In February, Ummu Salma Bava, Professor of European Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India, will focus on consequences for the role of the national state in Europe, of the crises of the past years. The European Union, once seen as a successful process, appears to be weak, with a lack of supranational power to align economies and welfare arrangements. Will Europe speed up its economic integration, inevitably implying the handing over of more decision-making to Brussels?Find the invitation HERE.

This lecture series is organised in cooperation with NCDO and VU University

Logistical details: Monday 13 February 2012, 18:00-19:30 / VU University – Auditorium, De Boelelaan 1105, Amsterdam /  English / admission free / Please register through registration[ @ ]sidnl.org

On Tuesday 14 February, Ummu Salma Bava will speak in LUX Nijmegen, during a programme organized in cooperation with SID, CIDIN and Lokaalmondiaal. More information will follow soon on www.lux-nijmegen.nl

14 February 2012 | Jan Kregel ‘Six Lessons from the Euro Crisis for Completing the European Project’

On Tuesday 14 February Jan Kregel  (Levy Economics Institute, Bard College) speaks at the ISS in The Hague during an event organised in cooperation with SID. What can the EU learn from the Euro Crisis, and what are its global implications? Kregel argues that the current crisis may represent a crucial turning point if the lessons of the crisis are not interpreted appropriately. The crisis provides lessons about the difficulties involved in dealing with economic imbalances, whether at the regional or the global level.  This has implications for international reform proposals, but also for the kind of International Financial System that would provide support for developing countries.

Kregel will speak at 17:00 at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague. His lecture will be followed by a panel-discussion. Click here for the invitation.

SID Student Essay Contest

Are you a student and currently enrolled in a Bachelor or Master’s Programme at an Higher Education Institution for 2011-2012? Join the SID Student Essay Contest!

The Essay Contest is organized together with VU University and is open to students from all universities and is integral to the SID Lecture Series 2011-2012 on “The State in a Globalizing World”. You can write an essay for up to three of the nine SID Lectures and we are now welcoming essays written for the SID Lecture with James Cameron on 26 March 2012. Interested? Please click HERE, to learn more about the essay contest and the three lectures that are included.

On 27 January 2012, Utrecht University – IDS hosted the 8th Knowledge for Development Conference, which was organized in cooperation with SID Netherlands, FNV Mondiaal, Hivos, IOB-Antwerp and LANDac. Over 200 people visited the conference and listened to interesting speakers like Stephen Ellis (ASC/VU) and Aderanti Adepoju who discussed the contemporary transformations that are shaking up the ‘world of development’, such as the growing importance of new donors (China, India) and new investors, emerging South-South relations, large-scale land acquisition, and migration. Experts on these transformations organised workshops which facilitated lively discussions. The report on this conference will follow soon.

16 January 2012 | SID Lecture by Alcides Costa Vaz ’Multipolarity of States or Regions?

15 December 2011 | Lunch meeting on ‘The Role of the State in Development: The Case of Fragile States’

Succeeding the series’ inaugural lecture ‘The Role of the State in the Development Process: notes from Africa’, SID continued the debate with a panel discussion on the role of the state in development, focusing on fragile states. Members of the panel included Ruud Treffers (Worldbank), René Grotenhuis (SID/Cordaid) and Seth Kaplan (NYU, author of Fixing Fragile States(2008)). Click here for the summary report on this discussion.