In the media
WIDER Development Conference in Helsinki draws media attention

9 October 2018

The 2018 WIDER development conference, Think development – Think WIDER, took place in Helsinki, Finland, on 13-15 September.

The conference focused on the main themes and findings of UNU-WIDER’s research over the last 10 years— finance, food and climate change; and transformation, inclusion and sustainability.

The event brought together policy advisers, development practitioners and government representatives and provided a platform for the exchange of ideas with the aim of mobilizing evidence and action around the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda.

Among those in attendance were local media representatives, who interviewed speakers and participants and reported on the key messages drawn from the conference.

Joseph E. Stiglitz, professor at Columbia University and Nobel Prize laureate in economics, was interviewed by Finnish News Agency STT, the national broadcasting company Yle, and the country’s largest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. Bloomberg News also made a news piece based on the keynote lecture given by Stiglitz at the conference.

Danielle Resnick from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and John Page, Non-Resident Researcher at UNU-WIDER and economist at the Brookings Institute, were interviewed by Yle radio on the topic of development in Africa. Page spoke on the forthcoming UNU-WIDER book Industries without Smokestacks - Industrialization in Africa Reconsidered while Resnick provided insights into some of the most pressing issues for Africa’s youth.

Martin Ravallion, Professor of Economics at Georgetown University, and Sabina Alkire, Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), discussed the issue of poverty and inequality and how to measure it, during their interview with Helsingin Sanomat.

Meanwhile Kaushik Basu, former World Bank Chief Economist, was interviewed by Helsingin Sanomat on the subject of his latest book: The Republic of Beliefs – A New Approach to Law and Economics.