Development Roast Giving international development a proper roasting
Warm welcomes to four new interns at INESAD:
At INESAD it is possible to do internships both remotely and in the main office in La Paz. This month we have made several international and multidisciplinary additions to the INESAD Team:
- Mieke Dale-Harris is a psychology graduate from England and will work in the La Paz office for the next 6 months perfecting our website, writing for Development Roast and providing general research assistance for several different projects.
- Adam Nelson is an American anthropologist living in Chicago. He is part of the Remote Research and Communications Team headed by Ioulia Fenton, Head of International Communications and Outreach at INESAD.
- Allan Spessoto comes from Brazil but is currently studying International Development at York University in Toronto, Canada. He is also part of the Remote Research and Communications Team.
- Carolynn Look comes from Germany and is a student of Chinese and Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, currently stationed in Beijing, China. She has previously worked together with Ioulia and was happy to be able to join the Remote Research and Communications Team.
On the 14th of August, we held a Welcome Friday Bar for the team members most recently arrived in La Paz: Mieke Dale-Harris, Marcelo Cardona and Luis Carlos Jemio.
The 4th Bolivian Conference on Development Economics:
A preliminary program for the 4th Bolivian Conference on Development Economics (BCDE2012) to be held in La Paz on the 6th and 7th of November 2012 is now available.
The Conference is now open for general inscriptions at the following registration doodle: http://www.doodle.com/z5bx6rifde6kytky. For participants who register and pay the conference fee at INESAD before 12/10/12, the cost is Bs. 100. After that date, the cost is Bs. 130. For students the costs are Bs. 50 and Bs. 70, respectively.
For more information, please visit the conference web-site: http://www.inesad.edu.bo/bcde2012.
Supporting policy initiatives and allied institutions:
Teaching and studying:
During the month of September, almost everybody at INESAD has been busy either teaching or studying. Lykke E. Andersen and Carlos Gustavo Machicado have been teaching “Environmental Economics” and “Macro-economics”, respectively, at the Ph.D. program in Economics and Finance at Universidad Privada Boliviana, where Fernando Mita, Natalia Zegarra and Osvaldo Nina are all studying.
Osvaldo Nina has been teaching “Introduction to Micro- and Macroeconomics” at the M.Sc. program in Economic Development at CIDES-UMSA, where Daniela Romero is also studying.
Soraya Román is teaching “Integral and Inclusive Health Models” at a diploma course organized by Medicus Mundi in Cochabamba from the 18th of September to the 19th of October.
Carolina Cardona and Lykke E. Andersen have both taken advantage of the new free Coursera on-line courses to study “Model Thinking” at University of Michigan and “Gamification” at University of Pennsylvania, respectively.
Policy Briefs:
INESAD’s new Policy Brief series is called Síntesis. Check out the first two issues here:
September Roasts:
Here is a selection of this month’s key Development Roasts:
- In “Valuing Nature?” Lykke E. Andersen argues that putting a value on nature does not mean that we are prostituting it. Rather, it is necessary to value nature, because nobody will protect and invest in an asset which has little or no value.
- “Can Consultancies Sustain a Long-term Research Strategy in Developing Countries?” is based on Lykke E. Andersen’s talk at the Think Tank Initiative Exchange in South Africa in June 2012, and presents six criteria for selecting consulting projects so as to support a long-term research agenda in the absence of lavish government funding for research.
- “With or without you: Should the international cooperation support reduction of deforestation in Bolivia?” illustrates the very attractive conservation and development outcomes that could be reached if Bolivia would impose a tax on large scale deforestation and the international cooperation would match the resulting tax revenues with a donation of similar magnitude.
- The Guest Roast “From Crisis to Resilience: Rethinking Macroeconomic Vulnerability” by Anuradha Seth, Senior Policy Advisor on Macroeconomic Policy and Poverty Reduction with UNDP in New York, suggests that inequality is an important, but usually forgotten, driver of macroeconomic instability.
October will be “Fun Economics Month” at Development Roast, so be sure to sign up to receive updates, if you have not already done so.
Want to contribute to the Development Roast? Email ifenton@inesad.edu.bo.
