ODI live events podcast

The pledge to ‘leave no one behind’ is a fundamental principle underlying Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. Its emphasis on prioritising the welfare of the most disadvantaged groups and reducing group-based inequalities has the capacity to bring about transformative change. Yet five years on from signing this pledge, there is little agreement on how to adapt it into actionable policies.

Drawing from ODI's upcoming report 'Leave no one behind: five years into Agenda 2030', we examine the core elements of the pledge, how it is affected by Covid-19 and what promising examples of national, regional and international progress are, in turning this pledge into policy. Looking forward, we explore what needs to be done to advance the agenda further.

Covid-19 has laid bare many of the challenges and faultlines holding us back from the goals set out in the 1995 Beijing Declaration. The rise of populism has presented multiple global challenges for the women’s equality agenda. There are also opportunities to build a ‘new normal’, within which young people are both driving and deeply affected by many of the decisions being made today.

Zoey Roy's poem highlights the incredible role of women in society and explores a hopeful future, free of inequalities.

Chair

Judith Tyson  – Senior Research Fellow, International Economic Development Group, ODI

Speakers

Christopher Egerton-Warburton – Co-Chief Executive Officer, Lion's Head Global Partners

Nick O’Donohoe – Chief Executive Officer, CDC Group

Søren Peter Andreasen – General Manager, Association of European Development Finance Institutions (EDFI)

Vera Songwe – Executive Secretary, UN Economic Commission for Africa

Description

The Covid-19 pandemic is having a crushing effect on private finance for development. This is resulting in a ‘doubling-down’ on the recessionary pressures in Africa and domestic banks experiencing a classic ‘credit crunch’.

With international finance sharply reduced, these acute problems add to the existing barriers to mobilising private finance for development. Barriers include, a lack of bankable projects, a lack of management tools for political and macroeconomic risk and processes being mismatched to investor needs.

We explore innovations in liquidity provision, infrastructure financing and climate investment. We examine what investment is needed to create a more resilient and sustainable private sector, the prospects for blended finance and co-financing strategies, and the impacts of the rise in foreign currency assets and debt restructuring.

We draw from high-level leaders and their experiences of leading financial institutions, exploring key insights and lessons learnt. Our expert panel share forward-looking innovative solutions for middle-income and low-income countries, as well as approaches that can 'change the game’ on mobilising finance from a range of actors, including multilateral development banks, development and international finance institutions and the private sector.

Chair

Sorcha O'Callaghan – Director of the Humanitarian Policy Group, ODI

Speakers

Ambassador Reuben E. Brigety – Former United States Ambassador to the African Union and Vice Chancellor of University of the South, Tennessee

Nasra A. Ismail – Humanitarian Expert, Somalia

Ben Ramalingam – Lead Consultant, Innovation for Development, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Hugo Slim – Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford

Description

2020 has been a momentous year. But will it force a reset, or a rethink, of a humanitarian system highly resistant to change?

As the year has worn on, traditional assumptions about crisis, fragility and solidarity have been overturned. Soaring coronavirus death rates and crisis mismanagement in richer countries have called into question traditional assumptions of a ‘competent global North’ and ‘struggling global South’. The civil unrest in the US in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, and in the run up to the Presidential election have raised questions about what constitutes a fragile state.

The acute crises of 2020 come together with longer-term global challenges including the rise of populist nationalism and the accompanying retreat from multilateralism, the erosion of trust in public institutions, and the sharpening climate emergency. Together, they have created a uniquely unstable moment in which systems and hierarchies previously taken for granted seem suddenly open to question.

Looking forward, how will the combination of a global recession, greater attention to racism in the humanitarian sector and restrictions on international aid actors, shift international humanitarian systems and champion local humanitarian leadership?

Chair

Marta Foresti – Director of ODI Europe, ODI

Opening remarks

Sandra Breka – Member of the Board of Management, Robert Bosch Stiftung

Speakers

Sir Suma Chakrabarti – Chair of the Board, ODI and former President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Obiageli Ezekwesili – Senior Economic Advisor, Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative (AEDPI) and Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow, Robert Bosch Academy

Description

2021 will be an important year for Africa-Europe relations. Covid-19 has dealt a severe blow to the continents, both in human and economic terms, and a strong partnership will be key for recovery. This will need to be a partnership of equals, where states as well as businesses, civil societies and local actors must play a role to strengthen cooperation across borders.

Stronger cooperation will be key ahead of the high-level African-European Union summit that will determine the future relationship between the two continents. Migration remains a highly contentious issue in Africa-Europe relations with the EU member states struggling to find common ground and states in Africa keen to see openings to legal pathways such as visa and access to labour markets.

In collaboration with the Robert Bosch Stiftung, we launch a series of webinars exploring innovative initiatives to strengthen Africa-Europe relations on migration, mobility and beyond. We start by assessing the political landscape, common ground and divisions on migration and mobility, and heading into the AU-EU summit, the opportunities for collaboration and strengthening partnerships in and between the regions.

This event series, co-hosted by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and ODI, is implemented in partnership with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Open Society Foundations.

Chair

Emma Proud – Head of Learning and Adapting, Brink

Speakers

Ena Fernandez – OIC Director, Philippines House of Representatives

Sam Sharp – Research Officer, ODI

Stacey Young – Agency Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning Officer, USAID

Toby Lowe – Visiting Professor, Centre for Public Impact

Yuen Yuen Ang – Professor, University of Michigan

Are bureaucracies today fit for purpose to address what are often complex and multidimensional challenges on housing, education, pandemics, international development and beyond?

Public servants and experts alike are increasingly questioning the wisdom of mainstream approaches embodied in new public management, arguing that tackling complex challenges calls for different ways of working. Public organisations need to be able to learn from and adapt to rapidly shifting and uncertain environments, and work iteratively to refine policies. Covid-19 is a prime example: governments have had to rapidly adapt to keep pace with the unpredictable and emergent nature of the pandemic. But can bureaucracies become less bureaucratic and more adaptive?

Building on emerging evidence from the FCDO-funded LearnAdapt programme, this event explores different efforts to incorporate adaptive approaches within public management. The discussion draws from different experiences across a range of sectors and countries to tease out key insights and lessons that are relevant to those aiming to build more adaptive organisations, in international development or beyond.

Among the many failures laid bare by the coronavirus, the failure of ‘club diplomacy’ to adequately respond to the current global pandemic is one of the most damaging to the cause of global prosperity, safety and stability.

Held in the run-up to the G20 Summit in Riyadh over November 21-22, we explore several questions with leading scholars and policy makers relating to the future of the G20 as a pre-eminent institution of global governance. We discuss why there has been a failure of the G20 to respond to Covid-19 and whether this derives from broader institutional failures.

We also discuss what, if anything, could take the G20’s place and what reforms might allow it to become a more robust platform for global policy-setting. This discussion will consider the G20’s role as a financing coalition for global challenges and whether its consensus-based decision-making procedures represent a fatal flaw.

This event is part of the ODI at 60 series, challenging decision-makers to provide more sustainable and equitable pathways for the future.

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted lives across the world, highlighting the potential of the digital technologies but also exposing the need for more equitable opportunities for young people to use tech and advance their educational capital and skills for work.

With an increasingly connected world ahead, we explore what is needed to help youth be more prepared for life and work. This includes not just the skills needed to amplify youth voices as leaders of tomorrow, but also the skills needed to best prepare young people for an ever-evolving future of work. Bolder, more innovative solutions and collaborations are critical to support youth and should be forged across sectors – government, education stakeholders, tech companies, and future employers – while young voices should be at the heart of these conversations and plans.

We build on key youth-focused discussions from the ODI-led Youth and digital technologies in sub-Saharan Africa consultation supported by the Mastercard Foundation’s Youth Forward initiative.

With over half of internet users under the age of 25, young people are central to any discussion about peace and security in the digital space. Young people are leading the way with using the internet in innovative ways and creating online peacebuilding initiatives where millions of active users are thriving in challenging contexts. Yet, while digital peacebuilding can help shape positive discourses of peace, it comes with challenges too.

We explore how young people are using digital spaces to practice political and civic participation to foster peacebuilding in fragile contexts. We interrogate assumptions about the use of technology for youth-led peacebuilding, including the suggested deepening of inclusivity across age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds, and the widening of participation that technology provides to peacebuilders.

This event is part of the ODI at 60 series, challenging decision-makers to provide more sustainable and equitable pathways for the future.

The search for durable solutions is at the heart of policy debates on internal displacement, but gender is still frequently sidelined from those conversations. Displacement affects all aspects of life – security, access to services, housing, social and political engagement – with implications felt in distinctive ways by people of different genders. With the establishment of the High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement and increased focus on humanitarian development efforts, there is renewed focus on durable solutions. However, this will not be possible without understanding and addressing gendered inequalities.

Our expert panel explores these issues, challenges assumptions about what internal displacement means for men, women and gender minorities, and addresses how humanitarian actors should respond.