Conference Program

ABCDE 2008, under the overarching theme of 'People, Politics & Globalization', focused on three broad themes:

• Globalization, Investment and Growth
• Human Development for Equitable Growth
• The Political Economy of Shared Growth

Download the final program

The format of the conference slightly evolved in order to take into account the diversity of participants' backgrounds and their expectations, and the willingness to engage a wide audience of development players. The objective was to provide both a platform for excellency in research on development economics and an innovative and inclusive forum on development issues.

Except for keynote speeches and roundtable debates that took place in plenary, all sessions ran in parallel, with five series of three sessions:

• five comparative sessions - Global, Africa, South Asia:

1. Trade and Investment
Organizer: Tony Venables, Oxford University / DFID

2. Migration, Remittances, and the Transition from Foreign Aid
Organizer: Jean-Paul Azam, University of Toulouse

3. Higher Education and High-tech Industry
Organizer: Devesh Kapur, University of Pennsylvania

4. Human Development
Organizer: Paul Schultz, Yale University

5. Political Economy of Shared Growth
Organizer: Robert Bates , Harvard University

• ten specific sessions considered from a number of specific perspectives, i.e. social, business... focusing on the three broad themes of the conference, and organized by international financial organizations, NGOs, foundations, academic institutions, think tanks, the South African academic community etc.(identified through an open competition).