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Track I:
Growth and Integration
Panel 1: Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: How To Identify A Country's Best Strategy For Economic Development
Given wide agreement on the idea that countries require economic development strategies that are heavily context-dependent, what are the means by which practitioners can identify these strategies? This panel will be a forward-looking discussion about this important intersection between theory and practice. Panelists will offer their own views on how to best understand and respond to different country contexts.
Panel 2: Beyond the WASHINGTON CONSENSUS: Case Studies in country led reform
The Washington Consensus has played a major role in shaping development policy over the past 20 years. However, countless examples have demonstrated that this universal approach to development and reform has not always been successful. Using case studies from all over the world this panel will examine how governments have taken pro-active measures to drive their own development and reform agendas.
Panel 3: The DOHA ROUND: is the WTO working for developing countries?
The World Trade Organization serves its members by providing two critical components in the process of liberalizing trade - a forum for conducting negotiations and a dispute settlement process. The Doha, or Development Round of trade negotiations, which began amidst much hope for pro-poor reform in 2001, has so far failed to deliver on its promise of bringing opportunity to the world's poorest countries. This panel will examine two questions critical to assessing the WTO's ability to serve developing countries:
Are developing countries able to use the dispute settlement mechanisms effectively?
Will the Doha round of negotiations conclude beneficially for developing countries?
Panel 4: Migration And The Integration Of International Labor Markets: The Big Development Challenge?
The management of migratory flows and the integration of labor markets in the global economy features highly on the political agendas of both developing and developed countries, and has become a major issue of debate among development academics and practitioners. While substantial progress has been made on the integration of international trade and financial markets, labor markets remain overtly closed and regulated. Yet the potential of migration appears to be tremendous. Be it South-North or South-South, labor mobility can trigger growth through more efficient allocation of labor and skills, the transfer of competencies, remittances, and new business opportunities. Some even argue that liberalizing international labor markets is the key to economic development. Unemployment, the brain drain, cultural and linguistic barriers and the difficult integration of immigrants, however generate very strong resistance and opposition to the mobility of labor. How can we unleash the development potential of the integration of international labor markets without harming the economies and the public opinion of developed and developing nations? |
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Track II:
Governance and Institutions
PANEL SESSION I: Resources Management, Economic Growth, and Institutional Stability Good governance is a precondition for converting large revenues from extractive industries into economic growth and poverty reduction. When transparency and accountability are weak, extractive industries and bad corporate governance combine to contribute to poverty, corruption, and conflict the so-called resource curse. This panel discusses the Global Compact, a United Nations initiative seeking to promote responsible corporate citizenship so that business can be part of the solution to the challenges of globalization, and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, an agreement that supports improved governance in resource-rich countries through the verification and full publication of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas, and mining. It examines the Republic of Botswana's success and lessons learned in resources management, economic growth, and institutional stability. Panelists will also analyze gender and the partnership between extractive industries and the government of Botswana and their role in sparking a rare African success story.
PANEL SESSION II: Security Imperatives, Natural Resources, and Human Development In Developing Countries: Impossible Trinity?
This panel examines the nexus of security imperatives and the human development agenda in the face current security challenges in developing countries. Using the cases of African and Middle Eastern countries, panelists will seek to provide answers to the following questions: Is there necessarily a tradeoff between the need to tackle current global security challenges and the advancement of the human development agenda? To what extent does the global competition for natural resources impede or advance human development in developing countries? How do the cumulative effects of these factors affect global governance or the global community's ability to respond to crises and development challenges? During the discussion each panelist will address the following topics: (1) the Darfur humanitarian crisis; (2) developing countries institutional challenges in the face of the Global War on Terrorism; and (3) Natural resources and challenges of governance and security in developing countries.
Panel 1: How Bad Is Corruption for Development?
According to the Institute for Liberty and Democracy, four billion people in developing countries are forced to operate outside the rule of law, and to engage in corrupt procedures in order to function in the global economy. In this context, corruption may become the only path to achieving social and economic development. Yet, at the same time, it represents a threat to economic growth and civic values. In this sense, how can we define corruption and determine its impact on development? What are the myths and realities regarding the measurement and evaluation of corruption? What are its short and long-run implications? And most importantly, what is the causal relationship between fighting corruption and achieving development?
Panel 2: Fighting Corruption in Reality
Fighting corruption is on the top of most development agendas. But beyond identifying the need to tackle corruption, we have to identify strategies to fight it in reality, taking into account that corruption serves the interests of many and is often entrenched into business and Government practices. The panel will bring together a diverse set of development practitioners, policy makers and Government officials with firsthand experience of fighting wide-spread corruption.
Panel 3: Is Political Development a Precursor to Economic Development (Or Vice Versa)? The Case of China
There is so much focus on economic growth that we have a tendency to forget the political aspect of development, valued both as an end itself but also as a possible condition for sustainable economic growth and poverty alleviation. China is a salient example of where the linkage between political and economic development is unclear historically and there is a wide divergence of opinion on the future. The panel will offer an opportunity to hear from experts on China.
Panel 4: Critical Partnerships in the Practice of Development
Strong partnerships at local and international levels are critical to the success of development initiatives. Not only do they bring together a diverse range of resources and talent, they promote wider coordination in the development arena. This panel will discuss three critical partnerships. First, coordination between various locally based agencies of the UN will be explained. Second, the power of leveraging donor resources with local and international development organizations will be explored. Finally, the need to partner directly with and engage beneficiaries will be discussed.
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Track
III: Education and Development
Panel 1: Schooling for reconstruction: Education in crisis Situations
Many educationists place education among the most crucial responses to conflict or natural disaster, along with food, shelter, and health care. What makes education so central in an emergency setting? This panel explores ways in which education fits within the recovery process in crisis situations. It also discusses various approaches to education programming given the particular challenges conflict presents. Finally, the panel will address ways in which education can build resilience by promoting peace and emergency readiness at individual and systemic levels.
Panel 2: Education for Global Citizenship
This panel explores the role of education in promoting awareness about international issues and social responsibility. It also discusses the extent to which education can generate engagement with issues of development and global poverty in the developed world.
Panel 3: Innovations and Education in Development
This panel reviews various new approaches to bringing education to remote, poor communities, particularly using technology. It also explores ways by which such approaches can link marginalized people to modern technology and the global economy.
Panel 4: Madarasa, Religion, and Education
This panel explores the intersection of religious education and development by looking at educational provision and demand in Muslim countries. The panel also addresses the fundamental question of can madarassas (religious schools) be leveraged to promote development?
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Track IV:
Environment and Sustainable Development
Panel 1: Global Climate Change: What should Developing Countries be doing about it?
This panel seeks to address the challenge of working toward development in the face of global climate change. Starting from the assumption that global climate change is a serious threat with enormous consequences to people from across the globe, what should developing countries be doing? Where are the big wins that allow for significant reduction in greenhouse gases while leaving space to achieve development goals? To what extent is technology innovation and technology transfer apart of the solutionand is it actually happening? If not, why not? Is there a role for carbon trading as a piece of the solution? Should developing countries focus on creating a market in carbon offsets? We would like this panel to focus on practical solutions, and give the audience some sense of the arenas in which progress can be made. Ideally, the panel will present a breadth of ideas, some applicable to emerging market economies and others of relevance to less developed countries. Case studies of China and India are of particular relevance, given the impact of these countries' policies on the global climate change problem.
Panel 2: How Institutions and Good Governance Contribute to Sustainable Development
This panel explores the role of education in promoting awareness about international issues and social responsibility. It also discusses the extent to which education can generate engagement with issues of development and global poverty in the developed world.
Panel 3: Innovations and Education in Development
This panel seeks to explore the role of good governance and sound institutions in achieving sustainable development. It explores the following questions: (1) how vital are environmental laws, regulations, and compliance and enforcement networks in assuring that development is sustainable; (2) is the structure of different institutions determinative of final environmental outcomes; (3) to the extent that these institutions are critical, what are the models of successful institution-building from which lessons can be derived; (4) given the challenges in building the capacity to create these institutions and the limited resources available, how should different priorities be drawn?; (5) what, if anything, can developing countries do to prepare institutions for the intensified competition for natural resources and increased environmental burdens that may be faced in future decades?
Panel 4: Sustainable Business Models: Ecotourism and Beyond
The primary goal of the panel is to bring in speakers with hands-on experience in creating, leading, or running sustainable businesses within the developing world, and hear their storiesinspiring the next generation of business leaders and entrepreneurs to achieve even greater results. This panel seeks to explore the role of business and entrepreneurship in advancing sustainable development. It examines the following questions: (1) What are the most recent, innovative business models for protecting natural resources while contributing to growth?; (2) What are the success stories?; (3) What are the failures?; (4) can the successful cases be used broadly as a model in other developing countries? (5) What factors make an initiative fail? (6) Is green business capable of having more than a marginal developmental impact? (7) Are their fundamental limits on the ability to achieve economic development at a country wide level using the sustainable business model?; and (8) If there are limits, what barriers prevent green business from being a useful model on a wider scale? |
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Track V:
Health and Development
Panel 1: Financing Vaccine Innovations for Poor Countries
Inexpensive and easy to administer, vaccines are one of the most cost effective tools available for health and poverty reduction. However, each year five million people die from deadly diseases such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis for which there exists no vaccine. Since the vast majority of these deaths occur in developing countries where the potential sales market is tiny, pharmaceutical companies have little incentive to invest in costly R&D to develop life-saving vaccines. This panel will discuss the feasibility of an innovative proposal designed to overcome this market failure by creating a commercial incentive for R&D investment in vaccine development. An "Advance Market Commitment" would enable donors to make a binding commitment to finance a specific vaccine if and when it is developed, thereby creating a market for such products as a malaria vaccine. The panel will explore the legal, economic and political considerations of such a mechanism and discuss how such a tool may be implemented in practice.
Panel 2: Health Worker Crisis: Innovations And New Perspectives
Improving health services in poor countries is of vital importance to both development and welfare goals. One of the most pressing challenges in global health today is the lack of human resource capacity: doctors, nurses, and health care professionals who serve as the building blocks of health systems. Worker shortage, out migration, inadequate pay, HIV/AIDS and insufficient training are among the many complex challenges plaguing the health system in developing countries. This panel will bring new perspectives and discuss innovative approaches to addressing the health worker crisis.
Panel 3: Health Insurance for the Poor
Disease and illness place a significant financial burden on poor people in developing countries. Studies have shown this can lead to a downward spiral for poor households with illness leading to a depletion of assets that causes further worsening of health. The provision of financial protection and the effective management of the risk of illness is therefore a critical feature of health policy in poor countries. However this has proved to be a challenging task and several approaches have been tried, including government subsidized health services, social insurance, community based health insurance, and private sector insurance schemes. This panel seeks to explore the role of health insurance in development. How should insurance be provided Through Government? NGOs? Private Sector? Can the private sector effectively address the needs of the poor and improve access to care or will it deepen disparities between the rich and poor and lead to further escalation of health care costs? What are some examples of successful and unsuccessful health insurance initiatives in the developing world? What are the barriers to achieving desired outcomes from health insurance?
Panel 4: The Role of the Private and Ngo Sector in Health Service Delivery
For many of the more than one billion people worldwide who live on less than $1/day, access to reliable health care remains elusive. In response, the private sector (i.e. NGOs, civil society organizations, faith-based organizations, private enterprise, etc) has increasingly mobilized resources to expand upon or supplant the work of the government in providing health services in resource-poor contexts. This panel will focus on the role of the private and NGO sector in health service delivery vis-a-vis the public sector: Are privately funded health service delivery models a stop-gap, or can they act as effectively, if not more effectively, than the government in the provision of health services? What are the limitations of private and NGO sector delivery models (e.g. duplication of work, misalignment of development objectives, etc), and can these be overcome? Should development agencies shift focus away from support of uncoordinated private sector solutions in favor of direct budgetary support for integrated, government-led healthcare? Finally, how appropriate are public-private partnership models in providing health services?
Panel 5: Technology and Healthcare
This panel explores various innovations in Healthcare access. It also explores some of the innovative ways of providing poor with access to healthcare and the risks and benefits of providing such technologies in under resourced health care sectors. Finally, it provides some success stories and failures in the use of technology to provide healthcare to the poor.
© 2009 world Financial Group - International Development Conference. All Rights Reserved.
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