Date: Wednesday 10 December 2008
Time: 5.30-6.30pm
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Speakers: Douglas Alexander, Professor Robin Burgess, Professor Paul Collier, Gobind Nankani
Chair: Howard Davies
The UK's Secretary of State for International Development, Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP, will speak on the impact of the global economic downturn on the world's poorest countries. He will outline what the credit crunch, and rising food and fuel prices means for the global efforts to tackle poverty. He will also launch the International Growth Centre, a new UK initiative to support long-term growth in poor countries and improve their ability to cope with economic shocks. The Centre will bring together policy-makers in developing countries with a range of partners from academia, the private sector and civil society from around the world.
Professor Paul Collier, Oxford University, will be speaking about the latest academic thinking on promoting growth in the world's poorest countries. Professor Robin Burgess, LSE, will present on how the International Growth Centre will support economic growth in developing countries.
Douglas Alexander was appointed Secretary of State for International Development on 28 June 2007 as part of Gordon Brown's first cabinet. Previously, he was Secretary of State for Transport and Secretary of State for Scotland (May 2006 to June 2007), Minister of State for Europe (May 2005 to May 2006), Minister for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs (September 2004 to April 2005) and Minister for e-Commerce and Competitiveness at the Department for Trade and Industry (June 2001). In May 2002 he moved to the Cabinet Office, becoming Minister for the Cabinet Office in June 2003 where, among other things, he led on the Government's better regulation agenda, public and civil service reform and e-government.
Robin Burgess is Professor of Economics at LSE and Co-Director of the International Growth Centre. He is also Programme Director of the Development Economics Program at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), a member of the Board of Directors of the Bureau for Research in the Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau for Economic Research (NBER), and a Fellow of the European Development Research Development Network (EUDN). His areas of research interest include development economics, public economics, political economy, labour economics and environmental economics. He has published on a variety of topics - natural disasters, mass media, rural banks, land reform, labour regulation, industrial policy, taxation, poverty and growth.
Paul Collier is Professor of Economics at Oxford University and Co-Director of the International Growth Centre. He is also Director of the Oxford Centre for the Study of African Economies, a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and has acted as the senior advisor to Tony Blair's Commission on Africa, and was Director of the Development Research group at the World Bank for five years. His areas of research interest include the causes and consequences of civil war; the effects of aid; external shocks, exchange rate and trade policies; economic growth in Africa; and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural-resource-rich societies.
Gobind Nankani, a Ghanaian native, was recently appointed President of the Global Development Network (GDN) in 2007. He is a development economist and had a distinguished 30 year career at the World Bank, holding management positions in various regions and sectors across the Bank. Prior to joining GDN he served as the Vice President for the Africa region between 2004 and 2006. In this position, he was responsible for the overall strategy and management of the Bank's program of financial knowledge and client relationships with all 47 Sub-Saharan African countries. He was also responsible for the overall design and implementation of the World Bank's Africa Action Plan.
Podcast
A podcast of this event is available to download from the LSE public lectures and events podcasts channel.
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