The End of Development? Why international development must adapt or fail

Panel | Rethinking Collaborative Governance

Panel 1 — Local Own­er­ship for Devel­op­ment: Ben­e­fi­ciary Involve­ment in Global Governance

Descrip­tion


All devel­op­ment projects are designed to be in favor of a given pop­u­la­tion — qual­i­fied as “dis­ad­van­taged”, “at risk”, or “vul­ner­a­ble”. These ben­e­fi­cia­ries com­prise the focus of “high-impact” projects, and their images are often used in media cam­paigns. How­ever, such focus and vis­i­bil­ity does not reflect these actors’ involve­ment in gov­er­nance struc­tures. They are some­times con­sulted, rarely par­tic­i­pate, and almost never decide. How can devel­op­ment projects gen­uinely include the pop­u­la­tions they strive for in decision-making? What lessons can we learn from community-based approaches? The panel will high­light how tech­nol­ogy can fos­ter more holis­tic forms of governance.

Panel 2 — BRICS Abroad: Shift­ing Pat­terns of For­eign Aid

Descrip­tion


Rep­re­sent­ing a quar­ter of the global GDP, the BRICS coun­tries — Brazil, Rus­sia, India, China, and South Africa — have begun to pro­vide sig­nif­i­cant amounts of for­eign aid to other devel­op­ing coun­tries, par­tic­u­larly those in Africa. With assis­tance from tra­di­tional donors such as the US and West­ern Europe decreas­ing in real terms in 2011, emerg­ing BRICS donors offer coun­tries more oppor­tu­ni­ties to finance much-needed devel­op­ment. How­ever, there is a ris­ing con­cern over this type of fund­ing as it typ­i­cally comes in the absence of domes­tic frame­works for account­abil­ity on inter­na­tional engage­ments. This shift has height­ened wor­ries on this model’s poten­tial to under­cut inter­na­tional stan­dards and encour­age unsus­tain­able poli­cies, gov­ern­ments, and debt. Are these wor­ries over-rated con­sid­er­ing that some for­eign aid is bet­ter than none at all? This panel will explore whether the BRICS present an alter­na­tive and com­pet­ing model of involve­ment and for­eign assis­tance to that of tra­di­tional donors and whether this aid is more, less, or equally effec­tive in improv­ing stan­dards of liv­ing for recipients.

Panel 3 — Cli­mate and Devel­op­ment: Coop­er­a­tion Beyond the Kyoto Protocol

Descrip­tion


Twenty years of nego­ti­a­tion under the UN Frame­work Con­ven­tion on Cli­mate Change have pro­duced lit­tle mea­sur­able progress reduc­ing green­house gas emis­sions or enabling the most vul­ner­a­ble to adapt to the impacts of cli­mate change. The world urgently needs new approaches to inter­na­tional cli­mate and devel­op­ment coop­er­a­tion that think beyond the Kyoto Protocol’s top-down, legally-binding struc­ture. This panel will bring together lead­ing cli­mate and devel­op­ment researchers and pol­i­cy­mak­ers in a dia­logue about build­ing and sus­tain­ing momen­tum toward low-carbon and resilient devel­op­ment through action by non-state actors, includ­ing devel­op­ment insti­tu­tions, local gov­ern­ments, and the pri­vate sector.