Tony Blair at the Center for Global Development

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair talks about his Africa Governance Initiative which aims to improve governance in Africa.  He talks about his views on leadership and governance in Africa, and more broadly about UK attitudes to development, the role of the UK Department for International Development, liberal interventionism, and his own future.

If you are interested in international development, you may also like these other podcasts:

• Global Prosperity Wonkcast from the Center for Global Development
• The Guardian Focus Podcast

My guests are Malini Mehra from the Center for Social Markets and Alex Evans from the Center on International Cooperation at NYU.

Malini Mehra and Alex Evans discuss the big development challenges of the 21st Century in Development Drums 25

The agenda for the discussion was a presentation given by Alex Evans to Members of Parliament in the British House of Commons.  In his presentation, Alex identified ten key issues for discussion: the changing distribution of poverty; demographic change; the financial crisis; oil prices; food prices; feeding the 9 billion; climate change; trade; the changing face of conflict; the global governance deficit; and the implications for UK development policy.

If you enjoy Development Drums, you may also enjoy the Center for Global Development’s Global Prosperity Wonkcasts, which are a bit shorter than Development Drums.  As with Development Drums, you can listen online, subscribe to the feed or subscribe free on iTunes.

The Guardian has also started a monthly development podcast.  The most recent editions are about “securitisation of aid” (that is, greater focus of aid on fragile states) and on so-called “land grabs“.  Again, you can subscribe to the feed directly, or get it free on iTunes.

Andy Sumner and Claire Melamed

In this episode of Development Drums, Andy Sumner and Claire Melamed (Head of the Growth and Equity Programme at ODI) discuss the implications of this new data about where most of the world’s poor live.   If there are millions of people living in poverty in middle income countries, does this mean that growth does not lead to poverty reduction? What are the implications for donor countries? Do they have any interest in the income distribution in other nations, or is that an entirely internal matter?  Should aid be allocated differently as a results of these new figures? And what are the implications for non-aid development policies?

Download Andy’s paper, “Global Poverty and the New Bottom Billion”.

The Ethiopian famine of 25 years ago was the greatest humanitarian disaster of the second half of the 20th century, killing more than 600,000 people before the world took notice. Peter Gill was the first journalist to reach the epicenter of the famine in 1984 and he returned at the time of Live Aid to research the definitive account of the disaster, A Year in the Death of Africa .

Peter Gill has returned to Ethiopia to tell the story of the last 25 years in Ethiopia. His book draws on interviews with leading Ethiopians and with foreign aid officials. He interviewed Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and the leading development economists, Joseph E. Stiglitz and Jeffrey Sachs. Most important of all, Gill has traveled throughout the country and interviewed many of Ethiopia’s citizens.

What stands out in these pages are the graphic encounters with these Ethiopians–the supposed beneficiaries of western aid–who still struggle on the knife-edge of existence. What also emerges is the often tense relationship between official aid-givers and recipients–whether in the area of economic reform or the modern demands for “governance” and political change.

Twenty five years on, we can say that we did feed the world. But did we change the face of poverty, did we close the gap between rich and poor, did we fulfill the promise of “development?”

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Rachel explains how rigorous evaluation techniques can give important insights into the effectiveness of development programmes.  She explains the role (and limitations) of randomised controlled trials, and she addresses some of the criticisms of this kind of evaluation.

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This podcast is in collaboration with the Overseas Development Institute.

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Forty percent of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. You may be surprised by the extent to which they use financial services.  Daryl and Jonathan describe their work and their findings.

Running time 62 minutes; size 25.4 Mb.

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President Obama spoke in Ghana on July 11, 2009 about US policy towards Africa.

In this episode of Development Drums, Todd Moss and Chris Blattman join me to talk about the speech, and what it means for the US and Africa.

• President Obama’s speech
• Chris Blattman’s blog
• Comments on the speech from Bill Easterly
• Comments on the speech from Mark Goldberg
• Comments on the speech from Foreign Policy
• Comments on the speech from Michael Kevane
• Comments on the speech from Leonard Wantchekon

(Am I missing some? Post them in the comments please.)

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Particular thanks to my father, Brian Barder, who is turning into an expert sound engineer. He set up the link between me in Addis Ababa and the interviewees in the United States, and made the recording.

Alan Beattie, World Trade Editor of the Financial Times, talks about his new book, False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World, with Professor Robert Wade of the London School of Economics.

Running time 41 minutes; size 17.8 Mb.

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Professor Peter Singer talks on Development Drums about his new book, The Life You Can Save. This book sets out an ethical case for why people should give more money to people in developing countries.

Here are the links mentioned in the podcast.

• The Life You Can Save website
• Buy The Life You Can Save from Amazon
• Give Well (the charity Peter Singer recommends in the podcast)
• Famine, Affluence, and Morality

Running time 58 minutes; size 22.1 Mb.

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Matthew Bishop and Mike Green talk about their book, Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World and Why We Should Let Them

Running time 1 hour 5 minutes; size 33.8 Mb.

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Running time 25 minutes 56 seconds; size 16.9 Mb

Running time: 46 minutes 47 seconds. Size: 22Mb

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In this episode of Development Drums we talk about the International Criminal Court and the arrest warrant that has been issued for the President of Sudan. Some links:

• Amanda’s blog post on Bashir
• Nicholas Kristof (New York Times)
• Alex de Waal and Julie Flint
• Human Rights Watch

Also – Facebook Group for Development Drums

Nancy Birdsall (CGD) and Simon Maxwell (ODI) reflect on the London Poverty Summit on 9th and 10th March; and Minouche Shafik (DFID) talks about the forthcoming DFID White Paper.
 

Running time: 1 hour and 11 minutes. File size: 32.4 Mb

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The British Government held a 2 day conference on 9th and 10th March, bringing together some of the leading thinkers and practitioners on international development.

• Speech by Gordon Brown
• Speech by Douglas Alexander
• Eliminating world poverty: Building our common future (5mb) – Background paper to conference by ODI
• DFID White Paper Consultation website
• Andrew Natsios review of “Fixing Failed States”

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In The Bottom Billion, Paul Collier points out that poverty is falling quite rapidly for about eighty percent of the world.  He argues that the real crisis lies in a group of  58 failing states, home to the bottom billion, whose problems defy traditional approaches to alleviating poverty. He argues that these countries are the scene of a struggle between reformers and corrupt leaders.  Collier analyzes the causes of failure, pointing to a set of traps that snare these countries, including civil war, a dependence on the extraction and export of natural resources, and bad governance.   He argues that our standard solutions do not work against these traps: aid is often ineffective, and globalization can actually make matters worse, driving development to more stable nations.  The Bottom Billion, was the winner of the 2008 Lionel Gelber Prize for the world’s best book on international affairs, and the 2008 Gold Medal Winner of the Arthur Ross Book Award, given by the Council on Foreign Relations.

In his new book, Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places, Paul Collier investigates the violence and poverty in the countries at the bottom of the world economy that are home to a billion people. He argues that pressures to introduce partial democratic reforms may have been counterproductive and that this may have increased the risk of political violence. He argues for 3 key policy measures that the rich world should implement to reverse the declining fortunes of these countries.

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Jonathan Glennie is the Christian Aid country representative in Bogota, Colombia, and he campaigned as part of Make Poverty History. His new book, The Trouble With Aid, argues that when you take into account all the effects that aid has, it can do more harm than good.  In this episode of Development Drums, Jonathan explains why he thinks that many countries should make it a priority to reduce their dependence on aid.

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Running time: 52 minutes. File size: 20Mb.

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In this episode of Development Drums, we discuss the continuing food crisis. What are the causes, and are we doing enough to tackle it?  We discuss policies to increase the incomes of farmers, and the impact of social transfer programmes.    We also look ahead to the forthcoming conference in Doha to discuss financing for development, particularly at proposals to reform the international tax rules so that developing countries get paid more tax.

And we mourn the passing of Miriam Makeba.

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Running time: 51 minutes. File size: 24 Mb

In this episode of Development Drums, we look at what President-Elect Obama and an increased Democrat majority in Congress might mean for US foreign assistance to developing countries.  Will the new administration implement administrative and legal reforms that enables US aid to be more effective?  Will the administration be able to double foreign assistance as they pledged during the campaign?  Who might be put in charge of an “elevated” agency to oversee aid? The panel is cautiously optimistic that change will come, but it will be incremental.

Dana Hovig explains the Mexico City Policy, known as the Global Gag Rule.  Fist implemented by Ronald Reagan, it was overturned by Bill Clinton on his first day in office, and reinstated by George W. Bush on his first day.  But the panel does not expect President Obama to tackle this on his first day.

Links

• Modernising Foreign Assistance Network
• Center for Global Development
• OxfamAmerica – aid reform
• Mexico City Policy (Global Gag Rule)
• Marie Stopes International
• Obama-Biden Foreign Policy

Declaration of interest: my partner works for Marie Stopes International.

Backgrounder on Eastern Congo with Patrick Smith.

In this additional episode of Development Drums, Patrick Smith, editor of Africa Confidential, explains what is happening in the Eastern Congo.

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Running time: 19 min 43 seconds; File size 7 Mb.

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Running time: 36 min 38 secs; File size: 15Mb

Shantayanan Devarajan is the Chief Economist of the World Bank’s Africa Region.  Since joining the World Bank in 1991, he has been a Principal Economist and Research Manager for Public Economics in the Development Research Group, and the Chief Economist of the Human Development Network, and of the South Asia Region.  Shanta maintains the Africa Can blog.

Sheila Page is a specialist in trade at the Overseas Development Institue.

Links to topics discussed

The impact of the economic crisis on developing countries

• Will the financial crisis reduce foreign aid? | Shanta’s Blog: Africa Can
• Economic crisis threatens to destabilize developing countries – Los Angeles Times
• FT.com / Comment & analysis / Comment – The best recipe for avoiding a global recession

The Mo Ibrahim Prize for African Governance

• The Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership
• Chris Blattman’s Blog: No to Mo money
• Botswana’s Ex-President Wins Leadership Prize – NYTimes.com
• Festus Mogae: Africa’s Good Leader – TIME

African Free Trade Zone Agreed

• BBC NEWS | Business | African free trade zone is agreed
• allAfrica.com: Africa: Economic Community Target Gets Fresh Impetus

Food crisis

• Food crisis in retreat, but ‘major emergency’ still exists – International Herald Tribune
• FT.com | The Economists’ Forum | Food crisis is a chance to reform global agriculture
• Food and the poor | The new face of hunger | The Economist

File size: 15MB Running time: 46 minutes . Recorded 23 October 2008.

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Ngaire Woods is Professor of International Political Economy at Oxford University, and the Director of the Global Economic Governance Programme, which is a research programme investigating how global institutions could better respond to the needs of developing countries.

David Roodman is at the Center for Global Development in Washington DC. David is the architect of the Commitment to Development Index which ranks the world’s richest countries based on their adoption of policies that affect developing countries

• David Roodman’s article about the impact on aid of previous financial crises
• Ngaire Woods’s article in the Guardian
• Ngaire Woods’s The Globalizers

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We’ve done our best to respond to feedback:

• the sound quality is better
• more voices
• voices from the South
• more, shorter items
• more random bits of music

Please tell us what you think.

Links to items discussed in the show:

1. Should donors cap aid to Africa?
Adrian Wood article in FT
Discussion at CGD blog

2. Zimbabwe – How should the international community react?
Tsvangirai appeals for aid
Economist article

3. Billions wasted in aid, according to Care
Press release
Care report
Press report
Guardian article

4. World Bank Doing Business Report
World Bank report
BBC News story

Many thanks to my sister Virginia for providing a studio for Adrian; and to Bob Smith for the jingle.

 Download transcript (pdf)

Discussion of:

• Accra High Level Forum
• Accra Agenda for Action (pdf)
• Simon Maxwell Blog Report on Accra
• UN MDG Gap Task Force Report
• UK National Security Strategy
• World Bank Press Release on new poverty statistics
• World Bank paper – The developing world is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty

Many thanks to Bob Smith for providing the Development Drums jingle.