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PODCAST

In Pursuit of Development

Step into conversations that travel across continents and challenge the way you think about progress. From democracy and inequality to climate resilience and healthcare, Dan Banik explores how societies navigate the complex terrain of democracy, poverty, inequality, and sustainability. Through dialogues with scholars, leaders, and innovators, In Pursuit of Development uncovers how ideas travel, why policies succeed or fail, and what it takes to build a more just and resilient world. Expect sharp

science social sciences

All Episodes

00:46:25

Gro Harlem Brundtland on sustainable development,...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/01/26

Our guest this week is Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway and former head of the World Health Organization. Gro has had an illustrious career in Norway and abroad. In addition to becoming the first female head of the Norwegian Labor party, she became the first female prime minister of Norway in February 1981. And during her second stint as Prime Minister in 1986, her cabinet made world news headlines when she appointed 8 female ministers in a cabinet of 18. In addition to

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00:57:58

Political development and political decay — Francis...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2021/01/19

Welcome to season 2 of the show!Our first guest this season is Francis Fukuyama, one of the most influential political thinkers of our time and someone who has written extensively on international politics and issues of development. He is a senior fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies(FSI) and the director of the institute’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL),. This conversation was recorded in mid-December 2020 at the height of

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01:06:37

Simmering political tensions and civil war in...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/11/18

The focus of this final episode of season 1 is Ethiopia, where the ongoing conflict between the federal government in Addis and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front that controls the Tigray region, is making daily news headlines.Ever since becoming the Prime Minister of Ethiopia in 2018, Abiy Ahmed has undertaken several bold reforms. He has also appointed women in key official positions and freed political prisoners. His efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular his

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01:02:08

Economic boom, poverty reduction and corruption in...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/11/11

China has not only achieved impressive economic growth in recent decades, but has also managed to lift hundreds of millions people out of poverty. How was this possible? What role did Chinese institutions, leaders and bureaucrats play in achieving this impressive result? And how and why China has managed to grow so fast for so long despite pervasive corruption?Yuen Yuen Ang is a professor of political science and an expert on China at the University of Michigan. She has written two award-winning

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00:55:48

The impact of democracy on economic growth — Carl...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/11/04

Some of the most interesting debates on development include the role of democracy in promoting economic growth and then distributing the benefits of growth to achieve poverty reduction. Indeed, some of the questions that have attracted considerably scholarly attention in recent decades include the following: Are certain regimes better able and equipped than others to achieve economic growth? Does democracy work for the poor? Despite considerable research on the topic, the results of the

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01:04:53

Global inequality and the future of capitalism —...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/10/28

Income inequality has received considerable attention in recent years. Very few would have predicted that a very thick academic book on wealth and income inequality in Europe and the United States since the 18th century would go on to become an international bestseller. I am of course referring to Capital in the Twenty-First Century– the book published by the French economist Thomas Piketty in 2013. Income inequality was rising in many countries before the pandemic, and recent reports suggest that

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01:02:32

China-Africa relations — Eric Olander

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/10/21

This show has been regularly discussing Beijing’s support for sustainable development initiatives, its provision of aid, technical expertise and finance to developing counties under the South-South Cooperation umbrella, and the numerous infrastructure projects that China is undertaking in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.A common goal in several of the episodes in this season of the podcast has been to nuance the understanding of China’s recent

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00:34:43

Food insecurity and the Nobel Peace Prize 2020 — Ida...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/10/17

The Nobel Peace Prize this year was awarded to the World Food Program (WFP). In its announcement, the Norwegian Nobel committee emphasized that “providing assistance to increase food security not only prevents hunger, but can also help to improve prospects for stability and peace”.The WPF indeed appears to be a worthy winner of this prestigious award. It is the world’s largest humanitarian agency, and currently assists over 100 million people in 88 countries. It is also the frontline UN agency

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00:57:54

Why democracy will prevail in the contest against...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/10/14

In his recent book – ll Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency (Penguin 2019) – Larry Diamond analyzes the challenges confronting liberal democracy in the United States and around the world at this potential “hinge in history”. The book outlines an agenda for strengthening and defending democracy at home in the US as well as abroad. Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

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00:51:02

What the West does not understand about China — Liu...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/10/10

Much of the discourse in the Western media in recent months has highlighted the rising tensions between the United States and China and the growing assertiveness of Chinese diplomats on social media and in other international forums, where they have passionately defended their country’s response to the Covid outbreak. There has also been a growing interest in trying to decode how Beijing is reconfiguring its aid and investment policies and how and to what extent it will offer debt relief to

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01:02:12

China’s Belt and Road Initiative and infrastructure...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/10/07

A couple of months ago, Liberia’s former minister of public works, Gyude Moore argued in a popular Tweet that Western critiques of Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will ring hollow in the absence of viable and state-led alternatives from the West. He claimed that the West can easily match, if not exceed China's BRI if it wanted to. But he also wondered whether the West wants to do this. He remains unconvinced because he thinks the West is satisfied with "virtue signalling when it

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01:01:50

Dam diplomacy and water sharing agreements in the...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/09/30

The growing tensions between the Nile Basin countries – Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan – over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has made news headlines in recent months. Egypt and Ethiopia have for many years been at loggerheads over Ethiopia’s plan to dam the Nile River and this conflict has resulted in steadily deteriorating relations between some of Africa’s biggest countries. Numerous attempts to negotiate a deal have failed and the livelihoods of millions of people who depend on the smooth flow

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01:03:46

Legislative development in Africa — Ken Ochieng' Opalo

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/09/23

Studying the role of institutions and their evolution often helps us better understand political and economic development in countries all over the world. And one such key institution is the legislature, which plays a critical role in democratic consolidation by providing a stable system of horizontal accountability. Legislatures craft legislation, pass laws, exercise oversight of the executive branch and thereby provide the institutional mechanism which allows societies to perform representative

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01:04:46

Why AIDS interventions in Africa often fail — Kim Yi...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/09/16

As the international community addresses numerous development challenges, we must often pause, reflect, and ask: Do good intentions lead to good results? If so, when? And how? There are innumerable development agendas and a multitude of stakeholders involved in saving lives as well as promoting long-term development in many developing countries. What really is the impact of their activities? Are such activities well-coordinated? How effectively can external actors make a meaningful contribution to

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01:02:17

India’s development and the political economy of...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/09/09

With the phenomenal growth of its economy in recent years and its longstanding democratic record, India — the world's largest democracy — has emerged as a major global power. Not only has democracy survived in India, but in recent decades the country has also established itself as a beacon of hope for other developing countries striving to achieve a similar combination of democracy, development, and the rule of law. India’s management of the COVID pandemic, however, has made news headlines in recent

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00:57:34

Globalization, the Nordic model and the economics of...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/09/02

Martin Sandbu has an exciting new book, The Economics of Belonging: A Radical Plan to Win Back the Left Behind and Achieve Prosperity for All (Princeton University Press).Martin argues that the western social order has rested on three crucial pillars. First, political principles centered on individual rights, equality before the law, robust and independent institutions and regular, free and meaningful elections. The second pillar consists of a social market economy, that is a capitalist system in

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00:53:09

The historic court ruling in Malawi annulling the...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/08/26

In a landmark ruling in February of this year, Malawi’s High Court concluded that the country’s president Peter Mutharika was “not duly elected”. The Court thus annulled the May 2019 elections in Malawi citing massive irregularities. It ordered new elections within five months and concluded that the Malawi Electoral Commission had failed to carry out its responsibilities according to the constitution and electoral law. The lengthy, meticulously detailed, and unanimous ruling by the five judges has

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00:57:07

The need to politicize development economics — Ingrid...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/08/19

Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven's research focuses on the role of finance in development, structural features of underdevelopment, the political economy of development (including the role of international institutions), and critically assessing the economics field.Dr. Kvangraven is currently an Assistant Professor in International Development at the University of York’s Department of Politics. She is the founder and editor of Developing Economics and founder and steering group member of Diversifying and

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00:58:32

Pakistan's healthcare system and its recent success...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/08/12

As the Covid pandemic continues to dominate world headlines, there is growing interest in better understanding how some low and middle-income countries have achieved considerable success in responding to this global crisis. Vietnam is one such country that has been successful in combating Covid. Another is Cuba. And the state of Kerala in India has also received much praise for its handling of the pandemic. But for the past few weeks a rather unlikely, success story has emerged. It is that of

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01:06:26

How Black Lives Matter is also a reckoning for...

In Pursuit of Development ·

2020/08/05

Many have highlighted the need for equity and justice in the field of foreign aid and humanitarian assistance. Local civil society organizations (CSOs) or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are the frontline workers, risking their lives to access areas that well-funded international NGOs or even UN agencies cannot access. However, critics of the current system claim that the local NGO is often the sub-contractor and not a real partner that is allowed to contribute to the design of the project. If

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