Dr. Yusuf Bangura, UNRISD
Commentators: Kalle Moene (ESOP), Desmond McNeill (SUM), Ingrid Fiskaa (State Secretary for Environment and International Development), and Ragnhild Dybdahl (Director, Education and Research, NORAD)
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) has recently published a comprehensive ‘flagship report’ entitled ‘Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics’. The main conclusion is that the anti-poverty programmes guided by the ideas of the Monetary Fund and the World Bank have failed because power relations have been neglected. The successful cases rest instead with structural changes through state led economic growth on the basis of full employment in productive sectors and universal social security arrangements. This in turn has called for progressive coalitions of sufficiently powerful actors – and usually democracy enough to build them. And the historical experiences in Scandinavia are major points of reference. Are these conclusions viable and if so, what will be the Norwegian reaction?
Dr. Yusuf Bangura, originally from Sierra Leone, has been research coordinator at UNRISD for two decades and is the lead author of the new report. He received his PhD at LSE, has taught in universities in Nigeria and Canada, and has worked as a visiting researcher at Uppsala University.
The UNRISD report is available here.
To register, send an email to Esther Ann Bøler no later than Friday March 11. There is a limited number of seats available, and the registrations will be handled by the first-come, first-serve principle. Coffee, fruit and a light lunch will be served.