Unpacking Foreign Aid: Discussing policies and their unintended consequences

International development cooperation is a multibillion-dollar industry, which aims to reduce poverty in the Global South and tackle global challenges, such as climate change. But is this happening? Foreign aid (be it humanitarian, peacebuilding or development support) frequently brings with it a range of unintended consequences, both negative and positive. During this event, Dirk-Jan Koch will delve into these consequences, providing a fresh and comprehensive guide to understanding and addressing them.

Pracademic Dirk-Jan Koch is both critical and constructive at the same time: he will point out where things go wrong in the international aid sector, but also how it can be improved.

This seminar will be opened by Thibaut Jaulin, Academic Advisor and Adjunct Professor at PSIA and Anne Revillard, Director of LIEPP and member of the Centre for research on social inequalities (CRIS). Following the presentation by Dirk-Jan Koch, two discussants, Rigas Arvantitis, Director of Ceped and Hélène Juillard, Adjunct Professor at PSIA, will offer comments. A Q&A session with the audience will follow.

This seminar is co-organized by the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies (LIEPP), the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) and the Population and Development Center (Ceped).

Guest Speaker

Dirk-Jan Koch, Professor, Radboud University, The Netherlands

Prof. Dirk-Jan Koch, author of two books on international aid and a renowned pracademic, is working as a Chief Science Officer at  the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a professor of international trade and development cooperation at Radboud University. With an academic and policy career spanning two decades in Europe and Africa, he has managed to bring research and practice together through his work. His work focuses on boosting the impact of international development efforts.

Discussants

Rigas Arvanitis, Director, Ceped

Rigas Arvanitis is a sociologist, economist and director of research at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD). He is the director of the Population and Development Center (Ceped).

Hélène Juillard, Adjunct Professor, PSIA

Hélène Juillard is a Director at Key Aid Consulting and Adjunct Professor at Sciences Po, Manchester and Geneva Universities. She specialises in the evaluation of large scale crisis response and has a particular interest in cash and market based programming.