London International Development Centre

28 November 2011, 6 – 7.30 pm, Elvin Room, Institute of Education
This event, organised jointly by LIDC and ONE, looked at how to bridge the gap between research, advocacy and policy for international development, using the format of an interactive debate.

Dr Val Curtis, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, describes how the simple act of handwashing with soap could save one million lives a year. She explains her key role in the creation of Global Handwashing Day, held annually on October 15, and how major companies are working together with academics as part of this unusual public-private partnership.

October 10: Kevin “Bananaman” Allen, of Banana Appeal, and Emmanuel Jal, rapper and former child soldier.

An interview with Ken Banks the creator of Frontline SMS, a text messaging service software for mobile phones.

Mobile phones are revolutionising many aspects of life in Africa, from commerce to monitoring animal disease. Listen to a series of short interviews about some of the latest developments.

October 9: Leon Benjamin, author of Winning By Sharing; Ken Banks, of FrontlineSMS; and Teddy Ruge, of Project Diaspora

The MDG1 targets aim to reduce poverty and hunger and increase gainful employment. Although there are substantial data and methodological difficulties in tracking the targets, it is clear that despite some significant achievements they will be missed in many parts of the world in 2015. It is very important to understand these achievements and failures, and their respective causes. Agriculture and food are critical to MDG1 in a number of ways, particularly in areas where progress has already been slow. There are major new challenges here, and important questions about the roles of states and markets in agricultural growth in poor economies.

Read on to read a full report of the presentation.

MDG 2, the achievement of universal primary education, has a target of ensuring that by 2015 children everywhere will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. Net enrolment ratios have increased, with notable regional increases in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia. However, regional ratios disguise wide variations between countries. National ratios disguise variations in enrolment patterns across the grades of primary education and in the enrolment by grade patterns by income group, gender and location. Many educational challenges remain, not least the provision of 18 million additional teachers if the 2015 goals are to be reached. This presentation underlines the inter-relations between the MDGs. It concludes by asking whether global partnerships are adequate to the task of providing integrated, horizontally coordinated and simultaneous action across sectors at the points where it is most needed - children, households and communities.

Read on to read a full report of the presentation.

This presentation looked at the ways in which MDG3 was conceptualised as foundational to the other MDGs with an earlier target date. It highlights the debate as to whether this position enabled the MDG project to take a global agenda for women's rights further or contributed to a fracturing of the alliances built in the wake of the Beijing conference in 1995. In reviewing the limited progress made against the indicators and the significance of some key aspects of women's inequality for which there are no indicators, notably the levels of violence against women, this presentation posed the question as to what type of opportunity MDG3 offers to understand and monitor gender equality and the empowerment of women worldwide.

Read on to read a full report of the presentation.

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