The Challenge of Developing Countries from the Bottom-up

Purpose

To explore the interface between development policies focused at the community level and the achievement of sustainable national development based on innovative public-private sector partnerships that improve the quality of life for national populations as a whole.

Background

Arguably, one of the biggest the biggest changes in development policy in the past 25 years has been a greater commitment to promoting community participation in the design and implementation of development programs. This remarkable degree of consensus within the development community is unprecedented in many respects and has contributed to the emergence of a myriad of development alternatives that offer great promise for improving the quality of peoples’ lives in the communities in which they live. Many of these alternatives were originally developed in the global South and later adopted by the international development community as part of its repertoire of “best practices.” They include, among others, micro-finance, fair trade and conditional cash transfer social policies, as well as new institutions of local governance such as participatory budgeting and associated mechanisms designed to ensure local government accountability to the citizenry.

This undeniable positive change in development thinking, however, has often not led to concomitant improvements in development trends at the national level. Available evidence suggests that under appropriate circumstances, these policy innovations can enhance the quality of participants’ lives, but are limited in terms of their sustainability and their ability to raise entire populations’ standard of living sufficiently above the poverty line so as to offer long term economic security. At the same time, opinion polls from around the world indicate a growing distancing between citizens and their national governments, underscoring how participation, at best, remains localized and, at worst, is low and even decreasing at all levels of governance. Perhaps the best evidence of this need is the rising dissatisfaction with national development policies and the national governments responsible for them, beginning most dramatically with the Arab Spring, but it is hardly limited to the Middle East. This suggests that there is an urgent need to devise policies for national development that build on the promise of these local alternatives while overcoming their limits.

Such policies need to be national in scope and cannot be developed exclusively in the North or South, but will require new forms of genuine collaboration that reflect the necessary role for the South in addressing issues of international development. Solutions will inevitably need to address economic sustainability and resource generation (profitability), institutional design, social structure, prevailing cultural norms, particularly relating to gender, and environmental sustainability, among others. They will require a more holistic approach to development that seeks to balance the role of the state and private for-profit sector, local, regional and national governments, as well as individual and collective initiative. They cannot be reduced to “scaling up” given that the constraints lay on a variety of inter-related dimensions, which will also entail setting priorities and longer term perspectives on development that go beyond the Western budgetary and electoral cycles that condition international development assistance. Ultimately, such development policies will raise fundamental questions of governance. At the same time, determining the appropriate balance between the state and private sector will necessarily require that special attention be paid to understanding the specific roles each might play in promoting development, including their potential, limits and potential tensions each role might generate.

Conference Goals

To begin to address these needs and challenges, the conference is intended to start laying out a framework for new approaches to achieving sustainable national development that build on local successes in a coordinated fashion in order to contribute to higher standards of living for entire societies. Through the participation of experts from the non-profit, private and public sectors, local and transnational civil society actors, and the international development community, the conference will bring together a myriad of experiences intended to generate a rich but critical discussion of more effective strategies for generating national development in sustainable ways. More specifically, the conference and workshop will focus on three transversal questions:

1. What is the most effective balance between the state and the private sector in achieving sustainable national development, both in terms of scope of their economic activities and the particular roles the state and private sector might play in promoting development;
2. While “one size fits all” strategies must be avoided, are there general lessons to be learned and that can serve as a basis for more effective coordination among the various stakeholders in achieving sustainable national development; and
3. What are the most effective policies for assisting particularly vulnerable groups (youth, women, indigenous populations) to better integrate into national economic, social and political processes in order to ensure that they benefit from national development in sustainable ways.

Conference participants will be asked to address these questions from the perspective of their own particular expertise and experiences. People making formal presentations will also be requested to prepare short policy briefs (2500-5000 words) based on their presentations in order to better inform current policy debates. These policy briefs will be widely distributed and made available free of charge to the general public on the ISID website.

Thursday, March 21  Setting the Stage

Philip Oxhorn, Founding Director, Institute for the Study of International Development
Christopher Manfredi, Dean of Arts
Michael Hawes, Fulbright Canada
Ms. Lois Brown, Parliamentary Secretary of International Cooperation

16:00-18:00  From Local to National: Addressing the Governance Gap

Adam Habib, Vice Chancellor, Wits University

Samir Makdisi, American University, Beirut | Presentation:  From Local to National, Addressing the Governance Gap: Reflections on the Arab Region

18:00-19:30  Reception

Friday, March 22  The Experience on the Ground

9:00-10:45  Setting Priorities: The Need for Employment Creation

Emilio Zevallos, Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciencia y Tecnología | Presentation: Fostering Entrepreneurship and Job Creation in Latin America

Eduardo Zepeda, UNDP | Presentation: The Challenge of Youth Unemployment

David Fulton, International Finance Corporation | Presentation: IFC:  Creating Opportunity Where It's Needed Most

Moderator and Discussant: Professor Franque Grimard, McGill University

10:45-11:15  Break

11:15-13:00  Addressing the Needs of Vulnerable Groups

Harry Patrinos, World Bank | Presentation: Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Development

Sam Benin, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) | Presentation: Complying with the Maputo Declaration: How serious are African governments

Margaret Capelazo, CARE Canada | Presentation: When Good Intentions Are Not Enough

Discussant and Moderator: Professor Kathleen Fallon, McGill University

13:00-1400  Lunch Break

14:00-15:45  Balancing the State and the Market: The Roles of Public Policy and the Private Sector

Sajjad Zohir, Economic Research Group, Bangladesh
Dave Donovan, Canadian International Development Agency

Discussant and Moderator: Professor Albert Berry, University of Toronto

15:45-16:00  Break

16:00-17:45  The Importance of Regional Governance: Understanding Recent Successes

Jorge Luis Miranda Vieira, Secretaria de Planejamento e Gestão de Pernambuco, Brazil | Presentation: Participatory Regional Seminars:Fostering Participation in Policy-Making Decisions Through Innovative Mechanisms

Olufunmbi Elemo, Michigan State University | Presentation: Taxation & Representation in Africa:  Determinants of Local and State Budgeting and Revenue Generating Priorities

Discussant and Moderator:  Philip Oxhorn, McGill University

Biographies of Participants

On this page: Samuel Benin | Margaret Capelazo | David Donovan | Olufunmbi M. Elemo | Samir Makdisi | Harry Patrinos | Ran Tao | Eduardo Zepeda | Emilio Zevallos | Sajjad Zohir

Samuel Benin

Samuel Benin is a graduate of University of Ghana, Legon (BS, 1988), University of Massachusetts, Amherst (MS, 1993) and University of California, Davis (PhD, 1998), with specialty in econometrics, natural resource economics and development economics. Sam joined the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) as a Research Fellow in February 2004 and was out-posted to Kampala, Uganda to lead its country program to support the design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of key agricultural and rural development strategies. In February 2006, Sam relocated to the Washington DC office to lead the research on monitoring and evaluation, particularly assessing the impact of public investments, policies and programs on poverty reduction, growth and other human development indicators in Africa. From September 2010 to August 2012, Sam managed the inter-Center Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS) to support the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP). Sam’s research interests focus on policy, institutional and technology strategies for agricultural and rural development.

Margaret Capelazo

Margaret Capelazo, Gender Advisor, CARE Canada, has over 10 years of experience working with governments, INGOs and CSOs to implement innovative and practical gender equality programs. She has managed organization and project level gender strategies, conducted numerous gender analyses and audits and strengthened monitoring and evaluation systems to capture gender equality results. As the gender advisor for CARE Canada, Margaret uses her expertise in women’s economic empowerment to support programming in food security and economic growth. She coaches teammates in Asia, Africa and Latin America to address gender issues in their daily work and to engage women and men in mutual dialogue about local gender issues. Margaret has worked on programs funded by CIDA, the ADB, Lundin for Africa, the UNHCR and other donors. She has a master’s degree in international development studies from Dalhousie University. 

David Donovan

David Donovan is Team Leader of CIDA's new Private Sector and Trade division.  Previously, he worked at Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada on First Nations infrastructure programs.  Before joining Government, he was the research director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Queen’s University, and previously held positions in both the public and private sectors.David has published articles on governance, democracy, and civic engagement, and has presented on these matters before a number of Parliamentary Committees and international conferences.   From Smiths Falls, Ontario, David graduated with a BA (Honours with Distinction) in Political Studies and Masters in Public Administration from Queen’s University, and was a Jeanne Sauvé Scholar at McGill University.

Olufunmbi M. Elemo

Olufunmbi “Funmbi” M. Elemo is a recent Ph.D. graduate from the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University (MSU).  Originally from Nigeria and Maryland, she earned a B.A. (magna cum laude) in political science and sociology from Ball State University in 2006, followed by her M.A. in political science from MSU in 2009.  Olufunmbi has held research fellowships with the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute, Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program, the Graduate Institute of International Studies (Geneva, Switzerland), and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (Washington DC).  Focusing on comparative politics and public policy, Olufunmbi’s research interests include political representation, public service delivery, management of natural resource revenue, and tax reform in Africa.  She recently returned from conducting fieldwork in Nigeria, including original interviews with Nigerian state and national legislators and archival research at the Central Bank of Nigeria. She remains committed to producing research that speaks to both academics and policy-makers.

Samir Makdisi

Samir Makdis is Professor Emeritus of Economics, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Relations; and Founding Director of the Institute of Financial Economics, all at the American University of Beirut (AUB). He has served as Minister of Economy and Trade, Republic of Lebanon, 1992; Deputy President of AUB, 1992-1998; chair of the Board of Trustees, Economic Research Forum for the Arab Countries, Iran and Turkey, 1993-2001(ERF, headquarters in Cairo)-as of March 2012 reelected to the Board; member of the Board of the Global Development Network, 2000-2008 (headquarters in Delhi); and since 1999, he has been an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Euro-Mediterranean Economic Research Institutes (headquarters in Marseilles); Professor Makdisi has also served as advisor to national governments and to various regional and international economic and financial organizations; he is the recipient of  a number of awards including the AUB medal (1998).  Widely published, he is the author of  The Lessons of Lebanon, the Economics of  War and Development (2004) and co-editor of  Democracy in the Arab World: Explaining the Deficit (2011). He received his BA in Economics (with distinction) from the American University of Beirut and his Ph.D in Economics from Columbia University ( New York).

Harry Patrinos

Harry Patrinos is Sector Manager, Education in the Human Development Network of the World Bank Group.  He holds a DPhil from the University of Sussex (U.K.).  He is responsible for leading the work program charged with developing the concepts and strategies for education sector policy at the World Bank and for supporting country programs and professional development.  He specializes in school-based management, impact evaluation and public-private partnerships.  He managed the Benchmarking Education Systems for Results in East Asia, the role of non-state provision in education, and equity and inclusion work programs.  He also led the Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Development research program.  In operations, he managed education programs in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina.  His Publications include Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Development (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Making Schools Work: New Evidence on Accountability Reforms (2011), The Role and Impact of Public-Private Partnerships in Education (2009), Mr. Patrinos has many publications in the academic and policy literature, with more than 60 journal articles.  He has also worked in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America.  He previously worked as an economist at the Economic Council of Canada.   He joined the Bank in 1992 as an Economist in the Latin America Region.  He has since held various positions in Latin America and the Education Unit of the Human Development Network.

Ran Tao

Ran Tao is a professor in School of Economics and the Director of China Center for Public Economics and Governance at Renmin University of China based in Beijing. He is also non-resident senior fellow of Brookings, focusing on topics related to China’s unfinished economic transition.  He graduated with a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 2002. A specialist on Chinese economy, he has published on the political economy of China’s economic transition, land and household registration reform in China’s urbanization, local governance and public finance in rural China. His latest articles appear on Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Development Studies, Land Economics, Urban Studies, Political Studies, China Quarterly, Land Use Policy.

Eduardo Zepeda

Eduardo Zepeda is currently Interregional Policy Advisor at the Division for Policy Analysis of the United Nations Department for Socio Economic Affairs UN-DESA. Eduardo has worked on employment, poverty and development policy issues at the United Nations Development Programme New York, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the International Poverty Centre, Brasilia, the Metropolitan University of Mexico City, and served as coordinator of social policy in the office of the President of Mexico in in 2001. His recent research and publications have dealt with trade and economic integration, youth employment, and poverty in Latin America and African countries.

Emilio Zevallos

Emilio Zevallos is an international consultant and practitioner specialized in SMEs and entrepreneurship in Latin America. He is Economist graduated by the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, with   Master's Degrees in Government and Public Affairs ( FLACSO Mexico), and Economics (from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México - ITAM). In addition he is a specialist in local economic development by the International Labor Organization (ILO).  He has developed projects in Latin America for the UN, ILO, IDB, UNESCO, PAHO, ECLAC, World Vision, MESOPARTNER, as well as different governments in the region. He was previously Research Area Manager in FUNDES International for over 6 years. As academic, he worked for Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Universidad ESAN (Peru), FLACSO Costa Rica, Universidad Latina (Panama and Costa Rica), and he has been full time professor in TEC de Monterrey (Mexico City). He has a specialized blog in SMES in the Costa Rican newspaper El Financiero called PYMEScopio (http://www.elfinancierocr.com/blogs/list/pymescopio/), and recently he is developing a project to online business education on Facebook with the same name (https://www.facebook.com/PYMEScopio).

Sajjad Zohir

Sajjad Zohir graduated from Dhaka University (Bangladesh) in Economics. He was awarded a Commonwealth scholarship to complete MS at Dalhousie University and a PhD in economics from University of Toronto. Dr. Zohir’s career had been spent mostly in economic and policy research, primarily at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies – till he resigned to establish with others a not-for-profit research institute called the Economic Research Group (ERG). He also had worked as an adviser/consultant in several countries in Asia and has collaborated with researchers at IFPRI (Washington, DC), IDS (Sussex), and LEI (the Netherlands).  A substantive part of Dr. Zohir’s research undertakings dealt with food policy, rural development and microfinance; though his interest lies in applied economics. He is also a regular contributor to local dailies on contemporary issues that trespasses into domain of political economy. He had been active in providing advisory inputs to several ministries within the government – finance, planning, food & agriculture; and to capacity building in national statistical agency. Currently, he remains a Research Director at Economic Research Group and is experimenting with an alternative method of classroom learning for the fresher in Economics, as a part-time Professor at BRAC University.