Myles Wickstead on the changing face of aid and development

Myles Wickstead joins the WIDER Webinar Series to discuss the future of development aid in the post-COVID world.

Aid and development: Where we are, how we got here, and where it might all go

This webinar will begin with Professor Myles Wickstead setting out how notions of aid and development have evolved since the end of the Second World War, and how they relate to broader international political and economic dynamics.  

The presentation will consider how the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) reflected the world order of  the 1990s, and how the Sustainable Development Goals reflect shifts in the balance of power and an increasing recognition that issues like climate change and pandemics can only be addressed through global cooperation.  It will consider progress so far and prospects up to 2030 (not least reflecting on the implications of coronavirus and the growth of populism and nationalism).  

Dr Nilima Gulrajani will respond to and build on the presentation. She will suggest traditional DAC norms of donorship are directly challenged by several domestic and international forces, resulting in some notable convergences between Northern and Southern development providers. Consideration will be given to the fallout of such convergence for the future of Official Development Assistance as a political construct and a policy target.

UNU-WIDER Senior Research Fellow, Rachel Gisselquist will chair the event.

About the speakers

Professor Myles Wickstead has a long history of involvement with, and working in, Africa. He is currently Visiting Professor (International Relations) at King’s College London and Honorary Associate Professor at the Strategy and Security Institute, University of Exeter.  He is Chair of the Joffe Charitable Trust. He is on the Boards of the Royal African Society and BBC Media Action; and Honorary Advisor to Malaria No More UK, the Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET), and the Coalition for Global Prosperity. He has written extensively on Africa and development. His book ‘Aid and Development: A Brief Introduction’ was published by OUP in June 2015.

Wickstead has degrees from the Universities of St Andrews (MA First Class Honours) and Oxford (M.Litt), and has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by Leeds Beckett University, the University of Ulster and the Open University (where he was also a Visiting Professor) in recognition of his work on Africa and development.

Nilima Gulrajani is a Senior Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute in London and Associate Fellow at King's College Department of International Development. She is currently on secondment at the Canadian International Council and the G20 Research Group at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. She was previously on faculty at the London School of Economics.