Gross National Happiness, Ubuntu, Buen Vivir: a Global South View on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Dr van Norren is Extraordinary Professor of Intercultural Rights, Citizenship and Sustainability at Leiden University College, Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, Leiden University, the Netherlands. She is also an associate researcher with the Decoloniality Research Group at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society at Leiden University. She holds a Master’s degree in International and Dutch Law (1995) and a PhD in Law and Development Studies (2017, Tilburg University and the University of Amsterdam). Her dissertation is titled Development as Service: A Happiness, Ubuntu and Buen Vivir Interdisciplinary View of the Sustainable Development Goals. She studied law in Amsterdam and Cape Town, South Africa, and spent a year studying French in Lyon, France.

She served as a diplomat in Colombo, Sri Lanka (1998–2001), and Ankara, Turkey (2001–2005), and held several positions at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, working on the Southern Africa (1996–1998), North America (2005–2009) and European Integration (2013–2014) desks. From 2009 to 2013, she served as Executive Secretary of the Commission on Development at the Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV). She subsequently worked as Coordinator for UNESCO, Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals at the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (2016–2020). Since 2020, she has served as Strategic Advisor for the Western Hemisphere. She lectures nationally and internationally on her doctoral research and has published several articles and blog posts. She is also a self-taught visual artist whose work is featured in her dissertation.