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In Pursuit of Development — Government
In Pursuit of Development

Step into conversations that travel across continents and challenge the way you think about progress. From democracy and inequality to climate resilience and healthcare, Dan Banik explores how societies navigate the complex terrain of democracy, poverty, inequality, and sustainability. Through dialogues with scholars, leaders, and innovators, In Pursuit of Development uncovers how ideas travel, why policies succeed or fail, and what it takes to build a more just and resilient world. Expect sharp insights, candid reflections, and a global perspective that connects local struggles to universal aspirations.
Listen, reflect, and be inspired to see global development in a new light. 🎧

Copyright: © 2020 Dan Banik, In Pursuit of Development

Latest Episodes:

Empowering Bureaucrats for Better Government Performance — Dan Honig Jul 13, 2024

Season finale! It is my great pleasure to welcome back a person I have very much enjoyed speaking with earlier— Dan Honig, an Associate Professor of Public Policy at University College London and Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy (@rambletastic). His latest book is Mission Driven Bureaucrats: Empowering People To Help Government Do Better. Mission-driven bureaucrats, according to Dan, are individuals who work within the bureaucracy with a genuine desire to serve their organization's mission of helping citizens. They perform their jobs out of a strong belief in their purpose, rather than being driven by a set of rules or incentives that compel them to act in specific ways. But what are the historical roots of the term "mission," and how can mission-driven bureaucrats thrive? The book argues that the key to better government lies in empowerment and trust, rather than stricter controls and more rigorous oversight.

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
Mission driven bureaucrats – 04:04
Managers like Ted Lasso – 18:21
Managing for empowerment versus managing for compliance – 25:12
Demotivated and unmotivated bureaucrats – 37:46
Characteristics of efficient bureaucracies around the world – 35:06
New public management and the centrality of citizens – 43:52

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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Rising Powers and the New Global Order — Rohan Mukherjee Jul 06, 2024

The liberal international order, characterized by rules-based multilateralism and values such as openness and representation, is often portrayed in terms of multiple crises. These crises, often analyzed from a Western perspective, include the reduced support of some Western powers towards certain multilateral institutions and the establishment of new ones by rising powers. However, these narratives often overlook the perspectives of low and middle-income countries, which is why in this episode, we shift our focus to understand how the Global South perceives and engages with this international order.

Rohan Mukherjee is an assistant professor at the Department of International Relations, at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His latest book is Ascending Order: Rising Powers and the Politics of Status in International Institutions. @rohan_mukh

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
Global governance viewed from the Global South – 02:54
Crisis of authority and new bargains – 09:57
Rising powers and the politics of status – 16:05
The quest for status and symbolic equality within the international system – 24:14
Institutional openness and procedural fairness – 35:06
Admitting rising powers into the great power club – 46:37

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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Great Power Competition and the Global South — Ilaria Carrozza Jun 29, 2024

The ever-evolving world of global power dynamics is characterized by the complex relationships between large economies such as the United States and China and how these interactions are perceived and navigated by countries in the Global South. Understanding these dynamics requires a comprehensive view of how some countries, such as China, position themselves as a challenger to the existing world order and US hegemony through their economic, structural, and normative power. While many countries in the Global South are finding it challenging to navigate the complex terrain of great power competition, some are leveraging their unique positions to maximize benefits and assert their sovereignty. They engage strategically with multiple great powers, negotiating deals and leveraging relationships to their advantage, balancing economic needs, security concerns, and political aspirations.

Ilaria Carrozza is a senior researcher at the The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). Her research focuses on understanding how China extends its influence abroad and challenges the existing world order. @ilaria_carrozza

Resources

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
Great power competition viewed from the Global South – 03:30
The Russia-China alliance and resurgence of the BRICS – 11:40
Global development and global security concerns – 18:50
Chinese versus Western alternatives – 37:42

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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Politics, power, and resistance — Ian Shapiro Jun 22, 2024

A central theme in Ian Shapiro's extensive body of research is the concept of domination, which captures the reactive nature of human beings towards power structures. Unlike traditional political theories that imagine societies designing just orders from scratch, Ian argues that political institutions evolve in response to the rejection of unacceptable power dynamics. This reactive nature is evident in the historical shifts from feudalism to absolutism, and eventually to democracy, driven by people's resistance to absolute power.

Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science and Global Affairs at Yale University. In his latest book Uncommon Sense, he explores why citizens in many democracies are profoundly alienated and some democracies are in danger of failing.

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
The fight against domination – 02:50
The role of political parties in resisting domination – 05:41
Disillusionment with democracies and the role of deliberation – 11:24
Amartya Sen and development as freedom – 23:16
Betting on hope – 34:29

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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Administrative Capacity and Its Impact on Development in Pakistan — Sameen A. Mohsin Ali Apr 24, 2024

Effective bureaucracies are pivotal in mobilizing resources, implementing development projects, and ensuring equitable distribution of growth benefits across all societal segments. Conversely, weak administrative systems often result in inefficiency, corruption, and the derailment of vital development efforts aimed at improving health, education, and economic opportunities. The significance of administrative capacity extends beyond immediate program implementation. Strong administrative systems ensure that the achievements of development policies are maintained over time, adapting to new challenges like technological changes, demographic shifts, and environmental sustainability. This adaptability is essential for long-term development outcomes, making the strengthening of bureaucratic institutions a fundamental aspect of enhancing overall state capacity.

Sameen A. Mohsin Ali is an Assistant Professor of International Development at the University of Birmingham. She works in the fields of comparative politics, development studies, and political economy, with a specialisation in the bureaucratic politics of Pakistan. @sameen_mohsin

Resources

Citizen trust, administrative capacity and administrative burden in Pakistan’s immunization program (open access)
Networks of effectiveness? The impact of politicization on bureaucratic performance in Pakistan (author's accepted manuscript)
Pakistan election: the military has long meddled in the country’s politics – this year will be no different, The Conversation UK
Oral History, Collaboration and Research on Women Public Sector Workers in Pakistan, with Sana Haroon, MHRC blog
Bureaucratic Reform, Discourse, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics
The good, the bad and the ugly in Punjab’s new local government laws. Herald, 5 July, 2019.
Good sifarish, bad sifarish: A look at PML-N’s selective anti-corruption drive. DAWN 19 April, 2018.
Pakistan: COVID-19, federalism and the first wave response. (open access)

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
State capacity and administrative capacity – 03:26
The role of patronage politics – 09:03
Civil servant strategies to tackle political interference – 16:49
Socialization strategies, motivation, and demotivation – 25:09
Networks of effectiveness – 32:14
Trust between citizens and the state – 45:16

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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Infrastructure, Governance, and Society in Modern Africa — Karuti Kanyinga Apr 17, 2024

A common concern voiced by leaders in many developing nations is the deterioration of their road systems and the apparent hesitance of the international community to fund infrastructure improvements. In response, China launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013. This sweeping project has facilitated investments in sectors such as transportation, infrastructure, telecommunications, logistics, energy, and oil and gas. While some African citizens and policymakers view the BRI as an opportunity to expand their policy space for development, opinions are divided. The presence of Chinese investments in Africa's infrastructure has ignited a multifaceted debate about the benefits of such partnerships versus the risks, including debt dependency, sustainability issues, and project prioritization that might not meet the wider needs of the population.

Karuti Kanyinga is a Research Professor of Development Studies at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS), University of Nairobi, who has worked extensively on governance and development. @karutikk

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
Public perceptions of recent infrastructure projects in Nairobi – 03:18
Project modalities and demands for greater transparency – 08:09
Negotiating better deals with external actors – 14:36
The cost of politics – 22:16
Expectations of idealism in politics – 28:37
Strategies for combating corruption – 37:42

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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Politics of the Planet — Lan Marie Nguyen Berg Apr 10, 2024

The continued reliance on a "business as usual" model is insufficient for countering the detrimental consequences of global warming. Numerous studies, including the influential reports from the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, have sparked a keen interest in understanding the prerequisites for the societal transformations necessary to address climate change effectively. However, a significant disconnect persists between the scientific consensus on global warming and the actions taken by political leaders at international, national, and local levels. In many of my interactions with policymakers from around the world, I often hear that despite being a global challenge, the discourse around global warming is disproportionately influenced by the perspectives and priorities of rich countries. Politicians in the global South in particular claim that this imbalance often results in global agreements that neglect the complexities of local justice and the intricate local politics involving competition for limited resources.

Lan Marie Nguyen Berg is the Deputy Leader of the Green Party and a Member of the Norwegian Parliament. She previously served as Oslo City Commissioner for transport and the environment. @Lan_Marie

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
The importance of voting as a step for political action– 04:24
Balancing short-term voter appeasement with long-term climate goals– 08:48
How Oslo became greener – 14:07
Radical policies for long-term benefit and trade-offs – 19:28
The welfare state and growing citizen expectations – 31:10
Why the Global South reacts to preaching from the Global North – 37:58
Online abuse and the future of young European leaders – 47:44

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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Tackling the Energy Access and Development Challenge — Jörg Ankel-Peters Apr 03, 2024

Many nations around the world are grappling with the challenge of providing reliable and sustainable energy access to their populations. Half a billion people, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South Asia, still rely on biomass for their basic needs, underscoring the urgent necessity for innovative energy solutions. The quest for electrification, especially in rural and underserved regions, is not just about lighting up homes but igniting opportunities for education, healthcare, and economic development. Yet, as we dig deeper, it becomes apparent that the link between electricity access and economic prosperity is nuanced and multifaceted.

Jörg Ankel-Peters co-heads the research department “Climate Change and Development” at RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research in Germany and is a Professor of Economics at the University of Passau. @jrgptrs

Resources

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
The global energy poverty challenge – 03:44
The electricity-economic growth relationship – 10:27
Expanding the grid versus mini-grids and off-grid solutions– 17:10
Health and education impacts of rural electrification– 24:27
The charcoal conundrum – 29:07
Impact of Rwanda’s Electricity Access Roll-out program (EARP) – 36:32

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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The US-China Partnership That Transformed International Trade — Elizabeth Ingleson Mar 27, 2024

In the fabric of today's interconnected globe, "Made in China" has emerged as a richly layered emblem, intertwined with economic, political, and cultural narratives. Every day, consumers worldwide engage with this tag, embedded in an array of products, prompting us to ponder: What deeper meanings unfold from the assertion that a product is "Made in China"? Pursuing this question guides us through a complex labyrinth of global manufacturing practices, the ebb and flow of international relations, and the evolving patterns of consumer culture that mark the contemporary landscape.

Elisabeth Ingleson is an Assistant Professor at the Department of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She specialises in the histories of US foreign relations, US-China relations, capitalism, and labor, and is the author of Made in China: When US-China Interests Converged to Transform Global Trade. @lizingleson

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
Nationbranding and the “Made in China” label – 03:14
Geopolitics and supply chain dynamics – 09:05
China’s convergence with global capitalism – 16:23
The significance of cultural change – 27:03
Fashion diplomacy, technology imports and development – 33:40
The impact on Chinese politics and society– 41:10

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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Empowering Change: Leadership's Role in Global Development — Willem Fourie Mar 20, 2024

Effective leadership is characterized by its ability to inspire collective action, foster inclusivity, and navigate the intricate dynamics of political, economic, and cultural landscapes to drive meaningful change. The challenge of leadership in the context of development is further complicated by the need for adaptability and resilience. Leaders must be capable of steering their communities through uncertainties and crises, demonstrating a commitment to long-term goals while addressing immediate needs. This balance requires a nuanced approach that values empathy, ethical governance, and the empowerment of local voices, ensuring that development initiatives are both participatory and reflective of the communities they aim to serve. In an era where global challenges are increasingly complex, the role of leadership in development extends beyond immediate problem-solving to envisioning a sustainable future.

Willem Fourie is an Associate Professor at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He has a joint appointment in the Stellenbosch Business School and in the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking. In Why Leaders Fail and What it Teaches Us About Leadership he delves into the critical factors that lead to leadership failure. These include a lack of awareness of one’s own shortcomings, excessive belief in one’s ability to sway others, harmful favoritism towards one’s own group, a bad fit in an organization, and poor assessment of risks. @_Willem_Fourie

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
What good leadership means – 03:25
Meeting high expectations of followers – 10:02
Understanding leadership failure – 14:40
Leadership for longterm goals – 23:38
Strategies for resolving crises – 34:22
Corruption, integrity and leadership – 38:26

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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Cityscapes and Sanctuaries: Exploring the Socio-Spatial and Religious Dynamics of Johannesburg and Lagos — Obvious Katsaura Mar 13, 2024

The African continent is projected to have the fastest urban growth rate in the world: by 2050, Africa’s cities will be home to an additional 950 million people. While this surge presents urban centers with a wealth of opportunities such as a larger workforce, increased consumer markets, and greater potential for cultural exchange, it also brings forth substantial challenges. The rapid population growth can exacerbate existing problems such as inadequate infrastructure, housing shortages, and environmental concerns. African cities with their unique history and socio-economic landscape, must navigate these complexities while harnessing the potential for innovation and economic diversification that a growing populace brings.

Obvious Katsaura is a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand. His research interests are in, and at the intersections of, the fields of transnational urbanism, transnational religiosity, religious urbanism, urban politics and urban violence.

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
The development impacts of urban inequality – 03:36
Fear, insecurity, and fortress mentality – 10:58
Migrant life in Johannesburg – 15:38
The role of churches in providing security and hope – 21:18
Pentecostalism and development in Lagos – 30:38

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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Voices and Votes: Shaping the Democratic Landscape in Africa — Boniface Dulani Mar 06, 2024

The landscape of democracy in Africa is characterized by a dynamic interplay between achievements and obstacles, particularly as the continent approaches a pivotal year with numerous elections scheduled in 2024. Countries such as South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, and Senegal are preparing for electoral contests, underscoring a persistent belief in the electoral system as a legitimate means to select leaders and representatives. Despite this faith in democracy, there is widespread disenchantment with the efficacy and fairness of the electoral process, highlighted by incidents of voter fraud and judicial rulings overturning elections. Concerns about democracy also extend to the debate on presidential term limits and the apparent unwillingness of some incumbents to vacate office. Insights from Afrobarometer surveys reveal the African public’s priorities and concerns, emphasizing issues like unemployment, economic stewardship, and healthcare. These survey findings illustrate a clear demand for democratic governance amidst dissatisfaction with how democracy currently operates, particularly in relation to corruption. Yet, amidst these challenges, there exists a sense of optimism about the future of democracy in Africa. This optimism is fueled by the continent's resilient civil society, the transformative potential of its young population, and examples of successful democratic transitions, suggesting a pathway towards more effective and representative governance.

Boniface Dulani is an Associate Professor of Political science at the University of Malawi. He is also the Director of Surveys for the Afrobarometer, a pan African network of researchers who conduct surveys on governance, economy, and livelihoods. @IPORMalawi

Resources:

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
Democratic gains and reversals on the African continent – 04:30
Reduction in political freedoms in exchange for development – 11:00
The most important problems in 39 countries – 21:25
Pervasive corruption and challenges in reporting corruption across various institutions – 40:15
What we can expect from the coming round of elections in Africa – 52:10

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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Democracy in the Balance: Navigating Latin America's Political Landscape — Gerardo Munck Feb 28, 2024

The political landscape of Latin America has undergone major transformation since the democratization wave of the 1980s and 1990s. During this time, most democracies in the region have managed to persist, albeit with a few notable exceptions. However, the quality of these democracies has often been questioned. Guillermo O’Donnell's characterization of Latin American democracies as "strange and flawed yet surviving" aptly captures this scenario.

In Latin American Politics and Society: A Comparative and Historical Analysis, Gerardo Munck and Juan Pablo Luna argue that while Latin American countries have stabilized democratic systems, the journey towards a fully democratized society remains incomplete, as evidenced by the breakdown of democracy in some parts of the region. Various factors have contributed to the state of democracy in contemporary Latin America. The challenges facing democracy in the region range from the impact of neoliberal economic policies to the influence of external powers like the United States, the role of dominant elites, political culture, state weakness, and corruption. The growing phenomenon of populist leaders such as Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and Javier Milei in Argentina forms a crucial part of our discussion. While scrutinizing the policies of these leaders and their implications for democracy, we also examine the complexities of political inclusion in Latin American societies, including the role of women, indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, and ordinary citizens in Latin American democracies. As scholars often point to the persistent crisis of representation in Latin American politics, it is important to explore the relationship between citizens and politicians, and the role of the judiciary in this dynamic. And although there are major shortcomings in providing equal access to political office for all societal groups, there has also been progress in some areas such as the introduction of gender quotas. A particularly important ongoing debate relates to what is considered the most effective development models for the region.

Gerardo Munck is a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on democracy and democratization, state capacity, Latin America, and methodology. He has also worked on the evolution of social science knowledge. @GerardoMunck

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
Latin America has made progress on easy problems, but failed to resolve hard problems – 03:32
What accounts for the state of democracy today – 10:26
The dilemmas of democracy in unequal societies – 20:58
Political inclusion and political innovations – 29:12
Democracy and development – 37:35

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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The Globalization of Finance and Its Impact on State Building — Didac Queralt Feb 21, 2024

An increasing number of countries are struggling with rising debt and facing defaults. A recent World Bank report revealed that developing countries paid a record $443.5 billion in 2022 to service their public debts, a situation exacerbated by surging global interest rates and a strong U.S. dollar. This debt servicing cost represents a 5% increase from the previous year, with warnings of more challenges ahead for the world’s poorest nations. Therefore, it is crucial to gain a deeper understanding of which forms of globalized finance are more effective in fostering development. This episode focuses on the prize-winning book Pawned States: State Building in the Era of International Finance, which examines the consequences of early access to external finance for long-term state capacity. In the 19th century, developing countries frequently sought loans from European credit houses to manage their finances and cope with war. While this external financing provided opportunities for growth, it often allowed leaders of these borrower states to skip essential steps in developing institutions and making political systems more inclusive. "Pawned States" illustrates how this reliance on early foreign loans has resulted in persistent fiscal instability and diminished governmental effectiveness in the developing world.

Didac Queralt is an assistant professor of political science at Yale University, who studies historical causes of modern-day fiscal institutions. @DidacQueralt

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
Rising public debt in the Global South – 03:56
Conditionality and the international financial architecture – 10:12
Access to international finance in the 19th century– 18:22
Borrower motives and ability to pay back loans – 24:12
Lender strategies – 31:13
Success stories: Japan and Chile – 35:08
Argentina and Ethiopia – 40:40
Lessons for modern states– 44:08

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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The Genesis of the Human Development Report and Index — Meghnad Desai Feb 14, 2024

The landscape of development theory, measurement, and policy was transformed in 1990 with the publication of the first Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). This report also introduced the Human Development Index, which is a summary measure of average achievement in 3 key dimensions of human development: life expectancy at birth, literacy and income. In 1981, Amartya Sen published a paper titled "Public action and the quality of life in developing countries", discussing global advancements in quality-of-life metrics such as longevity and literacy despite rising poverty in some areas. Sen highlighted the significant variance in progress among countries, examining how public policies influenced improvements in these indicators. His research on human capabilities, stressing the need for equitable opportunities and choices for everyone, also significantly contributed to the concept of human development. The noted Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq shared Sen’s vision of focusing on human capabilities and well-being and moving beyond GDP in the pursuit of development.Haq also pioneered the practical application of the human development approach by introducing the Human Development Index.

Both Sen and Haq were aided in this effort by Meghnad Desai, who taught economics from 1965 to 2003 at the London School of Economics, where he now holds the post of Professor Emeritus. Professor Desai has authored numerous books, the most recent being The Poverty of Political Economy: How Economics Abandoned the Poor (2022). He is also a member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Meghnad Desai at a conference in New Delhi, titled “Advancing Human Development in the Global South”. In this conversation, he highlights the shift in development metrics from traditional economic indicators to a more holistic approach that includes longevity, education, and income, explaining how this led to a transformative ranking system for countries and influenced international development policy. Our conversation took place outside the conference hall, on a chilly January day, amidst the hustle and bustle of traffic and fellow conference attendees. As I used my phone to record our discussion, you might find the sound quality less than ideal. However, I believe the insights shared by Meghnad Desai about the origins of the human development concept will more than compensate for any audio shortcomings.

Host

Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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Global Structural Reform: Poverty, Freedom, Justice, and Innovation — Thomas Pogge Feb 07, 2024

We explore the idea that the gravest deficits in freedom are intrinsically linked to poverty, impacting individuals and nations worldwide. We also examine the global innovation regime's crucial role in shaping progress and human development. International impact funds encourage and reward innovations based on their social benefits, potentially revolutionizing the current innovation regime. Towards the end of the conversation, we briefly discuss the work of John Rawls and the theory of justice as fairness, which describes a society of free citizens holding equal basic rights and cooperating within an egalitarian economic system.

Thomas Pogge is the Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University. He has has authored many influential books on cosmopolitanism, global justice, and extreme poverty. @ThomasPogge

Resources:

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
The poverty-freedom relationship – 03:12
Is poverty a violation of human rights? – 06:52
The urgency of development finance – 19:19
Innovation and impact funds – 27:50
Profits, patents, and incentives – 39:42
Global justice and solidarity with strangers – 47:00
John Rawls and a global theory of justice – 51:52

To ensure you never miss an episode of In Pursuit of Development, please make sure to subscribe to our podcast, rate us to support the show, and share this episode within your networks. Your engagement helps us bring more insightful content to you and keeps the conversation going.

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The Future of Industrialization – Jostein Hauge Jan 31, 2024

Few events have transformed society as profoundly as the Industrial Revolution. The introduction of the factory system not only revolutionized the production landscape but also reshaped the social and economic contours of nations. This transformation was marked by the birth of industries such as textiles, iron, and glass-making, which catapulted productivity and altered every facet of daily life, setting the stage for modern civilization. However, the bastions of industrialization are not impervious to change.

Jostein Hauge is a political economist and Assistant Professor in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge, based at the Centre of Development Studies and the Department of Politics and International Studies. In a new book – The Future of the Factory: How Megatrends are Changing Industrialization – he advocates for adaptive, forward-looking industrial strategies that are attuned to the realities of the 21st century. He argues that the current era is characterized by four 'megatrends' or significant shifts in technology, economy, society, and ecology that are collectively redefining the essence and trajectory of industrialization. These trends are challenging the conventional wisdom of manufacturing-led growth and industrial strategies. From the rise of service economies and digital automation to the complex web of global production networks and the pressing imperatives of ecological sustainability, these megatrends demand a reevaluation of the future of factories and the very notion of industrial development. @haugejostein

To ensure you never miss an episode of In Pursuit of Development, please make sure to subscribe to our podcast, rate us to support the show, and share this episode within your networks. Your engagement helps us bring more insightful content to you and keeps the conversation going.

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
Industrialization, factories, and wellbeing – 03:56
Labor conditions in global production networks – 09:27
Devising a good industrial strategy – 14:01
The role of manufacturing – 24:14
Automation and the fear of mass unemployment – 29:35
Global governance and leveling the playing field – 38:03
Industrial strategies in an age of ecological breakdown – 41:53

Host

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Development as a Right: Unpacking Principles and Practices — Surya Deva Jan 24, 2024

The right to development enables individuals and communities to actively participate in and benefit from various forms of development — economic, social, cultural, and political — while ensuring their human rights and freedoms. It involves a range of responsibilities, including the roles of states, multinational companies, NGOs, businesses, and educational institutions. Central to this right are principles of self-determination, intersectionality, intergenerational equity, and fair distribution, aiming for inclusive, diverse, and sustainable development. The shift towards a rights-based development framework is evident in initiatives like the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Bridgetown Initiative. Additionally, the role of businesses in this context is guided by frameworks like the UN Global Compact and the Business and Human Rights Guiding Principles, moving beyond the traditional "do no harm" approach. Despite its significance, the right to development faces challenges and legal critiques regarding its implementation and necessity.

Surya Deva is the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to development and a Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for Environmental Law at Macquarie University, Australia. @ProfSuryaDeva @UNSRdevelopment

Resources:

Declaration on the right to development (1986)
Reinvigorating the right to development: A vision for the future (report submitted to the Human Rights Council, August 2023)
Role of business in realizing the right to development (July 2023)

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
The right to development and its added value– 03:46
The value of binding conventions versus non-binding declarations– 09:25
Why the judiciary often prioritizes civil and political rights – 15:16
Legalization of the right and the role of the courts in upholding binding conventions– 26:18
Has the definition of the right to development been overly broadened or inflated? – 31:31
The Global North perspective and the role of businesses – 40:23

Host

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Shifting Paradigms: The Global South and Feminist Political Economy Unveiled — Sara Stevano Jan 17, 2024

The term "Global South" has seen an exponential rise in both academic discourse and international policy dialogues, having evolved from a mere synonym for the “Third World” to a complex geo-historical concept. In the first part of this episode, we critically analyze the utility and limitations of the term, acknowledging the diverse economic, political, and cultural realities it attempts to encapsulate. In the second section, we unpack how feminist political economy scrutinizes the power relations underlying production and consumption, challenges the fictitious separation of economic realms from the social, political, and cultural spheres, and highlights the gendered nature of economic inequalities. We explore the critical themes of social reproduction, care economies, labor market inequalities, and the household as a site of gendered power dynamics, all while considering the intersectionality of gender, race, and class.

Sara Stevano is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at SOAS University of London. Sara’s areas of expertise include the political economy of work, food and nutrition, inequalities and social reproduction. Her recent book with Sara Cantillon and Odile Mackett is Feminist Political Economy. A Global Perspective. @SaraStevano @SOAS

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
The utility and limitations of the term the "Global South"– 03:58
The term "Global South" often comes under criticism for several reasons– 10:12
The added value of feminist political economy approaches – 16:36
The feminization of poverty – 21:06
The complex relations between gender, growth, and poverty – 26:46
The global care chain and the double burden – 34:20
Feminist political economy and climate change – 44:54

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Beyond Trade: China's Cultural and Political Relations in Africa – Joshua Eisenman Jan 10, 2024

China's burgeoning relationship with the African continent has been characterized by significant economic investment, trade, and infrastructure development, with China emerging as Africa's largest trading partner and a major player in the continent's evolving economic landscape. In recent years, we have seen an influx of Chinese involvement in African industries ranging from mining and construction to manufacturing and retail. This has been accompanied by an ambitious drive to develop Africa's infrastructure with projects that span roads, railways, ports, airports, and telecommunications networks. But the ties between China and Africa extend far beyond economics. We're witnessing a dynamic cultural exchange, burgeoning diplomatic activities, and even aid and military support. However, these activities have not been without controversy, igniting debates over so-called debt-trap diplomacy and resource exploitation.

Joshua Eisenman is an Associate Professor of Politics in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on the political economy of China’s development and foreign relations with the United States and the Global South —particularly Africa. Together with David Shinn, Josh has recently co-authored a new book entitled: China’s Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement. @Joshua_Eisenman

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
China and an alternative world order – 03:20
The quest for soft power – 10:40
Debt burdens and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – 15:10
Revamping the BRI – 18:11
Why “debt-trap diplomacy” is misleading – 24:10
China’s growing relational power - 30:14
Increasing the voice of the Global South – 39:57
New forms of Chinese multilateralism – 45:53

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Accountability in Action: The World Bank's Inspection Panel on the Frontlines – Ramanie Kunanayagam Dec 27, 2023

Established as an independent complaints mechanism in 1993, the Inspection Panel is tasked with bringing transparency and redress to those adversely affected by World Bank-funded initiatives. The Panel is widely recognized as an international pioneer in respect to holding a major multilateral organization to account on social and environmental issues. Over the past three decades, it has registered numerous “Requests for Inspection”, from communities potentially affected by World Bank-financed projects, and has focused on a range of issues, such as environmental assessment, resettlement and the rights of indigenous peoples. Just how effective has the Inspection Panel been in safeguarding the interests of marginalized groups while holding one of the world’s most powerful institutions to account?

Ramanie Kunanayagam is the Chairperson of the Inspection Panel. She has a distinguished track record in leadership roles within the realm of sustainability, having served in prominent capacities in the corporate world and on the boards of several non-profit organizations. Linkedin

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
How does the Inspection operate? - 03:32
Shrinking civic space and the Panel’s accessibility - 10:44
How the Bank acts upon the Panel’s recommendations - 16:53
Typical complaints - 21:23
The puzzling lack of consultation of local residents - 25:29
The business and human rights linkages - 38:33
Learning from past mistakes - 48:51

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From Miracle to Menace: The Fight Against Plastic Pollution — Gloria Majiga Dec 20, 2023

Once heralded as a miraculous material, plastic now poses a slow and insidious threat to our waterways, landscapes, and ecosystems. Plastic pollution impacts different regions of the world to varying degrees, and Malawi stands out as a notable example. An estimated 75,000 tons of plastic are manufactured annually in the country, with a minimum of 80% of these plastics being discarded as single-use items. Following pressure from environmental activists, the Government of Malawi took action by implementing a nationwide prohibition on the production, distribution, and importation of thin plastics in 2015. This ban was specifically aimed at plastics with a thickness of 60 microns or less, roughly equivalent to the thickness of plastic bags commonly used for fruits and vegetables in grocery stores.

One of the prominent advocates driving the campaign for the prohibition of single-use plastics was Gloria Majiga, a community development officer and dedicated environmental activist. She was awarded the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa, acknowledging her remarkable efforts in championing the implementation of the nationwide ban on single-use plastics in Malawi. Linkedin

Resources:

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
The development-environment tradeoff - 05:03
Waste management strategies and practices - 07:47
Goats and the plastic ban - 20:27
The role of the judiciary and implementation of the ban- 32:12
The environmental consequences of investments - 40:58
Are leaders the problem? - 47:26

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Decoding Development: The Crucial Role of Institutions – Shiping Tang Dec 13, 2023

Development implies not just growth over a significant period of time but also progressive changes in the structure of an economy. Many influential scholars have identified the crucial role of property rights and the importance of constraining the power of the state while others highlight the importance of political settlements, development clusters, and inclusive economic and political institutions.

Shiping Tang is Fudan Distinguished Professor and Dr. Seaker Chan Chair Professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University, China. In his latest book, The Institutional Foundation of Economic Development: A systemic account of how institutions shape economic development, he argues that institutions play a pivotal role in shaping and influencing economic development through four key factors: possibility, incentive, capability, and opportunity. In addition, his framework encompasses six significant dimensions: political hierarchy, property rights, social mobility, redistribution, innovation protection, and equal opportunity. Sustained economic development, however, necessitates not only a robust institutional foundation but also strong state capacity and well-crafted socioeconomic policies.

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:24
What is economic development? - 03:15
The development-democracy linkage - 05:19
Why established understandings of institutions are incomplete - 11:30
The institutional foundations of economic development - 14:45
The new development triangle - 21:02
Explaining China’s economic success - 25:40
Power and influence of local leaders in China - 34:23
Achieving sustained economic growth – 44:10

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Making Sense of Cancer: Why Better Therapy Leads to More Disease – Jarle Breivik Dec 06, 2023

The overarching objective of cancer research, championed by organizations like the US National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society, is to "end cancer as we know it". While this statement may suggest a future with less cancer, the stark reality unfolds quite differently. My guest argues that modern medicine is not in the process of ending cancer; rather, we are accelerating the problem. Globally, the number of new cases each year is estimated to increase from 18 million in 2020 to 28 million in 2040. Cancer is intrinsically related to aging, and the incidence increases exponentially from the age of 50. Accordingly, the better we get at treating the disease and postponing death, the more cancer there will be in the population.

Jarle Breivik (MD, PhD, EdD) is professor and head of the Department of Behavioral Medicine at the University of Oslo. He is on a mission to change the scientific discourse and the public perception of cancer. In his new book Making Sense of Cancer: From Its Evolutionary Origin to Its Societal Impact and the Ultimate Solution, Jarle discusses how aging, cancer, and death are essential elements of what it means to be human. Eradicating these elements would signify not just the conclusion of cancer but the potential demise of humanity itself. He is internationally recognized for his research on the evolutionary dynamics of cancer, and his thought-provoking analyses in PNAS, EMBO Reports, Scientific American, Wired Magazine, and the New York Times have stimulated a profound international debate about the understanding of cancer and cancer research. @jarlebreivik, Linkedin

Resources:

Why we won't cure cancer, op-ed, New York Times (May 2016) (Jarle Breivik)
Why I hope to die of cancer (Jarle Breivik)
Dying of cancer is the best death, British Medical Journal, (Richard Smith)
The end of cancer would mean the end of humanity (Richard Smith)

Key highlights

Introduction - 00:24
Understanding cancer - 02:40
Whether treating cancer can cause more cancer - 09:30
Why the dominant global narrative on eliminating cancer is wrong - 10:55
Where is the human desire to live a long life taking us? - 14:45
The ethics of cancer treatment in high-income and low-income countries - 18:00
Should we prioritize treating some types of cancer over others? - 28:27
The substantial feedback generated by an op-ed in The New York Times - 36:08
How humans cope with crises and the need for optimism – 41:00

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Beyond Red Tape: Unraveling Bureaucratic Paradoxes in Public Service Delivery – Akshay Mangla Nov 29, 2023

Scholars have highlighted the extent to which institutions in certain developing countries often lack the power to effectively project authority and implement policies. There may also be a substantial gap between public policy objectives and their actual execution, which in turn reduces the credibility and legitimacy of the state. Bureaucracies exhibit significant variation in their ability to implement policies both between and within countries, across various policy functions, and even within specific administrative tasks. While the Indian bureaucracy is often criticized for being captured and thereby unable to execute its core functions, it is at the same time able to coordinate hugely challenging tasks such as periodic elections. This paradox is further evident in the puzzling disparities in performance across Indian states, exemplified by the country’s success in eradicating polio even as its public health systems face significant challenges.

Akshay Mangla is Associate Professor of International Business at the University of Oxford, Saïd Business School. In — Making Bureaucracy Work: Norms, Education and Public Service Delivery in Rural India — he examines how and why some bureaucracies deliver education services more effectively than others. He finds that variations in bureaucratic norms (informal rules guiding public officials and their interactions with citizens) result in diverse implementation patterns and outcomes. While some agencies adhere strictly to legalistic approaches, emphasizing rule compliance, others foster deliberation and encourage flexible problem-solving with local communities, ultimately improving the quality of education services. @AkshayMangla

Key highlights

Introduction - 00:24
The perception of bureaucrats being slow and inefficient - 03:56
Balancing adherence to rules with exercising discretion - 06:18
Embedded autonomy and development - 17:32
The bureaucratic paradox in India - 22:14
Legalistic bureaucracy versus deliberative bureaucracy - 30:48
Engaging street-level bureaucrats in addressing and responding to local issues - 37:26
How bureaucrats respond to advance the interests of both underprivileged groups and elites - 43:41
Addressing the learning crisis in low-income countries: strategies and solutions – 51:12

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Unpacking the Backlash Against Globalization and its Impact on Inequality – Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg Nov 22, 2023

Globalization is a force that has transformed our world in ways both remarkable and challenging. From the historic wave of trade liberalizations in the late 20th century to the monumental rise of China, an intricate interplay of a range of forces has molded the interconnected nature of our planet. Along the way, we have witnessed the decline of manufacturing in advanced economies and the far-reaching impacts of trade on global poverty, inequality, and labor markets. Despite a rapid advance for two decades, globalization slowed after the 2008–2009 financial crisis, but it did not come to a halt. But we have witnessed in recent years a backlash against globalization, particularly in some of the world’s largest economies, including two of globalization’s bastions, the United States and Great Britain. So, is the world economy deglobalizing? Is globalization in crisis? And are we witnessing the beginning of a new era?

Pinelopi (Penny) Koujianou Goldberg is the Elihu Professor of Economics at Yale University and the former chief economist of the World Bank Group. Penny was recently in Oslo to deliver the WIDER Annual lecture. We used that opportunity to engage in a discussion centred around her latest book with Greg Larson – The Unequal Effects of Globalization. @PennyG_Yale

Key highlights

Introduction - 00:24
Globalization and development - 03:13
Winners and losers of hyperglobalization - 09:00
Reasons for dissatisfaction in the Global South - 16:22
Backlash against globalization in the Global North - 26:40
How China and many others benefited from globalization - 33:44
TRIPS waiverand manufacturing capacity - 41:26
Climate disruption and future of multilateralism - 45:40
Is degrowth feasible? – 52:40

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A New Horizon: Advancing Public Sector Reform in Africa – Happy Kayuni Nov 15, 2023

Many African countries have undergone various phases of public sector reform aimed at enhancing efficiency and service delivery. But how effective have such reforms been? How and to what extent can some of these reforms be characterised as "institutional mimicry", where institutions adopt the language and behavior of reform without necessarily achieving substantial changes on the ground? How meritocratic is the civil service? And what about political interference, bureaucratic motivation and/or demotivation, corruption, and the role and influence of external actors?

Happy Kayuni is a professor of political science at the University of Malawi’s Politics and Government Department. He is currently also the Executive Dean of the School of Law, Economics and Government at the University of Malawi. His main areas of expertise are in the following areas: political governance, public administration and management, and gender and international development policy. @HappyKayuni

Key highlights

Introduction - 00:24
Development or the lack of it in Malawi - 03:50
State capacity, policy formulation and implementation - 06:56
Everyday challenges facing civil servants - 13:50
The major areas of public sector reforms on the African continent - 22:20
Reforms for whom and for what - 29:05
Instituting discipline in the civil service - 40:55
Legitimacy of the state and role of external actors - 46:44

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Political Constraints in Growth and Development: Moving beyond talking about them to actually tackling them – Peter Evans Nov 08, 2023

Although political constraints have significant negative impacts on development, mainstream approaches to addressing these issues are often primarily technical and lack a willingness to understand and address political economy factors. Despite decades of technical efforts in sectors like health, education, and climate, some critical problems persist, such as drug supply losses, tree planting failures, and chronic absenteeism in health and education.

Peter Evans is a governance specialist with wide-ranging experience and expertise across international development and social research. He holds a PhD in medical geography and was previously Team Leader of the Governance, Conflict, Inclusion and Humanitarian Research Team at the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). In this role, Peter designed and led the Anti-Corruption Evidence (ACE) programme. Until recently, he was director of the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) in Bergen. @PeterEvans_Guv

Peter argues that the supply of practical political economy research is limited and often falls short of practicality and accessibility, shaped more by researchers' interests and fund availability than the needs of policymakers or practitioners. Political economy research is further hindered by its sensitivity and riskiness, making it challenging for researchers, particularly in politically unstable or corrupt environments. On the demand side, there is a lack of structured efforts to understand and address political constraints in global investments for growth and development. Politics is often relegated to a risk rather than a problem to be understood and engaged with. And many actors in the field, including national governments, bilateral agencies, and multilateral organizations, often avoid addressing political economy factors, which hinders effective development outcomes.

Resources

Key highlights

Introduction - 00:24
Wicked problems and progress - 03:50
Taking politics seriously - 08:08
Tackling corruption - 20:25
Why capacity building initiatives do not work - 36:20
Political settlements and public procurement - 44:07
Anti-corruption: What should researchers, donors, and governments focus more on - 53:52

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India's Aspirations on the Global Stage — Suhasini Haidar Nov 01, 2023

India's journey from a post-colonial nation to a global powerhouse has been nothing short of remarkable. The journey to this point has been marked by twists and turns, economic reforms, and strategic partnerships that have propelled India onto the world stage in ways that were once unimaginable. In the process, it has become an economic powerhouse, fostering innovation, trade, and partnerships that have set the world abuzz.

But India's story isn't just about impressive economic growth. It's also about the democratic values that shape its identity. Indeed, India's status as the world's largest democracy empowers it to play a pivotal role in shaping global governance and navigating the geopolitical terrain. How then has India harnessed its diverse culture, technological prowess, and military might to expand its global reach? What kind of global power does India aspire to be? And what are the potential dilemmas in India’s great power ambitions?

Suhasini Haidar is the Diplomatic Editor of The Hindu, one of India’s oldest and most respected national dailies. She was previously correspondent for CNN International’s New Delhi bureau and prime time anchor for a leading 24-hr English news channel CNN-IBN. Apart from writing for The Hindu, she hosts a weekly online show called WorldView with Suhasini Haidar. @suhasinih

Note: This episode was recorded in New Delhi in July 2023, well the BRICS summit in August that resulted in an expansion of the BRICS group of countries, and before the G20 Leaders’ Declaration that was adopted at the G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Summit held in September.

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:24
India’s place in the world - 05:02
Democracy, foreign policy, and the Global South - 10:48
Soft power and India’s position on the war in Ukraine - 16:01
Resurrecting BRICS and South-South Cooperation - 24:42
Balancing relations with United States and China - 33:32
The G20 Presidency experience - 39:58
Foreign policy aspirations – 47:00

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Humanity's Enduring Quest for Power and Prosperity – Daron Acemoglu Oct 25, 2023

We engage in a discussion centered around Daron Acemoglu's latest book, co-authored with Simon Johnson, titled Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity. The choices we make regarding technology can either advance the interests of a select elite or serve as the foundation for widespread prosperity. But technology's trajectory can be, and should be, controlled and directed for the benefit of all. The remarkable advances in computing over the past fifty years have the potential to be tools of empowerment and democratization, but only if decision-making power is dispersed rather than concentrated in the hands of a few overconfident tech leaders.

Daron Acemoglu is Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT. @DAcemogluMIT

(Cover photo of Daron Acemoglu by Cody O'Loughlin)

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:24
Understanding “progress” - 04:06
Optimism in an era of doom and gloom - 12:00
The power of persuasion - 16:10
Shared prosperity, welfare, and whether technology is always useful - 25:08
Machine intelligence vs. machine usefulness - 30:12
How technology (e.g., AI) can help promote development in low-income countries - 36:50

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Unveiling the Global Tapestry: Liberalism, Democracy, and the Path to Development – Francis Fukuyama Jun 28, 2023

Grounded in fundamental principles of equality and the rule of law, liberalism is a system for governing diverse societies and emphasizes the rights of individuals to pursue their own forms of happiness free from government encroachment. But classical liberalism is in a state of crisis and is now being challenged from both the political right and the left. In his latest book – Liberalism and its discontents – Francis Fukuyama outlines some of the main reasons for the current state of crisis and offers a defense of a revitalized liberalism for the twenty-first century.

Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a faculty member of FSI's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. He is also Director of Stanford's Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy, and a professor of political science. Twitter: @FukuyamaFrancis

(Cover photo of Francis Fukuyama by Rod Searcey)

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:24
The debate on democratic backsliding - 03:30
Democracy and “good enough governance” - 08:25
Distinguishing between liberalism and democracy - 16:05
Moral and economic justifications for liberalism - 24:24
Inequality as a cause of discontentment - 38:33
Alternatives to liberalism - 43:43
How AI will impact democracies - 57:17

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Unraveling Brazil's political and legal landscape – Conrado Hübner Mendes Jun 21, 2023

In the wake of President Lula's re-election, Brazil finds itself at a critical juncture, with numerous questions arising about the relationship between the political, legislative, and judicial systems. As Brazil grapples with its political dynamics, it is crucial to understand the extent to which the judiciary maintains its autonomy and upholds the rule of law. In this episode, we dive deep into this crucial aspect, highlighting the challenges and potential implications for the country's democratic fabric.

Conrado Hübner Mendes is a Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of São Paulo. His work encompasses the separation of powers, judicial review, theories of justice and democracy, and the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court. Twitter: @conradohubner

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:43
Current political situation in Brazil - 03:10
Relationship between the political and judicial systems - 06:38
Tackling poverty, inequality, and corruption - 23:36
Constitutionalization of environmental protection in Latin America- 29:54

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Planet & Progress: Navigating Climate, Poverty, and Aid — Anne Beathe Tvinnereim Jun 14, 2023

Our world is currently facing numerous crises. While progress on global poverty reduction has stalled, the incidence of violent conflicts is on the rise. Along with rising poverty and inequality in some parts of the world, geopolitical tensions are also fast escalating, and we are in the midst of a climate crisis that requires urgent political action. The resources available to address these numerous challenges appear, however, to be grossly inadequate. There is growing concern whether and to what extent rich countries are willing to take on greater responsibility for addressing global challenges, including increased finance for sustainable development, climate adaptation, and global public goods. The case of Norway is particularly interesting. It is extremely wealthy, frequently tops human development rankings, and is often praised for being a generous provider of foreign aid. But it is also a major exporter of oil and gas. Does this mean that Norway should take on additional global responsibilities? And although foreign aid can only provide a small fraction of the required resources, it is nonetheless of crucial importance in many low-income countries. What then is the future of aid in a fragmented world order where countries are becoming more selfish? Should Norway be doing much more than it already is? If so, what?

Anne Beathe Tvinnereim is Norway’s Minister of International Development. She has had a long and distinguished career in politics and diplomacy, and is currently the deputy leader of the Centre Party, which forms the ruling coalition together with the Labour party. Anne Beathe studied political science at the University of Oslo and wrote a thought-provoking Master’s thesis over a decade ago on aid. Twitter: @AnneBeathe_

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Forging New Paths in Challenging Geopolitical Landscapes — Stephen D. Krasner Jun 07, 2023

Steve Krasner has for decades been one of the most influential international relations scholars in the world. He is the Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations and a Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute and the Hoover Institution.In 2002, he served as Director for Governance and Development at the National Security Council. And from 2005 to 2007, he was Director of the Policy Planning at the US Department of State.

In his latest book, How to Make Love to a Despot: An alternative foreign policy for the 21st Century, Steve Krasner argues that because prosperous, democratic nations are exceptions in international politics, the United States ought to adopt policies “acceptable to despotic rulers”. This means coming to terms with the “good-enough governance” of nondemocratic governments rather than trying to consolidate democracy around the world.

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Unleashing the Power of Business to Change the World — Raj Kumar May 31, 2023

Although traditional approaches to aid may often have been well-intentioned, they relied heavily on large-scale endeavors initiated by a handful of aid agencies and international organizations. The situation today is very different. There are disruptive forces in the form of large corporations, Silicon Valley startups, and billionaire philanthropists, who are spearheading a paradigm shift towards data-driven and outcome-focused global development. Entrepreneurial startups are also offering a range of services to farmers and rural inhabitants as well as urban customers; and new organizations are helping individuals to directly send money to those in need via an app.

Raj Kumar is the President and Editor-in-Chief at Devex, the media platform for the global development community. He is a media leader and former humanitarian council chair for the World Economic Forum and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His work has led him to more than 50 countries, where he has had the honor to meet many of the aid workers and development professionals who make up the Devex community. He is the author of the book The Business of Changing the World: How Billionaires, Tech Disrupters, and Social Entrepreneurs are Transforming the Global Aid Industry, which is a go-to primer on the ideas, people, and technology disrupting the aid industry. Twitter: @raj_devex

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:40
Media and global development - 03:15
Origins and impact of Devex's journalism - 16:34
Role of businesses in global development - 21:54
The poor as customers - 30:00
How billionaire philanthropists have disrupted aid world - 34:52
Celebrities and global development - 43:30

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Using Evidence to Drive Policy and Achieve Lasting Development Impact — Rachel Glennerster May 24, 2023

There is considerable and growing attention and interest on understanding what works, where, how, and why in development. This also means there are numerous debates on how best we ought to generate evidence and measure development success and impact. One way of measuring development impact is through randomized control trials (RCTs), which have been very useful for establishing causal relationships and providing robust and reliable evidence for evaluating the effectiveness and safety of development programs.

While some regard RCTs as the gold standard, others are more critical of using it to measure what works. Critics argue that it is not just about 'what works,' but 'why things work' which should be prioritized when designing effective policies and interventions that can be scaled up.

Another related aspect in this context is the generalizability puzzle, i.e., whether the results of a specific program can be generalized to other contexts. For example, there are questions about whether a study can inform policy only in the location in which it was undertaken. Should policymakers mainly rely on whatever evidence is available locally, even if it is not of very good quality? There is also the question of whether a new local randomized evaluation should be undertaken before an attempt to scale up and the number of times such evaluations should be repeated before scaling up.

Rachel Glennerster is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. She uses randomized trials to study democracy and accountability, health, education, microfinance, and women’s empowerment mainly in West Africa and South Asia. Rachel spent 13 years as the executive director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT, a key leader in popularizing RCTs in development economics. Thereafter she served as chief economist of the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Twitter: @rglenner

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:44
Asking the right questions and answering them correctly - 03:45
The added-value of RCTs and critique - 08:00
The generalizability puzzle - 17:37
Education and learning - 23:20
Microfinance in India - 26:13
Improving public services through participation - 34:30
Impact of the media in Burkina Faso - 38:38
Translating evidence into policy - 46:00

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Professor Dan Banik (Twitter: @danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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Unpacking the complexities of corruption — Daniel Agbiboa May 17, 2023

The conventional wisdom is that corruption is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that has a significant impact on societies and individuals around the world. And most people would agree that corruption is bad. It can undermine the rule of law, erode public trust, and distort economic development. But there are those who argue that to truly address corruption, we must rethink our understanding of what it is and how it operates. This may include adopting a dialectical approach that pays attention to the practical and social life of corruption, and the strategies of the various actors involved. What is crucial in this context is how we can best unpack the complicated web of social norms, value acceptances, power relations, negotiations, and social networks that animates local discourse and practices of corruption.

Daniel Agbiboa is an assistant professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. In his recent book – They Eat Our Sweat: Transport Labor, Corruption, and Everyday Survival in Urban Nigeria – he explores how transport workers encounter and respond to the situation defined by extortion and violence in which they ply their trade. Twitter: @DanielAgbiboa

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:52
What the literature on corruption overlooks - 03:52
The language of corruption in African countries - 08:03
Why efforts to curb corruption often fail - 20:23
The road transport sector in Nigeria- 28:54
Rethinking anti-corruption policy - 46:20

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How industrialization reshapes modern ethnic identities — Elliott Green May 10, 2023

One of the most important factors explaining ethnic change in the modern world is industrialization, which has resulted in significant changes in the way we live and work, including changes in migration patterns and social structures. As people move from rural areas to urban centers, they may find themselves interacting with others from very different cultural backgrounds and must therefore adapt to new social norms and customs.

Elliott Green is Professor of Development Studies in the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics. In his recent book — Industrialization and Assimilation: Understanding Ethnic Change in the Modern World — he provides a new framework to understand the origins of modern ethnic identities. Elliott explains how and why ethnicity changes across time, showing that, by altering the basis of economic production from land to labour, industrialization makes societies more ethnically homogenous. By lowering the relative value of rural land, industrialization results in people identifying less with narrow rural identities in favour of broader identities that can help them navigate the formal urban economy. Twitter: @ElliottDGreen

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:53
Ethnicity and race - 03:20
Negotiating identity - 12:36
Assimilation and the state - 18:10
Turkey, United States and New Zealand - 27:00
Somalia, Uganda and Botswana - 32:30
Ethiopia - 40:45
South Africa - 44:50

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How China's digital entrepreneurs are redefining innovation and reshaping the global economy — Lin Zhang May 03, 2023

Internet-based entrepreneurship has flourished in China for the past decade and a half. This includes start-ups in big cities, rural areas experiencing an e-commerce boom, and middle-class women reselling luxury goods. My guest argues that for many of these individuals involved in digital entrepreneurship, reinventing oneself as an entrepreneur has been an appealing way to adapt to a changing economy and society. Indeed, this everyday labor of entrepreneurial reinvention is remaking China amid changing geopolitical currents.

In her new book, The Labor of Reinvention: Entrepreneurship in the New Chinese Digital Economy, Lin Zhang explores the surge in digital entrepreneurialism against the backdrop of global financial crises, the U.S.-China trade war, and the more recent pandemic. She argues that the rise of internet-based industries and practices has simultaneously empowered and exploited digital entrepreneurs and laborers. Despite embracing high-tech innovation, state-led entrepreneurialization does not represent a radical break with the past. Rather such entrepreneurship has also reinforced traditional Chinese ideas about state power, labor, gender, and identity.

Lin Zhang is an assistant professor of communication and media studies at the University of New Hampshire. Twitter:@LinZhang9

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:52
Entrepreneurialism and entrepreneurship - 04:04
Surge in entrepreneurialism in China following the 2008 financial crisis - 09:36
Opportunities and challenges facing migrants - 18:10
Elite, urban-based entrepreneurs vs. non-elite entrepreneurs - 34:04
China’s reinvention and innovation efforts vis-a-vis the United States - 48:15

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Making every dollar count — Ryan Briggs Apr 26, 2023

Effective altruism has been in the news of late. Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, which collapsed in 2022, was for many years a leading voice for and financial sponsor of the effective altruist movement. He and others have argued for ‘longtermism’: the idea that positively influencing the distant future is a key moral priority of our time. As effective altruism and longtermism have become increasingly influential, these ideas have also been subject to greater scrutiny.

Ryan Briggs is an associate professor in the Guelph Institute of Development Studies and Department of Political Science at the University of Guelph. He has worked extensively on foreign aid, African politics, and effective altruism. Twitter: @ryancbriggs

Resources:

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:43
The current status of the effective altruism movement - 03:08
Strengthening effective altruism with a capability approach - 15:07
The political effects of foreign aid - 21:37
Targeting the poorest in World Bank projects - 39:43
How effective altruism can shape aid policies - 48:32

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Patching development – Rajesh Veeraraghavan Apr 19, 2023

Many well-designed development programs do not deliver social benefits effectively, especially to marginalized citizens. While political will and good policy design are vital for a program’s success, they often run into resistance from local power systems. How states react to the local exercise of power that often comes into play at the “last mile” of project implementation appears to be particularly important. Indeed, the extent to which development programs avoid being captured by state or local power systems is key and something that concerns both scholars and practitioners.

My guest has studied whether the opening of government records and the use of digital technology provide higher levels of government with better tools to effectively monitor local state action. Rajesh Veeraraghavan is an assistant professor in the Science Technology and International Affairs Program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. In a wonderful new book, Patching Development: Information Politics and Social Change in India, Rajesh explores two crucial and interrelated questions: First, how can states best deliver social benefits to marginalized citizens? And second, what role can marginalized citizens and members of civil society play in strengthening systems of accountability? Twitter: @RajeshVeeraa

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:52
India's ambitious social protection agenda - 05:02
Bureaucratic capacity and motivation in the implementation process - 14:08
Rights-based development programs and the Right to Information - 20:03
The "patching development" concept - 33:45
Addressing resistance in development programs - 50:54

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Professor Dan Banik, University of Oslo, Twitter: @danbanik @GlobalDevPod

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Is economic growth the magic wand for ending poverty? — Charles Kenny Apr 12, 2023

Charles Kenny is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington DC. He was previously at the World Bank, where his assignments included coordinating work on governance and anticorruption in infrastructure and natural resources, and managing investment and technical assistance projects covering telecommunications and the Internet. Charles has written several books, two of which we discussed in this conversation: Getting Better: Why Global Development is Succeeding, and Our World, Better: Global Progress and What You Can Do About It. We also discussed a recent report, where Charles and his coauthor Zack Gehan created a set of scenarios for the shape of the global economy in 2050. While their forecast for richer countries is not very optimistic, what they found is largely positive for developing and middle-income nations. For example, the report finds that incomes per capita on the African continent could be 76% higher in 2050 than they were a few years ago, and in India incomes could jump 136%. Twitter: @charlesjkenny

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:46
Global development viewed from Washington - 02:52
Reducing extreme poverty by 2050 - 07:15
Economic growth, poverty and “degrowth” - 15:40
What should the World Bank be doing more of? - 28:25
The global public goods agenda - 39:00
OECD DAC aid has lost its credibility - 43:30
Combating pessimism and short-term thinking – 50:18

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A more fragmented world — Helen Clark Apr 05, 2023

Our guest on this very special (100th) episode is someone I greatly admire and needs very little introduction. Helen Clark has engaged widely in policy development and advocacy across the international, economic, social and cultural spheres. She was Prime Minister of New Zealand for nine years and has also served as the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. Since 2019, she has chaired the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and in 2020, she was appointed co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, established by the World Health Organization. In addition to serving on numerous advisory boards and commissions, Helen is a strong and highly influential voice on gender equality and women’s leadership, sustainable development, climate action, peace and justice, and global health. Twitter: @HelenClarkNZ

Resources:

Transforming or Tinkering? Inaction lays the groundwork for the next pandemic (Report of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response)
It is time for ambitious, transformational change to the epidemic countermeasures ecosystem (The Lancet, 2023)
The Helen Clark Foundation

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:45
Development as it ought to be understood - 04:10
The fragmented global development agenda - 08:10
Role and relevance of the United Nations system - 15:37
Preparing for the next pandemic - 20:28
How politicians translate research into policy - 35:35
The challenges faced by female leaders - 42:20

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The European Union and global development — Johanne Døhlie Saltnes Mar 29, 2023

The European Union is collectively the biggest provider of international aid in the world, contributing over € 50 billion a year to the fight against poverty and the advancement of global development. However, while the EU’s capacities and impact in foreign and security policy have been extensively discussed among scholars and policymakers, its role in promoting global development has attracted less attention. Our guest has focused her research on the contestation of international norms and values, particularly the promotion of human rights norms in the EU’s development policy.In identifying the limits to the EU’s approach, her recent book discusses how standardised policies, particularly in the case of human rights sanctions, may be perceived as neo-colonially intrusive and can come at the cost of recognising the experiences and interests of vulnerable groups and allowing for partner countries’ democratic ownership of their own development trajectory.

Johanne Døhlie Saltnes is a lecturer and collaborating researcher at the Institute for International Relations (IREL) at the University of Brasilia. She was previously a post-doctoral fellow at ARENA, Centre for European Studies, at the University of Oslo. Her book, The European Union and Global Development: A Rights-Based Approach?, was published in 2021 by Routledge. Johanne is the academic editor of ECPR’s political science blog, The Loop. Twitter: @johannesaltnes

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:55
The current status of the Human Rights-Based Approach to development - 04:10
The EU as a global development player- 07:42
The application of the EU's human rights clause - 15:56
Impact of applying a human rights-based approach in national contexts - 38:00

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Banking on Beijing — Axel Dreher Mar 22, 2023

China plays a crucial role in the development policies of many countries around the world. It offers grants and loans, and builds major infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, power plants, parliament buildings, hotels, and football stadiums. A new book claims that that much of the conventional wisdom about Chinese development finance rests on untested assumptions, individual case studies, and incomplete data sources. The authors argue that Beijing’s use of debt rather than aid to bankroll big-ticket infrastructure projects certainly creates new opportunities for developing countries to achieve rapid socioeconomic gains. However, such actions also introduce major risks, such as corruption, political capture, and conflict.

Axel Dreher is a Professor of International and Development Politics at Heidelberg University, Germany. Together with Andreas Fuchs, Bradley Parks, Austin Strange and Michael Tierney, Axel co-authored Banking on Beijing: The Aims and Impacts of China's Overseas Development Program (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Twitter: @DreherAxel

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:50
On why is it hard to find data on Chinese aid and investments - 04:04
Chinese aid, motives, and soft power- 09:40
The methods for unpacking Chinese aid data - 24:30
Understanding the transition from "benefactor" to "banker" - 32:00
The need and long-term viability of big infrastructure projects - 43:44

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Africa’s youth in the race for climate action — Hilda Flavia Nakabuye Mar 18, 2023

Fridays For Future is a youth-led movement that began in August 2018. This movement was inspired by 15-year-old Greta Thunberg and other young activists, who sat in front of the Swedish parliament every school day for three weeks, to protest against the lack of action on the climate crisis. While Greta has become a household name, there are many other young activists around the world who are also making a vital contribution by pressuring their governments to undertake climate action.

Our guest – Hilda Flavia Nakabuye – is one of these inspiring young African leaders. While pursuing her university studies in Kampala, Hilda began to acquire a nuanced understanding of the causes of unpredictable rainy seasons, frequent heatwaves, droughts and floods that she had witnessed growing up in southern Uganda. Indeed, she began connecting the dots and realized that much of what she and her family had experienced (and what her country continues to experience) was and is caused by climate disruption. She therefore decided to become a climate and environmental rights activist and founded Uganda’s Fridays for Future movement in 2019. Twitter: @NakabuyeHildaF @Fridays4FutureU

Resources

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:38
How to promote both development and protect the environment - 04:00
Growing climate activismamong Africa’s youth- 08:56
The menace of air pollution - 24:30
Uganda’s oil and the East African Crude Oil Pipeline - 35:40

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Poverty and the new threat to prosperity — Indermit Gill Mar 15, 2023

The onset of the pandemic in 2020 marked a turning point in the 30-year pursuit of successful global poverty reduction. According to recent World Bank estimates, the incomes of the poorest 40 percent of the world’s population likely fell by 4 percent in 2020. And as a result, the number of people living in extreme poverty likely increased by 11 percent in 2020—i.e. it increased from 648 million to 719 million. The pandemic also increased global inequality. In terms of lost income, the world’s poor paid the highest price for the pandemic; Indeed, the percentage income losses of the poorest are estimated to have been double those of the richest. The rise in extreme poverty and decline of shared prosperity caused by inflation, currency depreciations, and broader overlapping crises facing development, pose numerous challenges for global development.

Indermit Gill is Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics. Before starting this position on September 1, 2022, he served as the World Bank’s Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions, where he played a key role in shaping the Bank’s response to the extraordinary series of shocks that have hit developing economies since 2020. Between 2016 and 2021, he was a professor of public policy at Duke University and non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Global Economy and Development program. Indermit has published extensively on policy issues facing developing countries, sovereign debt, green growth, labor markets, poverty and inequality, and managing natural resource wealth. His pioneering work includes introducing the concept of the “middle income trap” to describe how developing countries stagnate after reaching a certain level of income. Indermit also spearheaded the influential World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography. Twitter: @IndermitGill

Resources:

The New Threat to Prosperity Everywhere (Indermit Gill, 13 March 2022, Project Syndicate)
Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022 (World Bank report)

Key highlights:

Introduction - 00:52
How "development" has changed over the years - 03:22
The current status of the World Bank's twin goals - 08:56
Growing global poverty and how to best measure poverty - 13:38
The "middle income trap" and natural resource curse thesis - 21:00
Sustainable development, renewal energy, and climate change- 29:50
Addressing the debt crisis - 40:15

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Rethinking "evidence" — Eivind Engebretsen and Mona Baker Mar 11, 2023

In the past few decades, we have witnessed the rise and consolidation of “evidence-based medicine” among health professionals. This refers to a systematic approach to medicine in which doctors and other health care professionals use the best available scientific evidence from clinical research to help make decisions about the care of individual patients. But the COVID-19 pandemic has managed to transform what constitutes reliable medical evidence into a topic of public concern and debate. These debates have taken place within and beyond the medical establishment, such as in news reports and social media posts. And suddenly everyone began offering an opinion on the efficacy of measures such as quarantines, lock downs, school closures, and mandatory face masks. How then should we understand “evidence”? Does evidence mean the same thing in different contexts and constituencies?

In their new book, Rethinking Evidence in the Time of Pandemics: Scientific Vs Narrative Rationality, and Medical Knowledge Practices, Eivind Engebretsen and Mona Baker argue that we ought to adopt a more nuanced and socially responsive approach to medical expertise that incorporates scientific and lay processes of making sense of the world and how we decide to act in it. Using the narrative framework, they offer a model of analysis that sheds greater light on why different people arrive at different decisions based on the same sources of evidence and why we must acknowledge their reasons for doing so as rooted in different types of rationality rather than dismissing them as irrational.

Eivind Engebretsen is a Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, where he is also the Executive Chairman of the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare Education.

Mona Baker is Director of the Baker Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies at Shanghai International Studies University. She is also affiliated with the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare Education at the University of Oslo.

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Locally led development and the future of aid — Håvard Mokleiv Nygård Mar 08, 2023

The global development domain currently faces huge challenges. Apart from trying to stimulate economic growth and ensuring a fair distribution of the benefits of that growth, national governments and their international partners must also tackle complex conflicts, provide humanitarian assistance, and not least address the harmful impacts of climate disruption. What then should the role of external actors be? How can good intentions be best mobilized into effective actions on the ground?

Håvard Mokleiv Nygård is a Deputy Director-General of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Norad, where he directs the Department of Knowledge. Until a few years ago, he was Research Director at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), where his research focused on armed conflict and political violence, peace building, and patterns of democratic development. Twitter: @havardmn

Resources:

Key highlights

Introduction - 00:49
Foreign aid vs. development cooperation - 04:52
Locally led development - 13:10
The aid effectiveness debate - 24:15
What works in global development and how to measure success - 43:49
Bridging the gap between research and policy and the future of aid - 52:45

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The Wild World of WhatsApp — Jamie Hitchen Mar 01, 2023

The role of social media in spreading political misinformation has received considerable attention. But various forms of social media also facilitate and enable participatory democracy across boundaries. They help to hold leaders to account as well as provide channels for airing the needs and demands of marginalised communities and vulnerable groups. These demands can sometimes even be propelled to the centre of public debates. While there has been considerable focus on Twitter and Facebook, the private messaging application WhatsApp has emerged as a especially popular medium for inter-personal communication. But WhatsApp has not received the attention it deserves. What is so special about WhatsApp and how and why has it emerged as the main form of communication for a wide range of actors on the African continent?

Jamie Hitchen is an independent research analyst and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. He has written extensively on social media in West Africa and recently co-edited a volume with Idayat Hassan entitled WhatsApp and Everyday Life in West Africa: Beyond Fake News.

Twitter: @jchitchen

Resources

Social Media Disruption: Nigeria’s WhatsApp Politics, Journal of Democracy (2020)
If blackouts don’t work, what might? Tackling fake news in West Africa, African Arguments (2022)

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Christmas special – The acronisation game Dec 26, 2022

While much of the success of the show is due to my fabulous guests, I am also lucky to have a wonderful team to assist me at the University of Oslo. I wish to in particular thank Kristoffer Ring, our IT guru, and Oda Fagerland, Bella Reid, and Eliska Sottova for research assistance and transcripts.

My colleague Desmond McNeill, who was on the show earlier this year discussing the power of ideas and metaphors in international development policy, has invented a game which he calls “acronisation”.

The game is designed to test your knowledge about international organizations and bilateral aid agencies.

If you can identity 10 acronyms or more, Desmond would be delighted to receive an e-mail from you latest by the 11th of January.

Please write to Desmond at: desmond.mcneill@sum.uio.no

Happy holidays!

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Just copy us! Why can’t the rest of the world be more like Scandinavia? — Harald Eia Dec 21, 2022

Scandinavian countries are well-known for high standards of living and many people wonder about the origins of the welfare state model in Scandinavia and why it has worked so well. The features of the welfare state in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden typically include high state spending, strong universal public services, and relatively high equality in gender roles.

But what explains the success of this model of development and how did these countries get to where they are today? These are some of the questions my guest – Harald Eia – tries to answer in a recent book co-authored with Ole-Martin Ihle. The book – The Mystery of Norway – discusses how Norway became one of the most prosperous countries in the world. It focuses on the relationship between wealth and happiness, and the power of civil society and trade unions in negotiating wages and a range of benefits. The book also highlights the important role played by The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration – popularly known in Norway by its acronym – NAV, which administers a third of the national budget through schemes such as unemployment benefit, work assessment allowance, sickness benefit, pensions, child benefit and cash-for-care benefit.

Harald Eia is a sociologist and became a household name in Norway in the mid-1990s having starred in several hit comedy shows. He has since then been one of the country's most popular and well-known comedians.

Key highlights

Introduction - 00:52
Is there a Norwegian model of development? - 03:18
Origins and functions of the welfare state in Norway: 06:22
Can money make you happy? 20:20
Relative poverty in one of the world's wealthiest countries: 28:30
Immigration: 35:13

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Contemporary state building and elite taxation in Latin America — Gustavo Flores-Macías Dec 14, 2022

While many Latin American states have experienced severe public-safety crises in the context of fiscal duress, elite engagement in state building has taken place in some countries but not in others. Why is that the case?

In explaining the adoption of elite taxes for public safety, Gustavo Flores-Macías argues that the conventional crisis-centered explanations are insufficient. Whereas economic elites are generally reluctant to shoulder a greater tax burden, public-safety crises can soften this opposition – when they affect elites directly – and thereby open the door to negotiations with the government. However, the deterioration of public-safety conditions is not enough to elicit elite taxation. Rather, the resulting tax arrangement will depend on the strength of business–government linkages in the form of formal and informal collaboration mechanisms. When linkages are weak, elite taxation is likely to fail, if attempted at all. Stronger linkages will make elite taxation more likely.

Gustavo Flores-Macías is a Professor of Government and Public Policy and Associate Vice Provost for International Affairs at Cornell University. His latest book is Contemporary State Building: Elite Taxation and Public Safety in Latin America. Twitter @Gustavo_F_M

Key highlights

Introduction - 00:52
Contemporary state building in Latin America - 04.00
Economic elites in Latin America – 12.34
Elites as an obstacle to state building - 19.04
Determinants of fiscal reforms and elite taxation - 25.46
Differentiation of public safety from other public goods - 34.50
Taxing elites, the El Salvador case - 46.50
How to mobilise security tax for development and welfare – 52.26

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The power of the Chinese state: Examination, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology — Yasheng Huang Dec 07, 2022

Ever wondered why the state in China is so powerful? Yasheng argues that Keju — the Imperial civil service examination — has historically maximized a specific type of knowledge in the minds of the population such as memorization. It also reduced the scope of, or eliminated, alternative ideas. Keju made the state all powerful. The state was able to monopolize the very best of human capital. And in doing so, the state deprived society access to talent and pre-empted organized religion, commerce, and intelligentsia. While it is China’s blessing, Keju is also a curse as it decimated society.

Yasheng Huang is a Professor of International Management and Faculty Director of Action Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His forthcoming book, which will be published by Yale University Press, is The Rise and the Fall of the EAST: Examination, Autocracy, Stability and Technology in Chinese History and Today. Twitter: @YashengHuang

Key highlights

Introduction – 00:52

Recent protests in China – 03:15

Protest strategies and logistical capacity – 13:25

Why is the Chinese state so powerful? – 19:35

The role of the civil service exam in China – 35:00

Meritocracy and the Chinese bureaucracy – 47:15

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Show me the money: Why cash transfers matter for development — Ugo Gentilini Nov 30, 2022

Cash transfer schemes have grown in popularity in many parts of the world in the past few decades. Numerous studies find that cash transfer programs can be one of the most effective social protection tools at our disposal in the fight against poverty. There is now also growing empirical evidence of how cash transfers can provide quick relief during major economic crises. In addition to economic effects, they may change gender hierarchies and improve the position of women in local society, increase school attendance, and improve nutrition. It is therefore no surprise that cash transfer programs have been warmly embraced by many civil society organizations and international agencies. But is it all win-win? What works and what does not, and how can cash transfers be made even more effective as a tool for global development?

Ugo Gentilini is an economist and the global lead for social assistance at the World Bank. He has worked extensively on the analytics and practice of social protection, including in relation to economic crises, fragility and displacement, and resilience and disaster risk management. He also writes a popular weekly newsletter and is my go-to-person on everything to do with social protection. In a new paper — Cash Transfers in Pandemic Times — Ugo combines analysis of large datasets with a review of about 300 pandemic papers, evaluations, and practical experiences and concludes with 10 lessons from the largest scale up of cash transfers in history. Twitter: @Ugentilini

Key highlights

Introduction – 0.48

Definition and understanding of cash transfers – 3.46

Increased interest in cash transfers – 6.15

Evolution of conditional and unconditional cash transfers – 14.38

Challenges and benefits of cash transfers – 19.33

What works, cash transfers and in-kind transfers - 25.36

Logistical and structural challenges of cash transfers - 31.00

How the pandemic has changed cash transfers – 40.10

Cash transfers going forward and advice for the future – 43.42

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Crises of democracy — Adam Przeworski Nov 23, 2022

Democracy is valued by many people because it enables us to achieve freedom and political equality in addition to numerous economic and social goals. But democracy also allows us to decide from time to time by whom we wish to be governed. Through elections, we can place in office those who we expect to like and also remove from office those we do not like.

Adam Przeworski argues that the essence of democracy is that it processes in relative liberty and peace whatever conflicts that arise in society. And elections are the main mechanism by which conflicts are managed. This is because elections generate temporary winners and losers designated by specific rules. Elections peacefully process conflicts when the losers do not find their defeat too painful and if they expect to have a reasonable chance of winning in the future. This also means that the winners do not inflict too much pain on the losers and do not foreclose the possibility of being removed from office.

Adam Przeworski is Emeritus Professor of Politics at New York University and one of the world’s foremost scholars on democracy. He has studied political regimes, democracy, autocracy, and their intermediate forms, the conditions under which regimes survive and change, as well as their consequences for economic development and income equality. His latest book is Crises of Democracy, where he discusses the political situation in established democracies, places this in the context of past misadventures of democratic regimes, and speculates on the future of democracy. Twitter: @AdamPrzeworski

Key highlights:

Introduction - 0:44

Definitions and understandings of democracy – 2:42

The distinction between democracy and freedom – 11:15

Democracy and minority rights – 17:54

Income and democracy – 30:08

Processing conflicts – 37:27

The future of democracy in Poland – 45:36

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Silenced voices in global health — Address Malata Nov 16, 2022

Global health organizations are mainly located in the global North and experts from low- and middle-income countries are underrepresented in global health leadership positions. Thus, it is unsurprising that there has been considerable criticism and heated debate on who should represent the underrepresented. According to our guest this week, it is crucial to ask: Who Speaks for Whom and About What?

Professor Address Malata is the Vice Chancellor of the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST). She trained to be a nurse and is former President of Africa Honor Society of Nursing and former Vice President of International Confederation of Midwives. She has previously served as principal of the University of Malawi’s Kamuzu College of Nursing and is the recipient of numerous honors both at home and abroad.

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The development bargain — Stefan Dercon Nov 09, 2022

Development is a gamble because success is not guaranteed when benefits materialize in the long-term and a host of factors may undermine elite positions. Some countries are able to settle on elite bargains that favour growth and development, and others are unable to reach such settlements.

While elite bargains in China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Ghana ended up being development bargains, the opposite was the case in Nigeria, DRC, Malawi and South Sudan.

Stefan Dercon is Professor at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Economics Department at theUniversity of Oxford, where he also directs the Centre for the Study of African Economies.

His latest book – Gambling on Development: Why some countries win and others lose– draws on his academic research and his policy experience across three decades. Twitter: @gamblingondev

Key highlights:

Introduction - 0:55

Bridging the gap between research and policy – 3:09

Why a general recipe for development is not very helpful – 11:22

Gambling for development: Key arguments – 28:38

The future of foreign aid – 45:13

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Transforming our global food system — Gunhild Stordalen Nov 02, 2022

Over 2 billion people in our world lack access to adequate food, and over 3 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet. Between 2014 and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people going hungry and suffering from food insecurity had been gradually rising. The pandemic only made things worse. And the Ukraine war has further disrupted global supply chains. In 2021, 702-828 million people faced hunger. The gender gap in food insecurity has widened under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic and women are more food insecure than men in every region of the world.

Food is linked to almost all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And it is difficult if not virtually impossible to meet these global goals and the Paris Climate Agreement, without a radical transformation of the global food system.

Gunhild A. Stordalen is the founder and executive chair of EAT: the science-based global platform for food system transformation. She is a medical doctor and the recipient of the UN Foundation’s “Global Leadership Award”. Instagram: @gunhild_stordalen Twitter: @G_stordalen

The EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health

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Why we fight — Chris Blattman Oct 26, 2022

While there are millions of hostile rivalries around the world, only a fraction of these erupt into violence. It is easy to overlook the underlying strategic forces of war and to see war mainly as a series of errors and accidents. It is also easy to forget that war shouldn’t happen—and most of the time it doesn’t.

Chris Blattman is a Professor at the University of Chicago in the Harris School of Public Policy. He is an economist and political scientist who studies violence, crime, and underdevelopment. His most recent book is Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace, which shows that violence is actually not the norm; and that there are only five reasons why conflict wins over compromise. Twitter: @cblatts

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Africa's right to development — Mo Ibrahim Oct 19, 2022

Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-British entrepreneur, founded one of the largest mobile phone companies that operated on the African continent. In 2006, he established the Mo Ibrahim Foundation with the goal of fostering improved governance. The foundation publishes The Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which assesses governance performance in 54 African countries. It also awards the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership (worth $5 million) to African leaders who have successfully delivered security, health, education, and economic development to their constituents and have democratically transferred power to their successors.

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The pursuit of liberty and prosperity along a narrow corridor — Daron Acemoglu Mar 30, 2022

In the bestselling book – Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (2012), Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson ask why some nations are rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine. They claim that it is neither culture, weather, nor geography. Rather, they argue that economic success depends on man-made political and economic institutions. In their latest book, The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty (2019), Daron and Jim show that liberal-democratic states exist in between the alternatives of lawlessness and authoritarianism. And while the state is needed to protect people from domination at the hands of others in society, the state can also become an instrument of violence and repression. Society’s default condition is anarchy (or the "Absent Leviathan"). The alternatives to chaos are despotism (the "Despotic Leviathan"), the powerless state (the "Paper Leviathan"), and the "Shackled Leviathan" (or state which equals the corridor between the Absent, Paper, and Despotic Leviathans). Thus, liberty originates from a delicate balance of power between state and society.

Daron Acemoglu is Institute Professor in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

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Can fixing dinner fix the planet? — Jessica Fanzo Mar 23, 2022

A complex web of factors affects our ability not only to meet nutritional needs, but also our efforts to sustain biodiversity and protect the environment. As the world's agricultural, environmental, and nutritional needs intersect—and often collide—how can nations, international organizations and consumers work together to reverse the damage by changing how we make, distribute, and buy food? And do we have the right to eat wrongly?

Jessica Fanzo is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food & Agricultural Policy and Ethics at Johns Hopkins University. She has previously worked as an advisor for various organizations and governments including the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Scaling Up Nutrition movement (SUN), the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN), and the World Health Organization (WHO). Her latest book is Can Fixing Dinner Fix the Planet?

Inextricably bound together by food (OECD forum)
It's Her Time: Jess Fanzo (Worldwildlife.org)
The Future of Food (video interview, CGTN)
Twitter: @jessfanzo

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The Life You Can Save — Peter Singer Mar 16, 2022

Peter Singer — one of the world’s most influential philosophers — is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. Peter has written several influential books, including Animal Liberation, The Expanding Circle: Ethics and Sociobiology, The Most Good You Can Do, Why Vegan? Eating Ethically and The Life You Can Save: How To Do Your Part To End World Poverty. He is one of the intellectual founders of the modern animal rights and effective altruism movements and has made important contributions to the development of bioethics. Twitter: @PeterSinger

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Roadblock Politics — Peer Schouten Mar 09, 2022

In many parts of the African continent, there are so many roadblocks that it is indeed very hard to find a road that does not have one. But what is the point of having so many roadblocks that are often viewed by travellers to cause considerable inconvenience?

In a brilliant new book — Roadblock Politics: The Origins of Violence in Central Africa – Peer Schouten maps over a thousand roadblocks in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, in order to document how communities, rebels, and state security forces forge resistance and power out of control over these narrow points of passage.

Peer Schouten is Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies and Associate Researcher at the International Peace Information Service. Twitter: @peer_schouten

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Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order — Kathryn Stoner Mar 04, 2022

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already caused untold suffering to millions of people and upended the global order as we know it. The international community, apart from a few exceptions, has been largely united in its condemnation of this attack on a sovereign country’s ability to decide its own future. And several sanctions have thus far been imposed on Russia, many of which also target President Putin, senior Russian officials, and their rich financial backers. President Putin has tried, although without much success, to justify what he terms to be a military operation (and not an invasion). President Zelenskyy of Ukraine has refused to flee his war-ravaged country, and this, together with his regular morale boosting social media posts, has made him a household name in many parts of the world.

What kind of threat does Ukraine pose to Russia? How did we get to this point? Can President Putin withstand the backlash from this war? What is Russia’s role and purpose in a new global order, and how has it managed to develop an outsized influence in international politics even though it does not have the traditional means of power possessed by the United States or China?

Kathryn Stoner is the Mosbacher Director of Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL). She is also a Senior Fellow the Hoover Institution and a professor of political science. She has conducted extensive research on contemporary Russia and has a new book: "Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order". Twitter: @kath_stoner

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The power of ideas and metaphors in international development policy – Desmond McNeill Mar 02, 2022

In global development, ideas have power and some ideas or concepts such as social capital, human development, the informal sector, and sustainable development have been highly influential. The development agenda also includes metaphors that can shape how we think and hence how we act.

Professor Desmond James McNeill has worked extensively on issues related to global governance, aid, and sustainable development and on the links between research and policy. He was director of the Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo from 1992 to 2001. And from 2001 and until a couple of years ago, he was Head of Research, and Director of the Centre’s Research School.

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Breaking Bad: Understanding Backlash Against Democracy in Africa — Lise Rakner Feb 23, 2022

There is a great deal of attention these days on the backlash against democracy around the world. In a forthcoming book, Democratic Backsliding in Africa? Autocratization, Resilience, and Contention, my guest Lise Rakner and her two co-authors (Leonardo R. Arriola and Nicolas van de Walle) conclude that the African continent’s democratic experience over the past two decades largely reflects status quo politics. Thus, there is neither substantial progress nor regression in the advancement of civil and political freedoms since the initial transitions to democracy in the early 1990s.

Lise Rakner is a professor of political science at the University of Bergen. She studies democratization and autocratization, focusing particularly on human rights, electoral politics, and political parties. Twitter: @li63ra

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A world of insecurity — Pranab Bardhan Feb 16, 2022

Pranab Bardhan is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He has undertaken pioneering research on international trade, the political economy of development policies, decentralised governance, and the political economy of development in China and India. His latest book, A World of Insecurity: Democratic Disenchantment in Rich and Poor Countries, is scheduled to be published by Harvard University Press later this year.

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Do morals matter? — Joseph S. Nye Feb 09, 2022

Joseph S. Nye is the University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus and former Dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

He is the author of numerous highly influential books, including:

Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (2004)
The Powers to Lead (2008)
The Future of Power (2011)
Is the American Century Over? (2015)
Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump (2020)

Joe Nye has also served in various capacities in the US government, as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Chair of the National Intelligence Council, and Deputy Under Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology.

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Globalization and Asian Geopolitics — Shivshankar Menon Feb 02, 2022

As India’s stature across the globe increases, there is considerable interest in better understanding how its foreign policy is likely to evolve. In a new book – India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present – Shivshankar Menon examines India’s foreign and security policy choices through history, with a particular focus on India’s responses to the rise of China and other regional powers.

Shivshankar Menon served as the Foreign Secretary from 2006 to 2009 and as the National Security Adviser to the prime minister of India from 2010 to 2014. He has previously authored Choices: Inside the Making of Indian Foreign Policy and is current a Visiting Professor at Ashoka University. Twitter: @ShivshankaMenon

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The power of small states — Ine Eriksen Søreide Jan 26, 2022

Ine Eriksen Søreide served as Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2021 – the first woman in the country’s history to hold the position. She represents the Conservative Party and is the current Chair of the Norwegian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence. Between 2013 and 2017, she served as Minister of Defense.

Ine's official Facebook page
Norway’s Role and Interests in Multilateral Cooperation (white paper)
Handing over power with a hug (the viral photo)

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Why we need a different system of global development — Jeffrey D. Sachs Jan 19, 2022

Jeffrey D. Sachs is University Professor at Columbia University in New York. He was the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University (2002-2016) and currently heads the Center for Sustainable Development. He is a commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development, an SDG Advocate for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

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Rich countries’ climate policies are colonialism in green — Vijaya Ramachandran Jan 12, 2022

Vijaya Ramachandran argues that blanket bans on fossil-fuel funds will entrench poverty. By pushing a renewables only model on developing countries, and expressing fear about the future emissions of these countries, including those on the African continent, rich countries such as Norway are promoting colonialism in green.

Vijaya is an economist with extensive experience in public policy and academia, having worked for the World Bank and the UN as well as serving on the faculty of Duke University and Georgetown University. She is currently director for energy and development at the Breakthrough Institute, and a non-resident fellow at the Energy for Growth Hub and the Center for Global Development.

Why India Can’t Wean Itself Off Coal
Rich Countries’ Climate Policies Are Colonialism in Green
Blanket bans on fossil-fuel funds will entrench poverty
Why the Climate Panic About Africa Is Wrong (with Todd Moss)
Vijaya Ramachandran on Twitter: @vijramachandran

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Is it the end of democracy in Africa? — Nic Cheeseman Dec 15, 2021

Nic Cheeseman is Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham and was formerly the Director of the African Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. He works on democracy, elections and development, including election rigging, political campaigning, corruption, “fake news” and executive-legislative relations. Nic is the author or editor of ten books, including Democracy in Africa (2015), Institutions and Democracy in Africa (2017), How to Rig an Election (2018), Coalitional Presidentialism in Comparative Perspective (2018), and The Moral Economy of Elections in Africa (2021).

Resources:

Almost all of Nic's academic articles are available to download for free at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nic-Cheeseman-2
This includes his recent article on democracy in Africa, and the kind of democracy people want: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352974495_African_Studies_Keyword_Democracy
Also see his review of democracy in Africa in 2020: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343713587_The_State_of_Democracy_in_Africa_2020_A_Changing_of_the_Guards_or_A_Change_of_Systems
Many of Bic's blogs on democracy and elections can be found at: https://theconversation.com/profiles/nic-cheeseman-180800/articles
Nic's articles and newspaper columns on African politics for the Mail & Guardian newspaper can be found here: https://mg.co.za/author/nic-cheeseman/
He also writes a popular column, called "Political Capital", for the Africa Report - you can read it here: https://www.theafricareport.com/in-depth/political-capital/
Many of Nic's pieces, along with those of hundreds of other researchers, can be found on the website that he founded and co-edits: http://democracyinafrica.org/
Nic Cheeseman on Twitter: @Fromagehomme

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Does the Nobel Peace Prize Promote Peace? — Henrik Urdal Dec 10, 2021

This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov for their courageous fight for freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia. While announcing the award, the Norwegian Nobel Committee highlighted the efforts of these two extraordinary journalists to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.

Henrik Urdal is the director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).

Twitter: @h_urdal

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Travelling While Black — Nanjala Nyabola Dec 08, 2021

Nanjala Nyabola, the Kenya-based writer, advocate, activist and political analyst has written a wonderful new book titled "Travelling While Black: Essays Inspired by a life on the move”. She explore show travel and migration reveal numerous aspects of race, identity politics and culture and why the world order has become hostile to human mobility. In this beautifully written book, Nanjala tackles several important questions: What are the joys and pains of holidays for people of colour, when guidebooks are never written with them in mind? How are black lives today impacted by the othering legacy of colonial cultures and policies? And what can travel tell us about our sense of self, of home, of belonging and identity?

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Beating the Odds: Jump-Starting Developing Countries — Justin Yifu Lin Dec 01, 2021

Justin Yifu Lin is the former Chief Economist of the World Bank. He is one of China’s leading economists and has worked extensively on the industrialization policies of rapidly developing countries. Justin is currently the Dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University. At the same university, he is also the Dean of the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development and Professor and Honorary Dean of the National School of Development.

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Bangladesh's development journey — Imran Matin Nov 24, 2021

Bangladesh has witnessed a remarkable turnaround in recent decades. From being termed as a “basket case” by the American Under Secretary of Political Affairs in 1971, it is now frequently talked of a development success, having achieved fast economic growth and considerable poverty reduction. While Bangladesh’s per capita GDP was the tenth lowest in the world upon independence in 1971 and by 2015, the country had reached lower-middle-income status.

Over the past decade, Bangladesh has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world. It has among others benefited from a demographic dividend, strong ready-made garment exports, and stable macroeconomic conditions. While literacy rates have soared, infant mortality has plunged. And Bangladesh is now on track to graduate from the UN’s Least Developed Countries (LDC) list in 2026.

Imran Matin studied for a PhD in Economics at the University of Sussex and is the executive director of the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development in Dhaka. He has worked extensively on poverty reduction, financial inclusion, governance, health, and social protection. Imran previously served as a Country Director of the International Growth Centre in Bangladesh.

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States, markets and foreign aid — Simone Dietrich Nov 17, 2021

Simone Dietrich is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Geneva. Her research interests are in International Development, international and comparative political economy and democratization. She is a member of the EGAP network that promotes rigorous knowledge accumulation, innovation, and evidence-based policy across development domains. Prior to her academic career, she was development practitioner in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In her new book States, Markets and Foreign Aid, Simone explores why some donors (e.g. US, UK, Sweden) systematically bypass local authorities in recipient countries while implementing aid projects, while others (such as Germany, France, and Japan) tend to engage and work closely with local authorities. She argues that ideological orientations about the role of the state in donor countries shape the structure of foreign aid bureaucracies and, therefore, influence current aid delivery patterns and how donors approach international development.

Resources:

"States, Markets, and Foreign Aid" (Cambridge University Press, 2021)
"Elite Experiments: Strengthening Scholarship While Bridging the Gap" (Duck of Minerva, 2021)
"From Text to Political Positions on Foreign Aid: Analysis of Aid Mentions in Party Manifestos from 1960 to 2015" (International Studies Quarterly, 2020)
"Overseas Credit-Claiming and Domestic Support for Foreign Aid" (Journal of Experimental Political Science, 2019)
"Foreign Aid, Foreign Policy, and Domestic Government Legitimacy: Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh" (Journal of Politics, 2018)
"Foreign aid can help combat anti-Western sentiment in Bangladesh" (Monkey Cage, Washington Post 2016)
For other research on foreign aid and democracy promotion etc please consult Simone Dietrich`s research profile.

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The UN in a post-pandemic world — Achim Steiner Nov 10, 2021

Achim Steiner is UNDP Administrator. He has served across the United Nations system. He was the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi and between 2006-2016 he led the United Nations Environment Programme, where he prioritized investments in clean technologies and renewable energy. Achim has also held other notable positions including Director General of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and Secretary General of the World Commission on Dams.

Achim Steiner- TED Talk : Humanity's planet-shaping powers -- and what they mean for the future
Future of Development public conversation between Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, and Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator. UNDP Future Of Development - YouTube
Climate Promise | United Nations Development Programme (undp.org)
UNDP Development Futures Series | United Nations Development Programme
Human Development Reports (undp.org)
Hello Future | UNDP
Twitter: @AchimSteiner @UNDP

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Local resistance against coal in Lamu, Kenya — Raya Ahmed, Omar Elmawi, Gino Cocchiaro Nov 03, 2021

Guests:

Raya Ahmed is a climate justice defender from Lamu. She holds Bachelor of Science in Development Studies and is the founder of Lamu Women Alliance which is a consortium organizations under Save Lamu, championing climate justice and women’s rights. In 2019, she was awarded the Lamu County Mashujaa by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyata,and the Shujaa Female Activist of the Year Award by MUHURI/ Coast Women’s Magazine.
Omar Elmawi is a lawyer who helps communities assert their rights and have their voices heard on various development projects. He coordinates the deCOALonize campaign – a movement that, with the help of community engagement, public activism and legal advocacy, pushes for green and sustainable energy solutions and is opposed to coal-related industrialization in Kenya and the region. He is also the coordinator of the Stop EACOP campaign that is against the construction of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline. Twitter: @OmarElmawi
Gino Cocchiaro is the Director of Programmes and Development at Natural Justice, where he previously served as the Director of the Kenya Hub as well as the Director of the Extractives and Infrastructure Programme. He is legally trained and has supported communities to participate in environmental decision-making processes in Southern Africa and Kenya. He was the lead lawyer from Natural Justice against the Lamu coal plant and has worked closely with the communities of Lamu since 2010. Twitter: @GinoCocchiaro

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Living in a Materials World: Extractives on the road to Net Zero — Tony Addison Oct 27, 2021

Tony Addison is a Professor of Economics, University of Copenhagen in the Development Economics Research Group. He was a Chief Economist and Deputy Director of UNU-WIDER in Helsinki, Finland. He was previously Professor of Development Studies, University of Manchester; Executive Director of the Brooks World Poverty Institute (BWPI), University of Manchester (from 2006-2009); and Associate Director of the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC).

His books include: From Conflict to Recovery in Africa (Oxford University Press), Making Peace Work: The Challenges of Economic and Social Reconstruction (Palgrave Macmillan), and Poverty Dynamics: A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective (Oxford University Press). He was a lead author for The Chronic Poverty Report 2008-09: Escaping Poverty Traps.

Extractive Industries: The Management of Resources as a Driver of Sustainable Development (Oxford University Press, 2018, open access book)
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Electrifying India — Elizabeth Chatterjee Oct 20, 2021

Dr. Elizabeth Chatterjee is an assistant professor of environmental history at the University of Chicago. Her research explores how non-Western energy histories disrupt conventional understandings of capitalist development, the social dynamics of climate change, and green political thought.

"India and the 1.5°C warning: The power of political targets" (The Asia Dialogue)
"The Asian Anthropocene: Electricity and Fossil Developmentalism"(Journal of Asian Studies , 2020)
“New Developmentalism and Its Discontents: State Activism in Modi’s Gujarat and India” (Development and Change, 2020)
"The politics of electricity reform: Evidence from West Bengal, India" (World Development, 2018)
"Dissipated energy: Indian electric power and the politics of blame" (Contemporary South Asia, 2012)
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Why is the West obsessed with changing China? — Xu Qinduo Oct 13, 2021

Xu Qinduo is a political analyst, news columnist and an adjunct professor at Renmin University’s School of Journalism and Communication. He is also a senior fellow at the Pangoal Foundation and host of the talk show “Dialogue Weekend” at China Global Television Network, CGTN. He was previously posted as China Radio International’s chief correspondent in Washington, DC.

Why the US and the West are always obsessed with changing China (Global Times)
China and the U.S.: Equality and Beyond (China Today)
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What went wrong with COVAX, the vast global vaccine program? — Katerini Storeng Oct 06, 2021

Katerini Storeng is an associate professor at the Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo. She directs the interdisciplinary Global Health Politics research group and is the Deputy Director of the Independent Panel on Global Governance for Health, an initiative to follow up the Lancet-University of Oslo Commission's agenda on the political determinants of health inequity.

Dr. Storeng's research advances a critical, ethnographic perspective on the social and political dynamics shaping global health research and policy. She is particularly interested in how global public-private partnerships, scientific communities and civil society coalitions shape and challenge prevailing understandings and approaches to global public health.

Resources:

"The uncomfortable truth about Norway’s pandemic leadership" (Sept. 2021)
"The Smartphone Pandemic: How Big Tech and public health authorities partner in the digital response to Covid-19", Global Public Health (2021)
"Africa CDC, IFRC, and USAU call for Equitable Vaccine Coverage in Africa" (Sept. 2021)
"Biden to Push Global Plan toBattle Covid as National Gaps Widen" (New York Times, 22 Sept. 2021)
"Risky business: COVAX and the financialization of global vaccine equity", Globalization and Health (Felix Stein, 2021)

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Beyond the Bottom Billion — Paul Collier Sep 29, 2021

Welcome to season 3!

Our first guest this season is Sir Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and a Professorial Fellow of St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. In 2014, Professor Collier received a knighthood for services to promoting research and policy change in Africa.

Sir Paul's research covers the causes and consequences of civil war; the effects of aid and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural resources rich societies; urbanisation in low-income countries; private investment in African infrastructure and changing organisational cultures. He has authored numerous books, including The Bottom Billion (Oxford University Press, 2007) which in 2008 won the Lionel Gelber, Arthur Ross and Corine prizes and in May 2009 was the joint winner of the Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book prize; Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places (Vintage Books, 2009); The Plundered Planet: How to reconcile prosperity with nature (Oxford University Press, 2010); Exodus: How migration is changing our world (Oxford University Press, 2013); and The Future of Capitalism: Facing The New Anxieties (Penguin Books, 2018). His latest book, co-authored with John Kay, is Greed is Dead: Politics After Individualism (Penguin Books, 2020).

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The remarkable expansion of South–South Cooperation — Emma Mawdsley Jun 30, 2021

Welcome to the final episode of season 2. We’ve had some great guests this season and the show has attracted thousands of new listeners in large parts of the world. Thank you all for listening and for all the positive and most encouraging feedback that we have received this year.

Our guest this week is Emma Mawdsley, who is a reader in human geography at Newnham College and Director of the Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies at the University of Cambridge. She recently received the Royal Geographical Society’s Busk Medal for her exceptional engagements with fieldwork, research and knowledge production about the Global South.

Please follow our Twitter account @GlobalDevPod and share our episodes with your colleagues and friends. We will be back in a couple of months in season 3 of the show with another bunch of great guests.

Thank you and I wish you all an enjoyable summer.

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Popular mobilization against dams in Myanmar — Kyungmee Kim Jun 23, 2021

Many of you may have heard about instances of local communities mobilising against the construction of dams in various parts of the world. But it turns out that not all communities are able to collectively resist dam-building. So, what explains the varying degrees of community resistance against large dams?

Kyungmee Kim tackles this question in a doctoral thesis that she successfully defended recently at Uppsala University in Sweden. She studied popular mobilization against dams in Myanmar and the extent to which political violence influenced identity formation, particularly its pace, direction and implications.

"Civil Resistance in the Shadow of War: Explaining popular mobilization against dams in Myanmar" (PhD thesis, Uppsala University)

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Politics of the poor — Indrajit Roy Jun 16, 2021

Even though the world is richer today than ever before, a large number of people do not share in those riches, even in democracies. So, what does living in a democracy mean for people who simultaneously confront persistent deprivations and increasing inequalities? Do people living in poverty absorb the universalistic ideas associated with democracy? Or do their precarious lives overwhelm them so much so that they cannot act beyond particularistic concerns? These are the questions that Indrajit Roy tackles in Politics of the Poor: Negotiating Democracy in Contemporary India.

Indrajit Roy is Senior Lecturer in Global Development Politics at the University of York.

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Religion and democratic mobilization in Brazil – Amy Erica Smith Jun 09, 2021

In a splendid book titled– Religion and Brazilian Democracy: Mobilizing the People of God – Amy Erica Smith examines the causes and consequences of Brazil’s culture wars – that as Brazilian democracy faces a crisis of legitimacy, political divisions among Catholic, evangelical, and nonreligious citizens have grown. How then have these culture wars affected Brazil’s democracy? And does religious politics either threaten or help to shore up a democracy now facing grave challenges to its legitimacy? Amy Erica argues that the answers to these questions lie not in political parties, but in clergy, that interacts with and sometimes leads congregants and politicians.

Amy Erica Smith is an associate professor of political science, as well as a Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Professor at Iowa State University.

Her research examines how ordinary people understand and engage in politics. Although she studies democratic and authoritarian regimes globally, her primary expertise is in Latin America, and particularly Brazil.

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"Global Britain": Inspired vision or wishful thinking? — Mark Miller Jun 02, 2021

Following Brexit, Britain has expressed a desire to play an important new role in world affairs. The idea of "Global Britain" has thus made a comeback with free trade as its core element. Indeed, Global Britain appears to be a catchy label for the UK’s ambition to look beyond Europe for new commercial opportunities and pathways to global influence. But critics argue that “A positive image of Global Britain must be earned, not declared.” And that the narrative of Global Britain will only be meaningful if and when the ambitious vision is backed up with extra investments. Of particular concern to the global development community has been the recent cuts to the UK’s aid budget, which some argue will adversely affect Britain’s power and global influence. There has also been considerable criticism of the government’s decision to merge the Department for International Development (or DFID) with the Foreign Office.

Mark Miller is the director of the Overseas Development Institute’s work on development and public finance. His research interests include how states can build the capabilities to effectively manage their public finances and the future of development cooperation in the UK.

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How does digital technology affect healthcare? — Vincent Duclos May 26, 2021

There is considerable attention on the pivotal role that digital technology can play in providing better healthcare. The term “digital health” is broad in scope and includes mobile health (mHealth), health information technology, tele-health and telemedicine, virtual care, remote monitoring, and wearable devices. Indeed, for many years, I have been a big fan of wearable devices such as my Fit-bit wristband and am obsessed with monitoring my various stats such as number of steps walked or run every day, the number of stairs climbed and of, course, resting heart rate and the number of calories burned.

According to the WHO, there is a growing consensus in the global health community that the strategic and innovative use of digital and cutting-edge information and communications technologies can prove to be crucial enabling factors towards ensuring the fulfilment of the WHO’s so-called triple billion targets: 1 billion more people can benefit from universal health coverage, be better protected from health emergencies, and that more people can enjoy better health and well-being in general.

But is technology really helping us to receive better healthcare?

One particularly important and ambitious project in this context was launched by India more than a decade ago. The Pan-African E-network (PAN) was the brainchild of India’s former President Dr. Abdul Kalam. It combines India’s competitive advantages and soft power strengths – ICT, education and health expertise – through a public-private partnership (PPP) model.

The network offers tele-education and tele-medicine services using fibre-optic and satellite networks – a feature that illustrates India’s preference to showcase “frugal innovation”, where low-cost solutions address major developmental challenges. New Delhi has actively promoted this project as a “shining example” of SSC on health and education. Thus, PAN provides a unique opportunity to understand how India is able to “care for Africa at a distance”.

What has been the contribution then of this ambitious global health initiative from the South and how effective have such solutions been in improving healthcare on the African continent?

Vincent Duclos is a medical anthropologist and a professor at the Department ofSocial and Public Communication at the University of Quebec in Montreal.

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Reimagining development — Hannah Ryder May 19, 2021

Do current “development” structures work? If not, why? And what solutions are out there that place greater agency in low-income countries to shape these development structures and results?

Hannah Ryder is the CEO of Development Reimagined, an international development consultancy in China, which provides strategic advice and practical support to African, Chinese, and international stakeholders on issues ranging from the Belt and Road Initiative to Africa’s growth markets to green growth and China’s aid and investments.

Hannah is an economist and former diplomat, and Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington DC. She is also a member of the UAE’s International Advisory Council on the New Economy and sits on the Executive Board of the British Chamber of Commerce in China.

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Navigating by judgment to achieve development impact — Dan Honig May 12, 2021

In an excellent book on how aid agencies manage foreign aid projects, Dan Honig argues that tight top-down controls and a focus on target-setting and metrics often lead aid projects astray.

If one navigates from the top, one may achieve more management control, more oversight, and more standardized behavior. But this may be at the cost of flexibility and adaptability. By contrast, if one empowers those closest to the ground, and focuses on what field agents can see and learn, we may apply so-called “soft information” that will in turn allow for more flexibility.

Managing large organizations is not easy. And most politicians and bureaucrats struggle to find the right balance between when to control and when to let go. In the book Navigation by Judgment: Why and When Top-Down Control of Foreign Aid Doesn't Work, Dan Honig argues that a misplaced sense of what it means to “succeed” encourages many aid agencies to get the balance wrong.

Dan Honig is an assistant professor of international development at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He is currently a visiting fellow at Leiden University’s Institute of Political Science, and a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development. He was previously special assistant, then advisor, to successive Ministers of Finance in Liberia and ran a local nonprofit in East Timor focused on helping post-conflict youth realize the power of their own ideas.

Dan is busy completing his next book on “Mission-Driven Bureaucrats”, which explores the relationship between motivation, management practice, organizational mission, and performance in the public service.

Actually Navigating byJudgment: Towards aNew Paradigm of DonorAccountability Where theCurrent System Doesn’t Work (policy paper, Centre for Global Development)
Managing Better: What All of Us Can Do to Encourage AidSuccess (CGD Brief, Center for Global Development)
"Making Good On Donors' Desire to Do Development Differently", Third World Quarterly 39:1, 68-84 (Honig & Gulrajani, 2018).
"Information, Power, & Location: World Bank Staff Decentralization and Aid Project Success”, Governance 33:4, 749-769. (2020)
The Limits of Accounting-Based Accountability in Education (and Far Beyond): Why More Accounting Will Rarely Solve Accountability Problems (Honig & Pritchett, working paper, Center for Global Development)
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Democracy and crisis response in India — Patralekha Chatterjee May 05, 2021

India is experiencing a devastating second wave of the pandemic. Indeed, the country appears to be going through one of the darkest moments in its post-independence history with new records broken every day for new cases of Covid-19. There are also growing concerns that even these staggering numbers that have been officially reported are in reality an undercount. And then there is the crippling shortage of life-saving supplies such as medical oxygen.

Critics claim that the Indian government has ignored numerous red flags in recent months and disregarded scientific opinion. Thus, some have argued that Indians are now paying the price of government inaction while others have pointed to the historical neglect by successive ruling parties to invest more in health.

The image of India as a country experiencing rapid economic growth and lifting millions of people out of poverty has of late been replaced by pictures of funeral pyres.

How did it come to this? And how capable is the Indian state at responding to major crises?

Patralekha Chatterjee is an award-winning journalist, columnist, and author, who has written extensively on the role of economic, political, social, cultural, and educational factors in public health in India.

Patralekha Chatterjee's blog
"Lessons not learnt after a year of battling Covid" (The Deccan Herald, 21 April 2021)
"Why trust needs to be the key word in 2021" (The Asian Age, 06 January 2021)
"Is India missing COVID-19 deaths?" (The Lancet, 05 September 2020)
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The globalization of foreign aid — Liam Swiss Apr 28, 2021

Why do aid agencies from wealthy donor countries with diverse domestic political and economic contexts arrive at very similar positions on certain foreign aid policies and priorities?

In his book, The Globalization of Foreign Aid: Developing Consensus, Liam Swiss examines how certain ideas and practices influence the work of aid agencies in Canada, the United States and Sweden and how aid agencies end up adopting common policy priorities such as in the fields of gender and security. He argues that the so-called ‘emerging global consensus’ that constitutes the globalization of aid can be explained by both macro-level globalizing influences as well as micro-level social processes that take place within aid agencies.

Liam Swiss is an associate professor at the Department of Sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada.

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Nigeria and the inadequacies of the resource curse thesis – Zainab Usman Apr 21, 2021

There is considerable academic literature on the resource curse thesis which aims to explain why resource-rich countries have not benefited from their oil and mineral resources. And this resource curse thesis within economics, political science, and sociology has numerous economic, political, social, and environmental dimensions.

But in her work, our guest has often highlighted the inadequacies of the “resource curse” thesis particularly in explaining dissatisfaction with the pace of economic development in her own country – Nigeria.

Zainab Usman is a senior fellow and Director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She has previously worked as a Public Sector Specialist at the World Bank and is co-author of the book, The Future of Work in Africa: Harnessing the Potential of Digital Technologies for All. She also contributed to World Bank’s flagship report – Rethinking Power Sector Reforms in Developing Countries. Her forthcoming book, Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Politics of Building a Post-Oil Economy, is set to be published later this year.

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Can we domesticate the state or will it domesticate us? — James C. Scott Apr 14, 2021

With many path-breaking books, James C. Scott has for long been a key figure in Southeast Asian Studies and in the comparative study of agrarian societies, peasant politics and resistance studies. His hugely influential scholarship crosses disciplines, shaping political science, anthropology, and history.

In this conversation, we focus on a selection of Prof. Scott's books, including Seeing Like a State, which is a magisterial critique of top-down social planning, The Art of Not Being Governed, which highlights the crucial functions of “places of refuge from the state”, and his latest, Against the Grain – which provides a deep history of the earliest states. He is currently writing a new book on the Irrawaddy River – in which he argues that engineering and damming show how humans work, violate Nature’s traffic and how humans shape land.

James C. Scott is the Sterling Professor of Political Science and professor of anthropology at Yale University where he also co-directs the Agrarian Studies Program. His research concerns political economy, comparative agrarian societies, theories of resistance, peasant politics, revolution, Southeast Asia, theories of class relations, and anarchism. He is the recipient of the 2020 Albert O. Hirschman Prize, the Social Science Research Council’s highest honour, in recognition of his wide-ranging and influential scholarship.

Jim encourages you to support the fight for democracy in Myanmar by donating to www.mutualaidmyanmar.org

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Population and development: Risks and opportunities — Lauren Johnston Apr 07, 2021

An article in The Economist magazine in September 2018 argued that high birth rates is one of the main culprits for pervasive poverty on the African continent. The article, in particular, cited the example of Tanzania, where the then President John Magufuli did not apparently see the point with birth control, having announced in 2016 that women could throw away their contraceptives as state schools will be free. President Magufuli subsequently claimed that a major consequence of widespread contraception is a shrinking labour force, which in turn is bad for development. But others, including the Gates Foundation, have pointed to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, which are projected to witness massive increases in their populations in the next few decades. And such rapid population growth can potentially pose major challenges for government policies aimed at promoting the well-being of citizens.

So, what is the link between population and development and are there some lessons that the world can learn from China’s attempts at controlling population growth in recent decades?

Lauren Johnston is a research associate at SOAS China Institute, and currently a World Bank consultant for a population ageing and China research project. She holds a PhD in Economics from Peking University and is widely published on topics relating to China’s economy with respect to demographics and economic ties with Africa.

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Imperialism and the developing world — Atul Kohli Mar 31, 2021

Western imperialism has fundamentally shaped the developing world. In particular, Great Britain and the United States – the dominant capitalist powers of the 19th and 20th centuries, respectively, have played a major role in this historical process. But why did they pursue imperialism? And what effects did such imperial practices have on the developing world? These are the key questions that Atul Kohli examines in his brilliant new book, Imperialism and the Developing World: How Britain and the U.S. Shaped the Global Periphery (Oxford University Press, 2020). Kohli meticulously examines both the causes and consequences of modern imperialism. He finds that the impact of imperialism on the developing world has been primarily negative. Indeed, the key argument in the book is that there is an inverse relationship between imperialism and development, i.e., the less control a state has over its own affairs, the less likely it is that the people of the state will experience steady and inclusive economic progress.

Atul Kohli is the David K.E. Bruce Professor of International Affairs at Princeton University and one of the world’s leading experts in comparative political economy with a focus on developing countries.

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Summit diplomacy and African agency — Folashadé Soulé Mar 24, 2021

Several countries are vying for the African continent’s attention. While there has been considerable attention on China’s and India’s motives and interests, Russia, Germany, France, the UK, Turkey, Japan, South Korea and Middle Eastern countries are all trying to increase their footprint on the continent.

An important first step for many of these countries is to organize a summit – a major gathering of leaders and other high-level officials to discuss how African countries can further strengthen trade and diplomatic relations with this one country hosting the summit. The goal of these events is basically to promote the idea of achieving win-win outcomes for all involved parties.

This growth in so-called Africa plus 1 summit diplomacy has generated renewed interest in better understanding the growing competition among major world powers on the continent. But in trying to explain this growing interest in strengthening relations with African countries, there is often a tendency to downplay the role and influence of African countries in setting the agenda of these high-profile events, and how African leaders articulate their needs and interests.

My guest this week argues that we really need to better understand the motives behind the increased engagement in ‘Africa + 1’ summitry by African politicians and bureaucrats.Indeed, rather than viewing these individuals as passive participants, we must recognize the numerous ways in which such summits and other high-level platforms that involve the continent, offer opportunities for African leaders to express and exert agency in both symbolic and substantial ways.

Dr Folashadé Soulé is a Senior Research Associate at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. She studies agency in Africa’s international relations and the politics of South-South cooperation. She is also the initiator of the Africa-China negotiation workshop series, which brings together African negotiators and senior policymakers to exchange and build better negotiation practices when dealing with China.

'"Africa+1" summit diplomacy and the ‘new scramble’ narrative: Recentering African agency', African Affairs, volume 119, Issue 477, October 2020, pp. 633–646
'How popular is China in Africa? New survey sheds light on what ordinary people think', The Conversation, November 2020
'Tips for African Negotiators Doing Deals with China: Rebalancing Asymmetries', Natural Resource Governance Initiative (NRGI) blog post, February 2020
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India-Africa relations — Renu Modi Mar 17, 2021

While a considerable amount of world attention is focused on China’s commanding presence on the African continent and the impact of Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, India’s activities in Africa have received limited attention. This is indeed surprising because India has an over 2000-year presence on the continent and India-Africa relations have witnessed a major upsurge in recent years.

In its relations with African countries, India frequently highlights the economic and philanthropic contributions of the Indian diaspora, Indo-African partnership in the post-colonial period, and solidarity with and support for the Non-Aligned Movement and the fight against racism. It also often highlights Mahatma Gandhi’s role in fighting oppression in South Africa and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s active international lobbying efforts for African independence.

Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit in 2018, New Delhi signed numerous bilateral agreements and outlined ten guiding principles for a renewed engagement with African countries. New Delhi has also, in recent years, stepped up its diplomatic presence and outreach in Africa by announcing new missions and is prioritizing the training of its foreign services personnel in French and Portuguese.

India’s diverse and deep historical footprint in Africa has been somewhat different to that of other powers and only in recent decades has the country moved from idealism to pragmatism and the explicit pursuit of commercial interests.

Renu Modi is a Professor at the University of Mumbai and Director of the University’s Centre for African Studies.

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Corruption and political settlements — Mushtaq Khan Mar 10, 2021

One of the dominant explanations for elusive development in many parts of the world is the negative role played by corruption in the development process. And many national and local governments as well as international aid agencies have spent considerable time and resources trying to come up with plans to combat the corruption menace. But anti-corruption policy has often been difficult to implement and many well-intentioned efforts have had limited impact.

Despite the challenges associated with researching the phenomenon, corruption has attracted considerable academic interest over the years. And one of the leading thinkers on anti-corruption, governance and economic development is my guest this week. Mushtaq Khan is a professor of economics at SOAS, University of London where he directs the Anti-Corruption Research Consortium (ACE).

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The impact of the sustainable development concept — Frank Biermann Mar 03, 2021

Since its inception in the international development discourse in the late 1980s, sustainable development has often been celebrated for its rhetorical appeal to political correctness. But is it a useful tool for global development?

The idea of “sustainable development” has not only acquired new layers of meaning over the years but has in many ways witnessed a rejuvenation since 2015 following the adoption by world leaders of the 2030 Agenda and its accompanying 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SDGs – grouped under overarching themes of people, planet, dignity, prosperity, justice and partnership – have been widely praised for a strong articulation of an environmental dimension, in addition to breaking new ground with global goals on inequality, economic growth, energy, and peace.

Despite being imperfect and highly ambitious, the SDGs are the result of a comprehensive participatory process, unparalleled in the history of global development. Indeed, while its predecessor – the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – focused exclusively on low-income countries, the SDGs encompass a much broader agenda that applies to all countries.

By closely linking “sustainability” with “development” through the principles of “universality”, “integration” and “leave no one behind”, the 2030 Agenda has been much celebrated in activist, business and policy circles as a means to stimulate a radical shift in world affairs. But the SDGs have also been criticized for their unrealistic ambitions and lack of focus.

The world was already off-track in achieving many of the SDGs before Covid struck. And now there are major concerns over the extent to which these ambitious global goals can be achieved in the next 9 years.

Frank Biermann is a professor of Global Sustainability Governance at Utrecht University’s Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. Frank is a leading scholar of global institutions and organizations in the sustainability domain. In addition to being a prolific writer, he pioneered the ‘earth system’ governance paradigm in 2005 and was the founder and first chair (2008-2018) of the Earth System Governance Project, a leading global transdisciplinary research network of sustainability scholars.

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The future of aid — Jonathan Glennie Feb 24, 2021

International public finance, that is required to address global challenges in the decades to come, is woefully inadequate. And rather than aid, which offers an obsolete approach, we should be talking about joint investments – or as my guest this week puts it, Global Public Investment (GPI).

In his recent book, The Future of Aid: Global Public Investment, Jonathan Glennie urges us to move away from the patronizing and outdated aid narrative.

For starters, he points to the ambitious SDGs and the need for more money to achieve these goals in the years ahead. Domestic resources, he argues, is insufficient to address the challenges the world currently faces and will face in the years ahead. What we must do, he argues, is to turn around the donor-recipient relationship and encourage even the poorest countries to contribute 0.7 % of their GNI to international development. This would in turn require a transformational governance structure where everyone sits around the table – a structure that mitigates the fact that some countries have more money and contribute more than others.

Jonathan Glennie is a writer and campaigner on human rights, international cooperation, sustainable development and poverty.

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Vaccine nationalism and vaccine equity — Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée Feb 20, 2021

I was recently made aware of the fact that 10 wealthy countries have monopolized 75% of all vaccinations delivered worldwide. This has led the United Nations to sharply criticize the world’s wealthy countries for hogging Covid vaccines. In light of growing vaccine nationalism, many voices have for long been calling for global sharing of vaccines. But it turns out 130 countries have not received a single dose of a Covid vaccine. Thus, we are at a critical moment when vaccine equity appears to be the biggest moral test before the global community.

Indeed, numerous recent opinion pieces in the media have highlighted how vaccine nationalism – driven by power and competition between states aimed at protecting the national interest – has several negative consequences for low-income countries. A few days ago, Kenya petitioned the UN Security Council to urge wealthy countries not to hoard surplus Covid-19 vaccine supplies, adding its voice to calls for global production to be shared more equally.

Without equal access to vaccines, public-health experts have warned that the pandemic could continue to live on residually for years on end, resulting in more deaths and further economic collapse. When the virus remains endemic somewhere, it will continue to pose a threat everywhere.

But there are also some promising initiatives currently underway. One of these is the COVAX Initiative – the drive to ensure that vaccines reach low-income countries – which the World Health Organization and countries like Norway have been promoting as the fastest way to end the pandemic. But how effective has it been thus far? And are countries being generous in allocating resources to this Initiative?

To discuss vaccine nationalism, the merits of the COVAX Initiative and vaccine diplomacy being carried out by China and India, I am joined by Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée, who is working on a PhD in political science and is based at the Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo. Over the years, he has worked extensively on global health governance and global cooperation to manage dangerous disease outbreaks such as Ebola. He has been particularly active in the media of late in pointing out the dangers of vaccine nationalism.

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Knowledge production and network-building in China’s foreign relations — Lina Benabdallah Feb 17, 2021

Within international relations theory and foreign policy circles, there is considerable interest in understanding China’s rise to power. In an exciting new book, my guest argues that China’s various types of encounters with countries in the Global South are very different from the behaviour and investment strategies of the US and European countries.

In Shaping the future of power: Knowledge Production and network-building in China-Africa Relations, Lina Benabdallah explores the integrated roles of social relations, knowledge production and power in China’s foreign relations.

She argues that it is simply not enough to look at the amount of loans, aid and foreign direct investments originating from China. While these material factors are important, we mustn’t ignore the investments made in people-to-people relations and human resource development in China-Africa relations. Indeed, relations and relationality are central to China’s foreign policy and diplomatic conduct.

In the book, Lina examines how China deploys social capital and relational productive power on the African continent through knowledge production via human resource development and professionalization programs. Chinese investments in human resource development, she argues, expand Beijing’s network of connections with military officers, civil servants, journalists and regular citizens. They also act as spaces for expert knowledge production, and norm diffusion.

Lina Benabdallah is an assistant professor of politics and international affairs at Wake Forest University in the United States. We discussed how China brands its model of development in Africa, the broad categories of knowledge production and network building activities, and whether African countries have much say in how these relations are conducted.

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How to distribute a Covid-19 vaccine ethically — Aksel Braanen Sterri Feb 13, 2021

As Covid vaccines become available, health officials, policymakers, philanthropic organizations and people like you and me are being confronted with numerous ethical challenges and moral dilemmas. Who should get the vaccines first and how long should others wait? What about the inequality of access to vaccines between countries?

Some of us may agree that rich countries have a moral responsibility to subsidize vaccination programs around the world. But how best can this be achieved? And what types of principles such as fairness, equity, effectiveness and reciprocity should we apply?

To discuss these issues, I am joined by Aksel Braanen Sterri, a Norwegian political scientist and philosopher who has recently argued that Norway should donate all its vaccines to low-income countries, and that Norway should be at the back of the vaccine queue rather than being in front. He also claims that helping these more needy countries ought to be viewed as an investment in our common future rather than an act of charity.

Aksel recently completed a PhD in philosophy and teaches applied ethics at the University of Oslo. In addition to being a postdoctoral fellow, he writes a column in an influential Norwegian daily and is a regular contributor to the Norwegian public debate on a wide range of social and political issues.

We discussed the role of philosophers in addressing current global challenges, the various proposals currently doing the rounds on how best the world can distribute Covid vaccines, why Norway and other rich countries ought to subsidise or donate vaccines to more needy countries and groups and what constitutes vaccine justice.

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How India became the "pharmacy of the world" — Rory Horner Feb 10, 2021

One of the many ways in which India has expanded its influence in global affairs relates to pharmaceutical products. The Indian pharmaceutical sector has enthusiastically highlighted its ability to develop Triple A technology (affordable, available, adaptable). By encouraging research hubs and offering a steady supply of affordable drugs to many countries, including the United States, India has rapidly moved from being a pharmacy for low-income countries to becoming the “pharmacy of the world”.

The country’s rapidly growing economy has been a major beneficiary of the astonishing rise of the domestic pharmaceutical industry. In becoming a powerhouse on low-cost generic drugs, India contributes actively to meeting global demands for vaccines, Over the Counter (OTC) medicines and patented drugs.

An important factor that has contributed to enhancing the reputation and profitability of Indian pharmaceutical companies abroad has been the government’s tough policy on patents, which has enabled Indian firms to manufacture generic versions of drugs that are much more expensive in countries where they were originally developed.

But Indian companies also face numerous challenges in the export market. There is a growing demand to reduce costs even further. And several countries in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia are trying to protect and promote their domestic industries by introducing new regulations that make Indian imports more expensive. There are also concerns that India has become increasingly dependent on imports from China for so-called “active pharmaceutical ingredients” required for making both advanced and essential medicines.

To discuss India’s huge and thriving pharmaceutical industry and the country’s ability to supply affordable vaccines and generic drugs to low-income countries, I am joined by Rory Horner. He is a Senior Lecturer in Globalisation and Political Economy in the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. We began by discussing the role and impact of the pharmaceutical industry in global development.

Resources:
- "The world needs pharmaceuticals from China and India to beat coronavirus" (The Conversation, 2020)
- "India is key for global access to a COVID-19 vaccine – here’s why" (The Conversation, 2020)
- "The segmented globalisation practices within India’s pharmaceutical industry" (blog, 2017)
- "Pharmaceuticals and the Global South: a healthy challenge for development theory?" (blog, 2016)
- "Indian Company Offers to Supply AIDS Drugs at Low Cost in Africa" (New York Times, 2001)
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Political violence and development — Patricia Justino Feb 02, 2021

People living in areas prone to, or affected by, conflict tend to suffer from many types of deprivation. Some scholars argue that conflict is an important driver of severe food crises and famines, and that undernutrition worsens in situations of prolonged conflicts and in countries and regions with weak institutional capacity. In recent years, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Ethiopia are just some of the examples that have been used in the literature to illustrate the close linkages between social and political unrest on the one hand and poverty and hunger on the other.

But is there a clear-cut relationship between poverty and violent conflict? There appear to be numerous drivers of violence. These often include political, economic, social and environmental issues. While socio-economic inequalities can be a major cause of violence, other causes could include human rights abuses, perceived injustice, systemic corruption, and disagreements over the distribution of natural resources and who gets to benefit from such resources.

To discuss some of these issues, I am joined by Patricia Justino who is a development economist and a leading expert on political violence and development. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Households in Conflict Network and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER and Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Brighton, UK.

We discussed the relationship between poverty and violent conflict, the work of the World Food Programme which received the Nobel Peace Prize last year, and the political economy of war zones. We also discussed how the state or armed groups behave in predatory or conciliatory ways towards local populations, how civilians respond to these strategies, and how reports on political violence are produced and disseminated on social media.

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Gro Harlem Brundtland on sustainable development, global responses to COVID-19 and the role of the WHO Jan 26, 2021

Our guest this week is Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway and former head of the World Health Organization.

Gro has had an illustrious career in Norway and abroad. In addition to becoming the first female head of the Norwegian Labor party, she became the first female prime minister of Norway in February 1981. And during her second stint as Prime Minister in 1986, her cabinet made world news headlines when she appointed 8 female ministers in a cabinet of 18.

In addition to being widely regarded as the most influential Norwegian politician of all time, Gro is also widely known for having chaired the World Commission on Environment and Development, popularly referred to as the Brundtland Commission. The Commission’s influential 1987 report, Our Common Future, popularized and defined the term “sustainable development”.

She is also known for her work as Director General of the World Health Organization between 1998 and 2003, during which time she and the WHO coordinated a rapid worldwide response to stem outbreaks of SARS.

We discussed the world response to Covid, multilateralism and the role of UN agencies such as the WHO and the current status of the sustainable development discourse.

A full transcript of our conversation is available.

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Political development and political decay — Francis Fukuyama Jan 19, 2021

Welcome to season 2 of the show!

Our first guest this season is Francis Fukuyama, one of the most influential political thinkers of our time and someone who has written extensively on international politics and issues of development. He is a senior fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies(FSI) and the director of the institute’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL),.

This conversation was recorded in mid-December 2020 at the height of the controversies surrounding the US presidential election and President Trump’s refusal to acknowledge defeat. And while a new president will shortly be sworn in on the 20th of January, deep political divisions remain. It is therefore particularly useful and timely to revisit Fukuyama’s major two-volume work on the origins of political order and political decay. In these two fascinating books published in 2011 and 2014, he provides an account of how societies develop strong, impersonal, and accountable political institutions.

We also discussed his first book, The End of History and the Last Man (1992) and his latest, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (2018).

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Simmering political tensions and civil war in Ethiopia — Kjetil Tronvoll Nov 18, 2020

The focus of this final episode of season 1 is Ethiopia, where the ongoing conflict between the federal government in Addis and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front that controls the Tigray region, is making daily news headlines.

Ever since becoming the Prime Minister of Ethiopia in 2018, Abiy Ahmed has undertaken several bold reforms. He has also appointed women in key official positions and freed political prisoners. His efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular his efforts to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea resulted in him being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019.

But there have also been critical voices within the country that have warned against an over-reliance on charisma and announcing major initiatives without adequate preparation and anticipation of potential consequences. Thus, despite the frenetic pace of change the country has witnessed since 2018, many Ethiopians have remained worried over growing income inequality, high levels of youth unemployment, and simmering tensions and factional battles within the ruling coalition.

Ethiopia has been one of Africa’s fastest growing economies for the past decade and a half and there has been considerable talk of the country’s rise as potentially the only true “developmental state” in Africa. In addition to rapid economic growth, signature development projects such as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam have given rise to comparisons with East Asian successes such as South Korea and Taiwan. A country that typically made world headlines for abject poverty and sensational famines, is now considered to be one of the most promising economies on the continent. Ethiopia is also a major contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, which has strengthened its identity as an important security provider externally while at the same time guaranteeing peace and stability for international investors within the country.

But the country has also continued to face major obstacles such as its conflict with Egypt over water-sharing agreements, the viability of democratic reforms, and the future of its federal political setup.

And now there are widespread fears that a civil war will not only spread and exacerbate ethnic tensions within the country but also destabilise the Horn of Africa.

My guest on the show today is Kjetil Tronvoll, who is a well-known Ethiopia expert and is a professor of Peace and Conflict studies at Bjorknes University College in Norway.

He has undertaken long-term fieldwork in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Zanzibar, in addition to shorter field studies many countries on the African continent. In addition to publishing extensively on human rights, transitional justice, elections and peace, reconciliation and conflict, Kjetil has served as an advisor to political reconciliation processes and international peace meditating initiatives. He has also participated in election observer missions in several African countries.

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Economic boom, poverty reduction and corruption in China — Yuen Yuen Ang Nov 11, 2020

China has not only achieved impressive economic growth in recent decades, but has also managed to lift hundreds of millions people out of poverty. How was this possible? What role did Chinese institutions, leaders and bureaucrats play in achieving this impressive result? And how and why China has managed to grow so fast for so long despite pervasive corruption?

Yuen Yuen Ang is a professor of political science and an expert on China at the University of Michigan.

She has written two award-winning books.

In her first book, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap (2016), she explains how policymakers in China were able to design national reform packages and were thus able to create an adaptive environment around the bureaucracy. Local governments also played a key role in achieving poverty reduction. Yuen argues that China’s rise was not the result of top-down control, but rather of so-called “directed improvisation” within a single-party regime.

Yuen's most recent book is China’s Gilded Age: the Paradox of Economic Boom & Vast Corruption (2020), where she challenges the conventional wisdom that rich countries became rich by first eradicating corruption. She argues that dominant type of corruption in China is not petty bribery or outright looting but access money – that is elite exchanges of power and wealth.

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The impact of democracy on economic growth — Carl Henrik Knutsen Nov 04, 2020

Some of the most interesting debates on development include the role of democracy in promoting economic growth and then distributing the benefits of growth to achieve poverty reduction. Indeed, some of the questions that have attracted considerably scholarly attention in recent decades include the following: Are certain regimes better able and equipped than others to achieve economic growth? Does democracy work for the poor?

Despite considerable research on the topic, the results of the democracy-growth relationship are not always very clear. But there does appear to be stronger linkages between democracy and certain types of development outcomes, including literacy and infant mortality.

Guest: Carl Henrik Knutsen is a professor of political science at the University of Oslo. He has for many years studied the democracy-growth linkage and has published extensively on this subject. In a recent piece called the “Business case for democracy”, he argues that democracy works as a safety-net for avoiding the worst possible economic outcomes. And in relation to economic growth, he argues that autocracies have more variation — over countries and across time.

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Global inequality and the future of capitalism — Branko Milanovic Oct 28, 2020

Income inequality has received considerable attention in recent years. Very few would have predicted that a very thick academic book on wealth and income inequality in Europe and the United States since the 18th century would go on to become an international bestseller. I am of course referring to Capital in the Twenty-First Century– the book published by the French economist Thomas Piketty in 2013.

Income inequality was rising in many countries before the pandemic, and recent reports suggest that the Covid crisis is widening inequalities globally. Indeed, the global economy, according to the International Monetary Fund, is expected to contract 4.4 percent cent in 2020. This is bad news for the world’s poor, whose numbers are expected to sharply increase. But Covid has also made the world’s richest even richer. A recent analysis by UBS concludes that the world’s billionaires have grown wealthier in 2020 compared with 2019. And this is not just in the United States or Germany but also in Brazil and China. Thus, the pandemic will most likely deepen inequalities of various kinds.

To discuss how global income inequality looks like today, I am joined by Branko Milanovic, one of the world’s most well-known scholars on inequality. He is a visiting presidential professor at The Graduate Center at the City University of New York, and a senior scholar at the University’s Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality.

Professor Milanovic has published extensively on income inequality, in individual countries and globally, including in preindustrial societies. For almost two decades, he served as the lead economist in the World Bank’s Research Department.

We discussed income inequality within specific countries and whether the gains of the emerging global middle class in Asia are responsible for the losses of the lower middle class of the rich world. We also spoke about Branko’s latest book, Capitalism Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World (2019), in which he argues that for the first time in human history, the globe is dominated by one economic system – capitalism. So, what are the prospects for a fairer world now that capitalism is the only game in town?

Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization (2016)
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China-Africa relations — Eric Olander Oct 21, 2020

This show has been regularly discussing Beijing’s support for sustainable development initiatives, its provision of aid, technical expertise and finance to developing counties under the South-South Cooperation umbrella, and the numerous infrastructure projects that China is undertaking in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

A common goal in several of the episodes in this season of the podcast has been to nuance the understanding of China’s recent activities, better understand its motives and reflect on its future strategies and actions. Much of the recent focus in Western media reports on China has focused on the damage that Covid has done to Beijing’s reputation abroad. There have also been growing concerns on how Beijing will react to certain countries defaulting on the huge loans that it has provided for infrastructure construction. But not everyone shares such concerns. And indeed there are numerous voices that have highlighted Beijing’s support for multilateral institutions and its ability to finance and undertake major development projects that the West has long neglected.

Guest: Eric Olanderisthe co-founder of the China Africa project, an independent multimedia organization that explores China’s engagement with Africa. He is a journalist with over three decades of experience reporting, producing and managing newsrooms for some of the world’s leading media organizations including CNN, and the BBC World Service. Eric speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese and has a Master’s degree in International Public Affairs with a focus on Chinese foreign policy from the University of Hong Kong. He also hosts a very popular weekly China in Africa podcast.

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Food insecurity and the Nobel Peace Prize 2020 — Ida Rudolfsen Oct 17, 2020

The Nobel Peace Prize this year was awarded to the World Food Program (WFP). In its announcement, the Norwegian Nobel committee emphasized that “providing assistance to increase food security not only prevents hunger, but can also help to improve prospects for stability and peace”.

The WPF indeed appears to be a worthy winner of this prestigious award. It is the world’s largest humanitarian agency, and currently assists over 100 million people in 88 countries. It is also the frontline UN agency responding to emergencies caused by conflict, climate shocks, pandemics and other disasters. And currently it is involved in addressing ongoing emergencies in 20 countries or regions, the majority of these emergencies have been fuelled by conflict. It has also in recent months warned the international community that acute hunger in the 88 countries in which it operates could reach 270 million people by the end of the year — an 82 percent increase on 2019.

For many years, world hunger was on the decline. More food was being produced around the world and access was gradually improving. But since 2014, the number of undernourished people or people facing chronic food deprivation, has been on the rise.

Latest estimates from the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN suggest that 9.7 percent of the world population (or slightly less than 750 million people) was exposed to severe levels of food insecurity in 2019. Indeed, in all regions of the world except Northern America and Europe, the prevalence of severe food insecurity has increased from 2014 to 2019. But even this is only a part of the story, because an additional 16 percent of the world population, or more than 1.25 billion people, experience food insecurity at moderate levels. And this group, which is moderately food insecure, does not have regular access to nutritious and sufficient food, even if they are not necessarily suffering from hunger.

Some countries, such as Yemen, are on the edge of famine and Covid is making hunger even more acute in large parts of the world. So, the scale of the problem of world hunger is enormous, which makes this year’s Nobel Peace Prize even more relevant and timely.

According to several studies, conflict is an important driver of severe food crisis and famines, and undernutrition is particularly a major problem in situations of prolonged conflicts and in countries and regions with weak institutional capacity.

Guest: Ida Rudolfsen is a PhD student at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. She is also affiliated with the Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO).

Resources:

Covid-19, food access, and social upheaval (July 2020)
The World Food Program won the Nobel Peace Prize. Does food aid boost peace? (Monkey Cage blog, Washington Post, October 2020)
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Why democracy will prevail in the contest against authoritarian alternatives — Larry Diamond Oct 14, 2020

In his recent book – ll Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency (Penguin 2019) – Larry Diamond analyzes the challenges confronting liberal democracy in the United States and around the world at this potential “hinge in history”. The book outlines an agenda for strengthening and defending democracy at home in the US as well as abroad.

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University. He is also a professor by courtesy of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford.

Professor Diamond has made numerous contributions to topics such as democratic development and regime change; U.S. foreign policy affecting democracy abroad; comparative trends in the quality and stability of democracy in developing countries and post-communist states; and public opinion in new democracies.

In addition to serving as advisor to numerous governmental and international organizations throughout his glittering career, Prof. Diamond is also the founding co-editor of the hugely influential Journal of Democracy .

"Protecting American Democracy: A Conversation with Larry Diamond" (Stanford Daily, August 2020)
"Democratic Regression in Comparative Perspective", open access journal article (June 2020)
"Transitions to Democracy: Toward a Dynamic Model" (Comparative Politics, Dankwart Rustow, 1970)
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What the West does not understand about China — Liu Baocheng Oct 10, 2020

Much of the discourse in the Western media in recent months has highlighted the rising tensions between the United States and China and the growing assertiveness of Chinese diplomats on social media and in other international forums, where they have passionately defended their country’s response to the Covid outbreak.

There has also been a growing interest in trying to decode how Beijing is reconfiguring its aid and investment policies and how and to what extent it will offer debt relief to developing countries. There are numerous media reports questioning the real motives behind Beijing’s attempts to further strengthen diplomatic ties with countries in all corners of the world and push the narrative that as the good brother, friend and partner, China is concerned with upholding the principle of building itself up while also supporting other countries at the same time.

And then there is all of this talk about a potential Covid vaccine, which when developed by the Chinese, could potentially be made available for free or at a subsidized price to countries that Beijing considers its friends.

But the perspectives of Chinese scholars and commentators on these matters do not receive the kind of attention they deserve.

Liu Baocheng is a professor at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) and Director of the University’s Center for International Business Ethics. I have collaborated with Prof. Liu for the past few years on a project that explored corporate strategies to promote sustainable development in China. Prof. Liu frequently appears as a news commentator on CCTV International.

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China’s Belt and Road Initiative and infrastructure development in Africa — Gyude Moore Oct 07, 2020

A couple of months ago, Liberia’s former minister of public works, Gyude Moore argued in a popular Tweet that Western critiques of Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will ring hollow in the absence of viable and state-led alternatives from the West. He claimed that the West can easily match, if not exceed China's BRI if it wanted to. But he also wondered whether the West wants to do this. He remains unconvinced because he thinks the West is satisfied with "virtue signalling when it comes to Africa’s prosperity". And so he went on to argue that it should not come as a surprise when African governments do their best to avoid being drawn into any rivalry between the United States and China and prefer to rather maintain a broad coalition of partners. But most importantly, he pointed out, “If China has built more infrastructure in Africa in two decades than the West has in centuries, China is also our friend".

In addition to previously serving as Liberia’s minister of public works (2014-2018) with oversight over the construction and maintenance of public infrastructure, Gyude Moore has also been the deputy chief of staff to former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. He is currently a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC.

Resources:

"Africa Needs a Stronger Europe, Europe Needs a Stronger Africa" (Sept. 2020)
"How Can We Prepare for Coronavirus? Learn from Liberia’s Experience with Ebola" (March 2020)
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Dam diplomacy and water sharing agreements in the Nile basin — Ashok Swain Sep 30, 2020

The growing tensions between the Nile Basin countries – Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan – over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has made news headlines in recent months.

Egypt and Ethiopia have for many years been at loggerheads over Ethiopia’s plan to dam the Nile River and this conflict has resulted in steadily deteriorating relations between some of Africa’s biggest countries. Numerous attempts to negotiate a deal have failed and the livelihoods of millions of people who depend on the smooth flow of the Nile are at stake.

In 2011, Ethiopia began construction of the GERD, a $4.6 billion hydroelectric project, on the headwaters of the Blue Nile, near the border between Ethiopia and Sudan. For Ethiopia, the dam offers an opportunity to finally take advantage of the world’s longest river in stimulating economic growth and generate much-needed electricity for itself as well as for its neighbours.

But the construction of this dam has resulted in a highly polarized discourse.

Some have argued that GERD, in addition to its obvious benefits for Ethiopia, could even foster new and productive forms of regional cooperation. But others worry over Ethiopia’s growing muscle and its motives, and its commitment to respect water-sharing agreements at the cost of other countries that depend on the Nile.

In addition to the Nile river basin conflict, we also discuss in this episode the longstanding water sharing agreements and disputes between India and Bangladesh and the impact of India’s construction of the Farakka Barrage on the Ganges river in the 1970s. Are there certain lessons from this dispute that could explain the current dispute in the Nile basin?

Guest: Ashok Swain is a professor of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University, Sweden. He is also the UNESCO Chair of International Water Cooperation and the Director of Uppsala University’s Research School of International Water Cooperation.

Resources:

"How the Grand Renaissance Dam might spark basin-wide water cooperation" (The Conversation, July 2020)
"Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Catalyst for basin-wide water cooperation?" (The Africa Report, August 2020)
The Egyptian President's speech at the UN General Assembly (Sept. 2020)
"Ethiopia tells UN 'no intention' of using dam to harm Egypt, Sudan" (Middle East Monitor, September 2020)
"To India’s chagrin, Bangladesh turns to China to transform Teesta river" (TheThirdPole.net, September 2020)
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Legislative development in Africa — Ken Ochieng' Opalo Sep 23, 2020

Studying the role of institutions and their evolution often helps us better understand political and economic development in countries all over the world. And one such key institution is the legislature, which plays a critical role in democratic consolidation by providing a stable system of horizontal accountability. Legislatures craft legislation, pass laws, exercise oversight of the executive branch and thereby provide the institutional mechanism which allows societies to perform representative governance on a daily basis. Individual legislators articulate competing interests and try to influence the policymaking process. They also perform an important function – that of constituency service, i.e. they may regularly visit their constituencies and meet their constituents and address local needs and may even be involved in providing various types of public goods to their constituents through development projects.

The extent of legislative capacity and power, of course, varies greatly from country to country. In some countries, the legislature remains relatively weak despite multiparty politics, regular elections and even when ruling parties lose elections. But in other countries, the legislature has functioned effectively as a check on the executive branch of government as well as provided important contributions to the policymaking and policy implementation processes.

But legislatures and legislative capacity in developing countries have not received the kind of scholarly attention that they deserve. This is indeed surprising.

In his brilliant book, Legislative Development in Africa: Politics and Postcolonial Legacies, published in 2019 by Cambridge University Press, Ken explores how the adaptation of inherited colonial legislative institutional forms and practices continue to structure and influence contemporary politics and policy outcomes in Africa. He contrasts the records of legislative performance and discusses why the legislatures in some emerging democracies have enhanced their capacity and power while those in others have not. Ken finds that the introduction of competitive multiparty electoral institutions strengthened the Kenyan legislature but not the Zambian one. He also examines how and under what conditions democratic legislatures emerge in countries that have had strong autocratic foundations. Ken’s book thus makes a strong case for strengthening legislatures in emerging democracies. He argues that attempts to strengthen legislatures in emerging democracies should not just be limited to technical assistance and organizational capacity building but also include the political empowerment of legislators.

Ken Ochieng’ Opalois an Assistant Professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. His research interests include legislative politics, subnational administration and local government, electoral politics, and the political economy of development in Africa. Ken’s current research projects include studies of the politics of service provision and accountability under devolved government in Kenya, education sector reforms in Tanzania, inter-state relations in Africa, and executive-legislative relations in Kenya. His works have been published in the British Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Democracy, the Journal of Eastern African Studies, and Governance. He is a member of EGAP (Evidence in Governance and Politics), gui2de (Georgetown University Initiative on Innovation, Development, and Evaluation) and a non-resident fellow at Brookings Institution and the Center for Global Development. His research has been funded by the Luminate Group, the Susan Ford Dorsey Fellowship, and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID). Ken earned his BA from Yale University and PhD from Stanford University.

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Why AIDS interventions in Africa often fail — Kim Yi Dionne Sep 16, 2020

As the international community addresses numerous development challenges, we must often pause, reflect, and ask: Do good intentions lead to good results? If so, when? And how? There are innumerable development agendas and a multitude of stakeholders involved in saving lives as well as promoting long-term development in many developing countries. What really is the impact of their activities? Are such activities well-coordinated? How effectively can external actors make a meaningful contribution to alleviating local problems? And most importantly, whose priorities do such interventions address, and to what extent are the so-called “beneficiaries” consulted?

Guest: Kim Yi Dionne, associate professor of political science, University of California, Riverside. Dr. Dionne also edits The Monkey Cage, a blog on politics and political science at The Washington Post.

Resources:

Doomed Interventions: The Failure of Global Responses to AIDS in Africa, Cambridge University Press (2018)
Profile: Kim Yi Dionne, University of California, Riverside
Kim Yi Dionne on Twitter
Ufahamu Africa podcast
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India’s development and the political economy of growth — Kunal Sen Sep 09, 2020

With the phenomenal growth of its economy in recent years and its longstanding democratic record, India — the world's largest democracy — has emerged as a major global power. Not only has democracy survived in India, but in recent decades the country has also established itself as a beacon of hope for other developing countries striving to achieve a similar combination of democracy, development, and the rule of law.

India’s management of the COVID pandemic, however, has made news headlines in recent weeks not just because of the massive spike in COVID cases but also because the country’s GDP plunged by 23.9 per cent in the period April – June 2020 – the biggest contraction of any major Asian country. And then there are rising tensions with China. As India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi put it recently, India is fighting on many fronts.

But some of India’s problems began in a pre-COVID era. There were signs that economic growth was slowing and unemployment was on the rise.

Guest: Professor Kunal Sen, Director of UNU-WIDER and professor of development economics at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester.

Topics discussed:

The state of development economics research today
How is COVID is deepening global inequality?
India's economic growth trajectory since 1991
Role of India's informal sector
Taxation policy in, and fiscal capacity of, developing countries

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Globalization, the Nordic model and the economics of belonging — Martin Sandbu Sep 02, 2020

Martin Sandbu has an exciting new book, The Economics of Belonging: A Radical Plan to Win Back the Left Behind and Achieve Prosperity for All (Princeton University Press).

Martin argues that the western social order has rested on three crucial pillars. First, political principles centered on individual rights, equality before the law, robust and independent institutions and regular, free and meaningful elections.

The second pillar consists of a social market economy, that is a capitalist system in which prosperity is broadly shared. And the third pillar is economic and political openness to the outside world for the joint realization of this social order.

Much of the political debate in recent years, especially in the United States and in parts of Europe, has questioned the purpose and value of this western economic and political order that has been in place since 1945. This has been in part been fueled by widening income inequality, growing political polarization, and the rise of populist leaders. Some have also blamed globalization for such discontentment.

But Martin argues that it is not globalization that is to blame for many of our current problems, but rather technological change and flawed domestic policies that have made it difficult for some groups in society to particulate fully and justly in the economy. The real problem, he writes, is that “The western social order no longer fulfills its promise of an economy that provides a good place for everyone."

Martin Sandbu is the European Economics Commentator for the Financial Times. He also writes Free Lunch, the FT's weekly newsletter on the global economic policy debate.

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The historic court ruling in Malawi annulling the 2019 presidential elections — Edge Kanyongolo Aug 26, 2020

In a landmark ruling in February of this year, Malawi’s High Court concluded that the country’s president Peter Mutharika was “not duly elected”. The Court thus annulled the May 2019 elections in Malawi citing massive irregularities. It ordered new elections within five months and concluded that the Malawi Electoral Commission had failed to carry out its responsibilities according to the constitution and electoral law.

The lengthy, meticulously detailed, and unanimous ruling by the five judges has attracted widespread international acclaim. The court ruling followed numerous protests organized throughout the country after the May 2019 elections.

Edge Kanyongolo is an Associate professor at the Department of Law at Chancellor College, University of Malawi.

Resources:

A great judgment, but court victories won’t deliver democracy in Malawi (Dan Banik & Happy Kayuni, The Conversation, February 2020)
Political Transition and Inclusive Development in Malawi: The democratic dividend (open access book with a chapter by Edge Kanyongolo, edited by Dan Banik and Blessings Chinsinga, Routledge).
Courts and the Poor in Malawi: Economic Marginalization (Siri Gloppen and Edge Kanyongolo, International Journal of Constitutional Law, 2007)
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The need to politicize development economics — Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven Aug 19, 2020

Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven's research focuses on the role of finance in development, structural features of underdevelopment, the political economy of development (including the role of international institutions), and critically assessing the economics field.

Dr. Kvangraven is currently an Assistant Professor in International Development at the University of York’s Department of Politics. She is the founder and editor of Developing Economics and founder and steering group member of Diversifying and Decolonising Economics (D-Econ).

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Pakistan's healthcare system and its recent success in fighting Covid — Usman Mushtaq Aug 12, 2020

As the Covid pandemic continues to dominate world headlines, there is growing interest in better understanding how some low and middle-income countries have achieved considerable success in responding to this global crisis. Vietnam is one such country that has been successful in combating Covid. Another is Cuba. And the state of Kerala in India has also received much praise for its handling of the pandemic. But for the past few weeks a rather unlikely, success story has emerged. It is that of Pakistan, which has been branded as a bright spot, having achieved remarkable progress despite numerous predictions, including one study from June, which had warned of millions of infections and at least a hundred thousand deaths. But Pakistan appears to have, at least for the time being, defied these odds and the Covid curve appears to be flattening. And although experts say it is too early to claim victory over the virus, Pakistan’s somewhat unheralded achievement merits closer attention, especially given the long history of its dysfunctional and fragmented healthcare system.

Dr Usman Mushtaq is a Norwegian-Pakistani medical doctor who for the past year or so has been working as an advisor for Pakistan’s Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination. It was Dr Zafar Mirza, until recently Pakistan’s Minister of Health, who asked Dr Mushtaq to join his team in Pakistan.

Dr Mushtaq is a member of the Board of Trustees of EAT Foundation and has previously been a member of the EAT Advisory Board and Director of Policy and Global Strategy for EAT. He is also a member of the Norwegian Labour Party.

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How Black Lives Matter is also a reckoning for foreign aid and international NGOs — Degan Ali Aug 05, 2020

Many have highlighted the need for equity and justice in the field of foreign aid and humanitarian assistance. Local civil society organizations (CSOs) or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are the frontline workers, risking their lives to access areas that well-funded international NGOs or even UN agencies cannot access. However, critics of the current system claim that the local NGO is often the sub-contractor and not a real partner that is allowed to contribute to the design of the project. If something goes wrong in the process, that local NGO is blacklisted, not the UN agency or the international NGO that received the funding.

There are also other concerns. For example, the local NGO rarely receives a decent overhead rate or adequate funds to cover operational expenses. Local NGO staff are also often poached by multilateral institutions and international NGOs. All of this, some claim, results in a serious and systematic erosion of capacity in the Global South. And local knowledge and organizational capacity are often undervalued.
Degan Ali has for long spoken out against systematic racism – the systemic structure of power, money, and decision-making that goes into the design of the international humanitarian and aid architectures. She has campaigned for a more just and dignified aid system that allows recipient countries to take back power. In a recent op-ed, she argued that “Talking about racism is not enough” and that “We can’t afford another 50 years of apathy in the international system.”

Degan Ali is the Executive Director of Adeso, an organization that has been a leader globally and in Somalia for its work on cash transfers and environmental justice. She has been a passionate advocate at the global level on the mainstreaming of cash as the primary response mechanism to humanitarian crises

Resources

"'We are demanding change': the Somali woman taking on international NGOs", The Guardian, March 2016
"Is it finally time for the localization agenda to take off?", Devex, June 2020
"Opinion: 'Accelerate your commitments' during COVID-19— an open letter to donors", Devex, April 2020
YOUTUBE VIDEO: Imagining and creating a decolonized world with racial and economic justice at its core, webinar hosted by Intersectional Feminist Foreign Policy(IFFP) and Adeso
Network for Empowered Aid Response (NEAR)
Degan Ali on Twitter
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How is India handling the pandemic? A conversation with Tathagata Satpathy Jul 29, 2020

Although India faces numerous challenges – a huge population, rising unemployment, growing environmental vulnerabilities – there is general agreement that, despite many odds, democracy has not only survived but is now firmly entrenched in the social and political fabric of the country.

In recent months, however, the country has been rocked by nationwide protests following the enactment of the Citizen Amendment Act in December 2019.

And then Covid struck.

On the 24th of March, Prime Minister Modi announced that the country was going into a three-week lockdown. The sheer scale of this nationwide lockdown affecting 1.3 billion people, was unprecedented.

In subsequently extending the lockdown beyond the initial 3 weeks, the Prime Minister noted: “India didn’t wait for the problem to escalate. Instead, as soon as the problem appeared, we tried to stop it by making swift decisions. I can’t imagine what the situation would have been had such quick decisions not been taken”.

In the initial weeks and months, the lockdown appeared to be working well but once it was gradually lifted, there was a surge in Covid cases.

And many within India remain worried that the country’s healthcare system may not be able to tackle a crisis of such magnitude.

But there is also growing evidence of how India has radically stepped up its Covid-testing capacity. And last year, an ambitious new health insurance plan was launched – the Ayushman Bharat Yojana, which aims to provide free health coverage to large groups in the country,

Joining me to discuss India’s Covid response, health insurance policies, center-state relations in the country’s federal set-up, the role of political parties in promoting development and reducing poverty, and much much more is Mr. Tathagata Sathpathy.

Tathagata Satpathy served four terms as Member of Parliament, representing the Dhenkanal constituency of the state of Orissa (also known as Odisha). Until recently, he was a member of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) political party and was the party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha – the lower house of the Indian parliament. In addition to being a politician, Mr. Satpathy is the owner and editor of the daily Odia newspaper, Dharitri, and the English daily, Orissa Post.

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The relevance of foreign aid — Bård Vegar Solhjell Jul 22, 2020

For decades, the mantra of globalization supported increased foreign aid to, and trade with, low-income countries. The proclaimed goal was to reduce poverty and promote economic growth and development. But aid policies have increasingly become both complex and fragmented. Some argue that there is an unprecedented international policy overload when it comes to aid and development. Indeed, some even claim that we are witnessing aid fatigue. Many traditional donors are also revisiting the role and impact of aid.

In a world which was already struggling to cope with numerous crises even before the Covid pandemic struck – inadequate finance, food insecurity, climate change – the pattern and flow of aid to low-income countries in the near future is potentially going to change in fundamental ways.

Bård Vegar Solhjell is Director General of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). He has substantial political experience having served as a member of Parliament and Party Secretary for the Socialist left Party in Norway and subsequently also as Norway’s Minister of Education and Minister of Environment. He was also CEO of WWF Norway.

Resources

This is how Norwegian development aid funds were spent in 2019 (Norad)
Norwegian Aid Statistics (Norad)
From Knowledge to Implementation, Norad's Evaluation Department, Annual Report 2019/2020
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Chinese aid and South-South Cooperation — Marina Rudyak Jul 08, 2020

China is on everyone’s mind these days. It is not just related to the origins of Covid. There is considerable global attention on Beijing’s tense relations with Washington, Ottawa, New Delhi, Tokyo, and even many European capitals. But China wields great influence in large parts of the world, including in low and medium incomes countries, through its investments and aid. And in recent years, Beijing has steadily expanded its global influence through its signature foreign policy project – The Belt and Road Initiative – which is a long-term plan to undertake a series of large investments in roads, bridges, gas pipelines, railways, ports and power plants in over 70 countries.

Joining me today to discuss the role and impact of China’s aid and investments around the world is Marina Rudyak.

Marina is an assistant lecturer at the Institute of Chinese Studies at Heidelberg University in Germany. She studied Modern and Classical Chinese Studies and Public Law at Heidelberg University and Shanghai International Studies University. In her recently completed Ph.D. dissertation, Marina focuses on Chinese foreign aid policies and Beijing’s evolving role in international development.

Before re-joining Heidelberg University in 2014, Marina was a policy advisor with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) in Beijing where she managed a multi-country project on regional economic cooperation.

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State capacity in Latin America — Benedicte Bull Jul 01, 2020

There have been numerous news reports in recent weeks pointing to how Covid will damage Latin America more severely than many other world regions. Several commentators and scholars have argued that the pandemic will wipe out several decades of social progress, pushing millions back into poverty. To discuss economic growth and poverty and inequality reduction in Latin America both before and after Covid, in addition to key political trends in the region, I am joined by my colleague Benedicte Bull.

Benedicte Bull is a professor of political science and head of the Norwegian Latin America Research Network (NorLARNet) at the Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo. Her research has focused on the relationship between politics, state building and development, and how international relations influence the possibilities for establishing good institutions that can produce positive societal change.

Resources:

"Latin America ‘to lose 20 years of progress’ in poverty reduction" (Financial Times, 29 June 2020)
Inequality in Latin America?
The crisis in Venezuela: Drivers, transitions, and pathways
Peace-building and business elites in Guatemala and El Salvador: explaining the discursive ‘institutional turn’
Chinese engagement in Africa and Latin America: does it matter for state capacity?
Covid in developing economies (E-book, edited by Simeon Djankov and Ugo Panizza)
Benedicte Bull on Twitter
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Erik Solheim on sustainable development Jun 24, 2020

Our world is facing considerable challenges, not just in relation to the Covid crisis, but also in terms of our desire to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and address the adverse impacts caused by climate disruption.

Despite such challenges, we cannot underestimate the numerous developmental successes that the world has witnessed in recent decades. In relation to health, prosperity, safety, peace, and happiness, humanity is much better off today than ever before in history. And although such achievements have not been equally replicated in all arenas (e.g. the environment), this should deter us from asking what “success” means in practice, and how such ideas can be mobilized by national governments and the international community in pursuit of sustainable development.

To discuss the relationship between development and the environment, the need to change consumer behavior and the future role of China, India, aid and the United Nations in a post-Covid world is my guest this week – Erik Solheim – a veteran Norwegian diplomat, who has previously served as the leader of Norway’s Socialist Left Party (1987-1997) and was Norway’s Minister for International Development and Minister of Environment (2005-2012). He also served as Chair of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) (2013-2016) and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (2016-2018).

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Democracy, development and Covid response in Africa — Boniface Dulani Jun 17, 2020

Malawi is my second home. Every year, for the past fifteen years, I have made numerous trips from Norway to this beautiful country in Southern Africa to conduct research and to teach at the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College. During this time, I have been privileged to strike up many friendships with Malawians from all walks of life. I miss my friends. With borders closed all over the world, I worry that I may not be able to return to this beautiful country for a very long time.

My initial interest in Malawi was spurred by two Masters students of political science at the University of Oslo who were studying health policy and local perceptions of the impact of democracy in Malawi in 2004-2005. While supervising these students, I began to learn about a country that did not normally elicit much international attention. The more I read, the more intrigued I became. The narrative then, as is also often the case now, was of Malawi struggling to achieve economic growth and address poverty reduction while undergoing democratic consolidation. The social science literature on Malawi then was limited. And the few good books that offered nuanced analyses explaining Malawi’s underdevelopment highlighted a dysfunctional political system, pervasive corruption, and the general lack of trust in democratic institutions. Hence, many questioned the added value of democracy and whether hard fought democratic freedoms have provided citizens with improved livelihoods.

Many of these issues remain as relevant today as they were fifteen years ago. I have tried to decode the “Malawi paradox” – i.e. despite peace, political stability and consistent support for democracy, most Malawians have not witnessed radical improvement in their living standards and the country continues to perform poorly on most development indicators. And high levels of corruption, administrative inefficiency and political inaction and the lack of foresightedness continue to dominate the development landscape. Malawi lags behind its neighbours, and hence the international development discourse is frequently characterised by the perception that “there are developing countries, and then there is Malawi”. Such statements imply a sense of hopelessness about the country’s development trajectory.

We address many of these issues in a book that I edited with Professor Blessings Chinsinga in 2016 entitled Political Transition and Inclusive Development in Malawi: The Democratic Dividend (open access). In this book, we concluded that democracy does not necessarily always foster or guarantee development when the desire to win the support of the electorate results in the adoption of populist policies. Indeed, although the overarching policy goals of the various governments in Malawi since 1994 have been poverty alleviation, the empirical evidence suggests that the impact of democracy on poverty reduction and socio-economic development has been negligible. Will the upcoming elections usher in a new age for Malawi? Only time will tell.

My guest in this episode is Dr. Boniface Dulani, who studied at York and Sussex universities in the UK and has a doctorate in political science from Michigan State University in the United States. He is the Director of Survey at Afrobarometer – a non-partisan, pan-African research institution conducting public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, the economy and society in over 30 countries on the African continent. Dr. Dulani is senior lecturer at the Department of Political and Administrative Studies at Chancellor College, University of Malawi.

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The population question Jun 08, 2020

Much of Africa is experiencing high birth rates and certain countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria are projected to witness massive increases in their populations in the next few decades. An explosive growth in population will in turn pose major challenges for government policies aimed at promoting development and well-being of citizens. Are governments reluctant to talk about birth control. If so, why? And what can policymakers learn from the Indian and Chinese experiences? The current discourse on birth control is polarized. Some scholars argue that despite its adverse impacts on the climate, the population question is largely neglected by the climate community. Others highlight the importance of better protecting reproductive rights, improved access to contraceptives, strengthening gender equality, improved educational opportunities and increasing the living standards of the world’s poorest people. Still others believe that people in rich countries should reduce their consumption levels in order to protect the environment.

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Dreaming of electricity Jun 08, 2020

In this episode, I begin by discussing India's achievements in improving access to electricity before providing a brief overview of electricity access at the global level. I then go on to identify some of the major challenges that hundreds of millions of people on the African continent face in trying to access electricity. Most countries on the continent are struggling to promote clean and renewal forms of energy, but there are certain exceptions, such as Rwanda and Ethiopia. And then there are countries like Kenya and Malawi who have pinned their hopes on highly polluting coal-fired power plants. What type of strategy should policymakers in these countries pursue to generate clean energy and increase access to electricity, especially in rural areas?

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"Dreaming of electricity"

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Crises and leadership Jun 08, 2020

Covid-19 has confronted leaders with a crisis that they probably never expected in their lifetime. With the growing demand for, and resistance against, strict quarantines and national lockdowns, which entail severe restrictions on the freedom of movement and assembly of citizens, democracies as well as non-democracies around the world are being tested. There is also growing frustration, especially among the youth in Africa on the inability of the current political system to provide them with better representation and a stronger say in how their countries are governed. Many of Africa’s leaders are also accused of not adequately adapting to the demands of the global economy and largely ignoring the adverse impacts of climate change within their borders. A crisis tends to get citizens to rally around their leaders and their governments. But good leaders are not just effective during crises, they are also effective in non-crisis times.

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"Leadership for sustainable development"

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China in a post-Covid world Jun 08, 2020

In this episode, I discuss why China’s role and influence will continue to expand in a post Covid-19 world. In the initial months of the crisis in early 2020, the main narrative coming from China was very much inward-looking in that Beijing was projecting for its citizens as well as to the world that it could control the outbreak and that no other country would be able to perform better on this matter that it was already doing. Gradually, however, the narrative began to shift to one where Beijing has pursued a more aggressive public relations campaign. A key question is: Who will risk discontinuing their already deep ties with, and dependency on, China? While the United States is gradually withdrawing from the international arena, China appears well-placed to reap the benefits of its development diplomacy, the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative and the growing global interest in sustainable development which appeals to a growing number of countries around the world.

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Introducing: In Pursuit of Development Jun 08, 2020

Hi everyone, I’m Dan Banik. And welcome to the In Pursuit of Development podcast.

I am a professor of political science at the University of Oslo, where I also direct the Oslo SDG Initiative on Sustainable Development. For the past couple of decades, I have been conducting research on the politics of poverty. Some of the countries I have been studying include China, India, Malawi, Kenya and Rwanda. So, if you are interested in democracy, poverty eradication, and climate change, this is your go-to podcast for a deeper understanding of the politics of global development.

Many recent global discussions have highlighted the double challenge facing our world: to eradicate hunger and poverty and to stabilize the global climate before it is too late.

We are also being constantly warned that as the negative impacts of climate change will only worsen soon, we must redouble our focus and energy in promoting a sustainable development agenda. Many thus urge us to transform our policies and practices related to economic growth, food and agriculture, and our everyday consumption patterns. But how can we achieve such ambitious transformations, and what are the main challenges ahead? In each episode, I will discuss the experiences of developing and “emerging economies” in Africa, Asia and Latin America. While some episodes or seasons will feature monologues, in others I will interview politicians, civil servants, activists, media personalities and fellow academics on a range of issues such as governance, corruption, foreign aid, gender equality, policies on healthcare, education, agriculture, food, and energy, in addition to economic growth and inequality, and climate change.

While I will examine major global challenges and highlight various “problems”, I will also highlight “solutions” and “what works” on the ground.

This podcast will thus enable you to examine development interventions critically. It will also help you better understand how “promising” policies, programs, and practices can be deployed in a range of international contexts.

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Dan Banik (@danbanik @GlobalDevPod)

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