News
Scholars and policy makers examine poverty’s “structural roots” at Yale conference
The Structural Roots of Poverty: Theory Meets Practice, the fourth annual conference co-hosted by the Global Justice Program and Global Financial Integrity, took place February 14-16, 2013 in Yale’s Connecticut Hall.
The conference commenced on the morning of Thursday, February 14, with opening remarks from Thomas Pogge (Yale University) and a panel discussion on tax policy, which featured Reuven Avi-Yonah (University of Michigan) and Dan Reeves (formerly IRS) and was moderated by Anne Alstott (Yale University). Very regrettably, Stephen Cohen (Georgetown University) could not attend and participate in Thursday's tax panel. Unforeseen circumstances kept him in Washington, D.C. However, he graciously sent his remarks to be read for him by Professor Alstott. Following the panel, Leonard McCarthy (World Bank) gave an address. The afternoon session opened with a panel on financial transparency, which featured Monica Bhatia (OECD), Jack Blum (Tax Justice Network USA), and Corinna Gilfillan (Global Witness), and was moderated by Tom Cardamone (Global Financial Integrity). Daniel Kaufmann (Revenue Watch) gave an address, and Raymond Baker (Global Financial Integrity) gave closing remarks.
Friday, February 15, featured discussion of priorities for development after 2015, when the Millennium Development Goals expire. Gilad Tanay (Academics Stand Against Poverty) provided opening remarks and moderated the first panel, which focused on governance and global institutional reform and featured Thomas Pogge (Yale University), Ignacio Saiz (Center for Economic and Social Rights), Atul Singh (Fair Observer), and Sam Worthington (InterAction). James Fishkin gave a midday address, and the day concluded with a panel discussion on the relationship between the post-Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals. This panel featured Bernadette Fischler (CAFOD) and Maria Ivanova (University of Massachusetts Boston) and was moderated by Mitu Sengupta (Ryerson University). Unfortunately, Wael Hmaidan (Climate Action Network International) was not able to attend the conference and participate in this discussion.
Saturday, February 16, was broken into two sessions, one focusing on global health and the other on climate change. The health session featured freestanding presentations from Amrita Palriwala (Open Society Institute), Thomas Pogge (Yale University), John-Arne Røttingen, and Mel Spigelman (TB Alliance) and was moderated by Zorka Milin (Yale University). Jeffrey Sachs (Columbia University) gave the keynote address, which focused on the post-2015 development agenda. The afternoon session, devoted to climate justice, featured Michael Gerrard (Columbia University), Tony Huydecoper (formerly Supreme Court of the Netherlands) Sébastien Jodoin (One Justice Project), Paul Joffe (World Resources Institute), and Jaap Spier (Supreme Court of the Netherlands), and moderated by Michael Dorsey (Wesleyan University). Thomas Pogge gave closing remarks, which focused on the overarching theme of strengthening global governance to combat poverty.
Several projects supported by the Global Justice Program were discussed during the conference. Academics Stand Against Poverty’s campaign to influence the successors to the Millennium Development Goals was discussed on Friday, and challenges and opportunities for piloting the Health Impact Fund were discussed by panelists and audience members on Saturday during the global health session.
PowerPoint presentations and video footage from the conference will soon be available on this site and at www.academicsstand.org.
The event was made possible through the generous support of the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund, administered by the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University, the MacMillan Center’s Global Justice Program, Global Financial Integrity, the Comparative Research Programme on Poverty at the University of Bergen, Academics Stand Against Poverty, Incentives for Global Health, and by the Orville H. Schell, Jr.
Center for International Human Rights Law at Yale Law School.
Yale GJP members to help establish global justice program in Delhi
Global Justice Program Director Thomas Pogge and Senior Fellow Ashok Acharya, along with Luis Cabrera of the University of Birmingham, were recently awarded a grant by the British Council’s UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) to develop a global justice program at the University of Delhi.
The Nyaya Global Justice Programme will provide a unique intellectual center for the study of international normative questions that have strong resonance in the Indian context, and elsewhere in the Global South. These could include the role of India and other BRIC countries in the World Trade Organization, G20, and the UN Security Council; fairness in international trade; cooperation for poverty alleviation; and ethics in global security issues.
“I’m overwhelmed by the news,” said Acharya, who will serve as Director of the Nyaya programme. “Setting up a global justice program in India, and especially at the University of Delhi, has been a dream project that I have been nurturing for the past 10 years or so. I’m sure, once established, this will grow from strength to strength and bring together the best of the minds from across the world and apply them to resolve key global inequities.”
Nyaya – the term means ‘justice’ in Hindi -- will also serve as the center for an India-UK-US exchange program, connecting the University of Delhi, Birmingham University’s Centre for the Study of Global Ethics, and the Global Justice Program.
In 2013 and 2014, the Nyaya Programme will hold workshops at the University of Delhi and Birmingham, exchange programs that bring students from Delhi to Birmingham and Yale, and a global justice lecture series that will bring UK and US researchers to Delhi.
This program will provide new connections for global justice scholars around the world.
For more information, contact Dr. Ashok Acharya at aacharya.du@gmail.com
The Structural Roots of Global Poverty: Theory Meets Practice.
The Yale MacMillan Center’s Global Justice Program and Global Financial Integrity proudly present "The Structural Roots of Global Poverty: Theory Meets Practice." This three-day conference, held at Yale University on February 14th, 15th, and 16th, will bring together academic, advocacy, and policy communities to address the structural roots of global poverty relating to illicit financial flows and tax policy, the post-2015 development agenda, climate change, and global health.
The conference will commence on the morning of Thursday, February 14th with a day-long exploration of the relationship between tax policy, illicit financial flows, and global poverty. Friday, February 15th will feature discussion of priorities for development after 2015, when the Millennium Development Goals expire. Speakers will be encouraged to focus on the themes of governance and global institutional reform, inclusive participatory consultation, and merging the environmental sustainability and poverty alleviation agendas. Saturday, February 16th will be broken into two sessions, one focusing on climate change and global poverty, and the other on international cooperation for innovation in global health. The conference will conclude Saturday evening.
A finalized conference schedule, including conference location, will be available shortly.
Registration is free but necessary. Please e-mail structuralroots@gmail.com to register.
For additional information on the Global Justice Program, please visit www.yale.edu/macmillan/globaljustice. To learn more about Global Financial Integrity, go to http://www.gfintegrity.org/.
This event is made possible through the generous support of the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund, the Comparative Research Program on Poverty, Global Financial Integrity, and Academics Stand Against Poverty.
Students and scholars gather to honor Rawls's work and life
The event that for the last few months we have been calling "Rawls Fest" took place last Friday, November 30, 2012, in the Faculty Room of Yale's Connecticut Hall. This one-day workshop was held in honor of the 10th anniversary of John Rawls' passing (November 24, 2002). more...
Krishen Mehta of GFI speaks to Global Justice Fellows
Krishen Mehta, Co-Chairman of the Advisory Board of Global Financial Integrity at the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC (http://www.gfintegrity.org/), and former partner with PwC recently shared his insights on the relationship between global taxation and social justice. In a fast-paced talk, Mehta outlined the problem of developing countries’ illicit capital outflows, which exceed by far inflows of foreign aid. He also drew on his long professional experience to explain the issues of tax havens, trade mispricing and tax evasion. Mehta then shared a multitude of reform proposals ranging from strategies to reign in tax havens, a global corporate minimum tax, improved banking and accounting regulations (e.g. country-by-country reporting) and a global financial transaction tax. These proposals were energetically discussed in the Q&A with seminar participants afterwards.
Health Impact Fund praised in NYTimes op-ed on drug resistance
The Health Impact Fund was mentioned in a New York Times op-ed as having the potential to limit the growth of drug resistance. Carl F. Nathan, the chairman of the department of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College and author of the opinion piece, writes that growing drug resistance and a dwindling supply of antibiotics pose a grave threat to the practice of medicine. According to Nathan, innovation in antibiotics is lagging because they much less profitable for pharmaceutical companies than are medicines to treat widespread chronic diseases. However, with the creation of an intergovernmental fund for drug innovation, like the Health Impact Fund, companies could make new antibiotics widely available at a low price and be rewarded on the basis of their health impact, rather than relying on patent protection and large markups to make a profit. Creating incentives for developing new antibiotics and making widely accessible is essential to managing bacterial disease, according to Nathan.
The entire op-ed is available here.