PEGNet 2013 - PEGNet Conference 2013

The Poverty Reduction, Equity, and Growth Network’s (PEGNet) conference 2013 on ?How to Shape Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Economies in the Developing World ─ Global, Regional, and Local Solutions“ will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, October 17-18, 2013, in cooperation with the Department of Economics at University of Copenhagen.
Submission and Deadlines
Please email your submissions to in a pdf or Word file and indicate ‘PEGNet Conference 2013’ in the subject heading. The submission deadline for papers and Best Practice projects is May 15, 2013. Notification of acceptance will be sent out in early June 2013. Contributed papers and projects will be selected on the basis of papers or abstracts of not less than 400 words. Priority will be given to empirical research with clear implications for policy design and implementation. The deadline for full papers and additional material for the Best Practice Award is August 31, 2013.
Authors of selected papers will have the option to submit their papers for a special issue of the Economics E-journal. Please indicate in your submission Email if you also want to submit your paper for the special issue.
Conference format
The conference will provide a platform for high-level dialogue and exchange of ideas between development researchers, practitioners and policy-makers. The two conference days will feature parallel sessions based on invited and contributed papers as well as project presentations. The parallel sessions will be complemented by a debate, a round-table discussion, and keynote speeches by renowned speakers from academia, economic policy and development practice. In addition, the PEGNet Best Practice Award will be awarded for the fifth time to best practices in cooperation between researchers and practitioners.
Distinguished speakers
Speakers and panelists that have already confirmed attendance to this year's conference include:
Rema Hanna (Associate Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School)
Helmut Asche (Director at the German Institute for Development Evaluation)
Richard Damania (Lead Economist at the World Bank)
Helmut Asche (Director at the German Institute for Development Evaluation)
Tewolde B. G. Egziabher (Director General at the Environmental Protection Authority of Ethiopia)
Jochen Harnisch (Climate Change Policy Coordinator at the German Development Bank)
Lykke Andersen (Director Center for Environmental-Economic Modeling and Analysis)
Conference theme
Economic growth has come largely at the expense of natural resource depletion and environmental degradation, and has not yet provided the basis for substantial reductions in economic and social inequality, which is why the concept of green growth aims to find ways to make growth compatible with environmental sustainability without neglecting the social dimension. What is needed for this to happen is institutional reform and good policies, which aim to get prices right and fix markets, address coordination failures and knowledge externalities, and assign property rights and prices to environmental services.
Inclusive green growth policies are difficult to design and, even in best case scenarios, no panacea for overcoming developing economies’ structural shortcomings that have been excluding the poor from the benefits of growth. This raises several questions:
How to tailor inclusive green growth strategies to a country’s specific circumstances, with an emphasis on maximizing local and immediate benefits for the poor?
How to implement policy changes and strategies in scenarios where groups that do not benefit from the adjustments make decided efforts to block reforms?
The conference will address cross-sectoral issues and aspects related to sustainable management of sectors like agriculture, industry, energy and transport; as well as the adoption of sustainable life styles reducing individual ecological footprints, equity concerns, and strategies for poverty eradication.
In particular, but not exclusively, we invite contributions (papers and projects) that provide answers to the following questions:
What lessons can be learned from existing poverty reduction strategies about the scope for making social, economic and environmental objectives mutually reinforcing?
What mix of regulatory, market-based and informative instruments is needed to facilitate the transition towards green growth which is pro-poor and inclusive?
Are there models of agriculture, which can sustainably meet increased demand for food, feed, fuel and fiber while respecting resource scarcities and the integrity of vital ecosystems?
What are the technological and financing needs for a green economy transition in agriculture, one that includes and benefits smallholder farmers, agricultural laborers and food security?
How can the international development community contribute to this?
How to shape consumer behavior towards green societies in developing and emerging regions?
How can business and policymakers work together to create a green and inclusive economy, and upscale green and inclusive employment and business models?
How can green and inclusive growth be modeled?
Best Practice Award
We also ask for submissions of projects, programs, and initiatives for the PEGNet Best Practice Award. This award will be granted to programmes or projects that have achieved effective interaction between research and practice. All initiatives that have proved to put research into action and have thereby fostered cooperation between development research and practice are encouraged to apply. A maximum of four projects will be selected by a committee on the basis of a three-page summary of the initiative’s objectives, the type of interaction between research and practice as well as its results. The preselected projects will be asked to submit one additional paper or report. At the conference, each nominated initiative will be presented and the winner of a prize of Euro 3000 will be selected by the committee.
More information about the award is available here.
Organisers
The conference is co-organised by the Department of Economics at University of Copenhagen, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and supported by the KfW Development Bank, the Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Courant Poverty Research Centre at the University of Göttingen.