Center For International Development

Welcome to the Harvard Center for International Development’s Road to GEM23 Climate & Development podcast. CID's Road to GEM23 series precedes and helps launch CID’s Global Empowerment Meeting 2023 (GEM23), Growing in a Green World on May 10th and 11th. At CID, we work across a global network of researchers and practitioners to build, convene, and deploy talent to address the world’s most pressing challenges. On our Road to GEM23, we strive to elevate and learn from voices from the countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis and will feature learnings from leading researchers and practitioners working to combat climate change. In this episode, we are joined by Rui Su, a consultant at the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and the Social Sustainability and Inclusion (SSI) GP. She conducts data analytics on social resilience and inclusion by combining machine learning methods, geospatial analysis, and interactive visualization. CID Student Ambassador and Harvard Graduate Stude

Welcome to the Harvard Center for International Development’s Road to GEM23 Climate & Development podcast. CID's Road to GEM23 series precedes and helps launch CID’s Global Empowerment Meeting 2023 (GEM23), Growing in a Green World on May 10th and 11th. At CID, we work across a global network of researchers and practitioners to build, convene, and deploy talent to address the world’s most pressing challenges. On our Road to GEM23, we strive to elevate and learn from voices from the countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis and will feature learnings from leading researchers and practitioners working to combat climate change. In this episode, we are joined by Gavin Schmidt, Climatologist and Director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies who will describe the biggest challenges with modeling and predicting climate change effects across the world. CID Student Ambassador and Harvard Graduate Student Yan Liang interviewed Gavin Schmidt to learn more about his insights on the complex mechanisms

Welcome to the Harvard Center for International Development’s Road to GEM23 Climate & Development podcast. CID's Road to GEM23 series precedes and helps launch CID’s Global Empowerment Meeting 2023 (GEM23), Growing in a Green World on May 10th and 11th. At CID, we work across a global network of researchers and practitioners to build, convene, and deploy talent to address the world’s most pressing challenges. On our Road to GEM23, we strive to elevate and learn from voices from the countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis and will feature learnings from leading researchers and practitioners working to combat climate change. In this episode, we are joined by Joshua Schoop, Principal Director for Technology & Innovation and Director for Day One Project at Federation of American Scientists, and Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez, Vice Chair for implementation of the UN Climate Convention; Director of the School for Biocultural Leadership at Geoversity. CID Student Ambassador and Harvard Graduate School of Ed

Welcome to the Harvard Center for International Development’s Road to GEM23 Climate & Development podcast. CID's Road to GEM23 series precedes and helps launch CID’s Global Empowerment Meeting 2023 (GEM23), Growing in a Green World on May 10th and 11th. At CID, we work across a global network of researchers and practitioners to build, convene, and deploy talent to address the world’s most pressing challenges. On our Road to GEM23, we strive to elevate and learn from voices from the countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis and will feature learnings from leading researchers and practitioners working to combat climate change. In this episode, we are joined by Joseph Aldy, Professor of the Practice of Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. His research focuses on climate change policy, energy policy, and regulatory policy. In 2009-2010, Aldy served as the Special Assistant to the President for Energy and Environment, reporting through both the National Economi

Welcome to the Harvard Center for International Development’s “Road to GEM23” Climate & Development podcast. CID's "Road to GEM23" series precedes and helps launch CID’s Global Empowerment Meeting (or GEM), Growing in a Green World on May 10th and 11th. At CID, we work across a global network of researchers and practitioners to build, convene, and deploy talent to address the world’s most pressing challenges. On our Road to GEM23, we strive to elevate and learn from voices from the countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis and will feature important learnings from the leaders who will be active participants at GEM23. This week, we are joined by Joseph Asunka, CEO of Afrobarometer, a pan-African survey research organization. Afrobarometer has been collecting, analyzing, and disseminating data on the views and experiences of ordinary Africans with regard to governance, democracy, the economy, and society since 1999. CID Student Ambassador Emile Giovannie Zounon, A Master of Education Candidate at the

This podcast was originally recorded on November 18, 2022, for the CID Speaker Series featuring Aleem Walji, Senior Advisor - Strategy, Innovation and Partnerships at the Institute for Capacity Development, International Monetary Fund. Aleem continued the conversation with CID Student Ambassador, Aining Liang, after an appearance at the CID Speaker Series event. Exponential technologies will not improve the lives of the poor by default. Design choices will determine who benefits from digital disruption and who is left behind. Two decades ago, many predicted that a digital divide would marginalize already underserved populations. While there are examples of digital exclusion, technologies like the mobile phone, mobile money and new delivery models have led to significant innovation and inclusion in financial services, health, education and agriculture. Recent advancements in artificial intelligence, machine learning and distributed ledgers, however, are not ‘inclusive by design’. Hardware is not distributed

This podcast was originally recorded on October 7, 2022, for the CID Speaker Series featuring Séverine Autesserre, Author and Professor and Chair of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University. Séverine continued the conversation with CID Student Ambassador, Aining Liang, after an appearance at the CID Speaker Series event. Séverine's latest book "The Frontlines of Peace" tells the stories of the ordinary yet extraordinary individuals and communities that have found effective ways to confront violence. Drawing on 20 years of work in peacebuilding, including in-depth research in 12 conflict zones around the world as well as comparisons with social initiatives in North America and Europe, Séverine shows that peace can grow in the most unlikely circumstances, with the help of the most unlikely heroes. The Frontlines of Peace opens our eyes to the well-intentioned but systematically flawed peace industry, shedding light on how typical aid interventions have been getting it wrong, and—more important

This podcast was originally recorded on September 23, 2022, for the CID Speaker Series featuring Karim Sarhan, Research Fellow at Harvard's Center for International Development and Partner at Sharkawy & Sarhan Law Firm. Karim continued the conversation with CID Student Ambassador, Kevin Chen, after an appearance at the CID Speaker Series event. Karim presents his latest paper with CID, "Bringing Development Strategy Back In: New Insights from China, South Korea, and Singapore." The paper attempts to answer the following question: can countries’ economic success be attributed, even partially, to a well-designed and effectively implemented development strategy? It presents a framework for a “Grand Strategy of Development” as a new conceptual lens for understanding the economic transformation that happened in China, South Korea and Singapore​.

Welcome to the Harvard Center for International Development’s Beyond COVID podcast. This podcast is a series of conversations with CID faculty experts on various key dimensions of COVID response and recovery. Our goal with these conversations, and with CID’s Beyond COVID research initiative, is to make use of lessons learned and capitalize on emergent innovations sparked by the pandemic in order to address losses and reimagine global development in the post-COVID era. On June 5, 2022, we were joined by Gordon Hanson, the Peter Wertheim Professor in Urban Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. CID Student Ambassador Eiffy Luo sat down with Gordon to discuss global labor market macro-policy and economic growth post-COVID.

Welcome to the Harvard Center for International Development’s Beyond COVID podcast. This podcast is a series of conversations with CID faculty experts on various key dimensions of COVID response and recovery. Our goal with these conversations, and with CID’s Beyond COVID research initiative, is to make use of lessons learned and capitalize on emergent innovations sparked by the pandemic in order to address losses and reimagine global development in the post-COVID era. On April 20, 2022, we were joined by David Deming, Professor of Education and Economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Professor of Political Economy at the Harvard Kennedy School. CID Student Ambassador Nicah Santos sat down with David to discuss education, job preparedness, and the future of work.

This podcast was originally recorded on Friday, April 8, 2022, for the CID Speaker Series featuring Robert Lawrence, Albert L. Williams Professor of International Trade and Investment at John F. Kennedy School of Government. Robert continued the conversation with CID Student Ambassador, Kevin Chen, after an appearance at the virtual CID Speaker Series event. Professor Lawrence discusses the causes and consequences of the diminished role of manufacturing as a driver of economic growth and inclusion in developed and developing countries. The talk explains why the share of manufacturing follows an inverted U-shaped curve as countries develop; considers why that curve has shifted downwards and inwards over time; shows that all developed and many developing countries, even those with large trade surpluses in manufacturing are now on the downward slope of the curve; and evaluates the implications recent industrial policy initiatives in the light of this experience.

Welcome to the Harvard Center for International Development’s Beyond COVID podcast. This podcast is a series of conversations with CID faculty experts on various key dimensions of COVID response and recovery. Our goal with these conversations, and with CID’s Beyond COVID research initiative, is to make use of lessons learned and capitalize on emergent innovations sparked by the pandemic in order to address losses and reimagine global development in the post-COVID era. On March 11, 2022, we were joined by Aisha Yousafzai, Associate Professor of Global Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. CID Student Ambassador Aqil Merchant sat down with Aisha to discuss early childhood development.

Welcome to the Harvard Center for International Development’s Beyond COVID podcast. This podcast is a series of conversations with CID faculty experts on various key dimensions of COVID response and recovery. Our goal with these conversations, and with CID’s Beyond COVID research initiative, is to make use of lessons learned and capitalize on emergent innovations sparked by the pandemic in order to address losses and reimagine global development in the post-COVID era. On March 3, 2022, we were joined by Walter Willett, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. CID Student Ambassador Kerianne DiBattista sat down with Walter to discuss nutrition, climate change, and COVID-19.

This podcast was originally recorded on Friday, February 25, 2022, for the CID Speaker Series featuring Debbie Aung Din, Co-Founder of Proximity Designs. Debbie continued the conversation with CID Student Ambassador, Sohee Hyung, after an appearance at the virtual CID Speaker Series event. Growing a sustainable social business that achieves impact at scale is no easy feat. And leading an organization in Myanmar, with concurrent political, health, economic and environmental crises, presents acute challenges to deliver on your mission and strategy. Proximity Designs, a 17-year veteran social enterprise committed to boosting the incomes and well-being of vulnerable farm families in Myanmar, has matured and adapted through it all. Founded by HKS alumni, Jim Taylor and Debbie Aung Din (MPA '90) in 2004 to address poverty and market gaps faced by 70% of the country's population, Proximity has designed and delivered a portfolio of affordable agriculture technology, agronomy and financial services to over 1.2 millio

Welcome to the Harvard Center for International Development’s Beyond COVID podcast. This podcast is a series of conversations on various key dimensions of COVID response and recovery. Our goal with these conversations, and with CID’s Beyond COVID research initiative, is to make use of lessons learned and capitalize on emergent innovations sparked by the pandemic in order to address losses and reimagine global development in the post-COVID era. On a special edition of the Beyond COVID Podcast originally recorded on February 25, 2022, we heard from an external perspective: Dr. Steven Phillips, Vice President of Science and Strategy at the COVID Collaborative. CID Student Ambassador Aqil Merchant sat down with Dr. Phillips to discuss COVID-19 vaccine distribution and longer-term pandemic preparedness.

Welcome to the Harvard Center for International Development’s Beyond COVID podcast. This podcast is a series of conversations with CID faculty experts on various key dimensions of COVID response and recovery. Our goal with these conversations, and with CID’s Beyond COVID research initiative, is to make use of lessons learned and capitalize on emergent innovations sparked by the pandemic in order to address losses and reimagine global development in the post-COVID era. On February 18, 2022, we were joined by Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School, Director of the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard, and Co-Chair of The Lancet Citizens’ Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System. CID Student Ambassador Devangana Rana sat down with Tarun to discuss his work with the Lancet Citizens’ Commission and more generally his insights on building resilient and equitable health systems.

This podcast was originally recorded on Friday, February 11, 2022, for the CID Speaker Series featuring Jacqueline (Jackie) Klopp, Co-director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development and a Research Scholar at Columbia University. Jackie continued the conversation with CID Student Ambassador, Manasa Acharya, after an appearance at the virtual CID Speaker Series event. Many rapidly growing African cities are experiencing large-scale transportation investment in a time of climate change and deep inequalities. Current choices around this critical urban infrastructure will have enormous impacts into the future- on public health, land-use, carbon emissions, and overall urban livability with the danger of high carbon, low livability lock-in. Despite the importance of these decisions, they tend to be made in profoundly exclusive ways. Using Nairobi as a case study, this talk explores the politics of decision making in the urban transport sector and argues that one important approach to enhancing accountabili

This podcast was originally recorded on Friday, February 04, 2022, for the CID Speaker Series featuring Meagan Dooley, the Global Program Officer at Tetra Tech, and George Ingram, a Senior Fellow - Global Economy and Development, Center for Sustainable Development at Brookings. Dooley and Ingram continued the conversation with CID Student Ambassador, Daniella Ineza, after an appearance at the virtual CID Speaker Series event. Digital infrastructure and government services are no longer just nice to have, but essential elements of a 21st century nation. Yet digital capabilities are ideologically neutral and can thus serve authoritarian as well as democratic tendencies. Therefore, development donors must be wary of whom they partner with and how they deliver assistance for digital government. The speakers will present a new working paper identifying the key elements of digital government, presenting data on how developing countries are adopting digital government, and providing recommendations for donor suppor

Welcome to the Harvard Center for International Development’s Beyond COVID podcast. This podcast is a series of conversations with CID faculty experts on various key dimensions of COVID response and recovery. Our goal with these conversations, and with CID’s Beyond COVID research initiative, is to make use of lessons learned and capitalize on emergent innovations sparked by the pandemic in order to address losses and reimagine global development in the post-COVID era. This week, we are joined by Karen Dynan, Professor of the Practice in the Department of Economics at Harvard University and Former Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy and Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. CID Student Ambassador Nicah Santos sat down with Karen on December 16, 2021, to discuss resilient macroeconomic policies and inclusive economic growth.

Welcome to the Harvard Center for International Development’s Beyond COVID podcast. This podcast is a series of conversations with CID faculty experts on various key dimensions of COVID response and recovery. Our goal with these conversations, and with CID’s Beyond COVID research initiative, is to make use of lessons learned and capitalize on emergent innovations sparked by the pandemic in order to address losses and reimagine global development in the post-COVID era. This week, we are joined by Raffaella Sadun, Professor of Business Administration in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. CID Student Ambassador Sohee Hyung sat down with Raffaella on December 1, 2021, to discuss resilient health systems and hospital management.