Trends and Challenges in International Development Research – UNRISD Director Thandika Mkandawire speaking at Research Council of Norway Conference, March 11

UNRISD Director, Thandika Mkandawire, will deliver a keynote speech at the Research Council of Norway’s conference Development Paths in the South on 11 March 2008, at 12.05pm, at the Radisson SAS Plaza Hotel in Oslo, Norway. Under the title ‘Reflections on New Challenges in Development Research’ his speech will address three concerns of research on developing countries – the issue of development and poverty eradication, the question of democratization, and the challenge of social inclusion – showing ways to combine them into one coherent research approach.

At the end of its largest programme on development research to date the Research Council of Norway has organized the Development Paths in the South conference. Over the past ten years, it has been stimulating and financing development research in Norway through the programme ‘Globalisation and Marginalisation: Multi- and Interdisciplinary Research on Development Paths in the South’. The foremost findings of the programme’s 96 projects will briefly be presented at the two-day conference (March 10 and 11) in four presentation sessions and a poster session.

During the sessions, a number of leading researchers from Norway and elsewhere will speak on their state-of-the-art development research. The six thematic areas covered by the Council’s research programme include globalisation and marginalisation, political development and human rights, environment and resources, and health and poverty. A panel discussion at the end of the conference will bring together key actors in the fields of development research, policy, and aid.