On February 6th, NYU’s Development Research Institute (DRI) will host What Would the Poor Say: Debates in Aid Evaluation, a one-day conference with the leading thinkers in development economics. The conference will take place at New York University, where participants from universities, NGOs, the independent media and the private sector will add to the dialogue on how to make aid agencies accountable for the most effective solutions to global poverty.
A list of speakers and panelists follows, but for a complete schedule of events, go to DRI’s website. The conference is free and open to the public, but space is limited and filling up quickly. To reserve a place, RSVP to aidwatch@nyu.edu with your name and affiliation.
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Yaw Nyarko (NYU), Welcome and Introduction
Esther Duflo (MIT), The Evaluation Revolution and the Aid Providers
William Easterly (NYU), The Big Picture on Aid Accountability
Panel 1: Evaluation: Issues in Transparency and Accountability
Andrew Mwenda (The Independent, Uganda), Independent Media in Africa and Foreign Aid
Nancy Birdsall (Center for Global Development), New Methods for Motivating Results in Aid
Dennis Whittle (Global Giving), Accountability in Decentralized vs. Centrally Planned Aid Systems
June Arunga (BSL Ghana Ltd.), Foreign Aid from the African Business Point of View
Lant Pritchett (Harvard), The Political Economy of Evaluation
Panel 2: Issues in Evaluation
Leonard Wantchekon (NYU), Independent Evaluation and the Reaction of Official Aid Agencies
Ross Levine (Brown University), Evaluating the Economics: Finance and the Aid Agencies
Karin Christiansen (Publish What You Fund), Aid Transparency as a Prerequisite
William Duggan (Columbia Business School), Pragmatic Learning from Success and Failure
7 Comments
It would be great if you can post summaries of the various speech or copies of papers presented for those of us who can’t make it.
Are there any actual poor people speaking?
I am a little bit surprised that there is no one from the actual big giving institutions, ie the WB and Europeaid. Still, do post the papers, please.
Tracy W, the title is ‘What “would” the poor say’ — it appears to be people talking on behalf of the poor. Maybe they would like to start a movement in development along the lines of “what would jesus say?” — “what would the poor say” (WWPS). Are you ready for the merchandising possibilities?
singnairo, Tracy W, 4degreesnorth, and JG:
Thanks very much for your comments. I wanted to let you know that we are looking at ways to share the conference presentations with a wider audience, whether through posting an audio podcast, video footage, or papers and transcripts, and will let you know what we decide on our website and this blog.
We intentionally invited independent academics outside the donor community as speakers at this particular conference. That said, we are glad to have on our list of participants many people from multilateral and bilateral donor agencies, and are looking forward to lively audience participation during mulitple Q&A sessions.
As for the title, “What Would the Poor Say: Debates in Aid Evaluation,” DRI does not claim to speak for the poor. Rather, we want our conference to encourage discussion (among academics, NGOs, students, governments, aid agencies, journalists, foundations, and entrepreneurs involved in aid) on ways to bring the often unheard voices of intended aid beneficiaries into the conversation about what is working and what isn’t in international aid.
Regards,
Laura Freschi
Associate Director
Development Research Institute
Pse share the presentations!!!!
Stuff like this, pse announce to the wider aid community, well in time. Get them involved, have them participate. Even those who can not afford a ticket to NY. Do some live blogging, twitter about it etc…
This is an issue close at heart to many, both aid providers, and aid “recipients”.
Interessante Informationen.