Harvard Center for International Development

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 center on the challenges of economic transformation and adapting to climate change in developing countries and vulnerable communities. > Dan Stock rejoined the Center for International Development's Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2015. He also held this position from 2011-2013. He studies how countries apply proactive strategies to promote structural transformation. His research focuses on using network models to uncover new opportunities for diversifying exports and attracting new sources of investment. Prior to joining CID, Daniel was a Junior Professional Associate at the World Bank, working with governments to improve the investment climate for local businesses and FDI. Daniel has also worked as a researcher at the MIT Media Lab's Macro Connections group, and a Research Intern at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Santiago, Chile. Daniel earned a B.S. in Quantitative Economics and International Relations from Tufts University.

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, she was an independent consultant working for the World Bank on issues of governance, and the Hewlett Foundation on strategic planning for one of their grantees. She has worked as a senior program manager at Google.org, leading a transparency and accountability initiative focused on empowering citizens and decision makers, by making information on service delivery outcomes, publicly available. Salimah has also worked at the World Bank as a social/rural development and monitoring and evaluation specialist in South Asia. She has a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo (Canada) and a Masters in Public Administration in International Development (MPAID) from the Harvard Kennedy School. She is a qualified Casualty Actuary who decided to change careers after her 18-month experience working in Afghan refugee camps with a Canadian NGO (FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance) based in Pakistan. Salimah has worked and lived in Kenya, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Canada and the USA. 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 theoretical understanding of the nontechnical factors influencing success in reform processes. Specific emphasis lies on the informal institutional context of reform, as well as leadership structures within government-wide networks. This research developed out of his work in the provincial government of Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa and more recently from his tenure as a Public Sector Specialist working in the Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank. He brings this experience to courses on public management and development. He holds a BCom (Hons) degree from the University of Natal, Durban (South Africa), an MSc from the University of London, and a PhD in Public Administration from the Maxwell School, Syracuse University.

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 research in her home country of Nepal. She holds a Master’s in Public Administration (Economic Policy) from Princeton University, and an undergraduate degree in Economics and Chemistry from Amherst College. Her previous professional backgrounds included research positions at the IMF and consultancies at UNICEF and the World Bank. Priya also initiated, co-designed and was part of the board of an innovative mobile library project in Nepal, one of the World Bank Development Marketplace 2003 Education Sector Project winners.

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 numerous professional journals. Professor Schydlowsky holds a BA and MA in Economics and an LLB from San Marcos University, Peru, and an MA and PhD in Economics from Harvard. He was awarded a Doctorate honoris causa by San Marcos University, Peru, in November, 2015.

CID Student Ambassador Abeela Latif interviews Jamil Salmi, Global Tertiary Education Expert. Jamil talks about the role of the private sector in advancing tertiary education about the global regions that have made most progress in terms of improving access to education and how the regions that are lagging behind can move forward. Jamil also talks about why he remains optimistic and thinks we are about to witness a revolution in the way we learn. // www.cid.harvard.edu // Interview Recorded on February 9th, 2018. About Jamil Salmi: Dr. Salmi is a global tertiary education expert providing policy advice and consulting services to governments, universities, professional associations, multilateral development banks and bilateral cooperation agencies. Until January 2012, he was the World Bank’s tertiary education coordinator. He wrote the first World Bank policy paper on higher education reform in 1994 and was the principal author of the Bank’s 2002 Tertiary Education Strategy entitled “Constructing Knowledge Societies: New Challenges for Tertiary Education”. In the past twenty-three years, Dr. Salmi has provided advice on tertiary education development, financing reforms and strategic planning to governments and university leaders in about 95 countries all over the world.

CID research fellow Ljubica Nedelkoska interviews Minister Pandeli Majko, Minister of Diaspora at the Republic of Albania. The Minister talks about the recently created Diaspora ministry, about the recent efforts Albania has done to engage with its community leaving abroad and the upcoming strategy to strengthen this community’s relationship with the homeland. // www.cid.harvard.edu // About Minister Majko: Pandeli Majko was born in Tirana on November 15, 1967. He graduated from the University of Tirana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (1986-1992). He also completed his studies at the Faculty of Law at the same university (1994-2000). Mr. Majko has an extensive political career. From 1992 to 1995, Mr. Majko served as President of the Euro-Socialist Youth Forum of Albania (FRESSH). He served two terms as Secretary-General of the Socialist Party of Albania and as Head of its Parliamentary Group. He also held twice the post of Minister of Defense when the Socialist Party was in power. His political career culminated in 1998-1999 when he became Prime Minister of Albania. In 2002, he became once again Prime Minister for eight months. Additionally, he was member of the Parliamentary Committee for drafting of the Albanian Constitution (1997-1998). Mr. Majko served as a Member of Parliament of Albania for six consecutive terms. He has also served as Chairman of the Albanian delegation of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly as well as member of the Committee on Legal Affairs, Public Administration and Human Rights. Mr. Majko is fluent in English and Italian.

Alexandra Gonzalez, estudiante embajadora del CID, entrevista a Miguel Angel Santos, Profesor Adjunto de Políticas Públicas en la escuela de política de Harvard e investigador senior en el Centro para el Desarrollo Internacional de la Universidad. Miguel habla sobre el proyecto de investigación del Centro que tiene como objetivo entender las oportunidades de diversificación de exportación de Panama e identificar las restricciones vinculantes que el país puede encontrar en el proceso de logar un desarrollo económico sustentable. Mas información disponible en: www.cid.harvard.edu https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/panama

CID Student Ambassador Alexandra Gonzalez interviews Miguel Angel Santos, Adjunct Professor in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School and Senior Research Fellow, Center for International Development at Harvard University. Miguel Angel talks about CID's research initiative aimed at exploring export diversification opportunities and understanding the potential binding constraints that Panama can run into in the process of shifting gears towards a sustainable economic growth. More info available on: --> www.cid.harvard.edu --> www,growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/panama 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 at the Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University. At CID, he has been involved in various research projects aimed at helping governments to rethink their development strategies, both at the national and sub-national levels. Since he joined CID in August 2014, he has been involved in projects at the national level in Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela, and at the sub-national level in Mexico in the states of Chiapas, Baja California, Tabasco and Campeche; and the city of Hermosillo at Sonora state. He has also performed as project manager in the projects leading to the build-up of the Mexican Atlas of Economic Complexity, and the Peruvian Atlas of Economic Complexity. Before joining the field of international development, Miguel worked for ten years in corporate finance and business development in Latin America, performing as Director of Finance for the Cisneros Group of Companies (1997-2003), Head of Corporate Finance for Mercantil Servicios Financieros (2005-2007), and Business Vice-President for Sony Pictures and Entertainment Latin America (2008-2009). At that point, he decided to switch tracks and get involved in development economics. He holds two Master of Science degrees in International Finance and Trade (2011) and Economics (2012) from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University (2014), and a Ph.D. in Economics at Universidad de Barcelona (2016). He was the head of the Macroeconomic Policy Team for presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski in the Venezuelan elections of 2012.

CID Student Ambassador Emily Ausubel interviews Todd Moss, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development and Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. Todd talks about the future of US Development Policy under the Trump administration, about the government’s new priorities and how they can impact global development programs. Interview recorded on December 1st, 2017 Visit www.cid.harvard.edu for more information about CID's research and events. About Todd Moss: Todd Moss is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development where his research focuses on US-Africa relations, energy policy, and private investment. Moss is also a nonresident scholar at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute and an adjunct professor at Georgetown. He served as COO/VP at the Center from 2009-2016. Moss is currently working on electrification in Africa, cash transfers in new oil economies, and ideas for upgrading US development finance tools. In the past he led CGD’s work on Nigerian debt, reconstruction in Zimbabwe, the future of the World Bank’s soft loan IDA, and the African Development Bank. Moss served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State 2007-2008 while on leave from CGD. Previously, he has been a Lecturer at the London School of Economics (LSE) and worked at the World Bank, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and the Overseas Development Council. Moss is the author of numerous articles and books, including African Development: Making Sense of the Issues and Actors (2011) and Oil to Cash: Fighting the Resource Curse with Cash Transfers (2015). Moss also writes an international thriller series for Penguin’s Putnam Books about a State Department crisis manager including The Golden Hour (2014), Minute Zero (2015), Ghosts of Havana (2016), and The Shadow List (forthcoming 2017).

CID Student Ambassador Abeela Latif interviews Niharika Singh, Ph.D. Student Affiiate, and Zainab Qureshi, Senior Program Manager, both at Harvard University's Evidence for Policy Design Program. Niha and Zainab talk about a decade-long research project lead by the Evidence for Policy Design Program that aims at understanding Pakistan’s education landscape and examine how to catalyze innovation in the country’s education ecosystem. www.cid.harvard.edu / Interview recorded on November 3rd, 2017. About the interviewees: Niharika Singh is a PhD candidate in Public Policy at Harvard University and co-principal investigator on a LEAPS study examining the effects of providing unconditional cash grants to rural low cost private schools in Pakistan. Her research interests span a range of topics in development and labor economics. She received her BA in Economics from McGill University and worked as a research assistant in India and the U.S. prior to graduate school. Zainab Qureshi is the LEAPS Senior Program Manager at EPoD, overseeing implementation of Education and policy research in Pakistan. She has previously worked at various organizations across the Education sector in Pakistan, implementing low cost Education delivery programs and developing an alternate model of education for low income schools. She holds a Master’s in Education (Ed.M.) from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a BA in Economics and International Development from McGill University.