'The UK’s development strategy and the new economic and geopolitical challenges' with Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP, Minister for Development and Africa

07 March 2024

Portrait of Professor Ricardo Soares de Oliveira

with Professor Ricardo Soares de Oliveira
 Professor of the International Politics of Africa

Ricardo Soares de Oliveira is Professor of the International Politics of Africa at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford; Official Fellow of St Peter's College; and a Fellow with the Global Public Policy Institu...

Portrait of Professor Stefan Dercon

with Professor Stefan Dercon
 Professor of Economic Policy

Stefan Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Economics Department, and a Fellow of Jesus College. He is also Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. Between 2011 and 2017, he was Chief...

Portrait of Dr Emily Jones

with Dr Emily Jones
 Associate Professor in Public Policy

Emily Jones’ research examines government practices in asymmetric negotiations in the global economy. She investigates the ways in which small developing countries exert influence even in highly asymmetric negotiations. She holds a DPhil in Internat...

The UK launched an international development White Paper in November 2023, setting out seven areas for action across a broad range of development themes and policy areas.

The White Paper recognises the increasingly contested world we face, with a more complicated and fractured geopolitical environment. As the UK moves into implementing this vision, it will need to navigate this.

The Minister for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell MP, will join us to discuss how to address these challenges as well as seize new opportunities.

The panel will consider how to mobilise additional resources for genuine impact when fiscal and political conditions in the UK and traditional donor partners are unfavourable; how to work with new and emerging donors and balance the imperative for more funds against the UK’s commitment to its values; how to manoeuvre in the context of the wide choices of finance available to recipient countries, often with different terms and conditions; and how to balance a focus on climate mitigation, primarily in middle income countries, with finance to tackle extreme poverty and climate adaptation, primarily in the least developed countries.

Panel:

  • Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP, Minister for Development and Africa
  • Professor Stefan Dercon, Co-Director, Oxford Martin Programme on African Governance
  • Dr Emily Jones, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government
  • Professor Ricardo Soares de Oliveira (Chair), Co-Director, Oxford Martin Programme on African Governance