9.00 - 10.00 OPENING SESSION
Opening Statement — Emma Rothschild, Chairperson, UNRISD Board
Welcome — Thandika Mkandawire, Director, UNRISD
Keynote address — José Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, “Social and Economic Development: The Implications of Knowledge for Policy”
10.00 - 12.30 SESSION 2: THE INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Chairperson — Dharam Ghai, former Director, UNRISD
“Taking on Board New Concepts and Buzzwords”, Andrea Cornwall (IDS) and Karen Brock (IDS) will consider how agency discourse and policy have appropriated progressive terms such as “participation”, “empowerment” and “poverty reduction”, and analyse the extent to which this discursive shift is reflected in meaningful policy change. Discussant — Guy Standing (ILO)
“UN Economic and Social Ideas in Historical Perspective”- Louis Emmerij will present a paper prepared by the co-directors of the United Nations Intellectual History Project (Sir Richard Jolly, Thomas Weiss and Louis Emmerij) that reflects on the contribution to development debates and policy of research and knowledge associated with UN agencies. Discussant — Deepak Nayyar (University of Delhi)
14.00 – 18.00 SESSION 3: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE AND POLICY
Chairperson — Cynthia Hewitt de Alcántara, former Deputy Director, UNRISD
“The Role of Knowledge in Policy Making”- Kenneth King (University of Edinburgh) will examine the relationship between knowledge and policy-making, the ways in which the generation of knowledge and policy-making are mediated by politics and ideology, and the implications for knowledge generation and policy making of the shift towards knowledge-based institutions and new thinking associated with “organizational learning”. Discussant — Amina Mama (University of Cape Town)
“Knowledge and Policy Change in the Bretton Woods Institutions”- John Toye (University of Oxford) will examine the relationship between knowledge and policy change in the Bretton Woods organizations and consider the genesis of recent shifts in thinking and discourse associated with poverty reduction and the role of the state and other institutions. Discussant — Jomo KS (University of Malaya)
“What Do Policy Makers Want?” A panel of speakers will consider the policy relevance and “user-friendliness” of research commissioned by bilateral and multilateral agencies.
Panellists — Mervat Tallawy (Executive Secretary, ESCWA), Ambassador Gus Edgren (Sweden), Abdoulaye Bathily (former Minister of Environment, Senegal), Simon Maxwell (Overseas Development Institute)