Today, IDS Director Melissa Leach will join a high-level panel to discuss the future of international development cooperation.
The impacts of Covid-19 have thrown global development governance into sharp focus. Many new questions and challenges are emerging. The need for effective development cooperation remains critical, but the ways in which this is happening is changing. We are increasingly seeing bilateral and multilateral development institutions transforming and playing new roles, including reinforcing the links between the interests of individual nations and wider cooperation to meet global challenges.
The event, ‘Does International Development Cooperation Still Matter?’, is hosted by the College of International Development and Global Agriculture (CIDGA) at China Agricultural University, of which Professor Leach is an Advisory Board member.
Professor Leach will join eminent speakers including Prof. Sun Qixin, Professor and President of China Agricultural University, Member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress; Prof. Li Xiaoyun, Honorary Dean of CIDGA; Hon. Mizengo P. Pinda, Chancellor of Tanzania Open University and former Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, and others.
Together, participants will explore three fundamental questions:
- How does the concept of international development cooperation provide a new paradigm for thinking and action?
- How does development cooperation as a framework encounter new actors and approaches, thus contributing to a new governance structure?
- How does development cooperation generate new tools and ways of working, leading to different effects on poverty reduction and other development goals?
The event is complimented by a series of webinars hosted by CIDGA and sponsored by the China International Development Research Network, of which IDS is a key partner. The webinars provide a platform for scholars, policymakers and development practitioners to deepen discussions on frontier issues and proposed solutions. IDS Fellow, Jing Gu will be commenting on and peer-reviewing the research findings
Supporting long-term mutual learning on international development
IDS has a rich history of work on international development cooperation, including China’s role in global development and governance. IDS, through our Centre for Rising Powers and Global Development, is the UK Anchor institute for China International Development Research Collaboration, with funding from the FCDO. Through this initiative IDS is strengthening links between researchers, policy makers and practitioners in the UK and China to share knowledge, evidence and learning, towards building long-term cooperation on a variety of development themes. This summer we collaboratively delivered a policy-oriented learning programme for development cooperation. Looking further back, our Rising Powers in International Development Programme, led by IDS Fellow Jing Gu, developed an evidence base around the role of the BRICS countries in development and produced practical policy guidance on effective approaches for engaging with them.
Today, our China International Development Research and Mutual Learning Hub aims to consolidate and extend this substantial body of work, whilst building a platform for open, evidence-based dialogue between Chinese, UK and African thought leaders and actors. We support activities aimed at generating learning from those countries’ development experiences and building mutual learning about effective strategies for addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Hub is a platform for nurturing research initiatives, mutual learning and knowledge exchange for policy and practice.
We invite you to engage in the China Hub by attending our China and Global Development Seminar Series, reading our body of work on Rising Powers and Global Development, and contacting us if you are interested in collaborating with us through research, funding, teaching or learning on these issues.
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