International Development

Some of the questions that we might consider in the workshop:

i. Is there common agreement on the aims of international development? Are the millennium development goals a unifying framework? What are the European Union’s policies towards international development, and how do these translate in the action of its member states?

ii. Will France and Britain be able to consolidate their policies in order to advance development globally? Should they?

iii. France’s and Britain’s international development strategies – from decolonisation to the present. Does the history of these nations give them a similar approach and an alignment of development goals or do historical rivalries prevent this? Are the other competing forces, such as the Franco-German alliance, and Britain’s position with the EU?

iv. How can France and Britain align their development strategies in terms of putting into practise shared ideals? What is the future of international development, and what is its relation relative to the rise in focus on civil society and the ever changing global order?

Workshop participants might want to refer to the following sources:

François PACQUEMENT, « How Development Assistance from France and the United Kingdom Has Evolved: Fifty Years on from Decolonisation », International Development Policy | Revue internationale de politique de développement, 1 | 2010, http://poldev.revues.org/137

Ministre des Affaires Étrangères (2013 ) ‘Post-2015 agenda on development’. French position paper prepared with civil society. Directorate-General of Global Affairs, Development and Partnerships, http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/IMG/pdf/Position_fr_agenda_post-2015_version_anglaise_full_cle0b8463-2.pdf

Fitzsimons, Rogger and Stoye (2012) ‘ UK development aid’. Institute for fiscal studies, http://www.ifs.org.uk/budgets/gb2012/12chap7.pdf

Panelists
Laurent Bonnaud Laurent Bonnaud is an economic historian, with expertise in European transport infrastructure and aerospace. He holds an Honours degree from the University of Paris-Sorbonne (B.A. in History, D.Phil. summa cum laude), an MBA from ESSEC Business School and has been Senior Associate Member at St Antony’s College, Oxford University. He lectured on Europe and Globalization, 19th-20th centuries at Sciences-Po Paris and on Economic environment analysis at CELSA, Neuilly sur Seine. Prior to this, he was a Research associate in Economic history at Centre Roland Mousnier, University of Paris-Sorbonne and took part to numerous international research programs. Laurent also held responsibilities in the banking sector in France (BNP Paribas Group) and Germany (Dresdner Bank), with focus on Corporate banking, Credit decision, Risk and Process management. He is the author of “Le Tunnel sous la Manche. Deux siècles de passion”, published by Hachette in 1994. He edited “France-Angleterre : un siècle d’Entente cordiale, 1904-2004″ (L’Harmattan, 2004) which includes essays by Francois Crouzet, Charles Hargrove and Jean Lacouture. Laurent currently lives and works in Brussels.

Ceri Edmonds has worked for the UK Department for International Development since 1995 and is currently working at the UK Delegation to UNESCO in Paris. Ceri has worked in a range of fields of DFID activity and has extensive experience of working with international organisations. Previous roles include oversight of development aid to China, coordination of multilateral reform work, leading the DFID team on debt relief, global anti-corruption work including the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and DFID policy on EU development aid.

Student Organiser
Olivia Lipton: Olivia is a third year undergraduate student at the University of Birmingham reading International Relations with French. She is currently on her year abroad studying at SciencesPo Lyon. Olivia has strong interest in European Affairs and in the future hopes to undertake further studies within this field.