Social Science Research Council

International Forum for Development
October 18-19, 2004
New York City

In October 2004, the first annual International Forum for Development (IFD) will convene in New York City. The IFD brings together academics, intellectuals, political leaders, journalists, business leaders, NGOs and organized labor movements in an effort to identify the ways in which the forces of globalization can be harnessed to promote greater social equity and to work to find viable alternatives to trade liberalization strategies.This year, the Forum will focus on development failures of the current orthodoxy, specifically as they relate to growth and employment and the implications of developed-country trade policy on developing countries. The event will begin on Monday the 18th with sessions addressing the themes of growth and employment, as well as developed-country trade policy, led by IFD co-chairs Professor Deepak Nayyar and Dr. Ha-Joon Chang, respectively. A public session, open to interested parties concerned with social justice and equitable development, will follow, featuring a roundtable of prominent members from civil society organizations, labor movements, academia and policymaking circles.On Tuesday, October 19, the IFD will bring together UN delegates and civil society organizations for an open discussion, as well as conduct a number of smaller working sessions to address themes of particular concern to the NGO and civil society community. The day will conclude with a roundtable to discuss ways of implementing alternative development policies.We have confirmed the participation of several IFD Special Advisory Council members, including Nobel Prize winner and former Chief Economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University; José Antonio Ocampo, former Colombian Finance Minister and former Executive Director of ECLAC, and currently the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs; Mary Robinson, former President of the Republic of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights; and Thandika Mkandawire, Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. The economists and intellectuals that comprise the Forum’s Steering Committee will also attend.

By uniting the often disconnected voices of academics, decision-makers and policymakers, journalists, labor movements, NGOs and other branches of civil society, the 2004 IFD will open up a unique space in which strategies can be developed to harness the forces of globalization in ways that are genuinely developmental and practicable for countries of the global South.