GDP - The Global Development Primer

In an era of compounding shocks and shifting borders, global development can no longer afford to be a sector that is procedurally sophisticated but politically naive. We must urgently explore how to move beyond linear models of development cooperation to build strategic resilience in a non-linear world where conflict and volatility are the new central realities of development. Rosemary McCarney spoke at the Canadian Association of International Development Practitioners Conference in Ottawa with the opening Keynote Address. GDP caught up with her just afterwards to discuss her ideas on the new era of global development.

Rosemary is the 2020-2021 Senior Fellow in Foreign and Defence Policy at Massey College. Rosemary was appointed the inaugural 2020 Pearson Sabia Distinguished Visiting Professor in International Relations at Trinity College, University of Toronto where she teaches Multilateral Diplomacy -Global Governance.

Rosemary McCarney served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the Office of the United Nations and to the United Nations Conference on Disarmament based in Geneva, Switzerland. Rosemary is also an award-winning humanitarian and business leader, a recognized public speaker and author and an expert on international economic development. An experienced senior executive and academic, she has developed strong business management and organizational leadership skills over 30+ years of global executive, legal and academic experience.

Immediately prior to her Ambassadorial appointment, Rosemary successfully led Plan International Canada, one of the oldest and largest charities in Canada and a member of the global Plan Federation, serving as President and Chief Executive Officer. 

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is a unique approach to global development that not only continues on, but may in fact thrive through one of the most turbulent times in Global Development. At a time when many foreign aid and global development agencies are folding up, IDRC champions and funds research and innovation within and alongside developing nations. Embracing new technologies with new partners in the global South, IDRC may provide a refreshing, albeit hopeful, approach to the future of global development. For a taste of that optimism, we're joined by IDRC Vice President of Strategy Regions and Policy, Maggie Gorman Vélez, who will be speaking at the Canadian Association of International Development Professionals (CAIDP) Conference in Ottawa.

Following graduate studies, Maggie Gorman Velez began her career at IDRC in the capacity as a Professional Development Awardee. Subsequently, over 20+ years, she has served in progressively senior roles across a diversity of portfolios at the Centre.

Maggie brings a depth of experience in international research and development, with a proven track record of strategic leadership as a member of the IDRC Centre Management Committee and more recently of the executive team. Over the past several years she has played a critical role in the development and implementation of Strategy 2030.

She holds an MA in International Affairs from Carleton University's Norman Patterson School and a BA (Hons) in Economics from St. Thomas University. She sits on the board of her local community association and is the mother of three busy children. 

I can't believe we're doing this. But here it is. Inspired by Senator #BernieSanders, I sit down with #ClaudeAi to have a conversation about any shady business going on with Ai. Data collection, microtargeting, and undermining democracy are all discussed with this ChatBot.

We go further: I ask Claude to take a stance on whether or not non-human technology exists on Earth, and it says, definitively, "no!" But when asked to consider if Israel's actions in Gaza mount to genocide? "Unclear". In both cases, the bot swerves and dodges the questions while reinforcing a clear bias..

In this half-hour conversation, you'll be able to hear how the bot responds to questions, and responds when called on using deceptive behaviour.

Claude is a chatbot designed by anthropic using Constitutional AI to ensure that it helps and does no harm. Claude responds to questions and helps with coding and data interpretation.

Donald Trump has bullied everyone. But when it comes to Cuba, Trump's bellicosity is different. Unlike many of the executive orders hastily signed with an immoderate sharpie stroke, Trump's economic weapons against Cuba are backed up with congressional acts dating as far back as the 1960s. This makes them harder to undo and more serious to enact.

Currently, Cuba is facing its worst crisis in history. No oil imports, minimal foreign aid, limited tourism, rolling blackouts, health crises, and all against a backdrop of 2.5 million outmigrants. What will come next for Cuba? What does Trump really want with Cuba beyond "regime change"?

To help make sense of it, Dr. John Kirk joins us this week on GDP.

John Kirk is an internationally renowned expert on Cuban politics and society. He is the author/co-editor of 20 books on Cuba. A Professor of Latin American Studies at Dalhousie University in Canada since 1978, Dr. Kirk is an active researcher and policy advisor on all matters related to Cuba.

Armenia doesn't always get mentioned in Global Development dialogue, but the struggle for economic and social indepdence is very real among many at-risk communities within the country. The Fund for Armenian Relief has advanced fundraising and developed programs that go beyond meeting basic needs; they help people gain skills and become financially self-sufficient. In this podcast, we meet Bree Carriglio, who has played a key role in connecting grassroots donors to projects that empower local communities of Armenia, such as women displaced by conflict who then train for tech jobs.

Bree Carriglio is the Executive Director of Development and Institutional Marketing at the Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR), where she leads strategic development initiatives, institutional partnerships, and communications to advance FAR’s mission of supporting vulnerable communities in Armenia. With over 20 years of experience in nonprofit development, marketing, and brand strategy, Bree has been instrumental in driving impactful fundraising efforts, particularly in humanitarian aid, healthcare, and education programs. Prior to her role at FAR, Bree held key leadership positions at BOND New York, where she spent nearly 14 years overseeing marketing strategy, brand development, and relocation services for one of New York’s largest independent real estate firms. Her expertise in crafting compelling messaging and donor engagement strategies has been featured in publications such as Forbes, where she writes about fundraising, philanthropy, and nonprofit communications. Bree holds a degree in English Language and Literature from Barnard College and remains dedicated to leveraging storytelling and strategic partnerships to drive meaningful change.

Check out www.farusa.org for more.

When Irene Pritzker walked into the Agbogbloshie Market in Ghana’s capital city of Accra in 2008, her heart ached.

Inside the market was a small but growing school—Paulina’s Queensland School, run by entrepreneur Paulina Nlando—with between 100 and 150 students. It was in a desperate state of physical disrepair, with dirt floors, poor lighting, and dangerous exposed wiring. But Paulina and thousands of school owners like her were unable to obtain business loans to improve their schools. 

Upon returning to the U.S., Irene made herself a promise that she would do everything in her power to give schools like Paulina’s a fighting chance.

Irene Pritzker cofounded the IDP Foundation, Inc., with her daughter, Liesel, in 2008. She was motivated when she visited Ghana that same year and saw how many local schools had barely any infrastructure or resources. Irene considered whether it would be possible to successfully provide a business loan to these schools given that they had no collateral but were serving the poorest families in Ghana.

As an advocate for developing sustainable and market-driven solutions that are no longer aid-dependent, Irene has frequently been invited to share the work of her philosophy behind the IDP Rising Schools Program. She has given major speeches on effective philanthropic investment and participated in numerous panels at the United Nations and other international forums, including throughout the US, Accra, Beijing, Paris, Zurich, Istanbul, Rome, and Dubai.

A year after Elon Musk and Donald Trump destroyed USAID, where is development today? The US took $68 billion dollars out of the global development budget last year. Other countries are slashing their budgets too. Now what?

If global development was about positioning the US as a strategic ally across the globe, it is now toast. But if development can continue to be more than political positioning, and return to its purpose of alleviating poverty, building secure environments and promoting democracy, then we may still be in business. To get a sense of how this can work, we invite Dr. Kate Schecter to join us this week.

Kate Schecter has witnessed and participated in international development for decades.  For the past decade, Kate has served as CEO of World Neighbors, an international NGO with projects in 14 low-income countries.   These include Guatemala, Bolivia, Haiti, Tanzania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Kenya, India and Nepal.    Next April World Neighbors, which has always received near all its funding from private sources, will celebrate its 75th anniversary.   The Oklahoma City-based organization and its community-based savings and credit and climate resilience model have survived many changes in national and international policies.   

Kate recently returned from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh India, where she visited thriving economic development projects based on the needs and skills of local communities.

If you're tuning in from Texas, keep listening. We're going to talk about what they don't want you to hear.

In this episode of GDP, we're talking about academic censorship, in particular the case of Texas A&M banning Plato's Symposium. We bring in Platonic expert Eli Diamond to tell us exactly what is being banned: an erotic booze fuled drama of debauchery and perverse behaviour that also serves as a foundational text in understanding the nature of love, beauty and desire while providing a foundation of Western philosophy, ethics, and human psychology. So what makes studying this so dangerous? Tune in to find out.

Dr. Eli Diamond teaches at Dalhousie University and King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is considered by many to be the GOAT of classics. His first book, Mortal Imitations of Divine Life: The Nature of the Soul in Aristotle’s De Anima, was published in 2015 by Northwestern University Press in the series “Rereading Ancient Philosophy”.  Details about the book can be found here.  The focus of his current research is Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy. 

Is there a future in Global Development? Will the U.S. be at the forefront of it? When it comes to the life saving services provided by USAID around the world, who will pick up the pieces? The answer is not clear, but Dennis Vega has seen this transformative moment in global development from the front lines. He joins us today to discuss what's going on, how deep the impact is, and to remember the moral good of development will continue...but maybe not how it has occurred in the past.

Dennis Vega is President & CEO of Pact. He has nearly two decades of experience in international development and nonprofit management. Most recently, Dennis served as the Acting Deputy Administrator for Management and Resources at USAID, overseeing operations for its 13,000-person workforce across more than 100 countries. Prior to that, he was Chief of Staff of USAID. Previously, Dennis served as Interim President and CEO as well as Chief Operating Officer of America’s Promise Alliance - a youth development coalition founded by General Colin Powell, leading the organization’s engagement with America’s young people, particularly through the Covid-19 crisis. Throughout his career, Dennis also held a number of positions at the U.S. Department of State and USAID during the Administrations of Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. He is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis School of Law and the University of Texas at Austin. Dennis joined Pact in 2024. 

Could honey bees best explain how sanctions are supposed to work? To prevent bloodshed, sanctions are meant to to take down an opponent by a collective effort. That's how bees do it? How do we do it? In this episode we learn a lot about bees and draw some sticky connections and analogies to current global politics.

Alex Pedersen is the past president of the Limestone Beekeepers’ Guild and currently a beekeeper in the Kingston Ontario area. Alex got her start in beekeeping as an undergrad through apiculture classes at the University of Guelph. She spends her spare time in the garden tending to the bees, supporting local beekeepers, and providing education about pollinators to local community groups and schools. In 2022, Alex was named a national “Volunteer of the Year” for her dedication to Science Rendezvous, a national organization encouraging children and their families to engage with and enjoy science, for her beekeeping displays with the Limestone Beekeepers’ Guild.