen­tu­ry – to tur­bocharge its sup­port to peo­ple and plan­et”. This am­bi­tious en­deav­our, known as the UN 2.0 “Quin­tet of Change”, com­bines in­no­va­tion, da­ta, dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy, fore­sight, and be­hav­iour­al sci­ence.”

It added: “Her sig­nif­i­cant role in the Unit­ed Na­tions En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­gramme (2022-2023) is piv­otal in shap­ing the Pro­gramme of Work and Medi­um-Term Strat­e­gy for 2022-2025. As a sci­en­tist, she's in­stru­men­tal in the UN­EP Sci­ence-Pol­i­cy Pro­gramme. Here, she fo­cus­es on analysing and im­ple­ment­ing the in­sights from the Pan­el's fore­sight on emerg­ing trends and sig­nals. This crit­i­cal work aims to un­der­stand the po­ten­tial im­pacts of dis­rup­tive changes, guid­ing UN­EP to pri­or­i­tize and act ef­fec­tive­ly in ar­eas that de­mand im­me­di­ate at­ten­tion.”

Ear­li­er this year, Pro­fes­sor My­coo again dis­tin­guished her­self as one of on­ly 15 glob­al ex­perts who con­duct­ed the sci­en­tif­ic re­view of the draft Unit­ed Na­tions 2023 Glob­al Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Re­port. Launched at the Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goal (SDG) Sum­mit in New York, Sep­tem­ber 2023, this crit­i­cal re­port fo­cus­es on ac­cel­er­at­ing ac­tion to ad­dress key glob­al chal­lenges.

“This ur­gency is un­der­scored as the world ap­proach­es the mid-point of the 2030 Agen­da for Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment, a com­mit­ment made by nu­mer­ous coun­tries in 2015,” The UWI ex­plains.  

The 2030 Agen­da out­lines a glob­al blue­print aimed at fos­ter­ing dig­ni­ty, peace, and pros­per­i­ty for both peo­ple and the plan­et, both now and in the fu­ture. Na­tions world­wide are striv­ing to achieve the 17 Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals out­lined in this agen­da by 2030.

Ti­tled “Times of Cri­sis, Times of Change: Sci­ence for Ac­cel­er­at­ing Trans­for­ma­tions to Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment”, the 2023 Glob­al Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Re­port re­veals a con­cern­ing truth: as we ap­proach 2030, progress to­wards the 17 Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals is sig­nif­i­cant­ly off track. This lag in ad­vance­ment, al­ready ev­i­dent in cru­cial ar­eas like cli­mate ac­tion, bio­di­ver­si­ty loss and in­equal­i­ty, wors­ened with the on­set of the pan­dem­ic. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the re­port high­lights sub­stan­tial set­backs in crit­i­cal goals such as pover­ty erad­i­ca­tion, gen­der equal­i­ty, ed­u­ca­tion, and the elim­i­na­tion of hunger.