Overseas Development Institute Annual Report 2000/01 40 years at the forefront of international development policy Overseas Development Institute ODI is Britain’s leading independent think-tank on international development and humanitarian issues. Our mission is to inspire and inform policy and practice which lead to the reduction of poverty, the alleviation of suffering and the achievement of sustainable livelihoods in developing countries. We do this by locking together high-quality applied research, practical policy advice, and policy-focused dissemination and debate. We work with partners in the public and private sectors, in both developing and developed countries. ODI’s work centres on five research and policy programmes: the Poverty and Public Policy Group, the International Economic Development Group, the Humanitarian Policy Group, the Rural Policy and Environment Group, and the Forest Policy and Environment Group. ODI publishes two journals, the Development Policy Review and Disasters, and manages three international networks linking researchers, policy-makers and practitioners: the Agricultural Research and Extension Network, the Rural Development Forestry Network, and the Humanitarian Practice (formerly Relief and Rehabilitation) Network. In addition, it hosts the Secretariat of the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Assistance. ODI also manages the ODI Fellowship Scheme, which places up to twenty young economists a year on attachment to the governments of developing countries. As a registered charity, ODI is dependent on outside funds and is supported by grants and donations from public and private sources. ODI Council Chairman Earl Cairns Zeinab Badawi Lord Holme Avinash Persaud Andrew Barnett Maria Elena Hurtado* Judith Randel Dominic Bruynseels Sir Richard Jolly Sir William Ryrie* Robin Coope Lord Judd Prof Amartya Sen William Day Richard Kershaw* Salil Shetty Lord Desai Tess Kingham, M.P. Prof Frances Stewart John Eccles* Sir Timothy Lankester Dr Diane Stone Prof Walter Elkan* Prof Michael Lipton Jonathan Taylor Larry Elliot Sir Michael McWilliam Rev Michael Taylor* Prof Michael Faber Dianna Melrose Anuradha Vittachi Martin Griffiths Rupert Pennant-Rea Bowen Wells, M.P. * Stood down this year © Overseas Development Institute 2001 Annual Report 2000/2001 Design and layout by Pippa Leask and Peter Gee Charity No. 228248 Printed in the UK by Russell Press Ltd, Nottingham Register of Companies No. 661818 1 ODI Annual Report 2000/2001 ODI Staff 2 Chairman’s Statement 3 Director’s Review 4 Poverty and Public Policy 6 International Economic Development 9 Humanitarian Policy 12 This Annual Report covers Rural Policy and Environment 16 the period April 2000 to March 2001 and was Forest Policy and Environment 20 published in June 2001. Public Affairs 22 Fellowship Scheme 24 Finance 26 Publications 2000/2001 28 Meetings 2000/2001 32 Research Specialisations 33 Overseas Development Institute 111 Westminster Bridge Road London SE1 7JD, UK Telephone: +44 (0)20 7922 0300 Fax: +44 (0)20 7922 0399 Email: [email protected] Annual Report 2000/2001 Website: www.odi.org.uk 2 ODI Staff& Director Simon Maxwell Group Coordinators International Economic Development Sheila Page Poverty and Public Policy David Booth Rural Policy and Environment John Farrington Humanitarian Policy Margie Buchanan-Smith Forest Policy and Environment David Brown Secretary Allen Brown Head of Public Affairs and IT Peter Gee Research Fellows Senior Research Associates Caroline Ashley Nicholas Leader* Edward Clay Sanoussi Bilal Catherine Longley John Healey Roger Blench Joanna Macrae Tony Killick David Booth Andy McKay John Borton Oliver Morrissey Charlotte Boyd* Caroline Moser Research Officers Adrienne Brown* Alan Nicol Robert Chapman David Brown Andy Norton Erin Coyle Margie Buchanan-Smith Sheila Page Elizabeth Drake Maurizio Bussolo* Nicola Reindorp Craig Johnson Sarah Collinson Michael Richards Liz Lovell* Tim Conway Benu Schneider Joy Moncrieffe Elizabeth Cromwell Kate Schreckenberg Felix Naschold John Farrington Gill Shepherd Tom Slaymaker Mick Foster H-B Solignac Lecomte* Daniel Start Adrian Fozzard Frances Stevenson Elizabeth Turner Lucia Hanmer* Rob Tripp Adrian Wells Adrian Hewitt Koenraad Van Brabant* John Howell Dirk Willem te Velde Karim Hussein John Young Central Support Fellowship Scheme Finance Officer Angela Croucher Head Adrian Hewitt Accountant K.J. Patel* Programme Officer Susan Barron Assistant Finance Officer Helen Lewis Administrator Adrienne Watson/Kate Burke Publications and Website Officer Pippa Leask Publications Sales/Reception Lisa Thyer Assistant IT Officer Daniel Demie PA to the Director Claire Louise John*/Natalie Kannemeyer Personnel Officer Susan Hamilton*/Patsy Douglas Librarian Kate Kwafo-Akoto Library Assistant Chris Pescud* Reception Vicky Fletcher*/Rosalyn Wright Group Administrators Administrative staff Sylvie Cordier Lucy Carver Tammie O’Neil Alana Coyle Olivia Cheasty* Ann Pedersen* Joanna Gill* Harriet Dudley* Vicky Pett Lucy Morris Matthew Foley Rachel Rank Jane Northey Hanne Galteland Kate Robertson Helen Suich* Colin Hadkiss Victoria Siddiqui Caroline Wood* Felicity Heyworth* Patsy de Souza Rachel Houghton* Andrea Steel Kate Lloyd Cathy Waterhouse* Melanie James* Melanie Woodland* Annual Report 2000/2001 Rebecca Lovelace Alex Wyles* & as at 30 June 2001 Claudine Menashe* * left during the period of this report 3 Chairman’s Statement I am struck by how quickly the to sustain cash flow and build reserves. I development agenda is changing. On the am pleased to report, however, that ODI surface, the concerns remain the same as has made a surplus this year, not large in they always have - poverty, war, disease, terms of our current turnover of £6.5m, the environment. Below the surface, but enough to protect our working however, the assumptions, the paradigms, capital and begin to rebuild reserves. We and the policies are all changing. For have more to do in coming years. example, we no longer talk about the A London base is essential if ODI is to ‘Washington Consensus’, in which fulfil its public affairs and policy liberalisation is the only goal. Instead, we mandate, but a London base is expensive. have a Post-Washington Consensus, After four years in Victoria, ODI moved more concerned with the need for in the summer of 2000 to new offices institutions to underpin markets, and South of the river, in Waterloo. The new with the impact of liberalisation on the offices are less expensive and somewhat poor. Poverty reduction has become smaller, but provide an appropriate and accepted as an over-arching goal, and convenient space. Our challenge will be there is much greater consensus than to use the space creatively to achieve there used to be that this means more maximum return on the investment. than increasing income: empowerment As in previous years we have seen and security have become new both departures from, and arrivals to, our watchwords of the poverty debate. Council. I would like to thank our I am pleased that ODI is keeping up departing friends, John Eccles, Walter with these changes. Indeed, ODI is Elkan, Maria Elena Hurtado, William leading change in many areas, as Ryrie and Michael Taylor - and very illustrated in Simon Maxwell’s report, particular thanks to Richard Kershaw overleaf. To cite just a few topics, we are who has been on the Council since doing good work, on poverty reduction 1973 and a particularly helpful member and poverty strategies, on budget of our Finance Committee. I am reform, on donor support to sector delighted that William Day, Larry Elliott, strategies, on rural development, and on Richard Jolly, Avinash Persaud and humanitarian policy. This work is at the Diane Stone have joined us. I look leading edge of development thinking, forward to their contribution. ‘ODI is leading change. We are and also, equally important, of The growth of high quality output, doing good work ... on poverty development practice. I am pleased that the improvement in our financial reduction and poverty strategies, ODI is a reference centre for both position, as well as the successful on budget reform, on donor researchers and practitioners: for completion of our office move, are support to sector strategies, on example, the astonishing fecundity of tributes to the dedication of our high rural development, and on our website attracts thousands of visitors calibre staff at ODI and the skills of humanitarian policy.’ each week. Simon Maxwell and his team. These are Responding to new needs, ODI has the key assets of ODI and underpin grown rapidly in recent years, by 14% a together the prospect that ODI’s year in real terms on average for the past contribution to development in the years four years. There are growing pains, of ahead will continue to be an important course, not least financial: it is especially one. hard for a fast-growing business like ours Earl Cairns Annual Report 2000/2001 4 Director’s In last year’s Annual Report, our In industrial policy, moving up the value- as the villains of globalisation and as the Chairman, Lord Cairns, talked chain entails continual upgrading. What white knights which will deliver poverty about ODI 'moving up the does this imply for ODI? Three things, I reduction in the poorest countries. Benu think. First, we need to continue Schneider’s research on financial markets value chain'. I want to explore addressing the big, ‘high-value’ narratives. shows that the risks are indeed high, but what that term means. Second, we need to make sure that the that disengagement is not an option: research which drives all our work is, as prudential regulation is then the key to always, high-skill, quality-driven, and fit for success, and this requires a mass of detailed a global market. Third, we need to make policy. The same is true for foreign direct sure our voice is heard and influences the investment, as Dirk Willem te Velde has agenda, delivering influential shown: FDI can be good for the poor, and communication packages which draw the way to make sure it is is to engage their authority from ODI’s quality, with the rich detail of sectoral policy.