06/09/2012
Is development aid up to the job? How far do bilateral and multilateral aid agencies succeed in mainstreaming global issues and policies in their operations? These and other questions were debated at a half-day conference on 3 October 2012 at the University of Bern. The conference, “Aid, Emerging Economies and Global Policies”, was co-organised by CDE, The Graduate Institute, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
Panel 1: Aid and Global Policies. Speakers discussed questions such as how the focus on global public goods is reconfiguring the development aid industry, and how this affects the global fight against poverty.
Panel 2: Aid and Emerging Economies. Topics included: How do emerging economies affect the "aid industry"? How far do new donors pursue different objectives than traditional donors, with diverging rationales? How does a low-income country such as Laos cope with the emergence of new aid donors such as China alongside traditional, Western aid partners? What are the risks and opportunities, including with regard to South-South and triangular cooperation? And what is the role of scientific cooperation in this context?
Roundtable discussion: Emerging Countries. Competitors or Partners in Facing Global Challenges? The emergence of new donors and development aid actors from the "global South" coupled with an increased focus on global public goods are challenging long-established aid agencies and policies. Emerging economies are turning into significant aid players. At the same time, they are still home to the vast majority of the world’s poor. Emerging economies appear both as part of the problem and of the solution when it comes to climate change, migrations, global health, security and other global issues that require global responses. Policymakers, scholars, and practitioners of diverse backgrounds discussed these complex issues in a roundtable moderated by a Swiss journalist.
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