We are delighted to announce that Sangeeth Varghese, MSc Development Management 2004/5 is included in the WEF's Young Global Leaders list for 2010. WEF said "Mr.Varghese's nomination is in recognition of his record of professional accomplishments, his commitment to society and his potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world through his inspiring leadership." Sangeeth is the founder of Leadcap.org and also contributes to Forbes magazine on a regular basis.

New Work on Intellectual Property and Late Development

Kenneth Shadlen has two new publications on the politics of intellectual property. The work is part of his ongoing research programme on “Intellectual Property and Late Development,” examining the different ways that developing countries introduced new IP systems in the 1990s in response to new global regulations, and then how many countries subsequently modified their new IP systems in the late 1990s and early 2000s to address concerns over the price of patented medicines and also to bolster their national systems of scientific and industrial innovation.

Politics of Intellectual Property: Contestation Over the Ownership, Use, and Control of Knowledge and Information
edited by Sebastian Haunss and Kenneth C. Shadlen
Edward Elgar, 2009.

Sebastian Haunss and Kenneth C. Shadlen, along with a global collection of contributors (from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America), focus on how business organizations, farmers, social movements, legal communities, state officials, transnational enterprises, and international organizations shape IP policies in areas such as health, information-communication technologies, indigenous knowledge, genetic resources, and many others. The innovative and original chapters examine conflicts over the rules governing various dimensions of IP, including patents, copyrights, traditional knowledge, and biosafety regulations. Read more on Politics of Intellectual Property.

“Politics of Patents and Drugs in Brazil and Mexico: The Industrial Bases of Health Policy”
Comparative Politics 42/1 (October 09), pp. 41-58
By Kenneth C. Shadlen

After introducing pharmaceutical patents in the 1990s, Brazil subsequently adjusted the patent system to ameliorate its effects on drug prices while Mexico introduced measures that reinforce and intensify these effects. The different trajectories are due to the nature of the actors pushing for reform and subsequent patterns of coalitional formation and political mobilization. In Brazil, government demand for expensive, patented drugs made health-oriented patent reform a priority, and the existence of an autonomous local pharmaceutical sector allowed the Ministry of Health to build a supportive coalition. In Mexico, government demand made reforms less urgent, and transformations of the pharmaceutical sector allowed patent-holding firms to commandeer a reform project. The existence of indigenous pharmaceutical capacities can broaden the political coalitions underpinning health reforms. Read more on Politics of Patents and Drugs in Brazil and Mexico.

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New listserv to bring together ALL alumni - please email Sue for details.

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Beyond Accra: Practical Implications of Ownership and Accountability in National Development Strategies
Conference papers available here

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Dr Teddy Brett has recently published his latest book - Reconstructing Development Theory.

You may download a sample chapter here. DESTIN alumni can get a 25% discount on order - contact Sue (s.redgrave@lse.ac.uk) for details.

DESTIN alum publications

Lina Abirafeh's (PhD Development Studies) book 'Gender and International Aid in Afghanistan: The Politics and Effects of Intervention' will shortly be available. Full details available here.

Kamini Karlekar (MSc Development Studies, 2000) has recently had her first book published, (Un)settled: Notes from a Shifting Life "...emerged out of the two and a half years I spent working and living in Sudan and Liberia. It’s partly travel, partly personal and partly political as the history of the two countries and work weave in and out of the narrative of my life in these two countries. It’s about the discoveries I made about myself and where I was - my surprise at falling in love with Sudan despite all the bad press, and about feeling at home in Harper, Liberia despite the ubiquitous loitering ex-combatants and razor wire compounds. It’s about how it can be both ‘exotic’ and trying to be a young Indian woman abroad, as well as realizing how much we take democracy and relative political stability and safety for granted. It’s about how I finally understood the fascination foreigners feel for India as over time I found myself drawn to the promise of colour, chaos, anonymity, independence and the unexpected. It’s a book about spending the last of my twenties in countries I least expected and the person I became as a result."

PODCASTS

Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is another way for Africa Podcast available
Speaker: Dambisa Moyo, Global Economist, Goldman Sachs
The Guardian says Moyo has written a "big idea book" on foreign aid.

But is aid truly "dead"? Should the West "turn off the taps" to Africa? Now's your chance to hear the woman who is being called the "anti-Bono" by the New York Times.

Dambisa Moyo was born and raised in Zambia. She completed a D.Phil in economics at Oxford University and holds a Masters from Harvard. She completed a Bachelors degree in Chemistry and an MBA in Finance at the American University in Washington, D.C. She worked at Goldman Sachs for 8 years in the debt capital markets, hedge fund coverage and in global macroeconomics teams. Previously, she worked at the World Bank.

Eastern DRC: what should the international community be doing? Podcast available
Speakers: David Leonard, General Olusegun Obasanjo, Professor James Putzel, Clare Short
Chair: Professor Jo Beall
Further information here

Fighting the Banana Wars - Podcast available
Speakers: Harriet Lamb, Adam Brett, Dr Teddy Brett. Chair: Professor Stuart Corbridge
Only 14 years ago you couldn’t buy a Fairtrade product in Britain. Today almost £500m worth of goods bearing the Fairtrade mark are sold annually, including tea, coffee, bananas, cotton, flowers and even footballs. At the heart of this revolution in our shops is the Fairtrade Foundation, which was established in 1992 by CAFOD, Christian Aid, New Consumer, Oxfam, Traidcraft Exchange and the World Development Movement. Starting small but with big ideas, it has turned a grass-roots movement into a phenomenon of our time – changing not only the way in which corporations deal with their suppliers and how consumers shop on the high street, but also transforming the lives of over 7 million farmers, workers and their families.

The Fairtrade Foundation is all about creating a better deal for workers and farmers in the developing world. At its heart it aims to make sure the food on our plates, and shirts on our backs, don't rob people in other countries of the means to feed or clothe themselves. In this lecture Harriet Lamb will discuss her latest book, Fighting the Banana Wars, in which she travels through an often unjust system to uncover the shocking cost of our demand for cheaper produce.

Post-Graduate Open Evening - link to various podcasts

Address and contacts

Development Studies Institute

8th Floor, Connaught House
London School of Economics and Political Science
Houghton Street
London
WC2A 2AE

Tel: +44 (020) 7955-7425
Fax: +44 (020) 7955-6844
Email: You can email the DESTIN office directly using our online query form but PLEASE read the Frequently asked questions page first! Finally, please do not email the same question to individual members of staff - once is fine.

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