Friday, April 12, 2013
Can It Be Replicated? A Look at Rwanda’s Development Gains in Context
Session Description
Rwanda is an oft-cited example of development progress. Never before has a post-conflict country – especially one with such a storied past – been on a path to reach global development milestones. Rwanda is on track to meet Millennium Development Goals in education and health and is the ninth fastest growing economy globally, with real growth exceeding expectations in 2012 at 7.8%. Yet, Rwanda also faces increasing international scrutiny for its political challenges both internally and with neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. Join us for a discussion on progress, politics and potential.
When | Where
09:00 - 10:45
Friday, April 12
Lecture Theatre 4
Session leaders
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President, Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice
Mary Robinson is President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice. She served as President of Ireland from 1990-1997 and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997-2002. She is a member of the Elders and the Club of Madrid and the recipient of numerous honours and awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the President of the United States Barack Obama. She sits on the advisory board of Sustainable Energy For All (SE4All) and is also a member of the Lead Group of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement. Between March 2013 and August 2014 Mary served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa and from August 2014 to end of 2015 she served as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change.
A former President of the International Commission of Jurists and former chair of the Council of Women World Leaders she was President and founder of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative from 2002-2010 and served as Honorary President of Oxfam International from 2002-2012.
Mary Robinson serves as Patron of the Board of the Institute of Human Rights and Business, is an honorary member of The B Team, in addition to being a board member of several organisations including the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and the European Climate Foundation. She serves as Chancellor of the University of Dublin since 1998. Mary’s memoir, Everybody Matters was published in September 2012.
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Vice Chancellor, University of Global Health Equity
Professor Agnes Binagwaho, MD, M(Ped), PhD is a Rwandan pediatrician who specializes in emergency pediatrics, neonatology, and the treatment of HIV/AIDS. From 1986 to 2002, she practiced medicine in public hospitals in Rwanda and several other countries. In addition to her medical degree and master’s in pediatrics, in 2014 she was awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) from the College of Business and Economics at the University of Rwanda.
She worked 20 years in the public health sector in Rwanda and served in high-level government positions, such as the Executive Secretary of Rwanda's National AIDS Control Commission from 2002 to 2008, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health from 2008 to 2011, and from 2011 to July 2016 as the Minister of Health.
She chaired the Rwanda Country Coordinating Mechanism of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS (CCM), Tuberculosis, and Malaria and the Steering Committee of the Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). She co-chaired the Millennium Development Goal Project Task Force on HIV/AIDS and Access to Essential Medicines for the Secretary-General of the United Nations under the leadership of Professor Jeffrey Sachs.
She now chairs the Rwandan Pediatric Society and is a member of the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries.
In 2015, she received two awards: the 2015 Roux Prize through the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) for her use of Global Burden of Diseases data to reduce infant mortality in Rwanda, and the Ronald McDonald House Charities Award of Excellence for her contribution to improving the health of children.
She is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a Professor of the Practice of Global Health Delivery at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda, and an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.
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Founder and CEO, Bridge2Rwanda
Dale Dawson is Founder and CEO of Bridge2Rwanda, a social enterprise that facilitates business development in Rwanda and creates opportunity for Rwandan students to study abroad. He serves on President Paul Kagame's Presidential Advisory Council and the Urwego Opportunity Bank, Rwanda's largest microfinance bank. In the first half of his career, Dale was an investment banker, entrepreneur and KPMG partner.
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Senior editor, Economist
Matthew Bishop, senior editor, The Economist Group, is an award-winning journalist. His roles at The Economist have included Business Editor, Wall Street Editor, Globalisation Editor and New York Bureau Chief. He is the author of several books, including Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World (featuring the Skoll Foundation and described as “important” by President Bill Clinton); The Road From Ruin, which set out an agenda for the reform of capitalism after the 2008 crash; and In Gold We Trust? The Future of Money In An Age Of Uncertainty, which told the history of money through to the emergence of digital currencies such as Bitcoin. His "Economics: An A-Z Guide", which explains the basics of economics for non-experts, is just out. He curates The Economist's influential conferences on impact investing; fintech;; innovation; and the future of work. He was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Global Governance, the Official Report author of the G8 Taskforce on Social Impact Investment and a member of the Advisors Group of the UN International Year of Microcredit. He co-founded and advises the #givingtuesday campaign and the Social Progress Index.
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Medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer has dedicated his life to improving health care for the world's poorest people. He is Co-founder and Chief Strategist of Partners In Health (PIH), an international non-profit organization that since 1987 has provided direct health care services and undertaken research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. Dr. Farmer and his colleagues in the U.S. and abroad have pioneered novel community-based treatment strategies that demonstrate the delivery of high-quality health care in resource-poor settings.
Dr. Farmer holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he is the Kolokotrones University Professor and the Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School; he is also Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. Additionally, Dr. Farmer serves as the United Nations Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Community Based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti.
Dr. Farmer has written extensively on health, human rights, and the consequences of social inequality. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association, the Outstanding International Physician (Nathan Davis) Award from the American Medical Association, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and, with his PIH colleagues, the Hilton Humanitarian Prize. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
