Rethinking Development Podcast

In this episode, Noaman and Safa reflect on the emergence, spread, political economy and impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on development work. ---> Link to Noaman's podcast ( Introduction to Political Economy). Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Referring to Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang's article "Decolonization is Not a Metaphor", Safa and Noaman discuss  the overuse and misuse of the term “decolonization” in the development sector and how Frantz Fanon and Amílcar Cabral can be role models for development workers. Links we mention: Intro to Political Economy Podcast with Noaman AliDecolonization is not a Metaphor by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne YangSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

For our Season 4 finale, we share a compilation of clips from our past 50+ episodes! Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Daniel Kobei is the Founder and Executive Director of the Ogiek Peoples' Development Program,  a Kenyan NGO working to secure human and land rights for the Indigenous Ogiek community as well as other Indigenous peoples across Kenya and Africa. Daniel represents Indigenous peoples under the umbrella of the International Indigenous Forum for Biodiversity and the Collaborative Partnership for Wildlife Management, set by the Convention of Biological Diversity. Daniel has been promoting the restoration of the Mau Forest Complex through Ogiek community involvement as a forest dwelling, hunter gathering community. Daniel helped lead the Ogiek to winning an eight year legal battle over land and human rights abuses at the African Court on Human and People's Rights in 2017. But four years later, the Ogiek community are still waiting for the implementation of that legal judgment. We speak about:the violation of the rights of the Ogiek community by the Kenyan stateresisting forced evictions & dispossession of ancestral landswining an 8 year long court case at the African Court on Human and People's Rights the support of regional and international Indigenous rights groups the undermining of Indigenous conservation knowledge the impact of climate change in the Mau Forest complex - and much more!Daniel joins us from Nairobi, Kenya.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Dr. Sabina Faiz Rashid is the Dean of the BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University in Bangladesh. Dr. Rashid specializes in ethnographic and qualitative research with a focus on urban slum communities and marginalized groups. She's particularly interested in examining the impact of structural and intersectional factors on the ability of those populations to realize their health rights and access to services. In 2008, she founded the Center for Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and in 2013, co-founded the Center for Urban Equity and Health. Both focus on research, capacity building and influencing program designs and policies in Bangladesh.  We speak about:BRAC’s approach to developmentco-thinking and co-creating with communities unpacking assumptions about the ‘Global South’ solution-based thinking  competency based learningbuilding a youth friendly research culturedecolonizing global health - and much more!   She joins us from Dhaka, Bangladesh.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Giorgos Kallis is an ecological economist, political ecologist, and Professor at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology in the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies. His research is motivated by a quest to cross conceptual divides between the social and the natural domains, with particular focus on the political-economic roots of environmental degradation and its uneven distribution along lines of power, income, and class. His current work explores the hypothesis of sustainable degrowth as a solution to the dual economic and ecological crisis. Giorgos is the author of the books 'Limits' and 'The Case for Degrowth'. We speak about:his intellectual journey and working across disciplinesthe history of the hegemony of growth  degrowth as one critique of capitalist economies 3 layers of articulating degrowth the climate crisis degrowth in high income countries vs. low income countries collective action and international solidaritiesengaging with a pluriverse of alternatives to capitalist growth - and much more!  He joins us from Barcelona, Spain.  Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Mahrukh 'Maya' Hasan is as a designer, researcher and strategic advisor who helps social impact organizations build joyful, equitable and innovative teams. She's the Founder and Director of Azura Labs, a social design and research studio that builds the capacity of international NGOs and UN agencies serving communities in Sub Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia. Last March, Maya also founded the Fearless Project, a diversity, equity and inclusion firm, which aims to champion trust, belonging and joy in the social impact sector. We speak about:entry barriers in the sectorresearch ethics and design justice moving beyond the binary of quantitative and qualitative data diversity, equity and inclusion workthe culture of fear amongst leaders emotional agility learning from other sectors - and much more! She joins us from Chiang Mai, Thailand. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Andrea Cornwall is currently Pro Director of Research and Enterprise and Professor of Global Development and Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. She is a political anthropologist and her research focuses on power, inclusion and rights. Some of her work has focused on reproductive and sexual health in Zimbabwe and Nigeria, citizen participation and accountability in health policy and governance in the UK and Brazil, and contestations over gender, empowerment, and rights in international development. She joins us from London, UK.  We speak about:applying an anthropological lens to the development sectorfashions, fads and buzzwords in development work interrogating  participatory methods analyzing power dynamics decolonizing international development studies social movements being the biggest catalysts for change care, leisure and compassion as part of a wholistic approach to development - and much more!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Shanthini Naidoo is a South African writer and former Sunday Times journalist. She is the author of the book which in South Africa is entitled: "Women in Solitary: Inside the Female Resistance to Apartheid" and in North America is entitled: "Women Surviving Apartheid Prisons". The book uses rich interview material to share the stories of four anti apartheid women leaders and activists who were part of “Trial 22” in 1969. They were held in solitary confinement and subjected to brutal torture in a bit to force them to testify against their comrades. They refused to do so, which forced the trial effort to collapse. We speak about:how mainstream media depicts women’s storiesthe role of women leaders in the struggle against apartheidthe context of the “Trial of 22’ that happened in 1969 South Africathe intergenerational legacy of trauma storytelling as a tool for healing the importance of remembering historical struggles for freedom - and much more!Shanthini joins us from Johannesburg, South Africa. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Marvi Rebueno-Trudeau is the Deputy-Executive Director of the Pilipinas Shell Foundation. She initially studied business management and founded a firm which represented foreign companies at the Asian Development Bank. Later she retired to Palawan, an island in the Philippines archipelago. Once there she was moved to come out of retirement in order to address various social issues in the community, namely malnutrition and high rates of malaria. She joined Pilipinas Shell Foundation, which funded a community-based province wide malaria program. The success of this malaria program enabled the foundation to be selected as a primary recipient of further grants from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. We speak about:a community based approach to malaria prevention, detection and treatment the importance of fostering the buy-in of government partners using the malaria program as a catalyst for system wide health strengthening  embodying transparency and accountabilitythe role of the private sector in community development ensuring sustainability in programming - and much more! She joins us from Palawan, Philippines. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Professor Haroon Akram-Lodhi teaches agrarian political economy at Trent University. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies, an Associate Editor of Feminist Economics, as well as a member of the Advisory Board for the Woman's Rights program of the Open Society Foundations. He further provides extensive advisory services to various UN agencies, including UN Women and the United Nations Development Program. And recently he repackaged some of his university courses into a podcast entitled: "Peasants, Food and Agrarian Change". We speak about:the gender dimensions of rural political economyfailings of dominant development discoursessocial movements and demanding rightsthe different interests and agendas of development stakeholders facing ethical issues in his consultancies & choosing not to work with some organizationsknowledge mobilization between academia and development agenciesthe human rights based approach /model the farmers protests in Indiathe impact of COVID-19 on development policies He joins us from Toronto, Canada. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Palwasha Hassan is a women's rights and peace activist who has pioneered many critical initiatives for the promotion of women's rights and civil society in Afghanistan. She has over 20 years of experience working in development and on women's rights and empowerment issues, both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She is a founding member of several civil society groups, including the Afghan Women's Education Center, Afghan Women's Network and Roazana. In addition she is a two time elected chairperson of the Afghan NGO coordinating body -ACBAR- and a former advisor to Afghanistan's High Peace Council. She also served as the first Afghan woman to head an international NGO in Afghanistan, as Country Director for Rights & Democracy. She was recognized for her accomplishments as one of the 1,000 PeaceWomen nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. We speak about:her experiences as an Afghan refugee in Pakistan the role of diaspora groups as one of the stakeholders in development processesworking on law reform in Afghanistan advocating for inclusive peace negotiations building a feminist movementchallenging reductive stereotypes of Afghan womenthe hostility and lack of support by some 'expat' women being overburdened by activist work and fighting on various frontsthe problematic ways some development policies are 'forced' on countries the need for more genuine international feminist solidarity - and much more! She joins us from Kabul, Afghanistan. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Jessica Oddy is an education in emergencies specialist and a PhD candidate at the University of East London's Centre for Migration, Refugees and Belonging, where she's also a lecturer as part of an Open Learning Initiative Higher Education preparation course for asylum seekers and refugees. Her current research focuses on diverse young people's experiences of education in emergencies, colonial legacies, and how race power and privilege intersect with humanitarian education responses. She has worked with organizations such as Oxfam, War Child UK, Save the Children, Lutheran World Federation, and others. We speak about:education as a protection issueracism in the aid sectorthe politics of knowledge production the demand for programming for adolescents in education in emergencies the narrative of educabilityher PhD journey & action research equity based design - and much more!She joins us from London, UK. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Uma Mishra-Newberry is a global social justice advocate and women's rights leader. She began her career in the US Army before becoming an educator and community organizer in the nonprofit and development sectors. She's the former Executive Director of Women's March Global and the initiator of and lead facilitator for the Racial Equity Index. We speak about:community organizingbuilding an intersectional feminist movementbeing in a position of leadershipthe crisis of funding in the women’s movementrejecting hustle culture and toxic work environmentsproblematizing white feminisminitiating the Racial Equity Indexworking as a collectivebeing conscious of our own biases - and much more. She joins us from Geneva, Switzerland. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

In the last episode of our S 3, host Safa shares some reflections and reads out letters from our listeners. We will be back soon with our S 4! Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Dr. Mohamed Ashmawey worked in program management and leadership in the private sector for 20 years, with organizations such as General Motors and the National Bank of Egypt. Later he joined the nonprofit sector as CEO of Islamic Relief USA, where he was credited with transforming the corporate culture of the NGO. He went on to become the CEO of Islamic Relief Worldwide, where he continued to lead quality improvements and organizational transformation. Since 2019, he has been serving as the CEO of Human Appeal, a British faith based humanitarian and development charity. He spoke to us about:differences between the corporate sector and the charity sectorchallenges to implementing organizational changes the advantages and disadvantages of being a faith based charityrejecting arrogance and working with humility the ongoing investigation of the Charity Commission into Human Appealimplementing accountability processes and practicing transparency the importance of investing in innovative researchactivity based approach vs. impact based approach redefining successthe difference between leadership and management - and much more! He joins us from Manchester, UK. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Dr. Deepak Gupta has over 28 years of experience as a program and strategic communication advisor for various UN agencies - including UNFPA, UNODC, UNICEF and WHO. He has designed and managed numerous large strategic communication interventions and advocacy campaigns on various development and health issues. His work on risk communication strategies in emergency situations, such as post-tsunami situations and avian influenza contexts, is particularly well noted. He is also a master trainer and expert faculty member at a number of different Institutes, where he leads courses related to strategic communication for development, and has also published extensively on strategic communication issues. He speaks to us about:The difference between C4D and corporate marketingRejecting the prescriptive approach to development Participatory methods The importance of interpersonal communication and human touchOvercoming challenges through catalytic change agents The pros and cons of social mediaMisinformation and rumours Contextualizing communication programs within local cultural settingsCOVID-19 strategic communication failures - and more!He joins us from New Delhi, India.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Rita Thapa has over 35 years of experience as a feminist educator and a community activist in Nepal and internationally. She is the founder of Tewa, the innovative philanthropic Nepal women's fund, and Nagarik Aawaz, a NGO engaged in conflict transformation and peace-building in Nepal. She's also the former Chair of the Executive Board of the Global Fund for Women and former Vice Chair of the Executive Board of the Urgent Action Fund. She currently serves as Chair of the Executive Board of the Global Fund for Community Foundations. Rita was named an Ashoka Fellow in 1998 and was included in the 1000 Women for Peace nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. She speaks to us about:overcoming aid dependency in Nepalan alternative model of fundraising and grantmakingdismantling hierarchies in work cultures fostering community ownershipchallenging patriarchy, caste and class divisionspolitics of developmentregional feminist solidarity - and much more!She joins us from Kathmandu, Nepal. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Noaman Ali is currently Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan. His research and teaching concerns the political economy of development. His current research examines rural class struggle, land reforms and sub national state formation in Pakistan, through a case study of the Frontier peasant movement in the former North West Frontier Province, led by the Mazdoor Kisan party in the 1970s. His work is interdisciplinary, bringing a historical and ethnographic sensibility to the study of political science. More broadly, he is interested in social movements, rural politics, state and non state power, agrarian and industrial policy, development states and political economy in general. He speaks to us about:interrogating power relationships and class differentiationsdecoupling development from economic growthredefining development as giving political power to the powerlessstructural transformations and the role of international financial institutionsdebt and capitalist logic incrementalism the unconscious class bias of development practitioners the NGO/development agency industrial complex the negative impact of green revolution technologies the importance of social movements - and much more!He joins us from Toronto, Canada. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Wafaa Saeed is currently the Deputy Director in the Operations and Advocacy division, covering Eastern and Southern Africa at UN OCHA, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. She has over 20 years of humanitarian work experience in complex settings. She has worked with WFP, UN OCHA and UNICEF in various roles in Sudan, Somalia, Indonesia, Syria, Pakistan and other countries. Prior to joining the UN, Wafaa worked as a lecturer at the University of Khartoum and as an architect in the private sector. She speaks to us about:her interest in working closely with communities / in the fieldgovernments in the leading role and UN organizations in the supporting roleempowering local government systemsmaking principled decisions / zero tolerance for fraudmaintaining the neutral humanitarian spacethe differential treatment between national vs. international staffthe 3 pillars of the UN reform processworking collectivelyher commitment to localization - and much more! She joins us from New York, USA. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Tanya Wood has more than 20 years of management experience in the humanitarian sector, in both headquarters and countries such as Guyana, Sri Lanka and Haiti. Her career has been focused on leadership roles within international membership organizations, including the IFRC, International Council of Voluntary Agencies, Neglected Tropical Disease NGO Network, and others. She is currently the Executive Director of the CHS Alliance and co-author of the Humanitarian Accountability Report 2020: Are we making aid work better for people affected by crisis? She speaks to us about: power dynamics in the sectorcombining patient led health approaches with aid delivery the idea of ‘the collective’ the history of the Core Humanitarian Standardthe data used in the reportthe need to measure commitments made to people affected by crisis the gap between policy and practiceindividual vs systemic change living our values and principleshow the standard can be improved - and much more! She joins us from Geneva, Switzerland. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Shuaib Chalklen is the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. During his term as UN Special Rapporteur he established the African Disability Forum and served as its first Chairperson. He currently serves as the Regional Coordinator for their Inclusion Works Program. Prior to this he worked in the Office of the President in South Africa and was responsible for developing South Africa’s first policy on disability rights. He is furthermore the co-editor of the book “Disability, Globalization and Human Rights” that was released this year. He speaks to us about:transitioning from being a community organizer and activist to a policy makerthe medical vs. social model of disabilitylack of political will for disability rights implementing the UN CRPDworking at the national, regional and international levelsaddressing extreme poverty the intersection of disability with race, class and other forms of discriminationholding governments to accountbuilding social movements and alliances - and much more!He joins us from Cape Town, South Africa. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Ousman Umar is a former child migrant who spent four years travelling on foot from Ghana to Libya to Spain. In 2012 he founded an NGO named NASCO Feeding Minds, which aims to create a network of IT centers with computer classrooms in rural Ghana in order to familiarize students with digital tools and facilitate their access to information. He has recently launched a social enterprise named NASCO Tech: Code Made in Africa, which aims to provide job opportunities for young IT graduates. He is also a writer and has published an autobiography entitled “Journey to the Land of the Whites”, where he shares his life story. He speaks to us about: His migration journeyRacism and anti-immigration sentiments in EuropeAddressing the root causes of migration The importance of education and job opportunities Exploitation and underdevelopment in Africa Being a leader and starting an NGOHorizontal vs. vertical aid Nature as our biggest teacher - and much more!He joins us from Barcelona, Spain. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Jessica Alexander is the editor of The New Humanitarian’s Rethinking Humanitarianism series. She is also a humanitarian aid worker with experience working in operations, evaluations, and policy. She has worked in Rwanda, Sudan, Haiti and other countries. Currently she teacher humanitarian affairs at numerous universities and has authored various policy papers, mainstream articles and a book entitled: “Chasing Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid.” She speak to us about: questioning her role in humanitarian work as an American womanthe intention for and content of the Rethinking Humanitarianism series grand claims to change vs. limitations within the sector localisation and anti-racism reactionary changes vs. a systemic overhaul the younger, incoming generation of aid workers - and much more! She joins us from Geneva Switzerland. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda is a human rights lawyer who has a decade of experience working with UNICEF other UN agencies and NGOs in the US, France, DR Congo, Mauritania, Nigeria and other countries. Her work has focused on strengthening national policies for the most vulnerable populations around the world, including working on child protection issues in emergencies. She has led the release and reintegration of children associated to armed groups and forces, incarcerated children as well as survivors of sexual violence. She is also a writer and one of the co-founders of the Collective for Black Iranians. She speaks to us about :double standards in lawpower inequalities in securing fundingthe white/western savior industrial complexquestioning the relevance of big HQsadvocating governments being declared persona non grata applying a constructively critical lens hierarchies amongst staffactivism as a way of life - and much more!She joins us from California, USA. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Dr. Filiberto Penados is a Maya educator and activist scholar whose work focuses on indigenous education and future-making. He has held faculty positions at the University of Belize and Galen University and has been adjunct faculty at University of Toronto, University of Belize and University of Manitoba. He has a long history of involvement in indigenous movements in Belize and Central America. He has taught, written and presented on various topics including the decolonization of education and development. He is currently Founding Advisor at the Centre for Engaged Learning Abroad and President of the Julian Cho Society (a Maya organization in southern Belize). He speaks to us about:decolonial education development with identityindigenous future-makingcolonialitydecentering powerrelationship to the landglobal solidarity and international legal instruments having humility - and much more! He joins us from Belize. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

In this episode, host Safa shares some thoughts about the evolution of the podcast, some common topics of past episodes and what to expect from season 3. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Yukako Sato worked with the World Food Programme (WFP) for 17 years. For the first half of her career, she coordinated food assistance programmes in countries such as Tajikistan, the Darfur region of Sudan and Yemen during the Arab Spring years. In her last assignment, she worked at the WFP headquarters as the Staffing Coordinator for the programme and policy function globally. In that role, Yukako facilitated the provision of talent management support that impacted about a quarter of the organization’s 15,000 global workforce in 80 countries. She led various initiatives such as talent deployment, talent acquisition and capability development. She also led the design and delivery of innovative blended learning programmes for leaders, and developed partnerships with top universities, with an aim to build the future talent pipeline for the organization. In 2018 Yukako transitioned to becoming an international Leadership Coach and is very passionate about working with international leaders globally. She speaks to us about working in emergency settings, designing creative and inventive food assistance programs, being a young female leader in a patriarchal culture, interagency cooperation and working with government partners, implementing accountability mechanisms, respecting the culture you are working in, building trust, supporting others in their careers - including those experiencing burnout, ensuring diversity in recruitment processes, important leadership practices, communication, connecting with her purpose and much more. She joins us from Tokyo, Japan. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment)

Kaveh Zahedi is the Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP). He oversees ESCAP’s economic, social and environmental programmes and the overall implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Prior to this, Kaveh worked at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as the Regional Director and Representative for Asia and the Pacific and Deputy Director of the Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, overseeing work on the green economy, resource efficiency and climate change. He speaks to us about the challenge of fundraising, creating coalitions and partnerships of the willing, policy level advocacy and cause and effect, adaptability, the coronavirus pandemic, investing in social safety nets, building resiliency, engineering change towards sustainability, UN structures and intersectoral approaches, demonstrating impact, the UN reform process, regional level cooperation, being impatient for change, the role of the private sector, ICT for development, rejecting a tolerance for inequality and much more. He joins us from Bangkok, Thailand.

Angela Bruce-Raeburn is currently the Regional Advocacy Director at the Global Health Advocacy Incubator, which supports advocates that work for the prevention of non communicable diseases that impact low and middle income countries. Previously she worked as the Senior Policy Advisor for the humanitarian response of Oxfam in Haiti from 2010 to 2013 in the aftermath of the earthquake. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Angela grew up in Brooklyn, New York. The immigrant experience drove her interest and commitment to choosing a career where she would be able to impact and improve the lives of others. She has written many op-eds on development and racism including “But wait until they see your black face” and “International development has a race problem”. Angela speaks to us about her immigrant experience, structural racism, Caribbean regional integration, the non linear career paths of BIPOC, the financial constraints of community organizations, white supremacy and the myth of the model minority, her experience working in Haiti, development as a white man's game, woke washing and the co-opting of anti racism messages by organizations, hashtag activism, white privilege and the Women Deliver example, speaking truth to power, structural change and much more. She joins us from Washington D.C, USA.

Qi Cui has over 18 years of experience as a senior professional in leading global health programs. She has especially worked to develop alliances with multi-sectoral partners to catalyze investment in health for higher impact and to identify and mitigate mission critical risks. She is currently the Senior Fund Portfolio Manager at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and focuses on managing a portfolio of infections disease resilience and health system strengthening programs in the Philippines, Cambodia and Thailand. Previously she served as Program Director at Marie Stopes International in China, where her work focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights for adolescents and young people as well as HIV/AID prevention. She speaks to us about working in China on taboo topics with stigmatized groups at a time when NGO’s where a new concept, her decision to pause her work in program implementation to get more training, her work at the Global Fund, actualizing country ownership and local governance structures, implementing robust and transparent financing measures, mutual accountability, promoting dialogue and public debate, gender discrimination, microaggressions, fluid power dynamics, gendered leadership stereotypes, measuring progress over time, the coronavirus pandemic, the need for common decency and much more. She joins us from Geneva, Switzerland.

Hannah Ryder is an economist by training, a former diplomat, and has close to 20 years of experience in international development. She is the founder and CEO of Development Reimagined, a pioneering international development consultancy firm and the first Kenyan wholly foreign owned enterprise in Beijing. Development Reimagined has built a niche in providing strategic advice and practical support to African, Chinese and international stakeholders on issues from the Belt and Road Initiative, to Africa’s growth markets, green growth and China’s foreign aid. Hannah also sits on the Executive Board of the British Chamber of Commerce in China and has played various advisory roles for the UN. She speaks to us about working with the UK government as an economist, disparities in capacities of global north and global south negotiating teams, the challenge of country ownership, centring developing country perspectives, the resource limitations of the UN, establishing Reimagining Development, China-Africa relations, debt as one tool in development, going beyond lazy solutions, working with and pushing the private sector, systemic change vs tinkering at the edges and and much more. She joins us from Beijing, China.

Magnus Saemundsson is currently the Senior Education Specialist at SIDA, the Swedish governmental agency for development cooperation, based in Cambodia. He initially worked as a secondary school teacher and lecturer in Sweden before transitioning to the Swedish Ministry of Education. He joined SIDA in 2003 and over the years has been serving as a Senior Education Expert in the Nordic region, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Laos, Cambodia and other countries. His work with SIDA Cambodia has focused on supporting the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport in improving quality assurance systems in learning and teaching, creating the first multi-donor trust fund to support capacity development at all levels of the education sector, supporting skills training programmes, through private-public partnerships and much more. He speaks to us about the historical and problematic ideas around development work, the Swedish approach to development cooperation, systematic and behaviour change, long term donor investment, the challenge of corruption, building trust, institutional memory residing with local staff and partners, the importance of communication in leadership, the power of knowledge, the role of art and culture, rethinking development support in the context of the pandemic and much more. He joins us from Phnom Phen, Cambodia.

Professor Khan is the Director of the UNESCO Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific and also serves as the UNESCO Representative for Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Timor-Leste. His key leadership and management areas at UNESCO have included science capacity building and policy advice across the region. He has coordinated key programs such as Water Education for Sustainable Development, Ecohydrology, water and ethics and many others. He is a founding fellow of the Academy of Engineering and Technology of the Developing World. He previously served as the Research Director of the Irrigated Systems and Rural Water Use areas of The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia and as Professor of Hydrology and Director of the International Centre of Water at the Charles Sturt University in Australia where he conducted policy research on the nexus of water, energy and food. He also continues to serve as Adjunct Professor at numerous universities in Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and China. He speaks to us about some of his scientific research, the importance of understanding the perspective of different stakeholders, data sharing across national boundaries, having tangible impact on the lives of beneficiaries, using a whole of the river and a whole of society approach, social inequalities and the environment, public-private partnerships, mobilizing all sectors of society, UNESCO’s COVID-19 related work and much more. He joins us from Canberra, Australia.

Devora Kestel is a senior global mental health policy expert with more than twenty-five years of international experience in Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America working on implementing and advising governments on national policies related to mental health systems. In 2000 she joined the WHO as a Mental Health Officer in post-war Kosovo and later served as WHO Representative in Albania. In both countries, she worked closely with the Ministries of Health to help establish comprehensive community-based mental health systems. In 2007 she joined the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) where she first worked as the Mental Health Advisor for the Caribbean Countries, and then at the headquarters in Washington DC, providing technical cooperation in the mental health field to the entire region of the Americas. In 2015 she became the Unit Chief for Mental Health and Substance Abuse and since 2019 has been serving as WHO's Director of Mental Health and Substance Abuse. She speaks to us about outdated views of mental health issues and mental health reforms, her transition from clinical practice to public policy, strategies and tools to advocate for increased government investment in mental health, fighting against the stigmas associated with both mental health and substance abuse, the building back better approach, the bureaucratic challenges of working in UN agencies, country level vs regional level work, the presence of corporate lobbying in the sector, the importance of having a more inclusive global representation in initiatives, mental health as the shadow pandemic behind the coronavirus pandemic and much more. She joins us from Geneva, Switzerland.

Arbie Baguios is currently a Programme Quality and Accountability Specialist at ActionAid UK. He studied development studies at the Ateneo de Manila University and the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has worked with Save the Children, the British Red Cross, ActionAid and others in the Philippines and the UK with missions to other countries. In Sept 2019 he founded Aid Re-Imagined, an initiative to help usher the evolution of aid towards justice and effectiveness through deep, radical, and evidence-based reflection and research. He has drafted a “re-imagined aid model” in a bid to offer a framework for designing, implementing and evaluating aid projects that are just and effective. He speaks to us about how development is taught in different countries, decolonizing project management tools such as the logframe, power dynamics amongst donors and agencies, pushing back against the status quo, audit culture, working in crisis mode, being more reflective, ActionAid's feminist principles, accountability as the responsible use of power, the new frontiers of the aid and development sector, his Aid-Re-Imagined project, and much more. He joins us from London, UK.

Dr Jeanette Gurung is a forester and gender equality and climate expert with many years of experience in the international development sector. She is the founder and Executive Director of WOCAN – Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management, a global network with over 1,300 members in 113 countries to support capacity building for women’s leadership and empowerment. She is the innovator of the W+ Standard ™ to measure, quantify and monetize impacts of projects on women, through the use of a results-based financing approach, providing ways for companies, governments, organizations and individuals to confidently drive and measure social and economic empowerment for women. She has managed projects for the Asian Development Bank (Harnessing Climate Change Mitigation to Benefit Women) and other UN and bilateral development agencies and led and served on numerous committees such as The Forest Dialogue Steering Committee, Gender Expert of the CGIAR Participatory Research and Gender Analysis Program, Advisor to the Forest Stewardship Council, FAO’s Policy Committee on Incentives for Ecosystem Services, and UNFCCC’s Expert Group on Gender and Climate and more. She speaks to us about being a female forester, pursuing gender mainstreaming in male dominated organizations, her Phd thesis on the same topic, the devaluation of women's labour in natural resource management, being motivated by frustration, innovating new standards, the struggle for financing gender and climate projects, working across sectors and silos, inclusive feminine leadership, climate reliance, nature based solutions, the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and much more. She joins us from Hawaii, USA.

Ann-Murray Brown is Jamaican and lived and studied in South Korea for some years before adopting The Netherlands as her second home. She is a seasoned monitoring and evaluation expert and has been involved in consultancies funded and implemented by the United Nations, the European Commission and others. She has conducted and commissioned many evaluations and designed Results-Based Management (RBM) systems to measure performance of programmes implemented in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Burundi, Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jamaica, Sierra Leone and several countries in Asia. The main focus of her work is Evaluation Capacity Building (ECB). Using visual storytelling, she translates technical M&E concepts and jargon into accessible language and conducts virtual and onsite workshops to this end. She speaks to us about monitoring and evaluation capacity building, participatory and bottoms up approaches, working as a civil servant, going beyond the idea of evaluation as a policing role, the importance of learning and accountability, having a seat at the table and representation, communities of practice, adaptive management and the COVID-19 pandemic, learning from mistakes, donor requirements, the different priorities of NGO vs private sector clients, applying a gendered lens, and much more. She joins us from Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Hugo Slim is a leading authority on the ethics of war and humanitarian action with a career that combines academia, diplomacy and operations. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC) at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. He was Head of Policy and Humanitarian Diplomacy at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from 2015-2020 and Chief Scholar at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue from 2003-2007. From 1994-2003 he worked as a frontline humanitarian for Save the Children and the United Nations in Morocco, Sudan, Ethiopia and the Palestinian Territories. He is the author of 30 refereed journal papers and several books, including: Killing Civilians: Method, Madness and Morality in War (Hurst/OUP, 2007) and Humanitarian Ethics: A Guide to the Morality of Aid in War and Disaster (Hurst/OUP 2015). He speaks to us about human rights and human duties, humanitarian diplomacy, working in academia, moral dilemmas, protection of civilians, the Geneva Conventions, the importance of public deliberations, localizing aid, resilience and empowerment, ethical leadership, rich world vs whole world discussions, the COVID-19 pandemic and much more. He joins us from Oxford, UK.

Pelumi Fadare is a polyglot who speaks nine languages. Her various professional experiences include working at the Spanish Embassy in Belgium, a consultancy with CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, where she supported the resourcing of young changemakers from the global south by designing and launching a pilot program called the Youth Action Lab and a current consultancy with Plan International. She is the co-founder of the social enterprise ApplicAid, an online mentorship platform that helps students apply for grants, financial aid and other subsidized educational opportunities. She also has a YouTube channel, Ninjanspiration, devoted to providing information to youth about educational funded opportunities, such as international conferences and study abroad programs. In 2018 she was a Youth Representative at the European Youth Hearings and in 2014 was a Youth Delegate at the Many Languages, One World Youth Forum held by the United Nations Academic Impact initiative. She speaks to us about her experiences as a youth changemaker, being a global citizen, co-design and participatory processes, founding a startup, improving access to and awareness of funded education opportunities for youth, being a 'doer', her thoughts on leadership, the importance of a multi-stakeholder approach, and much more. She joins us from Brussels, Belgium.

Paula Donovan is the co-director of AIDS-Free World, an international organization that advocates for institutional change with a focus on reforming powerful institutions’ responses to the social injustices that have allowed HIV to flourish. She has spent more than three decades working to advance women's and children's rights, both within the UN system—with UNICEF, UNIFEM and the Office of the UN Special Envoy on HIV and AIDS in Africa—and as a civil society advocate since she co-founded AIDS-Free World. She launched AIDS-Free World’s Code Blue Campaign in 2015 to end impunity for sexual exploitation and abuse by UN personnel, beginning with the military and civilian personnel involved in UN peacekeeping operations. She speaks to us about working to promote mothers' right to have control over infant feeding choices, structural injustices, the fear and stereotypes associated with the HIV crisis in eastern and southern Africa, activist movements, the failure of UN leaders to name and shame bad politicians, violence against women, advocating for the creation of a UN agency devoted to women's issues, the UN System Wide Coherence Agenda, fighting to end impunity in cases of sexual abuse and violence by UN staff, the UN convention on privileges and immunities, and much more. She joins us from Boston, USA.

Robert David Cohen is an award-winning poet, journalist, children’s rights expert and communications strategist. He is the director and co-founder of Rain Barrel Communications, a global consulting firm based in NYC. Rain Barrel gives strategic and tactical communications support and counsel to UN agencies and other international organizations, NGOs, governments, businesses and universities. Prior to founding Rain Barrel, Robert was a communication specialist for UNICEF. He worked in dozens of countries to facilitate dialogue, create partnerships, foster trust and find common ground among diverse stakeholders for a broad array of advocacy causes, many of them centered on the rights and well-being of children. He served as chief speechwriter to two successive Executive Directors, helping to articulate the mission of the organization on issues ranging from preventable child and maternal deaths and hunger to HIV/AIDS and child soldiers. Robert speaks to us about working as a journalist and editor in Latin America, working as a speech writer for Jim Grant, the power of language, the negotiations that took place behind the ratification of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, communication for development and unintentional harm, the existential challenge that is climate change, unjust economic and political models, multilateralism, new models of cooperation, the COVID-19 pandemic and much more. He joins us from New York City, USA.

Welcome to the Rethinking Development Podcast. The place where international development and humanitarian aid practitioners and leaders share their thoughts and reflections on ethics, challenges and the systemic issues that they face in their work.

A journalist by training, Mikel Aguirre worked as a radio reporter for the public broadcast of the Basque autonomous region in Spain before joining the UNESCO Jakarta regional office in 2011. He launched the first regional programme on Youth and Civic Engagement, where media played a central role as means to empowering youth and strengthening their voices. Since 2015, Mikel has been working at the UNESCO office in Myanmar where he is leading the organization’s programme on Freedom of Expression. He works closely with the government and journalists to open up a space for independent media as well as promoting the right to free expression as a critical element of the democratic transition that Myanmar initiated in 2012 after decades of military rule that kept the country isolated from the rest of the world. Mikel speaks to us about understanding the role of each development partner, identifying the distinctive advantage of your organization, defending freedom of expression, the importance of collaboration and multilateralism, planting small seeds that can grow over time, the power of the media and the complexities of representation, the need to educate media consumers to become more conscious consumers, UNESCO's funding and organizational structure, the importance of putting more effort in learning about the country you are working in, and much more. He joins us from Yangon, Myanmar.

Paula Claycomb began her career in journalism before transitioning to the UN system in 1989. She worked with UNICEF on social change communication in Rwanda, Kenya, Afghanistan, East Timor, Sudan and many other countries. She served as Chief of the Landmines and Small Arms Group and as Senior Advisor for Communication for Development, managing the development of policies, guidelines and standards at the global level. Since her retirement from UNICEF in 2012, Paula has provided consulting services in strategic planning and communication for development and is now the Director of Rain Barrel Communications, an international communications consulting firm that co-creates social good initiatives with partners, with a special orientation to the wellbeing of children. Paula speaks with us about the importance of dialogue and participation of effected populations in C4D, the need for long term campaigns, working in the context of genocide and the evolution of humanitarian thinking, mine risk education, simultaneously being an activist and a staff member, increasing resources for communication, learning from past mistakes, and much more. She joins us from Taos, USA.

Kamla Bhasin is an Indian feminist, activist, author and facilitator. She is the Co-Founder of "Sangat" – A Global Feminist Network. She facilitates Sangat's annual South Asian Feminist Capacity Building Course on Gender, Sustainable Livelihoods, Human Rights and Peace. She is also the South Asia Coordinator of "One Billion Rising" - a global campaign to end violence against women and girls. Kamla worked with the FAO for 27 years where her worked focused on rural development and women's empowerment in Thailand, Bangladesh, India and other Asian countries. Kamla has written extensively on gender, women’s empowerment, participatory and sustainable development, participatory training, media and communication. Most of her books are written for activists and development workers. She has also written a large number of songs and slogans for the women's movement and books for children. She speaks to us about trickle down theory vs evaporation theory, top down development not reaching the poor, the importance of local knowledge and leadership in development, peoples participation, rural realities and her work in rural journalism in the 1970s, intersectionality, hierarchies in international development organizations, her life-long commitment to the training of change agents, collective learning experiences, capitalist patriarchy, and much more. She joins us from New Delhi, India.

Andrea Burniske has more than 20 years of experience in international development, 15 of which were spent developing and leading programs and projects in countries such as Tajikistan, Peru, Colombia and Russia for various international development agencies. Her work has centered on environmentally sustainable economics and business development, women’s empowerment, and emergency responses, among other areas. She is currently working at Purdue University where she is the Chief of Party for a USAID-funded program named Long-Term Assistance and Solutions for Research (LASER) as part of the Partners for University-Led Solutions Engine (PULSE), which seeks to promote close collaboration around development challenges between academic researchers and NGOs and other development practitioners. She talks to us about the role of media in social development, social structures and power relationships, human flaws, working with government and donors, building trust by being in the field and developing sincere relationships, corruption, the bridge between academia and development and much more. She joins us from Lafayette, USA.

Gary Burniske is currently the Managing Director of the Center for Global Food Security within Discovery Park at Purdue University. He is responsible for the day to day management of the Center and networks with Purdue’s faculty and scientists to take a multi-disciplinary approach to tackling global challenges affecting food security. Before joining Purdue, Gary served as Country Director for Mercy Corps in Colombia and Tajikistan, and Country Director for the Institute for Sustainable Communities in Russia. He also worked as Regional Technical Advisor in Agriculture and Natural Resources with CARE covering 25 countries in Asia and Latin America. He speaks to us about the transition from emergency to development work, food for work programs, politicization of funding and the role of donors, behaviour change, working as a country director, clustering of programs, plan for phasing out vs continuous problems at different time periods, the role of the military in aid, the complexities of drug policies, working in academia and much more. He joins us from Lafayette, USA.

Dr. Patricia Omidian is a medical anthropologist and international development consultant. She is also the co-founder of Focusing Initiatives International, an international NGO that supports the development of community wellness programs and trains trainers and local practitioners in public health approached to wellness and trauma healing. She has many years of international experience primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan working with different organizations including Save the Children, WHO, IRC and more on research and evaluation, community health, social reintegration, peace building, psychosocial wellness and education. She speaks with us about addressing the layers of intergenerational war time and refugee experience related trauma, cultural modalities of healing, the concept of safety, and much more. She joins us from Oregon, USA.

Paul Barker began his career as a peace corps volunteer in Iran before beginning to work with a variety of organizations primarily in humanitarian contexts in Sudan, Ethiopia, West Bank and Gaza, Afghanistan and more. Over the years he has worked on addressing the underlying causes of social issues in vulnerable areas through policy analysis, advocacy and improved program design. He has held numerous Country Director positions with CARE and Save the Children where he led programs that addressed important social issues such as emergency feeding, maternal and child health, rural credit and micro finance programs, water and sanitation, peace building, child rights governance and child protection, climate change adaptation and mitigation and more. He speaks to us about the joy of working in rural communities, working with governments, internal tracking and accounting systems, the role of the media, a sense of urgency, the role of the military, and much more. He joins us from Portland, USA.

Richard Morgan has over 20 years of experience working in international development. He is currently the International Advocacy Director at Plan International. Prior to this he was the Director of the "child poverty" theme for Save the Children, where he co-founded and co-led the Global Coalition to End Child poverty. Previously he was a Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of UNICEF on the post 2015 Sustainable Development Agenda where he co-led a global consultation and policy analysis on inequalities. Richard earlier served as the director of policy and practice at UNICEF HQ where he was responsible for leading on policy, standards and practices in the areas of gender equality, children's rights, child and youth participation, social statistics and communication for development. Richard speaks to us about the MDGs and SDGs, disaggregating data on inequalities, using a human rights approach, child participation in policy processes, the interface of children's rights with economics, and more. He joins us from London, UK.