BZU hosts the President of Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Dr. David Malone

 Malone, who has extensive international diplomatic and political experience and has written on peace and security issues, delivered a lecture entitled: "Evolving Conceptions of Development" at the Institute of Law-BZU on 7 March 2011.

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The Acting President, Dr. Adnan al-Yahya, welcomed the guest speaker, briefing the attendees on Dr. Malone's biography " Dr. David Malone became President of Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), one of the world's leading institutions in the generation and application of new knowledge to meet the challenges facing developing countries, on 1 July 2008. From 2006 to mid-2008. he served as Canada's High Commissioner to India and non-resident Ambassador to Bhutan and Nepal Prior to his nomination to India. From 2004 to 2006, he was Assistant Deputy Minister in Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade responsible initially for Africa and the Middle East and subsequently for Global Issues."

Dr. Yahya added: "From 1998 to 2004, Dr. Malone was President of the International Peace Academy, an independent research and policy development institution in New York. From 1994 to 1998 he served within Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade as Director General of its Policy, International Organizations and Global Issues Bureaus. During this period he also acquired a D.Phil. from Oxford University with a thesis on decision making in the UN Security Council. From 1992 to 1994, he was Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations, where he chaired the negotiations of the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (the Committee of 34) and the UN General Assembly consultations on peacekeeping issues. From 1990 to 1992, he represented Canada on the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and related bodies. Earlier foreign assignments took him to Egypt, Kuwait and Jordan."

He is a graduate of l'Université de Montréal, of the American University in Cairo, and of Harvard and Oxford Universities. He was a Guest Scholar in the Economic Studies Program of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto, and a Guest Scholar of the Economics Department of Columbia University, 1988-89.

Dr. Malone's lecture focused on the components of development, addressing Sudan, China and India as case studies. He commenced with the recent economic and financial crises that have affected development all over the world. He added that the most recent economic and financial crisis, which originated in the western world was in the United States, and then moved to other western countries. In this regard, Asia, Africa and Latin America were able to sustain their economic growth.

 He addressed some considerations about two Asian societies, namely China and India, stating that both have different government systems, with an authoritarian system in China and a real democracy in India. He added that China during the Maoist era has suffered from starvation, and at a later stage China was able to develop a program of agricultural development, and became a model for industrialization, knowing that reform has started in 1978.

Dr, Malone moved to speak about India, which was under the British mandate, and never cared about agriculture, leading the country to a terrible economic situation. When the British left India in 1947, the government focused on food security, and during Indira Ghandi's rule in the 1970s, India has undergone a green revolution.

Finally, he addressed several factors of governance, by using examples, stating "In Haiti, after they won their  independence from the French, they plunged into dictatorship, while Pakistan has been in a terrible vicious circle." Malone compared Argentina to Canada 110 years ago, where Argentina was richer than Canada. But, the political system in Argentina has never recovered, making it difficult for economic development

 He concluded by saying that there are many bad governance models, but when we think about development, we shouldn't think only about economics, since many issues matter in development, especially law, sociology research, etc... all are crucial to the development process.