The Politics of Poverty: Elites, Citizens and States

Day One: Monday 21st June 2010
How research findings can improve policy formulation and implementation

Time

Agenda

8.30 – 9.30

Welcome coffee and registration

9.30 – 10.00

Welcome and overview of the meeting
Merilee Grindle, Harvard University, Conference Chair
Chris Whitty, Director, DFID Research and Evidence Division

10.00 – 11.15

Session 1: What have we learned about politics and development?

Presentations from the four Research Programme Consortia (RPC) Directors (10 mins each)
Mick Moore, Centre for the Future State, IDS
John Gaventa, Citizenship, Participation and Accountability, IDS
Frances Stewart, Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity, Oxford University
James Putzel, Crisis States, LSE

Response from the Keynote Speaker: Politics and Poverty reduction – how has this research made a difference? Core themes/messages emerging and the wider context
Tom Carothers, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (20 mins)

11.15 – 11.45

Break

11.45 – 13.00

Session 2: Why are elites important in development

Introduction to session and overarching messages James Putzel  (10 mins)
Three case-based presentations:
Elites and Development: The Nigerian experience Rotimi Subero (10 mins)
Comparative research on elite bargains in fragile states (title tbc) Francisco Gutierrez (10 mins)
The international dimension of elites Mick Moore (10 mins)

Plenary discussion: what international incentives are more likely to promote developmental behavior?

13.00 – 14.15

Lunch at the Steam, Bake and Grill restaurant

14.15 – 16.00

Session 3: How can we help citizens become more effective in building accountable and responsive states?

Introduction to session and overarching messages John Gaventa (10 mins)

Three case-based presentations:
Participatory citizenship: the politics of building responsive states Rajesh Tandon (10 mins)
Engaging citizens: towards inclusive governance Andrea Cornwall (10 mins)
Accountable state, accountable citizens: challenges of civil society representation Monika Dowbor (10 mins)

Plenary discussion: What is the contribution of citizens to building accountable and responsive states? How can we support citizens in building accountable and responsive states?

16.00 – 16.30

Break

16.30 – 18.15

Session 4: Violence as a development problem – what are the ways forward?

Introduction to the session and overarching messages Frances Stewart (10 mins)

Three case-based presentations:
Violence, security and democracy: perverse state formation? Jenny Pearce (10 mins)
Security at city, national and regional levels Laurie Nathan (10 mins)
Introducing conflict prevention into the design of development policy:
Tackling Horizontal Inequalities Arnim Langer (10 mins)

Plenary discussion: how should we think differently about the development challenge of violence and human security for building effective states and citizens?

18.00

Close of day

18.15 – 19.30

RPC Marketplace in the Evelyn Sharp foyer and Cash Bar

Sharp Suite Presentation by Graham Teskey on new developments at the World Bank

19.30

Conference dinner in Northcote House

After-dinner speech: An African statesman’s view on the importance of understanding politics for delivering better outcomes – improving the evidence on ‘what works’ to improve governance in developing countries His Excellency John Kufuor, former President of Ghana

Brief response and thanks Jo Beall, Vice Chancellor, University of Cape Town

Day Two: Tuesday 22nd June 2010
Doing things differently

Time

Agenda

8.30 – 9.00

Welcome coffee

9.00 – 9.30

Reflections on Day 1 and overview of Day 2 Merilee Grindle, Conference Chair

9.30 – 11.00

Session 5: Parallel roundtable discussions on key questions relating to how we support policy formulation and implementation

Session 5.1: How different are ‘fragile states’? And what do development actors need to do differently?
Introduction and overarching issues James Putzel  (8 mins)

Panel inputs:
State Incapacity by Design - Unused Grants, Poverty and Electoral Success in Bihar Santhosh Mathew (8 mins)
Variance at the bottom. A crucial question Francisco Gutierrez (8 mins)
Fragile citizenship and state capacity Joanna Wheeler (8 mins)

Plenary discussion: what are the operational implications for development actors?

Session 5.2: What is the developmental importance of taxation?

Introduction and overarching issues Mick Moore (5 mins)

Panel inputs:
Tax and horizontal inequalities Alex Cobham (10 mins)
Taxation and state-building in fragile states Jonathan di John (10 mins)
Towards a Governance-Enhancing Tax Reform Agenda Wilson Prichard (10 mins)

Plenary discussion: what are the ways forward for policymakers?

Session 5.3: Working with business to promote economic growth – why and how?

Introduction and overarching issues Hubert Schmitz (8 mins)

Panel inputs:
State-business relations in Sub-Saharan Africa and India Dirk Willem te Velde (8 mins)
State-business relations in Egypt Abla Abdel-Latif (8 mins)
Government-business relations for alternative pockets of growth in Bolivia George Gray Molina (8 mins)
State-business relations in Rwanda Gabi Hesselbein (8 mins)

Plenary discussion: what are the key policy messages around working with business to promote economic growth?

Session 5.4: What is the role of citizen participation in improving the effectiveness of public services?

Introduction and overarching issues John Gaventa (8 mins)

Panel inputs:
Citizen participation to delivery of health services Vera Schattan (8 mins)
Social Accountability and Service Delivery Anuradha Joshi (8 mins)
Security as a public service Laurie Nathan (8 mins)

Plenary discussion: what are the implications for policy makers?

Session 5.5: How do we support rights and inclusion more effectively?

Introduction and overarching issues Frances Stewart (8 mins)

Panel inputs:
How do grassroots development organizations support rights and citizenship in Bangladesh? Simeen Mahmud (8 mins)
Affirmative action programmes in Malaysia Zainal Yusof (8 mins)
Institutional multiplicity and inclusion: constraints and opportunities in achieving local development coalitions Jo Beall (8 mins)

Plenary discussion: what are the implications for policymakers?

11.00 – 11.30

Break

11.30 – 12.45

Session 6: Report-back from the Roundtable discussions

Reportback from the 5 roundtable discussions by the Roundtable Chairs
Plenary discussion: key issues and implications for working differently

12.45 – 14.15

Lunch in the Bake, Steam and Grill restaurant

14.15 – 15.30

Session 7: The politics of poverty: what is the wider context of governance research to improve aid effectiveness? What do we do differently?
World Bank - Getting to feasibility – enhancing the usefulness to practitioners of Political Economy work Brian Levy (8 mins)
How the Asian Development Bank uses research on governance to improve the effectiveness of its operations Juzhong Zhuang (8 mins)
Agence Française de Développement  (title tbc) Nicolas Meisel (8 mins)
Oxfam - The importance of governance research as evidence of what matters (title tbc) Duncan Green (8 mins)
Plenary discussion: Are the different organisations moving in the same direction? What are the similarities and differences in how the research is used?

15.30 – 16.00

Break

16.00 – 17.00

Session 8: Governance research – where do we go from here?
Plenary discussion- where do go from here? Next steps Interactive discussion chaired by Bella Bird, DFID

17.00 – 17.30

Final reflections from the four RPC Directors Mick Moore, John Gaventa, Frances Stewart, James Putzel  
Closing words (Joanna Macrae, DFID) and evaluation of the Conference

17.30

Close of day and event