CID Speaker Series
Throughout the academic year, CID hosts the flagship CID Speaker Series, where academics and practitioners representing a wide range of international development perspectives speak on current development issues, their organization’s recent work, and/or their own work experience. The talk is followed by a Q&A session with the audience predominantly composed of Harvard students, although all are welcome.
Road to GEM Series
During the spring semester, many Speaker Series events focus on the theme of the annual Global Empowerment Meeting (GEM), CID's annual conference that identifies major issues and ideas that could revolutionize development paradigms.
Note: During the 2024-2025 academic year, we plan to hold both in-person, hybrid, and virtual-only events. Our in-person events at the Harvard Kennedy School are open to Harvard ID holders only. Recordings of each event will be made public on CID's YouTube channel.
CID Speaker Series: Urban Regional Governance for Sustainable Development
CID Speaker Series: “Rethinking the Global Economic Development Architecture?”
CID Speaker Series: Book talk with HGSE's Emiliana Vegas and HKS's Dan Levy
US Leadership in Development Finance: Leveraging Private Capital for SDGs
CID Speaker Series: China and the Global Economy (Harvard Worldwide Week)
Acting with Precision in Complex Systems: Looking at UNDP’s SDG Push Diagnostic
CID Speaker Series: Politics of Failed Development: Inside IMF Look at Africa
CID Speaker Series: Humanitarian and Development Leadership in a Time of Change
The Social and Environmental Consequences of the Twin Energy-Digital Transition
Diversifying from Oil: Aspirations and Results of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030
| Date | Speaker | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|
February 2, 2024
|
Juan Sebastian Chamorro Garcia, Hewlett Visiting Fellow for Public Policy at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at Notre Dame | Hope Amid Horror: A Story of Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in Nicaragua |
| March 1, 2024 | Jackson Kaguri, founder and CEO of Nyaka Inc. and 2023 Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow | Bottom-Up Approaches in International Development: The Case of Nyaka in Uganda |
| March 22, 2024 | Nancy Birdsall, founding president and current senior fellow at the Center for Global Development | View the recording |
| Date | Speaker | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|
| September 13, 2023 | Ambassador Chantale Wong, U.S. Executive Director to the Asian Development Bank | Opportunities and Challenges of MDB Development Financing in Asia |
| September 22, 2023 | Reshmaan N. Hussam, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School | The Household at Work: Evidence from a Refugee Camp |
| October 6, 2023 | Marjorie Michel, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister of Canada | Canada's Feminist Foreign Policy and International Development Priorities |
| October 20, 2023 | Mandeep Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer – Evidence and Engagement at CIVICUS | The State of Civil Society and Civic Freedoms Globally |
| October 27, 2023 | Kyle Cahill, Senior Director, Environmental Sustainability Disclosure and Engagement Lead, Takeda Pharmaceuticals Sneha Shah, Senior Manager, Human Rights & Technology at Amazon | Bringing the Corporate "E" and "S" together in ESG to Advance Global Development |
| November 17, 2023 | Bintu Zahara Sakor, a Visiting Scholar at Harvard and Doctoral Researcher with the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) | A Generational Clash? Youth Demography and Political Instability in West Africa and the Sahel |
| Date | Speaker | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|
| February 3, 2023 | Mara Bolis, Mara Bolis, Advisor at Value for Women. Mara is a seasoned leader with 25 years of experience in development finance, economics, business and policy advocacy dedicated to advancing women’s equality at home and around the world. | The Dangerous Story of Women and Data: How the Development Community Fails with a "Male Unless Otherwise Indicated" Approach |
| February 10, 2023 | Joseph Asunka, PhD, CEO at Afrobarometer; 'Road to GEM23' | Climate change in Africa: Exploring citizen experiences and perspectives |
| February 17, 2023 | Ishac Diwan, Director of Research at Finance for Development, Paris School of Economics; CID Visiting Scholar | What Makes the Looming Debt Crisis for Developing Countries Different |
March 3, 2023
| Valeria Saggiomo, Lecturer in International Cooperation for Development at University of Naples; CID Visiting Scholar | Why do some development projects fail, and others succeed? The importance of “sentiment” in aid effectiveness |
| March 31, 2023 | Rolla Moumne, Right to Education Programme Specialist and Lead at UNESCO; 'Road to GEM23' | Mitigating the impacts of climate change on the right to education |
| April 7, 2023 | Ana Fernanda Hierro Barba, Technical Secretary at Consejo Nuevo León | A Cross-Sectoral Approach to Policymaking: how the Consejo Nuevo Leon model works to support sustainable development |
| April 14, 2023 | Isabel Saint Malo, Senior Policy Adviser to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Program; Former Vice President of Panama; 'Road to GEM23' | Towards Global Sustainability Disclosure Standards |
| April 28, 2023 | Susan Kenniston, Global Head & Vice President of Sustainability at Wipro; 'Road to GEM23' | Register here to attend in-person or virtually |
| Date | Speaker | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|
| September 16, 2022 | Alicia Ely Yamin, Lecturer on Law and the Senior Fellow on Global Health and Rights at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School; Adjunct Senior Lecturer on Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health; and Senior Advisor on Human Rights and Health Policy at Partners In Health | Health, Human Rights and Global Development: Lessons from the Pandemic |
| September 23, 2022 | Karim Sarhan, Fellow at Harvard's Center for International Development; Partner at Sharkawy & Sarhan Law Firm | Bringing Development Strategy Back In: New Insights from China, South Korea, and Singapore |
| October 7, 2022 | Séverine Autesserre, Author; Professor and Chair of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University | The Frontlines of Peace: An Insider’s Guide to Changing the World |
October 21, 2022
| Milind Tambe, Principal Scientist and Director of "AI for Social Good"; Professor of Computer Science; Director of Center for Research in Computation and Society at Harvard University | AI for social impact: Results from deployments for public health and conservation |
| November 4, 2022 | Bridget Snell, Senior Managing Director, Collaboration and Knowledge at Save the Children US | Transforming & Finding Equity in Knowledge Management for the International Development Sector |
| November 18, 2022 | Aleem Walji, Senior Advisor - Strategy, Innovation and Partnerships at the Institute for Capacity Development, International Monetary Fund | Bridging Digital Divides: Technology as a Force for Inclusion |
| December 2, 2022 | Muthoni Muriu, Senior Adviser, Diversity, Inclusion and Shared Leadership at UN Women | The Role of Gender & Inclusion in Development Programming |
| Date | Speaker | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|
| February 4, 2022 | Meagan Dooley, Global Program Officer at Tetra Tech George Ingram, Senior Fellow - Global Economy and Development, Center for Sustainable Development at Brookings | Digital government: Foundations for global development and democracy |
| February 11, 2022 | Jacqueline Klopp, Co-director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development and a Research Scholar at Columbia University | Climate Change, Digital Data Commons and the Politics of Urban Transport in African Cities |
| February 25, 2022 | Debbie Aung Din, Co-Founder of Proximity Designs | Can Social Enterprises Fill the Market and Public Sector Gaps in Tough Places? |
March 11, 2022
| Satchit Balsari, Assistant Professor in emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Caroline Buckee, Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health | Data in Crisis - Rethinking Disaster Preparedness in the United States |
| March 25, 2022 at 11am ET | Jaya Wen, Assistant Professor: Business, Government, and the International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School | Doing Research at the Intersection of Development Economics and Political Economy |
| April 8, 2022 | Robert Lawrence, Albert L. Williams Professor of International Trade and Investment at John F. Kennedy School of Government | Behind the Curve: Can manufacturing still provide inclusive growth? |
| April 22, 2022 | Arsalan Mahtafar, Executive Director at JP Morgan’s Development Finance Institution | Mobilizing Capital Markets Towards Sustainable Development |
| Date | Speaker | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|
| September 17, 2021 | Philippe Aghion, Professor at College de France, at INSEAD, and at the London School of Economics | Rethinking Capitalism Post-Covid: The Power of Creative Destruction |
| October 1, 2021 | Dianne Calvi, President and CEO, Village Enterprise | Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Evidence to Drive Poverty Alleviation |
| October 15, 2021 | Andrew Stern, Founder and CEO, Global Development Incubator Moderated by Brian Trelstad, Harvard Business School | Creating Impact at a Global Scale for Development |
October 29, 2021 Co-sponsored by the Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) at the Harvard Kennedy School
| Latanya Mapp Frett, President, Global Fund for Women | Why Feminist Funding is Crucial for Development |
| November 12, 2021 | Seema Jayachandran, Economist & Professor of Economics, Northwestern University | Social Norms as a Barrier to Women's Employment in Developing Countries |
| December 3, 2021 | Sharmi Surianarain, Chief Impact Officer, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator Kate Orkin, Faculty Member in Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford Moderated by Eliana Carranza, Senior WorldBank Economist and Harvard Kennedy School Professor | Inclusive Employment for South African Youth: Lessons from Harambee |
| December 10, 2021 | Mariaflavia Harari, Assistant Professor of Real Estate, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania Moderated by Gordon Hanson, Peter Wertheim Professor in Urban Policy at Harvard Kennedy School | Cities and Slums Through Spatial Data |
| Date | Speaker | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|
| January 29, 2021 | Michael Clemens & Thomas Ginn, Center for Global Development | Global Mobility & the Threat of Pandemics: Evidence from Three Centuries |
| February 12, 2021 | Philippe Le Houérou, former CEO, International Finance Corporation (IFC) Moderated by Shawn Cole, Professor, Harvard Business School | Transformation of the International Finance Corporation |
| February 26, 2021 | Shawn Baker, Chief Nutritionist, US Agency for International Development (USAID) | COVID-19 and Nutrition: Crisis and Opportunity |
| March 12, 2021 | Alix Peterson Zwane, CEO Global Innovation Fund | The Honesty Agenda: Effective Assistance, Women's Empowerment, and the SDGs in a Post-COVID World |
| March 26, 2021 | Sarah Rose & Erin Collinson, Center for Global Development (CGD) Asim I. Khwaja & Dani Rodrik, Center for International Development (CID), Harvard Kennedy School Moderated by Rema Hanna, Professor, Harvard Kennedy School | Panel Discussion: Establishing USAID as a Leader in Evidence-Based Foreign Aid |
| April 9, 2021 | Priyadarshani Joshi, Senior Project Officer (Research), UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report | The Effects of COVID-19 on Education Systems: Insights from the Global Education Monitoring Report |
| April 23, 2021 | Tara Vishwanath, Nadini Krishnan, Paul Andres Corral Rodas, and Daniel Gerszon Mahler, World Bank, Poverty & Equity Global Practice | Fragility & Conflict: On the Front Lines of the Fight against Poverty |
| April 30, 2021 | Kate Raworth, Economist & Co-Founder of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab | When the Doughnut Meets the City: Can We Create Regenerative and Distributive Local Economies? |
| Date | Speaker | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|
| September 11, 2020 | Neil Levine, Former Director of USAID's Center of Excellence from Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance | Building the Development Professional for the 21st Century |
| September 18, 2020 | Amanda Beatty, Senior Researcher, Mathmatica | Combining Community-Driven Development with Nutrition and Sanitation Training to Reduce Stunting |
| September 21-25, 2020 | GEM Week - No Speaker Series Event | |
| October 2, 2020 | Ananish Chaudhuri, Professor of Experimental Economics at the University of Auckland | The Dual Evolutionary Foundations for Political Idealogy |
| October 9, 2020 | Georgy Gray Molina, Chief Economist at UNDP | A Temporary Basic Income for Developing Countries |
| October 16, 2020 | Michele Ruta, Lead Economist of the Macroeconomics, Trade & Investment Global Practice of the World Bank Group | Belt & Road Economics: Opportunities & Risks of Transport Corridors |
| October 23, 2020 | Neil Gregory, IFC Chief Thought Leadership Officer Moderated by Shawn Cole, Harvard Business School Professor & CID Affiliate | Bringing Credibility, Discipline & Transparency to Impact Investing |
| October 30 & November 6, 2020 | No Speaker Series Events | |
| November 13, 2020 | Asim I. Khwaja, Director of the Center for International Development | A Proposal for a Data-Responsive & Graded Approach to COVID-19 |
| November 20, 2020 | Jenny Perlman & Molly Curtiss, Center for Universal Education, Brookings Institution | The Millions Learning Project: Scaling Quality Education to Children & Youth |
| November 27, 2020 | No Speaker Series - Thanksgiving Break | |
| December 4, 2020 | Carolina Sanchez-Paramo, Global Director, Poverty & Equity Global Practice, World Bank | Emerging Evidence on Socio-Economic Impacts of COVID-19 on Households |