Cambridge International Development Course
- May 2007 Speakers -
Speaker Biographies:
Introductory Speaker: Professor Peter Nolan has researched, written and taught on a wide range of issues in economic development, globalisation and the transition of former planned economies. He has researched on comparative development in China and India; on Chinese agriculture; system change in China and the former USSR; poverty, famine, inequality and migration; restructuring large global firms in the epoch of the Global Business Revolution; the transformation of large Chinese firms since the 1980s; and the evolution of China’s system of political economy. Peter Nolan’s current research focuses on the inter-action between Chinese and the global firms in the epoch of the Global Business Revolution, and the contradictory character of capitalist globalisation. Concluding Speaker: Naved Chowdhury coordinates the Civil Society Partnership network of Overseas Development Institute. His current job responsibility includes coordinating and liaising with the southern CSOs, assisting them in identifying their needs for capacity building in research and advocacy and supporting these organizations to be better policy advocates. He has more than ten years of experience of working with development organisations in Bangladesh, especially in the field of livelihood security, environmental management, capacity building and partnership. Environment Dr Emma Mawdsley is a Lecturer in the Geography Department of Cambridge University. Most of her research has been conducted in India, and includes work on regionalism and federalism, environmental social movements, and the environmental beliefs and behaviours of India's middle classes. Together with academics from Ghana, India, Mexico and the UK, she has examined North-South NGO relations, and changing state-NGO relations. Other work includes critical evaluations of broader development politics (such as the US's Millennium Challenge Account). Most recently she has started to explore China and India's relations with various African countries.' Simon Maddrell Excellent Development works with self-help community groups in Africa to improve their livelihoods, health and incomes. The communities we work with face many problems in their day to day lives, in particular the lack of water and food. Their environment is also affected by deforestation.Our holistic approach to these problems starts with the building of small sand dams and the terracing of the adjoining land, followed by the planting of trees. These measures result in improved soil and water conservation, which enables increased food production. Ivan Scales: 'My interests lie within the broad themes of tropical deforestation, community conservation and rural livelihoods in Africa. My research currently focuses on forest loss in western Madagascar. The overall aim of my PhD research is to understand how and why forest cover has changed over the last century and the implications of current land uses for future landscape change. Prior to starting my PhD, I worked for the Tropical Biology Association coordinating its courses in Madagascar.' Film - 'Ancient Futures -Learning from Ladakh' 'Ladakh, or "Little Tibet", is a remote and beautiful desert land high in the western Himalayas. Like Tibet, Ladakh is now facing rapid modernisation and "development" that is degrading both the environment and the culture. Traditions of frugality and co-operation, tolerance and environmental sustainability were once the norm. Now in Leh, the capital city, there is pollution and divisiveness, inflation and unemployment, intolerance and greed. "Ancient Futures" examines the root causes of environmental and social problems and forces the viewer to re-examine what is meant by "progress". The film also shows that the traditional cultures of Ladakh and Tibet have much to offer the world.' Infrastructure Dr Sandy Cairncross is interested in environmental interventions for disease control and their technical and policy aspects. About a third of his career has been spent in developing countries implementing water, sanitation and public health programmes. After obtaining a PhD in soil mechanics from Cambridge, he built water supplies in Lesotho, Southern Africa and spent seven years as a water and sanitation engineer for the Government of newly-independent Mozambique. Since then he has worked for Unicef and WELL and is currently based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) where his work has involved studies of the health impact of environmental interventions such as water supply and sanitation and mosquito control. He is also an editor of Tropical Medicine & International Health and a trustee of WaterAid. Professor Richard Carter has worked for more than 30 years on the natural science, social science and engineering of water development and management, focusing on the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa. He took his first degree in Geology at Cambridge, followed by a Masters degree in irrigation and water resources engineering and a PhD in water policy and management related to semi-arid north east Nigeria. Richard is driven by a passion to contribute to poverty alleviation in low-income countries and communities. He pursues this goal through partnerships with a wide range of public sector, private sector and NGOs in developing countries. He joined Cranfield University in 1981 after several years working for Consulting companies in UK and overseas and was appointed Professor in 2002 Professor Robin Spence is a Structural Engineer and Professor of Architectural Engineering in the Department of Architecture at Cambridge University. He taught at the University of Zambia, and then was Research Officer for the Intermediate Technology Development Group, researching small-scale building materials technology in Africa and India. He has been with the Architecture Department since 1975, where his principal research and consultancy interest is construction technology choice and disaster risk assessment and mitigation. Tariq Khokhar is the lead analyst of Aptivate, an IT development non-for-profit company. Tariq worked with the team as an EWB Summer volunteer in 2004 and subsequently joined the team full time as a developer. Tariq contributes with a broad industrial experience in hardware and software engineering and specializes in formal methods, systems verification and testing. He also handles network administration and is the webmaster for EWB-UK. Health Professor Lever is Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Cambridge and Hon Consultant Physician at Addenbrooke's Hospital. After training at the University Hospital of Wales and postgraduate medical training he pursued research into immunodeficiency supported by the MRC. He obtained a Wellcome Trust Fellowship in infectious diseases studying hepatitis and then spent a period at Harvard studying HIV. His research concerns aspects of basic science of HIV, the AIDS virus. Marion Birch, the Director of MEDACT, the UK-based charity working on global health issues, is a nurse and midwife with 13 years’ experience of overseas work in the conflict–affected regions of the Sudan, Mozambique, Angola and Sri Lanka. Ms Birch specialised in public health in peri-urban areas and camps for the displaced, working with public health services and local community groups on prevention programmes and rebuilding health services. She has been focusing on the rehabilitation of health services in settings recovering from major conflict in recent times. Her experience has led her to question the underlying causes of ill health in situations of conflict and in resource poor environments. Professor David Dunne is Professor of Parasitology in the Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge. For 30 years he has studied human immunity and susceptibility to infection with parasitic worms that causes schistosomiasis (Bilharzia), a poverty-associated disease afflicting 200 million people. Over the last 15 years, this work has involved multi-disciplinary studies with long-term partnerships with colleagues in Kenya, Uganda and, more recently, Mali, involving South-South sciencific collaborations with the integration of both basic scientific research public health and capacity building activities. Janet Hearn is a Registered General Nurse. She joined MSF in 1999 and since then has been on 9 missions, e.g. in a Marburg outbreak in Angola. When in the UK she works at Addenbrookes Hospital and has recently returned from Darfur, North Sudan. Education Cleonice Puggian lectures in Education at the University of Grande Rio. She has researched the educational failure of children from various disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as access and equality in higher education. Her research has helped develop new guidelines for the education of socially excluded children in Rio de Janeiro. She is currently researching the educational inclusion of such children, bringing their voices into the debate surrounding education in Latin America. Richard Lebon is a second year Geography undergraduate at Trinity College. He works for the Ugandan Rural Schools Initiative having volunteering for them in Uganda in summer 2006. He also works for HVP UK who run, maintain and improve schools in Nepal, as well as co-ordinating volunteers in Nepal from three universities. He is returning to Nepal this summer for this purpose, and to research a dissertation on secondary education in Kathmandu. Leslie Dep is an executive committee memeber of "Hela Sarana", a charity working in Sri Lanka. He is a Commissioner of the Disaster Management Commission appointed by the President of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors after the Tsunami to look into preparing a process protocol for reconstruction in the event of a disaster anywhere in the world, and is currently employed by consulting engineers Ove Arup and Partners. Trevor Davies has worked alongside schools in Eastern Europe to develop their educational capacity. His particular experiences lie in bringing about educational empowerment through developing creativity. He has previously taught physics and technology in the UK, where he was deputy headteacher of a large comprehensive school, and has also worked for Ofsted. Economics and Trade Karen Ellis is an economist who has focused on trade and competition, investment, and financial sector policy issues throughout her career, currently as a Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute, and previously as an Economic Advisor in the UK's Department For International Development (DFID), at HM Treasury, and in economic consultancy.
Steve Mandel is Senior Economist (International Finance and Development) for nef’s new global economies programme. He joined nef in September 2005, following over twenty years’ experience as a civil servant and economic adviser to developing country governments and a development consultant. He has worked in Botswana, Ghana, and Malawi and taken on short-term assignments in many other countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. Steve co-founded and coordinated Mokoro Ltd, a collective not-for-profit consultancy providing practical development assistance.
Jim Tanburn is Coordinator for the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (www.Enterprise-Development.org), which includes all of the main agencies active in the field. Among other things, the job includes management of inter-agency knowledge-sharing databases at www.Value-Chains.org and www.BusinessEnvironment.org. Previously, he worked for the ILO in Geneva, and ran a small, UK-based NGO focusing on enterprise development in Africa; he also has some years of experience in the oil industry. He is a graduate of Cambridge University, and expects to have an office in Kings Parade shortly. Tugba Basaran has ten years of professional experience in international co-operation and development, with a specialization in microfinance. She has set-up and managed microfinance institutions and provided consultancy services in market research and investment appraisals across the world. She has also worked for international organizations and research institutes. Currently Tugba Basaran is a doctoral candidate in International Relations at the University of Cambridge and a German civilian personnel for peace operations and election observation missions.
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