7 Billion: Development in a New World

Networking Lunches

The Inter­na­tional Devel­op­ment Con­fer­ence is pleased to offer par­tic­i­pants the oppor­tu­nity to attend one of our enrich­ment lunches:
Learn­ing Lunches

“Learn­ing Lunches” are infor­mal, edu­ca­tional con­ver­sa­tions led by a devel­op­ment prac­ti­tioner focus­ing on his or her area of exper­tise. The host of each Learn­ing Lunch has been invited to the con­fer­ence specif­i­cally to dis­cuss his or her area of focus. These con­ver­sa­tions will allow con­fer­ence par­tic­i­pants to fur­ther explore a tar­geted devel­op­ment topic, includ­ing tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion and devel­op­ment, renew­able energy, agri­cul­ture, and micro­fi­nance. Note that par­tic­i­pants need not have any back­ground in a given area to attend a Learn­ing Lunch, and enroll­ment will be restricted to 30 par­tic­i­pants per Learn­ing Lunch.

Renew­able Energy in the Devel­op­ing World

Oman Al-Kuwari | Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, GreenGulf

It has become increas­ingly evi­dent that a reli­able and afford­able source of energy is a basic human need in the mod­ern world. All the same, around 1.6 bil­lion peo­ple in devel­op­ing coun­tries lacked access to ade­quate energy ser­vices in 2002. Energy poverty is cat­e­go­rized as an individual’s inabil­ity to have access to at least the equiv­a­lent of 35 kg LPG per year for cook­ing and 120kWh elec­tric­ity per year for lighting.

This ses­sion will present ini­tia­tives tak­ing place in the devel­op­ing world to utilise renew­able energy. We will dis­cuss projects already in place, its ben­e­fits over tra­di­tional fuels, and the chal­lenges faced in encour­ag­ing wide­spread use in remote regions. We hope to ini­ti­ate a com­pelling dia­logue in this short ses­sion to exam­ine the case for renew­able energy in the devel­op­ing world, with a par­tic­u­lar focus on the Arab world.

Omran Al-­Kuwari is an Energy pro­fes­sional and the Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of Green­Gulf Inc., a lead­ing clean tech­nol­ogy advi­sory busi­ness based at the Qatar Sci­ence & Tech­nol­ogy Park. Omran holds an under­grad­u­ate degree from George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­sity and an MBA from Cass Busi­ness School, Lon­don. Omran has con­sid­er­able expe­ri­ence work­ing in the Energy Indus­try in the Mid­dle East, Far East and the United King­dom since 1999, work­ing for Qatar Petro­leum, Qatar­gas and Exxon­Mo­bil. Omran also sits on the Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee of the Bin Omran Group and is a Board Mem­ber of Salam Boun­ian Real Estate com­pany. He is flu­ent in Ara­bic, French and English.

ReAl­lo­cate: Rapid Pro­to­typ­ing from Dis­cov­ery Show to a Nonprofit

Mike North | Founder & CEO, ReAllocate

Mike North holds Bach­e­lors, Mas­ters, and Doc­toral degrees in Engi­neer­ing. He’s pub­lished in a half dozen major sci­en­tific jour­nals, and con­tin­ues to speak inter­na­tion­ally on design and inno­va­tion. Dr. North mas­ter­minded the Dis­cov­ery Chan­nel show Pro­to­type This!, where he led teams of crack inven­tors, sci­en­tists, builders, and engi­neers to cre­ate never-before-seen spec­ta­cles of engi­neer­ing. Cur­rently he is bring­ing inno­va­tion to the toy indus­try as Chief Tech­nol­ogy Offi­cer at Nuko­toys, Inc.; runs his own design con­sul­tancy, North Design Labs, LLC; and is Founder/CEO of ReAl­lo­cate, a non-profit that engi­neers for humanity.

Explor­ing New Hori­zons in Micro­fi­nance: Pakistan’s Akhuwat

Muham­mad Amjad Saqib | Founder, Akhuwat

Dr. Muham­mad Amjad Saqib is a promi­nent social sci­en­tist, vol­un­teer and devel­op­ment pro­fes­sional. He joined the civil ser­vice of Pak­istan (DMG) in 1985, where he remained until 2003. He holds a Mas­ters in Pub­lic Admin­is­tra­tion from the Amer­i­can Uni­ver­sity in DC. Dr. Saqib is the founder of Akhuwat, the first ever inter­est free micro­fi­nance pro­gramme. Keep­ing in view his efforts in poverty alle­vi­a­tion, he was asked by the Gov­ern­ment of the Pun­jab to lead two of its flag­ship pro­grammes, the Pun­jab Edu­ca­tional Endow­ment Fund (PEEF) and the Pun­jab Wel­fare Trust for the Dis­abled (PWTD). His areas of exper­tise include poverty alle­vi­a­tion, micro­fi­nance, social mobi­liza­tion and edu­ca­tion management.

Net­work­ing Lunches

“Net­work­ing Lunches” are infor­mal, career-focused con­ver­sa­tions hosted by one of the con­fer­ence pan­elists or speak­ers. By sign­ing up for a Net­work­ing Lunch, con­fer­ence par­tic­i­pants will have an oppor­tu­nity to dis­cuss pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment, career paths, and job oppor­tu­ni­ties in the devel­op­ment field rel­e­vant to the lunch host. Enroll­ment will be restricted to 15 par­tic­i­pants per Net­work­ing Lunch.

Name

Posi­tion / Organization
Aruna Roy Co-founder, MKSS; Mem­ber of National Advi­sory Coun­cil of India
Carla Kop­pell Senior Coor­di­na­tor for Gen­der Equal­ity and Women’s Empow­er­ment, USAID
Don­ald “Larry” Sampler Prin­ci­pal Deputy Assis­tant to the Admin­is­tra­tor & Deputy Direc­tor of the Office of Afghanistan & Pak­istan Affairs, USAID
Jamie Boex Senior Pub­lic Finance Expert, The Urban Institute
Jishnu Das Senior Econ­o­mist, World Bank; Vis­it­ing Scholar, Cen­ter for Pol­icy Research
José Ugaz Board of Direc­tors of Trans­parency International
Kevin Cas­sidy Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Exter­nal Affairs Offi­cer, Inter­na­tional Labor Orga­ni­za­tion Office for the UN
Mar­tin Wolf Chief Eco­nom­ics Com­men­ta­tor of the Finan­cial Times
Michelle Klein Solomon Per­ma­nent Observer, Inter­na­tional Orga­ni­za­tion for Migration
Nicola Crosta Head of Pol­icy, Knowl­edge and Advo­cacy of the United Nations Cap­i­tal Devel­op­ment Fund, UNCDF
Rebecca Winthrop Senior Fel­low and Direc­tor, Cen­ter for Uni­ver­sal Edu­ca­tion, Brook­ings Institution
Simone Diet­rich Post­doc­toral Research Asso­ciate, Niehaus Cen­ter for Glob­al­iza­tion and Gov­er­nance, Prince­ton University
Stephe­nie Foster Inter­na­tional Con­sul­tant, Women’s Advocate

International Development Conference At Harvard Kennedy School Of Government @ 2012