Pardee Center Publishes Development That Works Conference Report

The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future has published a report of the Center’s 2011 conference Development That Works.

The day-long conference took place on March 31, 2011 and was organized in collaboration with the BU Global Development program. The Pardee Center Conference Report features essays written by Boston University graduate students that capture the salient points and over-arching themes from the four sessions. The conference agenda and speakers’ biographies are included in the report, along with a synopsis of a lunch-time tribute to Boston University economics Professor John R. Harris whose seminal work in development economics received special recognition from the American Economic Review in its centennial issue in February 2011.

The conference organizing committee comprised Boston University professors Kevin Gallagher (International Relations and BU Global Development), Dilip Mookherjee (Economics), Jonathon Simon (Public Health) and Adil Najam (former Pardee Center Director, International Relations, and Geography and Environment), who each chaired one of the sessions. They brought together stellar panels on various aspects that are central to development programs, including: global economic governance as it influences and impacts development; public and private investment in development programs; social enterprise programs related to development issues; and economic development from traditional – and not-so-traditional – perspectives.

The theme and the title of the conference stemmed from the conference organizers’ desire to explore, from a ground-level perspective, what programs, policies, and practices have been shown – or have the potential – to achieve sustained, long-term advances in development in various parts of the world. The intent was not to simply showcase “success stories,” but rather to explore the larger concepts and opportunities that have resulted in development that is meaningful and sustainable over time.

Hard copies of the report are available by request to pardee@bu.edu. A PDF version is available here. In addition to reading the report, you can watch the conference sessions on the Pardee Center web site here.