Experts available at Financing for Development conference

IIED staff will be attending the Third International Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 13-16 July.
Press release, 13 July 2015

The Third International Conference on Financing for Development is taking place from 13-16 July in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Staff from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) will be in attendance, as well as contributing to a side event led and hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

The UNECA side event, 'Unlocking transformative financing for renewable energy and climate resilience in Africa: from evidence to widespread replication', will be held on Tuesday, 14 July in Discovery Hall, Elilly Hotel from 6-8pm.

Dr Andrew Norton, IIED director, and Nanki Kaur, principal researcher in the IIED Climate Change Group, will be available to talk on the following areas:

  • Inclusive and decentralised finance
  • The need for longer-term investment that allows countries to plan effectively, and
  • The opportunities offered by new and emerging sources of public and private finance.

Dr Norton took up the position of IIED director in June 2015. From his doctoral fieldwork in rural Mali through a career that has spanned research, academic and development institutions, he has focused on issues of poverty, inequality, participation, natural resource governance and climate change.

He was previously director of research at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and has worked in the World Bank and the Department for International Developmenmt (DFID). At the World Bank he co-led a programme on the Social Dimensions of Climate Change and also led on Poverty and Social Impact Analysis and rights-based approaches to social policy. At DFID he worked in a range of roles, from head of a community forestry project in Northern Ghana to leading the social development professional group.

Kaur's areas of expertise include managing finances for climate adaptation and mitigation, the institutional dimensions of natural resource governance, and pro-poor development. Her current work is focusing on assessing the political economy of adaptation measures, international climate change negotiations, and adaptation planning in Nepal and Ethiopia.

Further resources

Blog: It's the thought that counts: how can Addis deliver for the world's poorest?

Report: Climate finance for those who need it most

Blog: Finance, Addis and the Sustainable Development Goals

Blog: Will new development banks help or hinder on climate change?

Blog: Development finance and climate finance: achieving zero poverty and zero emissions

Contact

IIED principal researcher Nanki Kaur  email: nanki.kaur@iied.org; tel: +44 (0)7960 458011

IIED director Dr Andrew Nortonemail: andrew.norton@iied.org

For more information or to register to attend the UNECA side event, contact their media teamFor general information about IIED's finance work, images and publications contact IIED media and external affairs manager Katharine Mansell – email: katharine.mansell@iied.org.

Notes to editors

  • IIED will be in Addis Ababa from 13-16 July, 2015
  • IIED is an independent, non-profit research institute. Set up in 1971 and based in London, IIED provides expertise and leadership in researching and achieving sustainable development.

For more information or to request an interview, contact Simon Cullen: 
+44 7503 643332 or simon.cullen@iied.org