The University Record, February 27, 1996
Law School hosts meeting on Third World development
By Bernie DeGroat
News and Information Services
Leaders in economic, political and social development from around the world will take part in an international symposium on Third World development March 15-17 at the Law School.
“Making Development Work Without Forgetting the Poor: Rethinking Our Common Future” will feature panels of nearly 50 scholars, students, grassroots development workers, government officials, and directors of foundations and development agencies.
The purpose of the symposium is to “assess the ideologies, strategies and institutions that shape the backbone of development programs today,” according to Katy Youel of the Michigan Law and Developmetn Society, the conference sponsor.
“At a time when too many people are forgetting our dependence on internationalism and the need for a stronger United Nations, this conference is a great initiative,” says symposium speaker Richard Jolly, former deputy executive director of UNICEF. “I hope it will bring home to participants the many successes in development over the last several decades and the challenges ahead, especially for the 21st century.”
Law School Dean Jeffrey Lehman says that conference participants should have a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of development organizations in helping the poor.
“This extraordinary symposium offers an opportunity to think in new ways about how national and international legal development institutions might best function and, if necessary, be reformed, he says. We are truly honored to host the conference here at the U-M.”
Panel sessions will run continually Friday (March 15) afternoon, all day Saturday (March 16) and Sunday (March 17) morning. Topics include development and social movements, effect of electoral politics on the poor, grassroots economic empowerment, lib eral education in the Third World, the relevance of development institutions to the poor, and more.
Among the speakers are: Muhammad Yunus, founder and managing director of the Grameen Bank, Bangladesh; South African poet Dennis Brutus, imprisoned with Nelson Mandela for opposing apartheid; Juan Somavia, Chilean ambassador to the United Nations and the inspiration behind last year’s world summit on social developmetn; Petrona de la Cruz Cruz, a Mayan woman leader in Chiapas, Mexico; Mark Malloch Brown, vice president of the World Bank and adviser to Corazon Aquino, former president of the Philippine s; Peter McPherson, president of Michigan State University; Vivian Derryck Lowery, president of the African American Institute; Rick Little, president of the International Youth Foundation; Fay Chung, UNICEF official and former minister of education in Zi mbabwe; and M.F. Hamburger, director of development policy for the European Commission in Brussels.
For more information or to register, call 764-9081; send email to [email protected] or send a self-addressed stamped envelope to the Michigan Law and Development Society, P.O. Box 4275, Ann Arbor, MI 48106.
