Birzeit University hosted Dr. David Malone, the President of IDRC

Dr. Malone gave a lecture on Thursday 7th of April, 2011, entitled “The Evolving Concepts of Development”.

He emphasized that progress in development of various sectors has been made, although there are concerns in terms of quality, which can be due to several hindering factors especially the growth in population.

Then Dr. Malone presented two successful cases which are Japan and China, concentrating on the elements of their success such as defining their national priorities, and partly focusing on one or two main sectors.

Interestingly, he questioned the role of aid in development, and how far the aid dependency of countries can progress in development. Besides that, he addressed the role of history, democracy and governance.    

Dr. Malone concluded his lecture in briefing the main funding priorities that the IDRC undertake which are mainly health, agriculture, economic and social policy.