Conference Understanding Development Better
"Technical assistance of the early years was followed by community development support in the 1950s, aid to fill trade and investment gaps in the 1960s, aid to provide for basic human needs in the 1970s, assistance to structural adjustment and debt relief in the 1980s, humanitarian assistance in combination with support for rehabilitation of countries after the civil wars of the 1990s and at the turn of the century, aid for human development and aid to prevent violent conflicts and foster democratic governance." Jan Pronk, Catalysing Development 2004.
The above statement from Jan Pronk, a former Dutch Minister for Development Co-operation clearly indicates that in the last 60 years, many different development paradigms have been adhered to. Accordingly approaches, modalities and instruments have been permanently challenged and very frequently altered or adjusted. At the same time it is still questionable whether we truly understand the relation between aid and development. Under what conditions does aid catalyse development and when does it stifle development? Or even: do we understand development? A lot is going on in our sector; the adoption of the Millennium Declaration 2000, the Monterrey Consensus 2002, the Paris Declaration 2005 and more recently the intentions for up-scaling the volume of aid drastically and the increasing attention of management for development results.
Doubts exist as to whether the increased aid levels will be effective, or whether an emphasis on other approaches such as trade & aid and a more equitable international economic order are more important to catalyse development. The question is still on the table; do we understand development?
The conference 'Understanding development better' is designed to serve as a platform for discussions directly related to this fundamental question. During these three days development will be approaches and analysed from different theoretical angles, during presentations and in-depth discussions. Also constraints in development will be part of the discussion, highlighted by different professionals and scientists and further discussed in workshops. From this analysis of constraints, a switch is made to the possible contributions by aid. This will only form a small part of the conference, since the focus is mainly on development, a next conference will be entirely dedicated to aid.
The conference will by held in Ede (The Netherlands) on August 27-28-29. The programme for the conference will soon be published on our special website.
Participants
This Aid and
Development conference is designed for senior staff of funding agencies, government and semi-government organisations
as well as researchers and development practitioners from the Netherlands . Hence, people who are already working in
the context of international co-operation for a number of years and who are keen to take a meta perspective and learn
more about the different development theories, concepts and approaches, and the consequences of these for the policies
and intervention strategies of their own organisation.
The number of participants is limited to 80 persons.
Conference objectives
At the end of the conference, participants will have:
- deepened their insight and sharpened their minds concerning their understanding of development and change processes;
- enlarged the knowledge on development, approached from different theoretical and practical perspectives;
- discussed, named and understood the most important constraints stifling development processes
Conference methodology
The conference will be conducted in a
participatory way, in which input of participants is crucial. The three days will start with short plenary
sessions; much time is reserved for participative learning in workshops. In the workshops, the framework for
discussion will be formed by the presentation of position papers by a variety of experts. The position papers will be
available from the 20th of July on our special website, where you can read and comment on them and subscribe for the
workshops you prefer (until the 10th of August).
Registration and Fee
You can register for the conference by clicking on the arrow (after the dates) in the right margin (top).
Fee excluding accommodation 350 Euro. Accommodation in Hotel "de Bosrand" has been fully booked.
'Understanding Development Better' is organised by the Institute of Social Studies, Vice Versa and MDF Training & Consultancy in framework of the Development Policy Review Network.
