GDP - The Global Development Primer

Clean energy is coming to Asia. But who is going to get it there? Multilateral development agencies like the Asian Development Bank are sometimes overlooked, or not well understood as important players by development scholars. But big ideas, big projects, and big dollars are involved in taking on ambitious development work. To get a sense of how the Asian Development Bank rolls, we're joined by Sam Tumiwa to learn about adaptation financing, and what it is like working within a multilateral agency.

Mr. Tumiwa is the Asian Development Bank's representative to North America, where he works with the Canadian and United States governments and their agencies, bilateral and multilateral institutions, research and civil society organizations and the private sector, to increase understanding strengthen collaboration and of ADB’s work. He was previously the Deputy Representative from 2011 to 2016. 

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Check out the Asian Development Bank here: ADB_HQ

2024 is turning out to be deadly for many. Expanding war in the Middle East, the war of attrition continues in Ukraine, and now gangs are trying over run Ecuador. How do we answer the question "Why is this happening"? To some degree the answer lies in understanding why young men, and they are mostly men, are willing to enter into high risk deadly combat in the first place. What's drawing recruits into gangs and mercenary armies? Kate Schecter reminds us that a lack of opportunities at the community level is a big factor. While mercenaries promise cash for your life, community development can offer better opportunities that lead to savings for your future. Check out this conversation about the role of better finance for a more peaceful planet.

Kate Schecter, Ph.D., joined World Neighbors as the President and CEO in June of 2014.  World Neighbors is a 71 year old international development organization that works with rural isolated communities to help find solutions to permanently lift these communities out of poverty.  Dr. Schecter is responsible for managing World Neighbors’ programs and operations in 14 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.  In her previous position, she worked for the American International Health Alliance (AIHA) for 14 years.  As a Senior Program Officer at AIHA, she had responsibility for managing health partnerships throughout Eurasia and Central and Eastern Europe.  She worked with over 35 partnerships addressing primary healthcare, chronic disease management, hospital management, maternal/child health, Tuberculosis, blood safety and HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Schecter holds a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University and an M.A. in Soviet Studies from Harvard University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and served on the Board of Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. from 2010 to 2018.

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If you think it's a real chore getting your parents or grandparents connected to new technology? Try 3.7 billion people! That's the digital divide we're facing today on a global scale. Industry wants to see this happen, and as we've seen in the past, there are ethical concerns about getting connected too quickly. Where are governments on this in terms of providing effective aid? Is the development sector missing out? The Canadian Association of International Development Professionals (CAIDP) will be holding a 3 day conference in Ottawa at the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University. CAIDP Board Member Evan Due will be there, and he will be moderating a panel on the digital divide.

Evan Due is an executive fellow at the School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, a sessional lecturer at the Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, and a senior advisor to the China Development Research Foundation in Beijing China.  He has over 30 years of experience in international development cooperation, public policy, international trade, and project management.  He has held positions with the International Development Research Centre of Canada in Singapore and India, Global Affairs Canada in Ottawa, New Delhi, and Islamabad, and has served as a consultant to the United Nations and the Government of Sri Lanka.  He represented Canada at the OECD Development Assistance Committee, and in various multilateral forums.  He obtained his doctorate from the University of Sussex, U.K.

Check out CAIDP here: https://www.caidp-rpcdi.ca/

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⁠CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE ON THE BILL KELLY PODCAST.⁠

Nearly two years into the war in Ukraine, is the west still paying attention, notably the United States? If funding or support from Washington wanes, will Ukraine be able to win a war of attrition against Russia? For this special issue of GDP, Dr. Bob is interviewed by legendary radio personality, Bill Kelly. Bob and Bill get down the brass tacks of what's needed in Ukraine, and why this matters for global stability

⁠CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE ON THE BILL KELLY PODCAST.⁠

Bill Kelly is born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, has a prolific background in media. He has five decades of broadcast experience, including but not limited to hosting a daily, nationally broadcast, interactive political talk show for five years on CHTV, hosting a leading news talk radio show on CHML from 1988-1997 and working as a stadium announcer for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for 13 seasons.

Bill also held a council seat in Hamilton for 9 years from 1997-2005, and is a graduate of Mohawk College where he founded Mohawk’s first student radio network. He was honored as one of Mohawk College’s Alumni of Distinction. Now, he’s working hosting his new podcast where he’ll get to dive more in depth into all the topics he knows and loves.

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Check out the Bill Kelly Podcast here: https://kite.link/the-bill-kelly-podcast

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Ecuador has tumbled into a state of fear and peril. In early January 2024 armed men stormed a popular evening television show in Guayaquil. It was a brazen visualization of growing gang violence across the country. Under state of emergency, Ecuador is now facing declared internal conflict. Why? In part due to the changing geography of narco-trafficking in the region, in part due to economic instability and increasing poverty across the country, and in part due to broader global economic trends. Maria Gabriela Palacio Ludeña joins us to bring some clarity to the crisis, and to explain why this is occurring and what we need to consider to bring Ecuador back from the this grip of fear.

Maria Gabriela Palacio Ludeña is an Assistant Professor in Development Studies at the Latin American Studies Programme - Institute for History. She contributes to the programmes BA International Studies and MA International Relations. She teaches courses on a variety of topics such as (global and regional) political economy, social policy, nation-building processes in Latin America, neoliberalism, informality and labour segregation, and social reproduction. Her courses engage in dialogue with various literature streams, namely political economy, anthropology of the state, and development studies. While her work primarily focuses on the Latin American region, she welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with students whose research focuses on other regions but deal with issues of social exclusion, inequality, poverty, labour economics, gender and queer methodologies and/or social policy.

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So you want a career in Global Development? You asked your professor about what to do next, and their response was underwhelming? A lot of that going around. This is why Gretchen Villegas is the person to talk to. In this interview with GDP, Gretchen shares some powerful advice on how to get involved in global development. Sharing stories of her own career, Gretchen spells out why more students should be interested in a career in global development, and how to get there. Not only is career in global development rewarding, it is needed now more than ever before.

Gretchen Villegas is a 25+ year veteran global development professional specializing in mission-driven innovative program designs through partnership development, impact scaling, and revenue growth.  Gretchen has professional experience working in collaboration with both non-profit and for-profit partners in the implementation of local country programs that support vulnerable communities in Latin America, Africa and Asia, with a portfolio totaling over 320M+.

Gretchen has wide-ranging expertise in executive level leadership of global program portfolio effectiveness through evidence and data, intentional program design to optimize impacts for vulnerable children and their families, rigorous research to learn and adapt in program implementation, and revenue strategies to scale and enhance reach of programmatic initiatives.

She has secured funding and implemented projects for Institutional donors including the United States Agency for International Development and the United States Department of Agriculture, Foundations including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and MasterCard Foundation and worked closely with private sector partners General Mills, Cargill Animal Nutrition and Danone to name a few.  

Gretchen is fully bi-lingual in Spanish and a collaborative leader, skilled facilitator, and team builder.  She has a proven track record of bringing together consortiums of stakeholders for social impacts, including the private sector, to achieve common goals. She is driven by data and analytics and believes that evidence-based programming and for-profit partnership is essential for effective and sustainable development in the long-term.

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Today, nearly one billion people lack electricity, over three billion lack clean water, and 750 million lack basic literacy skills. Many of these challenges could be solved with existing solutions, and technology enables us to reach the last mile like never before. Yet, few solutions attain the necessary scale to match the size of these challenges. Scaling Up Development Impact  is written by Isabel Guererro, Siddhant Gokhale, and Jossie Fahsbender. In this interview with GDP, Isabel and Siddhant offer some important takeaways as to why scaling up development is "mission criticall".

Isabel Guerrero is an economist, a psychoanalyst, and the co-founder of Imago Global Grassroots, which helps organizations scale up. Since 2014 she has taught the course on "Scaling Up and Systems Change for Development Impact" at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Prior to this, Isabel worked for 30 years at the World Bank, including five years as Vice-President for the South Asia region. She holds a master's degree from the London School of Economics and graduated from the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute.

Siddhant Gokhale is a knowledge manager at Imago Global Grassroots, where he built the knowledge function. He co-authored a recent theoretical paper on the Adaptive Evaluation methodology and advises Imago's evaluation projects. He previously worked at the Behavioral Development Lab, establishing J-PAL South Asia's first project in the state of Goa. He holds a master's degree in public administration and international development from the Harvard Kennedy School and an MA in economics from Columbia University.

Check out Scaling Up Development Impact Here. (https://bit.ly/imagoggbook)

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The war between Israel and Hamas is unfolding into a humanitarian catastrophe. Water is the most precious resource for Gaza, and it is in short supply. Ground water supplies are sparse, and Israel controls inflow into Gaza. To punish Hamas, Israel temporarily turned off the taps which led to further humanitarian emergencies.

Israel has mastered scarce water resource technology, including de-salinization. This technology could come to Gaza, but it is not. Why? Clive Lipchin joins us to share his expertise on how this technology could greatly help the people of Gaza, and he explains why it hasn't been brought in it yet.

Clive Lipchin is a renowned environmental scientist and water resource management expert. Clive has dedicated his career to addressing water-related challenges in arid regions, particularly in the Middle East. He founded and currently directs the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies' Center for Transboundary Water Management, an institution recognized for its innovative work in cross-border water management and cooperation between Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians. Throughout his career, Lipchin has actively promoted regional collaboration on water-related issues, seeking to foster peace and sustainability through shared water resources. His work has earned him international acclaim and has made a significant impact on the field of environmental science and peacebuilding in the Middle East.

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As smelly as they are, flatulent cattle really take their toll on the climate. Major producers of methane, cattle, and other industrialized animals in agriculture, produces detrimental levels of methane which warm the planet faster than carbon. Not only is there no end in sight to seeking alternatives to this industry, but the World Bank has approved Industrial Agriculture as being compliant to the Paris Climate Commitment. Kelly McNamara joins us this week to offer a stern warning as to why industrial agriculture for animals should be a thing of the past for a climate conscious future.

Kelly McNamara is a senior research and policy analyst in Friends of the Earth US’ Agriculture and Climate Finance Program. Her work involves collaborating with teams across FOE and broader coalitions of NGOs from the Global North and South to engage multilateral development banks (MDBs) and private sector financiers on their investments in industrial animal agriculture. Prior to joining Friends of the Earth, Kelly worked as a business researcher and writer at Harvard Business School and EY and as an advisor and research fellow at industrial animal agriculture-focused NGOs including The Humane League and Pivot Food Investment. Kelly holds a BA in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania and an MPhil in philosophy from Cambridge University.

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War is raging in The Gaza Strip. As Israel prepares for a ground invasion, Hamas holds dozens of prisoners, and now with knowledge that U.S. citizens are in the mix, it all spells disaster for Gaza. The Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people under a heavy blockade on movement and basic resources, are now facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in this conflict.

The simple question is: "Why"? Why blockade water, energy, bread, and ice, when the worry is military rockets? Why restrict movement so strictly, when trade routes for weapons are clearly succeeding in getting weaponry into Gaza to use against Israel. It makes no sense as to why humanitarian hurt is being used a military tactic. To help us unpack this, we have Rida Abu Rass joining use from Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Rida Abu Rass is a PhD candidate at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, born in Tayibe, in the ‘Triangle’ area near the West Bank, and raised in Jaffa and Tel Aviv. He is interested in the factors that facilitate and obstruct political mobilization among ethnopolitical movements, with an emphasis on the Palestinian community within Israel. Rida has also taught and written about the political history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on Middle East politics, social movements, democratization and nationalism. Before coming to Queen’s, he worked as a data coordinator at B’Tselem, Israel’s leading human rights organization. In his spare time, he writes op-eds, and he blogs.

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