Rethinking Development Podcast

Professor Haroon Akram-Lodhi teaches agrarian political economy at Trent University. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies, an Associate Editor of Feminist Economics, as well as a member of the Advisory Board for the Woman's Rights program of the Open Society Foundations. He further provides extensive advisory services to various UN agencies, including UN Women and the United Nations Development Program. And recently he repackaged some of his university courses into a podcast entitled: "Peasants, Food and Agrarian Change". 

We speak about:

• the gender dimensions of rural political economy
• failings of dominant development discourses
• social movements and demanding rights
• the different interests and agendas of development stakeholders 
• facing ethical issues in his consultancies & choosing not to work with some organizations
• knowledge mobilization between academia and development agencies
• the human rights based approach /model 
• the farmers protests in India
• the impact of COVID-19 on development policies 

He joins us from Toronto, Canada. 

Palwasha Hassan is a women's rights and peace activist who has pioneered many critical  initiatives for the promotion of women's rights and civil society in Afghanistan. She has over 20 years of experience working in development and on women's rights and empowerment issues, both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She is a founding member of several civil society groups, including the Afghan Women's Education Center, Afghan Women's Network and Roazana. In addition she is a two time elected chairperson of the Afghan NGO coordinating body -ACBAR- and a former advisor to Afghanistan's High Peace Council. She also served as the first Afghan woman to head an international NGO in Afghanistan, as Country Director for Rights & Democracy. She was recognized for her accomplishments as one of the 1,000 PeaceWomen nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. 

We speak about:

• her experiences as an Afghan refugee in Pakistan 
• the role of diaspora groups as one of the stakeholders in development processes
• working on law reform in Afghanistan 
• advocating for inclusive peace negotiations 
• building a feminist movement
• challenging reductive stereotypes of Afghan women
• the hostility and lack of support by some 'expat' women 
• being overburdened by activist work and fighting on various fronts
• the problematic ways some development policies are 'forced' on countries 
• the need for more genuine international feminist solidarity - and much more! 

She joins us from Kabul, Afghanistan.  

Jessica Oddy is an education in emergencies specialist and a PhD candidate at the University of East London's Centre for Migration, Refugees and Belonging, where she's also a lecturer as part of an Open Learning Initiative Higher Education preparation course for asylum seekers and refugees. Her current research focuses on diverse young people's experiences of education in emergencies, colonial legacies, and how race power and privilege intersect with humanitarian education responses. She has worked with organizations such as Oxfam, War Child UK, Save the Children, Lutheran World Federation, and others. 

We speak about:

• education as a protection issue
• racism in the aid sector
• the politics of knowledge production 
• the demand for programming for adolescents in education in emergencies 
• the narrative of educability
• her PhD journey & action research  
• equity based design  - and much more!

She joins us from London, UK.  

Uma Mishra-Newberry is a global social justice advocate and women's rights leader. She began her career in the US Army before becoming an educator and community organizer in the nonprofit and development sectors. She's the former Executive Director of Women's March Global and the initiator of and lead facilitator for the Racial Equity Index.  

We speak about:

• community organizing
• building an intersectional feminist movement
• being in a position of leadership
• the crisis of funding in the women’s movement
• rejecting hustle culture and toxic work environments
• problematizing white feminism
• initiating the Racial Equity Index
• working as a collective
• being conscious of our own biases - and much more. 

She joins us from Geneva, Switzerland. 

In the last episode of our S 3, host Safa shares some reflections and reads out letters from our listeners.  We will be back soon with our S 4! 

Dr. Mohamed Ashmawey worked in program management and leadership in the private sector for 20 years, with organizations such as General Motors and the National Bank of Egypt. Later he joined the nonprofit sector as CEO of Islamic Relief USA, where he was credited with transforming the corporate culture of the NGO. He went on to become the CEO of Islamic Relief Worldwide, where he continued to lead quality improvements and organizational transformation. Since 2019, he has been serving as the CEO of Human Appeal, a British faith based humanitarian and development charity. He spoke to us about:

• differences between the corporate sector and the charity sector
• challenges to implementing organizational changes 
• the advantages and disadvantages of being a faith based charity
• rejecting arrogance and working with humility 
• the ongoing investigation of the Charity Commission into Human Appeal
• implementing accountability processes and practicing transparency 
• the importance of investing in innovative research
• activity based approach vs. impact based approach 
• redefining success
• the difference between leadership and management  - and much more! 

He joins us from Manchester, UK. 

Dr. Deepak Gupta has over 28 years of experience as a program and strategic communication advisor for various UN agencies - including UNFPA, UNODC, UNICEF and WHO. He has designed and managed numerous large strategic communication interventions and advocacy campaigns on various development and health issues. His work on risk communication strategies in emergency situations, such as post-tsunami situations and avian influenza contexts, is particularly well noted. He is also a master trainer and expert faculty member at a number of different Institutes, where he leads courses related to strategic communication for development, and has also published extensively on strategic communication issues. He speaks to us about:

• The difference between C4D and corporate marketing
• Rejecting the prescriptive approach to development  
• Participatory methods 
• The importance of interpersonal communication and human touch
• Overcoming challenges through catalytic change agents 
• The pros and cons of social media
• Misinformation and rumours 
• Contextualizing communication programs within local cultural settings
• COVID-19 strategic communication failures - and more!

He joins us from New Delhi, India.

Rita Thapa has over 35 years of experience as a feminist educator and a community activist in Nepal and internationally.  She is the founder of Tewa, the innovative philanthropic Nepal women's fund, and Nagarik Aawaz, a NGO engaged in conflict transformation and peace-building in Nepal. She's also the former Chair of the Executive Board of the Global Fund for Women and former Vice Chair of the Executive Board of the Urgent Action Fund. She currently serves as Chair of the Executive Board of the Global Fund for Community Foundations. Rita was named an Ashoka Fellow in 1998 and was included in the 1000 Women for Peace nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.  She speaks to us about:

• overcoming aid dependency in Nepal
• an alternative model of fundraising and grantmaking
• dismantling hierarchies in work cultures 
• fostering community ownership
• challenging patriarchy, caste and class divisions
• politics of development
• regional feminist solidarity - and much more!

She joins us from Kathmandu, Nepal. 

Noaman Ali is currently Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan. His research and teaching concerns the political economy of development. His current research examines rural class struggle, land reforms and sub national state formation in Pakistan, through a case study of the Frontier peasant movement in the former North West Frontier Province, led by the Mazdoor Kisan party in the 1970s. His work is interdisciplinary, bringing a historical and ethnographic sensibility to the study of political science. More broadly, he is interested in social movements, rural politics, state and non state power, agrarian and industrial policy, development states and political economy in general. He speaks to us about:

• interrogating power relationships and class differentiations
• decoupling development from economic growth
• redefining development as giving political power to the powerless
• structural transformations and the role of international financial institutions
• debt and capitalist logic 
• incrementalism 
• the unconscious class bias of development practitioners 
• the NGO/development agency industrial complex 
• the negative impact of green revolution technologies 
• the importance of social movements - and much more!

He joins us from Toronto, Canada. 

Wafaa Saeed is currently the Deputy Director in the Operations and Advocacy division, covering Eastern and Southern Africa at UN OCHA, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.  She has over 20 years of humanitarian work experience in complex settings. She has worked with WFP, UN OCHA and UNICEF in various roles in Sudan, Somalia, Indonesia, Syria, Pakistan and other countries. Prior to joining the UN, Wafaa worked as a lecturer at the University of Khartoum and as an architect in the private sector. She speaks to us about:

• her interest in working closely with communities / in the field
• governments in the leading role and UN organizations in the supporting role
• empowering local government systems
• making principled decisions / zero tolerance for fraud
• maintaining the neutral humanitarian space
• the differential treatment between national vs. international staff
• the 3 pillars of the UN reform process
• working collectively
• her commitment to localization - and much more! 

She joins us from New York, USA.