Rethinking Development Podcast

For our Season 4 finale, we share a compilation of clips from our past 50+ episodes!

Dr. Jeanette Gurung is a forester and gender equality and climate expert with many years of experience in the international development sector. She is the founder and Executive Director of WOCAN – Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management, a global network with over 1,300 members in 113 countries to support capacity building for women’s leadership and empowerment. She is the innovator of the W+ Standard TM to measure, quantify and monetize impacts of projects on women, through the use of a results-based financing approach, providing ways for companies, governments, organizations and individuals to confidently drive and measure social and economic empowerment for women. She has managed projects for the Asian Development Bank (Harnessing Climate Change Mitigation to Benefit Women) and other UN and bilateral development agencies and led and served on numerous committees such as The Forest Dialogue Steering Committee, Gender Expert of the CGIAR Participatory Research and Gender Analysis Program, Advisor to the Forest Stewardship Council, FAO’s Policy Committee on Incentives for Ecosystem Services, and UNFCCC’s Expert Group on Gender and Climate and more. She speaks to us about being a female forester, pursuing gender mainstreaming in male dominated organizations, her Phd thesis on the same topic, the devaluation of women's labour in natural resource management, being motivated by frustration, innovating new standards, the struggle for financing gender and climate projects, working across sectors and silos, inclusive feminine leadership, climate reliance, nature based solutions, the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and much more. She joins us from Hawaii, USA.

Kaveh Zahedi is the Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP). He oversees ESCAP’s economic, social and environmental programmes and the overall implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Prior to this, Kaveh worked at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as the Regional Director and Representative for Asia and the Pacific and Deputy Director of the Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, overseeing work on the green economy, resource efficiency and climate change. He speaks to us about the challenge of fundraising, creating coalitions and partnerships of the willing, policy level advocacy and cause and effect, adaptability, the coronavirus pandemic, investing in social safety nets, building resiliency, engineering change towards sustainability, UN structures and intersectoral approaches, demonstrating impact, the UN reform process, regional level cooperation, being impatient for change, the role of the private sector, ICT for development, rejecting a tolerance for inequality and much more. He joins us from Bangkok, Thailand.

Paula Claycomb began her career in journalism before transitioning to the UN system in 1989. She worked with UNICEF on social change communication in Rwanda, Kenya, Afghanistan, East Timor, Sudan and many other countries. She served as Chief of the Landmines and Small Arms Group and as Senior Advisor for Communication for Development, managing the development of policies, guidelines and standards at the global level. Since her retirement from UNICEF in 2012, Paula has provided consulting services in strategic planning and communication for development and is now the Director of Rain Barrel Communications, an international communications consulting firm that co-creates social good initiatives with partners, with a special orientation to the wellbeing of children. Paula speaks with us about the importance of dialogue and participation of effected populations in C4D, the need for long term campaigns, working in the context of genocide and the evolution of humanitarian thinking, mine risk education, simultaneously being an activist and a staff member, increasing resources for communication, learning from past mistakes, and much more. She joins us from Taos, USA.

Richard Morgan has over 20 years of experience working in international development. He is currently the International Advocacy Director at Plan International. Prior to this he was the Director of the "child poverty" theme for Save the Children, where he co-founded and co-led the Global Coalition to End Child poverty. Previously he was a Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of UNICEF on the post 2015 Sustainable Development Agenda where he co-led a global consultation and policy analysis on inequalities. Richard earlier served as the director of policy and practice at UNICEF HQ where he was responsible for leading on policy, standards and practices in the areas of gender equality, children's rights, child and youth participation, social statistics and communication for development. Richard speaks to us about the MDGs and SDGs, disaggregating data on inequalities, using a human rights approach, child participation in policy processes, the interface of children's rights with economics, and more. He joins us from London, UK.