Sustainable development has been the red line in Kitty van der Heijdens'carreer. After working for the UN, she is now director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ambassador for sustainable development. She will represent the Netherlands in the upcoming Rio plus 20 earth Summit in June 2012. An international conference organised by the UN 20 years after the first UN conference on sustainable development in Rio. At TEDxHaarlem Kitty van der Heijden will take us on a journey through international sustainable development conferences.

Reduction of poverty, liberation, freedom: all of these words have been used to define international development, but no definition is set in stone. Global development expert and TED Fellow Alanna Shaikh breaks it down for us: It is about providing aid, while understanding that the developing world actually subsidizes the developed world. In this talk she points a light at corruption in an effort towards a more just world.