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Global Empowerment Meeting 2010

GEM 2010 Sheds Light on New Ideas in Economic Development
Keynote Gordon Brown: ”We Should Be Thinking of Global Growth”

One hundred senior business leaders, policymakers, and academics came to the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University on November 17-18 to attend the 3rd Annual Global Empowerment Meeting, a private event hosted by the Empowerment Lab at Harvard’s Center for International Development (CID).

The meeting explored new strategies for accelerating growth and unlocking the potential of developing economies, from jump-starting development at a micro level – such as designing breakthrough financial products to unleash entrepreneurship -- to the macro level – such as how countries avoid poverty traps . Key themes included diversifying product exports in developing countries, unleashing entrepreneurial talent, and incorporating psychology into the design of policies to serve the poor.

Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe delivered keynote addresses. HKS Dean David Ellwood introduced Gordon Brown at the welcoming dinner November 17 at the Harvard Faculty Club. Dean Ellwood noted, “We are on a knife edge of exciting new growth combined with significant challenges in the world. Empowerment is both local and global, demanding the combined efforts of business and government and civil society.”

Prime Minister Brown discussed how to rethink development aid through a global trade agreement and improved institutions. “We are in a new world where the balance of production has changed,” he said. “Countries have to work together. We should be thinking of global growth. We are capable of going beyond a protectionist reaction to help the poorest countries become partners in the world economy.”

The next day, President Uribe’s speech focused on the role of the public sector in fostering growth. "Creativity evolves from private initiative,” President Uribe said. “We need to promote private initiative, without exclusion, as there is a strong relationship between socially responsible investment and the ability to overcome social problems."

Harvard faculty leading the event include Ricardo Hausmann, CID Director and Professor the Practice of Economic Development; Lant Pritchett, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Asim Khwaja, Professor of Public Policy; and Sendhil Mullainathan, Professor of Economics. Other speakers and moderators included leaders from the corporate and financial sectors, entrepreneurs who have found new ways to serve low-income consumers, and senior policymakers working with emerging economies.

In his remarks, Professor Hausmann connected the larger question of economic growth to current research on structural transformation. “Why do rich countries become rich, why do poor countries not keep up, and how can we help them accelerate?” he asked. “Without an ecosystem to support new productive capabilities, countries become trapped in poverty. We are deeply committed to the goal of making the world a better place by trying to find new perspectives to overcome these traps and accelerate growth.”

Summing up the meeting was Suzi Sosa, MPA/ID 2001 and President of the MPOWER Foundation. “As we reflect on this GEM, we can see the paradoxes inherent in development: we are simultaneously focusing on empowering the individual at the local level and on developing cutting edge knowledge at the macroeconomic level,” she said. “It is only through interdisciplinary collaboration -- such as the Empowerment Lab -- that we can embrace the complexity of development.”

The event was sponsored by the Empowerment Lab at the Center for International Development and the MPOWER Foundation.

About the Empowerment Lab
The Empowerment Lab promotes innovations that extend the reach of markets in developing countries. The Lab focuses on research and activities to promote growth and economic inclusion, uncovering, promoting, and applying sustainable ways to empower the global poor by providing them with access to key markets.  Founded with a seed grant from the MPOWER Foundation, the Lab is led by CID Director Professor Ricardo Hausmann at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University.

About the Center for International Development
The Center for International Development (CID) is a Harvard-wide center working to generate shared and sustainable prosperity in developing economies. The CID actively creates, applies and integrates knowledge from across Harvard University and beyond to advance understanding of development challenges and solutions. CID’s mission is to improve development practice and resolve the dilemmas of public policy associated with eradicating global poverty. The center is led by Professor Ricardo Hausmann and Executive Director Marcela Escobari, with a steering committee of faculty from several Harvard schools.

About the MPOWER  Foundation
The MPOWER Foundation is the philanthropic arm of MPOWER Ventures, a socially committed venture capital fund investing in financial service with a focus on international payments, mobile payments, and retail financial services. MPOWER’s mission is to empower the underserved by accelerating the growth of businesses that bring new and needed products and services to underserved markets.