Contributor(s): Sir Suma Chakrabarti | President Chakrabarti’s lecture will focus on the importance of the partnership between the state and the private sector in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SGGs). The state alone will not be able to deliver on the ambitious vision for global sustainable growth and inclusive development that is at the core of the SDGs. The private sector can and should become a key partner in this process. This approach has been endorsed by the international community over the summer, when world leaders met in Addis Ababa to discuss how to mobilise and channel resources for sustainable development. The President’s speech will reflect on types of private sector engagement building on the experience of the EBRD in fostering strategic partnerships between the state and the private sector. Sir Suma Chakrabarti (@ebrdsuma) is the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The EBRD is a multilateral developmental bank founded in 1991, with the purpose of developing open and sustainable market economies in countries committed to democratic principles. Today, the Bank is active in more than 30 countries from central Europe to central Asia and the southern and eastern Mediterranean. Prior to his current role Sir Suma held the position of Permanent Secretary at the British Ministry of Justice. Prior to this, from 2002, he headed the UK’s Department for International Development (formerly the Overseas Development Administration (ODA) where he worked closely with economies undergoing substantial reform in eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and the Middle East and North Africa. After studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford, Sir Suma took a Masters in Development Economics at the University of Sussex. Dr Waltraud Schelkle is Associate Professor of Political Economy at the European Institute, LSE. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) was established in 1991 as a dedicated centre for the interdisciplinary study of processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.