COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Agenda ... Conference Schedule

Economies in Transition: Experiences from the Arab Spring

Dr. Sami Geadah, Alternate Executive Director, International Monetary Fund

Panel 1A: Conflict, Governance, and Development: Lessons from the Field

The U.S. experience in Iraq and Afghanistan has ignited a debate on the relationship between development and political stability. The U.S. Government has not only created several new offices geared towards meeting the development needs of post-conflict countries, but also has increasingly worked to incorporate development projects, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, into conflict prevention planning.For Iraq and Afghanistan, these efforts have taken the form of Provincial Reconstruction Teams with a mandate to improve local capacity through improved security and development. In attempting to meet both needs, has the government created perverse incentives by integrating security and development personnel? For countries like Ethiopia, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the U.S. has targeted its investments to try and prevent conflict from reigniting. In times of tight budgets, will the U.S. keep funding these investments in the future? This panel will explore both of these important topics with a focus on how these efforts have improved or substituted for local governance and capacity

Panel 1B: Environment: Preserving Resources, Reducing Poverty

Recently, global leaders’ discussions of fragile economic systems have sidelined serious discussions on tackling climate change and environmental degradation. This does not bode well for the Global South. Indeed, these countries will be those most affected by the environmental damage caused by global warming or excessive resource depletion, as well as those least equipped to deal with these new challenges. Crop failure, increasing deforestation, and destruction of sensitive ecosystems are just some of the challenges that will face international development in the years to come. Countries that are rapidly growing their economies, such as China, are consuming more and more resources than ever before. How can China and countries that follow in its footsteps continue to rapidly modernize their economies while preserving finite resources and combating climate change? This panel will examine the root causes of the problem and different ways to best address these important issues.

Panel 2A: Trade and Economics: Neoliberalism in the 21st Century

Trade liberalization has long been one of the most hotly contested topics in international development. It is at the core of the “Washington Consensus,” a set of reforms to promote economic growth in developing countries advocated by the likes of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and US Treasury Department. New trends in trade, especially rapid expansions by countries like the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), has the potential to reorient the debate. For example, in just the past decade, China’s trade with the African continent has increased tenfold, making it the world’s largest trading partner with the continent. How will this South-South trade shift impact development efforts? This panel will discuss the pros and cons of these developments, focusing both on the effect on macro economic growth and changing labor standards at the local level.

Panel 2B: Public Health: Expanding Access and Opportunities

Despite the remarkable achievements of the past decade, translating medical advances into broad public health outcomes remains a difficult task in developing nations. What barriers still exist between the science and society at large? Unstable political regimes, weak governments, lack of transparency in the transfer of money, and the low literacy rates in many nations, specifically among women, have become formidable obstacles in the face of growing numbers of health risks and shrinking access to basic health facilities in developing nations. The panelists will address these issues of access and service delivery in the context of their experience working with public health systems around the world.

Panel 3A: Education: The Long Shadow of Colonialism

Today, 25 million children worldwide of primary-school age are not enrolled in schools. Disparities in wealth, discrimination against gender and ethnicity, differences in language, and even geography are all barriers to children’s schooling. The cost of failing to educate children is well documented. According to UNESCO, each additional year of schooling boosts national and individual prosperity, increasing average annual GDP growth by 0.3 per cent and individual yearly earnings by up to 10 per cent. While improving access and enrollment figures as targeted in the Millennium Development Goals is important, the quality of education these children receive must also be drastically improved. Many education systems from Sub-Saharan Africa to India have not been able to break their systems from the structures of their colonial past, confining education to ineffective, rote memorization. This panel will address questions of both access and quality left over from political changes more than a half century old.

Panel 3B: Gender and Development:Promoting Empowerment and Equity

“Under investing in women and girls is neither fair nor smart economics: if provided opportunity, women in developing countries can be agents of change and recovery” (World Bank)

The conventional wisdom in international development circles has acknowledged in recent years that focusing on women is a smart development strategy. Despite this renewed focus, promoting gender equality in the developing world remains a challenge due to deeply entrenched cultural norms and traditions. How can policymakers and practitioners coming from the outside walk the fine line between cultural sensitivity and promoting equal social and economic rights for women? This panel will explore these important issues surrounding gender equality around the world, with particular focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East & North Africa.

Presentation of the 2011 Human Development Report Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All

Mr. William Orme, Chief of Communications and Publishing, Human Development Report, United Nations Development Program

The 2011 Human Development Report argues that the urgent global challenges of sustainability and equity must be addressed together – and identifies policies on the national and global level that could spur mutually reinforcing progress towards these interlinked goals. Bold action is needed on both fronts, the Report contends, if the recent human development progress for most of the world’s poor majority is to be sustained, for the benefit of future generations as well as for those living today. Past Reports have shown that living standards in most countries have been rising – and converging – for several decades now. Yet the 2011 Report projects a disturbing reversal of those trends if environmental deterioration and social inequalities continue to intensify, with the least developed countries diverging downwards from global patterns of progress by 2050.

Sami Geadah, PhD – Alternate Executive Director of the Middle East and North Africa, International Monetary Fund

Sami Geadah is the Alternate Executive Director for countries in the Middle East and North Africa on the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Previously, Mr. Geadah was on the staff of the IMF, where he covered a wide variety of countries and issues, including monetary policy and the financial sectors of Middle Eastern and transition economies. Mr. Geadah has a PhD in Finance from Wharton.

Human Development Report 2011: Sustainability and Equity, A Better Future for All

William Orme – Chief of Communications and Publishing, United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report Office

Prior to joining the Human Development Report Office, Bill worked as a consultant for the UN and the Gates Foundation on media projects in Africa, following six years at UNDP as spokesman and deputy director of the Communications Office and Policy Advisor for Independent Media Development at the Democratic Governance Group. His journalism experience includes positions as a Middle East correspondent for the New York Times, UN Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times, and a Latin American correspondent for the Economist and the Washington Post. He was the founding editor of LatinFinance, a business monthly, and is the author of books on NAFTA and the Mexican press. He also served as executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, a global press freedom organization, and has taught post-graduate courses on journalism and coverage of Latin American development issues.

Lessons from the Field

From Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq and Afghanistan to stabilization efforts across Sub-Saharan Africa, the U.S. Government has stepped up efforts to coordinate development and security programming. How successful have these development efforts been in preventing relapses into conflict? What lessons can we take from these experiences?

Tom Allison – Former Captain, U.S. Army

Tom Allison is a former U.S. Army officer and currently a first year M.B.A. candidate at Wharton. Following his commissioning as an officer in 2006, Tom spent the majority of his five-and-a-half year Army career in direct action roles. He has deployed to combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Most recently, he commanded a Special Operations strike force conducting sensitive missions in Afghanistan.

In addition to fighting terrorists, Tom’s work has involved stabilizing local populations and governments by supporting security and local economies. In particular, he has managed business, environmental, health, social, and political issues as a district advisor in Baghdad. He also trained and led a joint US-Iraqi strike force in the aftermath of the 2008 “March uprising” of Jaish al-Mahdi in Baghdad.

Tom received his Bachelor of Science degree in Management and Systems Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He is pursuing an M.B.A in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management at Wharton. He has been recognized as a Tillman Military Scholar.

Tom volunteers his time tutoring veterans seeking admission to college and is a proponent for several veterans causes. He enjoys endurance races and is an avid Boston sports fan.

Shani Cooke – Conflict Prevention Officer, U.S. Agency for International Development

Dennis de Tray, PhD – Former Country Director, World Bank

Rebecca Wall – Conflict Prevention Officer, U.S. Department of State

Moderator

Preserving Resources, Reducing Poverty

The world’s poor will be disproportionately affected by environmental degradation in years to come. Where should we focus our efforts with these populations today in order to mitigate the damage that is just around the corner?

Noam Lior, PhD – Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Noam Lior is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is also a member of the Graduate Group of International Studies, Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies (MA/MBA program), of the Institute for Environmental Science, and of the Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL) at the Wharton Business School. He has 44 years of experience in energy/power and water desalination research, education and consulting. An accomplished researcher and author with more than 350 technical publications, he has received numerous award, including the Japan Heat Transfer Society Science Prize for his seminal work in desalination. Dr. Lior earned his B.S. and M.S. at Technion, Israel Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Lior additionally regularly teaches sustainable energy courses at the University of Pennsylvania including “Energy & Its Impacts” and “Renewable Energy & Its Impacts.”

Darin Spurgeon – Americas Director, Virgin Unite

Robert C. Stowe – Executive Director, Harvard Environmental Economics Program

Moderator

Neoliberalism in a Changing World

Trade liberalization has long been one of the most hotly contested topics in development and a core part of the “Washington Consensus”. How will the rise of the BRICS and other powers change this global structural feature?

Allan Meltzer – Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

Allan Meltzer, the Allan H. Meltzer University Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University is, since 1989, also a Visiting Scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard, University of Chicago, University of Rochester, the Yugoslav Institute for Economic Research, the Austrian Institute for Advanced Study, the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro and the City University, London. He has served as a consultant for several Congressional committees; the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, the U.S. Treasury Department, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the World Bank, foreign governments and central banks. He has been a member of the President’s Economic Policy Advisory Board. In 1988-89, he was an acting member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. From 1986 to 2002, he was Honorary Adviser to the Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies of the Bank of Japan.

In 1999-2000, he served as Chairman of the International Financial Institution Advisory Commission, known as the Meltzer Commission. The Commission proposed major reforms of the International Monetary Fund and the development banks.

Dr. Meltzer’s writings have appeared in numerous journals, including the business press here and abroad. He is the author of several books, the most recent A History of the Federal Reserve, University of Chicago Press, 2 Volumes, 2003 and 2009, and more than 300 papers on economic theory and policy. From 1973 to 1996, he was co-editor of the Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, the Journal of Economic Literature, and the Journal of Finance. His career includes experience as a self-employed businessman, management adviser, and consultant to banks and financial institutions. He is a director of the Sarah Scaife Foundation.

From 1973 to 1999 Professor Meltzer was chairman of the Shadow Open Market Committee. The members of the committee are economists from banks, business, and academic institutions organized to issue policy statements about current events to government agencies and to the public.

In 1983, Professor Meltzer received a medal for distinguished professional achievement from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a past president of the Western Economic Association and a Fellow of the National Association of Business Economists. He is a distinguished fellow of the American Economic Association. In 2003 he received the Irving Kristol Award of the American Enterprise Institute and the Adam Smith Award from the National Association for Business Economics. In 2009, he received the Distinguished Teacher Award from the International Mensa Foundation. In 2011 Professor Meltzer received the Bradley Award and the Harry Truman Medal for Public Policy and was named the distinguished fellow for 2011 by the American Council for Capital Formation. Additional information on background and career can be found in the current issue of Who’s Who in the United States.

Stephen Tokarick – Senior Economist, International Monetary Fund

Janice Bellace - Professor/Legal Studies and Business Ethics Department Chair, Wharton School of Business

Moderator: Lauren Miller – MBA-MA Candidate, Wharton School of Business/John Hopkins SAIS

Expanding Access and Opportunities

Despite the remarkable achievements of the past decade, translating medical advances into broad public health outcomes remains a difficult task in developing nations. What barriers still exist between the science and society at large?

Greg Bisson, M.D. – Botswana-UPenn Partnership

Dr. Bisson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine’s Infectious Disease Division and a Senior Scholar in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania. He is committed to pursuing clinically important research questions in the area of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection, focusing primarily on the application of epidemiologic methods to the study of the natural history and treatment of clinically important viral and fungal co-infections. In addition, Dr. Bisson is committed to conducting operations research designed to facilitate public health approaches to the rapid delivery, or scale-up, of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in the developing world. A goal of his research is to use to improve the treatment of HIV-infected individuals in resource constrained settings.

Dr. Bisson has received multiple grants for his research, including a K23 Mentored Career Development Award, a National Research Science Award (F32), a K12 Career Development Award in Translational Research, a Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Developmental Core Piolet award, a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation award on Operations research on AIDS Care in Afirca (ORACTA), a Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Development Award (2008), and a Research Project Grant (RO1) evaluating outcomes in HIV/TB from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Bisson was the first research scientist at the University of Pennsylvania to begin formal research studies in Botswana and has been a leader in creating Penn’s main international research program – the Botswana UPenn Partnership.

Projects of substantial impact led by Dr. Bisson include one of the first studies from Africa documenting the deleterious effects of greater out-of-pocket costs of HAART regimens on patient outcomes and a study demonstrating that monitoring adherence to HAART was more accurate than monitoring WHO-advocated CD4 count changes in individuals in resource-limited settings. This latter study was described in an accompanying editorial in PLoS Medicine as a “Paradigm shift” in preventing HIV drug resistance.

Neal Nathanson, M.D. – Former Vice Provost for Research, University of Pennsylvania

TBA

Moderator

The Long Shadow of Colonialism

In many countries, education systems represent the longest lasting reminder of a colonial past. How can development organizations best work with these countries to update these education systems to meet the needs of the 21st century?

Patrick McEwan – Associate Professor, Wellesley Department of Economics

Patrick J. McEwan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Wellesley College. He previously taught in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Professor McEwan’s research focuses on the economics of education, applied econometrics, and education policy in Latin America. He has evaluated education policies ranging from class size reduction to private school vouchers in numerous countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Uruguay. His research has been published in a wide range of economics and education journals, as well as three books. He has consulted on education policy and evaluation at the Inter-American Development Bank, the RAND Corporation, UNESCO, the World Bank, and the ministries of education of several countries.

He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2000 and his B.A. (summa cum laude) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1994.

Katie Maeve Murphy – PhD Candidate, Penn Graduate School of Education

James Williams – Associate Professor of International Education and International Affairs, George Washington University

Moderator

Promoting Empowerment and Equality

Western gender equality programs often run counter to local culture and tradition. How do governments, NGOs, and the private sector reconcile this tension and promote policies that create lasting social change?

Supriya Banavalikar – Special Projects Director, The Hunger Project

Supriya Banavalikar is one of the senior executives of The Hunger Project and has been on staff for almost 18 years. During this time, Supriya has held many designations which range from fundraiser to the South Asian community in the United States (Program Associate for South Asia) to communications and research. In her new capacity, she will support the Global Board of Directors in creating a governance structure with an aim to have best in class governance across all domains of the organization.

While originally from Mumbai, India, Supriya has lived and worked in New York for the last 20 years. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology, and a Master’s degree in Marine Biology and Oceanography from Mumbai University. She has also taken significant course work at the graduate level in Nutrition and Food Technology from New York University.

Supriya has spent an extensive amount of time working on Hunger Project programs in the field, traveling through the rural areas both in Bangladesh and India. She has also visited Hunger Project programs in Uganda, Ghana and Mexico. As part of her field work, Supriya has spent the last several years interacting with the villagers – women, men and children who are being empowered to take self-reliant actions with dignity. She listens to their life stories, finds out the magnitude of the conditions that affect their lives, and strategizes with them on how best to have their voices heard. In this way, she empowers the rural people to begin transforming the conditions that impede their development.

During her tenure, Supriya has worked on various initiatives including the Women’s Initiative, The African Woman Food Farmer Initiative, The South Asia Initiative. She participated in the creation and writing of the Women’s Leadership Workshop for the elected women representatives in India, and the creation of the HIV/AIDS and Gender Inequality workshop in Africa and National Girl Child Day in Bangladesh.

In addition, Supriya has shared The Hunger Project’s programs at fundraising and advocacy events in the United States, Europe and South Asia, both educating and inspiring people on the conditions of women in South Asia and their triumphs in transforming their lives from subjugated and marginalized, to empowered and mobilized leaders in their communities and countries. Over the last decade, Supriya has successfully raised funds in the United States and Europe for Hunger Project programs around the world.

Monica Gadkari- Program Officer, Women’s Campaign International

Ann E. Mayer – Associate Professor, Wharton Legal Studies and Business Ethics Dept

Moderator: Dr. Felicity Paxton- Director, Penn Women’s Center Penn IDC