Reimagining the Future of Global Development

The shuttering of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) this year marked the end of an era in global development, threatening the livelihood of millions of vulnerable people. For decades, development initiatives resourced by USAID, as well as many other countries, helped expand health care, education, and economic opportunity worldwide. Despite its flaws, the system, which leveraged multilateral institutions and civil society organizations, worked to alleviate suffering, reduce poverty, and save lives.

Yet, even before USAID’s closure, this system for development was increasingly under strain and critique. Governments were shifting resources toward hard security as well as disaster response, from pandemics, to wars, to climate catastrophes. At the same time, multilateral institutions struggled to adapt to new economic and political realities that impacted on development approaches that could not always assure equitable partnership or long-term outcomes.

With important gains at risk and lives at stake, today’s moment calls for a reimagining of the development paradigm. Join Perry World House for a conversation with His Excellency Lord Malloch-Brown, former UN Deputy Secretary-General, on what shape the future of development might take – and how the world might do better.

Speakers

Mark Malloch-Brown has had a long career in international affairs, development, business, and communications. At the United Nations, Mark Malloch-Brown led the global promotion of the UN Millennium Development Goals as head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP). At the UNDP, and previously as vice president of external affairs at the World Bank, he led reform efforts to increase the impact of both organisations. He later served as Kofi Annan’s chief of staff, and then as UN Deputy Secretary General, before joining the British government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, as minister responsible for Africa and Asia from 2007 to 2009. Most recently, he was president of the Open Society Foundations, the world’s largest private funder of independent groups working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights. Mark Malloch-Brown is a Visiting Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics (LSE), he was knighted for his contributions to international affairs, and is currently on leave from the British House of Lords.