Center For International Development

The current exodus of Venezuelans has generated the largest migration crisis of its kind in recent Latin American history, as Human Rights Watch has pointed out in its most recent report. More than 2.3 million Venezuelans have left their country since 2014, according to the United Nations, and many others have left whose cases have not been registered by authorities. Venezuelans are fleeing their country for multiple reasons, which includes severe shortages of medicine, medical supplies, and food; extremely high rates of violent crime; hyperinflation; and thousands of arbitrary arrests, torture and other abuses against detainees. Today on CID’s Speaker Series podcast, Nizar El Fakih, MPA/MC Mason Fellow candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School, interviews José Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch and a general expert on Latin America, who provides insight on this mass exodus and the current humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, and the role of the international community in this

On this week’s podcast, Salimah Samji, Director of the Building State Capability program at CID, interviews Mark Moore, Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School who will be teaching the new Building State Capability online course titled “Creating Public Value”. // www.bsc.cid.harvard.edu // Interview recorded on September 13, 2018. About Mark Moore: Mark H. Moore is the Hauser Professor of Nonprofit Organizations. His current primary focus is studying the processes that enable social innovation and change to occur in response to changing political, economic, and social conditions.

For over ten years, Venezuela has been plagued with a deep economic and political crisis that has also recently transpired into a humanitarian issue. In the past five years, GDP has gone down over 50% and hyperinflation is forecasted by the IMF to reach over 1,000,000% for this year, 2018. The economic downfall has also led to shortages in food, medical supplies, and other commodities nationwide. In their latest research paper: “Fool’s Gold: On the Impact of Venezuelan Devaluations in Multinational Stock Prices” Miguel Angel Santos, Dany Bahar, and Carlos Alberto Molina analyze how multinational companies with subsidiaries in Venezuela have been impacted by currency devaluations as the economic crisis worsened. Today on CID’s Research Spotlight podcast, Camila Lobo, CID Events & Outreach Manager, interviews one of the co-authors of this research paper, Miguel Angel Santos, who provides insight on the current economic crisis in Venezuela and what motivated them to delve into this research. Miguel Angel Sa

Many government policies and reforms fail in developing countries. Research at the Center for International Development’s Building State Capability program (or BSC) ties such failure to the tendency of governments to adopt external ‘solutions’ that do not fit their contexts and overwhelm their capabilities. The program believes that governments should build their capabilities by employing processes that empower their own people to find their way to solving their country’s real problems. They propose a process for doing this, called Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (or PDIA) and have been working since 2009 to explore ‘how to do’ PDIA practically, in the real world. This is the second of a series of interviews with the Building State Capability team – the PDIA in Practice Series, or PIPs, where they describe where the PDIA tools and ideas have emerged from, and how these ideas have taken shape. The previous interview covered their experience working with officials in Mozambique’s public financial manageme

Public organizations often have trouble implementing the policies and programs that will benefit the state and its constituents and the public sector in India is no exception. The perception of the state’s capacity to implement policy is often called into question so how can civil servants in India overcome the barriers they face to policy implementation? Today on CID’s Speaker Series podcast, Salimah Samji, Director of the Building State Capability Program at CID interviews Yamini Aiyar of the Centre for Policy Research, who provides first-hand details on culture within the public sector in India. Salimah and Yamini further examine India’s state capabilities and discuss remedies that could improve decision-making processes within the government. Yamini Aiyar is the President and Chief Executive of CPR - the Centre for Policy Research - one of India’s leading public policy think tanks. Her research interests are in the field of social policy and development. In 2008, Yamini founded the Accountability Initi

CID Student Ambassador Abeela Latif interviews Susan Scribner, Director of the Preparedness and Response Project at DAI. She discusses the risks that contribute to a pandemic, interventions to mitigate these risks, and how different government and non-government actors can contribute to pandemic preparedness and response. // www.cid.harvard.edu // Interview recorded on April 20th, 2018. About Susan Scribner: Susan Scribner leads the Preparedness and Response project (P&R). P&R works in 16 countries in East Africa, West Africa, and Southeast Asia to support multisectoral collaboration through National One Health Platforms. These platforms strengthen countries’ abilities to prevent, detect and respond to pandemic threats. P&R facilitates countries in developing and maintaining National Preparedness and Response Plans to respond to public health events at the regional, national, and subnational levels. Prior to joining DAI, Susan worked for 17 years for Abt Associates. From 2007 to 2009, she was Chief of Part

Building State capability program Director, Salimah Samji, interviews Matt Andrews, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School on the first report of the PDIA in Practice Series. The Series will cover a few of the research engagements done by the Building State Capability program in the past 8 years, and detail what results emerged, what we learned, and what were the next steps for each of these engagements. The first report covers the team’s experience working with officials in Mozambique’s public financial management sector, between September and December 2009. Interview recorded on June 6th, 2018. // More about the PDIA in Practice Series: // https://bsc.cid.harvard.edu/pdia-inform-budget-reform-mozambique About Matt Andrews: Matt Andrews is Senior Lecturer in Public Policy. His research focuses on public sector reform, particularly budgeting and financial management reform, and participatory governance in developing and transitional governments. Recent articles focus on forging a theoret

CID Student Ambassador Alexandra Gonzalez interviews Ricardo Hausmann, Director of CID and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at the Harvard Kennedy School. Ricardo discusses how he became CID’s director, our current work throughout the world, and what you can expect from future research. // www.cid.harvard.edu // Interview recorded on April 23rd, 2018. About Ricardo Hausmann: Ricardo Hausmann is Director of the Center for International Development and Professor of the Practice of Economic Development at Harvard University. Previously, he served as the first Chief Economist of the Inter-American Development Bank (1994-2000), where he created the Research Department. He has served as Minister of Planning of Venezuela (1992-1993) and as a member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela. He also served as Chair of the IMF-World Bank Development Committee. Hausmann was Professor of Economics at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administracion (IESA) (1985-1991) in Caracas, where he f

CID Research Assistant Sehar Noor interviews Ljubica Nedelkoska, Research Fellow at CID, who discusses the Growth Lab project in Sri Lanka and more specifically her research findings titled “Does Sri Lanka Need More University Graduates?” // www.srilanka.growthlab.cid.harvard.edu // Interview recorded on May 11th, 2018. About Ljubica Nedelkoska: Ljubica Nedelkoska joined the Center for International Development's Growth Lab as a Visiting Scholar in 2012 and as a Research Fellow in 2013. Before joining the CID, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher and a coordinator of the Economics of Innovation Research Group in Jena, and as a research fellow at the Zeppelin University, both in Germany. Her research area is empirical labor economics, with focus on human capital, human mobility, migration and diasporas, and skill-technology relations. By studying these topics, she aims to understand how economies change their skill portfolios through the processes of on-the-job learning, interacting with technologies,

CID Student Ambassador Patrick Hannahan interviews Carlos Fernández Valdovinos, Governor of the Central Bank of Paraguay, he discusses the challenges faced by Latin American countries in the new global context, what lessons they learned from the last financial crisis and the best policies to prepare for the next crisis. // www.cid.harvard.edu // Interview recorded on April 23rd, 2018. About Carlos Fernández Valdovinos: Carlos Fernández Valdovinos was designated Governor of the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP) in October 2013 for a five-year period. He graduated from the Universidad Federal de Paraná (Federal University of Paraná – Curitiba, Brazil, 1990) and went on to study in the USA, obtaining a Master’s degree in Economics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1994. In 1999 he got his PhD degree from the University of Chicago. He has had a vast pedagogical experience and has taught at both national and international universities: Universidad Nacional de Asunción (National University of Asun

This week, CID Student Ambassador Emily Ausubel interviews Roberto Patiño, Founder & CEO of Caracas Mi Convive, and Thomas Abt, Senior Research Fellow at CID, they discuss the role of community-based organizations in preventing violence in Latin America, and on how scientific evidence can help to guide the process. // www.cid.harvard.edu // Interview recorded on April 27th, 2018. About Roberto Patiño: Roberto Patiño is 29 years old, he is from Caracas, Production Engineer from Simón Bolívar University, a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University and a member of Primero Justicia. During his college studies, he actively participated in the student movement, being co-founder and coordinator of initiatives such as Votojoven and the Jota Movement. He was president of the Federation of USB Centers and coordinated La Fuerza Joven, youth movement of the presidential campaign of Henrique Capriles Radonsky in 2012. During his studies abroad he specialized in citizen security and undertook a research and consul

This week, CID Senior Research Fellow Thomas Abt interviews Daniel Mejia, Secretary of Security of Bogota, and Chris Blattman, Professor at University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. Daniel and Chris discuss how they used and generated evidence for policymaking with regard to security interventions in the city of Bogota. // www.cid.harvard.edu // Interview recorded on April 6th, 2018. About Daniel Mejia: Daniel is Secretary of Security of Bogota, Colombia, where he is in charge of leading security and justice policies in the city of Bogota. Before becoming the first Secretary of Security of Bogota, Daniel was Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and Director of the Research Center on Drugs and Security (CESED) at Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, where he taught since 2006. He received a BA and MA in Economics from Universidad de los Andes and a MA and PhD in economics from Brown University. Prior to joining Universidad de los Andes he worked as a researcher at the Cen

CID Communications Manager, Chuck McKenney talks to CID Research Fellows Sebastian Bustons and Tim Cheston about the recently released 2026 Global Growth Projections. These projections of annualized growth rates of 2026 are based on the latest 2016 trade data and CID’s measure of Economic Complexity, which captures the diversity and sophistication of productive capabilities in a country’s exports. Get CID's 2026 Global Growth Projections: http://atlas.cid.harvard.edu/rankings/growth-projections/ Interview recorded on May 2nd, 2018.

Building State Capability Program Director Salimah Samji interviews Dan Honig, author of the recently published book “Navigation by judgement – why and when top down management of foreign aid doesn’t work”. Honig talks about the motivation for writing the book, the research process behind it and about what surprised him the most when researching about different management styles at various foreign aid organizations. www.cid.harvard.edu Get "Navigation by Judgment" on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2jlaNVI

CID Student Ambassador Alexandra Gonzalez interviews Jamey Butcher, Executive Vice-President of Chemonics. Jamey talks about the role Chemonics place in international development and the Global Health Supply Chain - Procurement and Supply Management Program with USAID. // www.cid.harvard.edu // Interview recorded on March 30th, 2018. About Jamey Butcher: Since joining Chemonics International Inc. in 1998, Executive Vice President Jamey Butcher has served in a variety of roles and regions. Mr. Butcher currently oversees the Global Health Supply Chain - Procurement and Supply Management IDIQ. Previously he served as senior vice president for the Strategic Solutions and Communications Division; East Africa region; and Europe and Eurasia region. He has also led a number of business development initiatives diversifying the company’s portfolio. While providing strategic management and operational oversight of Chemonics, Mr. Butcher draws from experience as a private sector development specialist with more than 2

CID Student Ambassador Abeela Latif, interviews Dany Bahar, Research Fellow at Brookings Institution and Associate at Harvard’s Center for International Development and Miguel Angel Santos, Adjunct Professor in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and Senior Research Fellow at Harvard’s Center for International Development. Dany and Miguel talk about their research paper "One more resource curse: Dutch disease and export concentration". In the interview, they explain the concept of Dutch disease and talk about why natural resources can be seen as a curse from an economic perspective. They also discuss the motivation behind their research, their main findings and explain how policy makers can use these learnings to make smarter policy decisions. READ THE PAPER HERE: https://bit.ly/2qpgubl Interview recorded on February 2018. www.cid.harvard.edu About Miguel Angel Santos: Miguel Angel Santos is an Adjunct Professor in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a Senior Research Fellow a

CID Student Ambassador Emily Ausubel interviews Tim O’Brien and Dan Stock, research fellows here at Harvard’s Center for International Development. Tim and Dan talk about the Center’s project in Sri Lanka and how they are applying the Growth Diagnostics Methodology to identify the country’s binding constraints for diversification and economic growth. https://srilanka.growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/ >>> Interview recorded on March 2, 2018. About the interviewees: > Tim O’Brien joined the Center for International Development in 2015, working on both Growth Lab and Building State Capability projects. He has led growth diagnostic research in Albania and Sri Lanka. Tim holds a Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) degree from the Harvard Kennedy School and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University. Tim served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi from 2008-2010 and has experience working with the World Bank and in environmental engineering. Tim’s research interests

CID Student Ambassador Emily Ausubel interviews Salimah Samji, Director of the Building State Capability Program at Harvard University and Matt Andrews, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and Faculty Associate at the same program. Matt and Salimah talk about how the Building State Capability program came about, explain us what is the Program’s core methodology and how it’s being applied by hundreds of practitioners worldwide. Interview recorded on February 23rd, 2018 // cid.harvard.edu // // bsc.cid.harvard.edu // About Salimah Samji: Salimah Samji is the Director of the Building State Capability (BSC) Program. She has over fifteen years of experience working in international development, on issues of public service delivery, transparency and accountability, strategic planning, and monitoring and evaluation. She joined CID in 2012 to help create the BSC program and is responsible for strategic planning and oversight. Salimah also leads the PDIA online courses. Prior to joining

CID Student Ambassador Abeela Latif interviews Priyadarshani Joshi, Research Officer at UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report team. Priya talks about the main takeaways from the 2018 Global Education Monitoring Report, the key financing challenges in the education sector worldwide and about new goals and paradigms of bringing gender equality to the classroom. Interview recorded on February 23rd, 2018. // www.cid.harvard.edu // About Priya Joshi: Priyadarshani Joshi is a Research Officer at the Global Education Monitoring Report team. Some of her core areas of interest and contribution in the team include education’s role in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda and urban development, gender, and the role of the private sector. She has a PhD in Education Policy from the University of Pennsylvania. Her personal research agenda focuses on the consequences of private sector growth for the public sector, parental choice, and systemwide equity in lower income countries, building on her doctoral res

CID Student Ambassador Alexandra Gonzalez interviews Daniel Shydlowski, Former Superintendent of Banking, Insurance and Private Retirement Funds in Peru. Daniel talks about how bank regulators can help make the world a better place by pushing the human rights agenda forward. He details the case of a mining project in Peru and tells what are the conditions to replicate this example in other countries. Interview recorded in December 2017. // www.cid.harvard.edu // About Daniel: Dr. Daniel Schydlowsky served as Superintendent of Banking, Insurance and Private Pension Fund Administrators of Peru (SBS), August, 2011- November, 2015. He concurrently served as President of the Association of Bank Supervisors of the Americas (ASBA) and as Chairman of Governing Council of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI). He has worked in most Latin American countries as well as in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Romania and South Africa. He has published eight books and ninety-three professional articles on economic issues in numer