GDP - The Global Development Primer

Cool apps, nifty phones, fancy technology and even electric cars have often been born out of start-ups in California's Bay Area.  According to Alex Lazarow, the global landscape of start ups is changing.  Opportunities for venture capitalism, innovation, and investment are increasingly taking place in the Global South.  In this podcast, we explore  why Silicon Valley may be too old school for today's global start-up entrepreneurship.

Alexandre (Alex) Lazarow is the author of Out-Innovate: How Global Entrepreneurs from Delhi to Detroit are Rewriting the Rules of Silicon Valley.

He has spent his career working at the intersection of investing, innovation, and economic development in the private, public, and social sectors. He is a venture capitalist with Cathay Innovation, a global firm that invests across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.

Alex is an adjunct professor specializing in impact investment and entrepreneurship at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He is a Kauffman Fellow, CFA Charterholder, and a Stephen M. Kellen Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Alex is a regular columnist with Forbes, and his writing has been featured in the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, McKinsey Quarterly, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Business Insider, and Insurance CIO Outlook magazine, among others.

Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter: @ProfessorHuish

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be under-estimated for  Asia  - the world's largest developing region.  The social and economic impacts of COVID-19 for those living below the poverty line in Asia and the Pacific will be substantial.  So what are development actors doing about it?  In this episode of GDP,  we're happy to have Bart Édes joining us to talk about the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and how this regional development bank is planning to address the post-pandemic development challenges in Asia & the Pacific.   

Bart W. Édes has served as the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB’s) Representative in North America since October 2, 2017. In this capacity, he mobilizes financing for ADB’s developing member countries; shares development knowledge and experience; establishes and deepens partnerships with public, private and nonprofit organizations in North America; and raises public awareness of ADB in Canada and the United States. Mr. Édes has also worked as a journalist, researcher, policy analyst, and specialist on international trade and foreign direct investment He has a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Government (cum laude) from Georgetown University. Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter:  @ProfessorHuish

For over 60 years Cuba has offered medical outreach and assistance to other countries in the Americas & Africa.  More recently the cooperation has grown to include countries in Asia, and now the Pacific.  

In this episode, Dr. Bob Huish reflects on researching Cuban medical internationalism for the past 15 years.  He argues that Cuba's solidarity and outreach is truly on a global scale, but serious challenges to the development model have arisen as well. In particular the economic collapse in Venezuela is a telling example of how the economics of South-South cooperation did not go according to plan.  

This podcast is a GDP Roadshow Episode recorded at the Conference of Latin American Geographers in Antigua de Guatemala.  GDP Roadshows feature conference presentations, keynotes, round tables, and chance encounters that focus on the latest scholarship in IDS.

Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter:  @ProfessorHuish

Bhutan has a Gross National Happiness index.  The United Nations sought the development of the Human Development Index.  The exclusive World Economic Forum ran a series about the end of the "love affair" with GDP.  

In this season 3 finale, Dr. Anders Hayden joins Dr. Bob Huish to talk about why development needs to go beyond GDP, what the consequences of it are, and what why we should all rethink development.

Anders Hayden is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  He is particularly interested in the evolving balance between efforts to promote ecological modernization (“green growth”) and sufficiency-based challenges to the endless growth of production and consumption. He has written on efforts to promote "green growth" in Canada, Britain, and the European Union. 

His interest in the sufficiency approach has included examination of policies and initiatives to reduce hours of work as well as research on Bhutan, a country that has established Gross National Happiness, rather than Gross National Product, as its overriding goal. 

He is currently involved in research on the political and policy impacts of alternative measures of wellbeing and prosperity (“beyond GDP” measurement). He is the author of two books: When Green Growth Is Not Enough: Climate Change, Ecological Modernization, and Sufficiency (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014) and Sharing the Work, Sparing the Planet: Work Time, Consumption & Ecology (Zed Books / Between the Lines, 1999), and co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Global Sustainability Governance (Routledge, 2020).

Follow his latest project about moving beyond GDP here:  www.beyondgdpindicators.com

Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter @ProfessorHuish

Guatemalans have been coming to Providence Rhode Island for decades, changing the land, life, and landscape of the U.S.'s smallest state.  So too has this changed the geography of Guatemala as people continue to make their way to la "costa norte".  Patricia Foxen has followed this pathway of migration for two decades, and in doing so exposes a challenging experience that is embedded in geographies of exclusion, especially for Mayan Guatemalans.  According to Foxen, a Trump Whitehouse has worsened these geographies of exclusion.

Patricia Foxen is a cultural anthropologist who has worked extensively with Latino immigrant and refugee communities in the US, Canada and Latin America. Her research focuses on the intersection of migration, violence, culture and mental health, particularly among indigenous migrants and at-risk youth. She has taught at Vanderbilt University and the University of Toronto and is currently the Deputy Director of Research at UnidosUS, the largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the US, and a visiting fellow at American University. 

She is the author of "In search of Providence: Transnational Mayan Identities."

Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter: @ProfessorHuish

The panelists take questions from viewers about what other countries are doing in the face of the pandemic,  what to expect in the weeks ahead, and why we should be venerating our nurses, doctors, grocery store workers, Uber Eats drivers, and anyone else who is on the front lines of this global crisis.  

This podcast is part of a special GDP Roadshow series featured a COVID-19 video panel with the Canada International Council and the MacEachen Institute of Public Policy & Governance.

Check out the entire Video conference here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOPY1gvkmr4

Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter:  @ProfessorHuish

What makes for good policy during times of pandemics and other such emergencies when it comes to managing risk?  How do we normalize risk, and how do we measure it?  In this podcast, Kevin Quigley gets into the nuts and bolts of how policy makers approach risk, and how they should approach it during the pandemic.  

Kevin Quigley is the scholarly director at the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance and a professor in Dalhousie’s School of Public Administration, Faculty of Management. He specializes in public sector risk and crisis management, strategic management and critical infrastructure protection.

He has published an acclaimed book on critical infrastructure, numerous articles in academic journals and studies for a professional audience; his newest book, Too Critical to Fail: How Canada Manages Threats to Critical Infrastructure was published by McGill-Queen's in November 2017 and shortlisted for the Donner Prize.

This podcast is part of a special GDP Roadshow series featured a COVID-19 video panel with the Canada International Council and the MacEachen Institute of Public Policy & Governance.

Check out the entire Video conference here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOPY1gvkmr4

Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter:  @ProfessorHuish

Quarantines are ancient methods of public health, and they come with ancient problems such as isolation, marginalization, and stigma.  During the Spanish Flu pandemic, most of the world was already sick and poor by today's standards.  In 2020 the world has never been more inequitable in terms of health and wealth outcomes.  So what happens when quarantines are ordered on societies facing deep inequality?  And what happens when divisive political leaders spout misinformation that contradicts their top scientists and policy makers?  Tune in to get a sense of how COVID-19 is impacting the global health landscape.

Dr. Robert Huish's research explores global health inequity, and the role of social justice through South-South cooperation in improving provision of health care in resource-poor settings.  Currently, his research focus is on how Cuban Medical Internationalism plays a role in building health care capacity in under-resourced settings in Pacific Island Countries. Many countries in the Pacific face catastrophic consequences from climate change.  His current research looks at how donor nations are responding to this crisis, and how new forms of alter-globalization are emerging through South-South cooperation.

Dr. Huish also pursues research on human rights and security issues involving North Korea.  In particular this work exposes how North Korea continues to violate human rights, and how it pursues military aggression despite global isolation and international sanctions.

This podcast is part of a special GDP Roadshow series featured a COVID-19 video panel with the Canada International Council and the MacEachen Institute of Public Policy & Governance.

Check out the entire Video conference here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOPY1gvkmr4

Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter:  @ProfessorHuish