2016 Barbara Ward Lecture

Roberts is the head of the Sustainable City Initiatives portfolio in eThekwini Municipality, Durban, South Africa. She was also lead author of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, and is currently co-chair of Working Group II for the IPCC's sixth assessment cycle.

The Barbara Ward Lectures, organised by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), celebrate outstanding women in development in honour of the institute's founder, who pioneered work in linking environment and development.

Ward was a renowned speaker whose lectures influenced audiences around the world. Previous speakers have included former Ireland President Mary Robinson Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action; South Africa MP Lindiwe Sisulu; Cristiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change; and Fatima Denton, director of the special initiatives division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

IIED's preparations for the event were meticulous, even including Scooby Doo characters...

The 2016 lecture took place at London's Savoy Place, the home of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, and around 150 policymakers, researchers and academics were present to hear from Roberts.

n Before the lecture got under way, there was the opportunity to hear from Barbara Ward herself, courtesy of a video showing archive footage of interviews with IIED's founder and even US President John F Kennedy.

The lecture began with an introduction from Andrew Norton, director of IIED, who emphasised the timely nature of the event ahead of the global Habitat III summit the following week.

Watch Norton's entire introduction:

There was great anticipation when Roberts took to the stage, and then no small amount of trepidation among organisers when she immediately announced that she had no intention of doing a lecture at all...

A central theme of Roberts' 'story' was her questioning if the New Urban Agenda − to be agreed at Habitat III − is actually capable of driving sustainable urban development at the local level and in the real world, outside of United Nations' negotiating halls.

Throughout her talk, Roberts cleverly wove in examples of how IIED, and founder Barbara Ward, had played their part in engaging with urban issues and promoting the voices of communities and the most vulnerable.

Roberts also reflected on what others could learn from her successful work in Durban.

Watch Roberts' entire lecture:

With Norton returning to the stage to act as moderater, a lively question-and-answer session followed, with Roberts responding to queries from the invited audience on the urban, climate and resilience agenda, looking beyond Habitat III in Quito, and giving further examples of her respected work.

One of the questions focused on the role of business in the 'New Urban Agenda', while Roberts explained that we couldn't rely on technology to solve all the problems of every city...

Watch the entire Q&A:

The lecture was also live streamed online to a global audience, and guests present at Savoy Place and around the world reacted to what they had seen...