CID's Fall 2024 Workshops

CID Workshops are three-hour sessions held on Friday mornings which delve into an international development topic. CID Workshops are lead by an expert practitioner. Attendees do not earn academic credit for their participation.

Workshop participants are expected to commit to attending the three-hour session and engaging as much as possible with the reading and content. Workshops are in-person. Each workshop can accommodate up to 35 participants.

Each workshop will be followed by a CID Speaker Series event from 12:00 -1:00 pm and a career chat from 1:15 – 2:15 pm. Workshop participants are invited to attend these events as well. 

CID's fall workshops are open to undergraduate and graduate students across all schools at Harvard who are interested in international development. 

Students do not need to be experts on a seminar’s given topic, but they should be able to demonstrate interest in applying what they learn to positively influence their work and further studies.

Laurel Patterson (Canada) is the Director of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) portfolio at the UN Development Programme (UNDP), leading policy innovation to accelerate the SDGs across 130 countries and territories.  She was previously UNDP’s Senior Global Advisor for the SDG achievement in crisis contexts.

Ms. Patterson held senior global advocacy roles, as UNDP Deputy Director for Partnerships and Deputy Director for UN Affairs, and held UN field-based assignments in Somalia, Zimbabwe, Burundi and Angola.

Before UNDP, she was the Associate Director of International Affairs at Simon Fraser University in Canada, where she led the university's international development portfolio. Laurel began her career with UN Women in Southern Africa, as part of their flagship women, peace and security portfolio.

Laurel has a MPhil Degree in International Relations, Cambridge University, UK. She lives in New York with her husband and three children.

Gomez Agou, Ph.D is an Ivoirian, currently the Resident Representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Gabon. 

Mr. Agou is passionate of international development and has 15 years of experience in the diagnostic and solving of economic and social development issues. 

Mr. Agou holds a Ph.D. in economics from University of Sorbonne-Panthéon and a Master in Public Administration and International Development (MPAID) from Harvard University. He is a recipient of the Raymond Vernon prize of Harvard University. 

Mr. Agou is a life coach, sharing success principles with more than 56,000 followers all over the world.

Accelerating the SDGs: Can climate investments unlock development progress for people and planet?

Focus: The workshop explores the connection between climate policy and sustainable finance investment as potential drivers of the SDGs.  Blending data innovation, systems thinking, political economy analysis and generative dialogue, this workshop will explore both the 'what' and 'how' of accelerating development impact for people and planet in an increasingly complex and fractious world.

The Politics of Failed Development: Inside IMF Look at Africa

Goal: The goal of this workshop is to help future development leaders understand the true objectives, realistic strengths, and untold weaknesses of the development programs between countries and International Financial Institutions (IFIs) to better equip them to influence future development program design and implementation whether working for the government, the private sector, the civil society, or the IFIs.

Focus: The workshop will dive into the complex political and institutional realities of the program design and implementation of the IMF or other International Financial Institutions (IFIs). The workshop will underscore the original sin—from its foundational context—of the main IFIs, highlight the misalignment of expectations between the IFIs, the public decision makers, the civil society and the population; underline the gap between the ideals of the programs of these IFIs and the constraints to ideals; examine political and geopolitical priorities weighing on these program design and implementation; underscore the bigger issues of development—such as climate, growth/industrialization, Artificial Intelligence and data divide, demography, and security—sometimes left out by these programs—by design and mandates—which could cause repetition of the same program implementation by the IFIs, assess the shared responsibilities of the failed programs between the IFIs and the recipients government, and explore ongoing demands and reforms by the IFIs and governments to address from some of the “failure” causes.

To apply for the workshops, please complete the short application survey by the respective deadlines:

Accelerating the SDGs: Can climate investments unlock development progress for people and planet? Facilitated by: Laurel Patterson

• Application Deadline: October 11, 2024 at 12:00 pm EST

Apply Here

The Politics of Failed Development: Inside IMF Look at Africa

Facilitated by: Gomez Agou

• Application Deadline: October 24, 2024 at 12:00 ET

Apply Here

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Yes, students are welcome to apply for and attend more than one workshop.