Harvard Center for International Development

Guest: Binta Diop, Former Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security, African Union Host: Sumedha Tanwar, MPP Candidate, Harvard Kennedy School This episode of the CID Voices Road to GEM podcast examines the role of women in conflict resolution and peacebuilding across Africa. The conversation traces how women from the Mano River region, Burundi, and the DRC pushed their way into peace processes and shaped outcomes, from influencing peace accords to entrenching gender parity in constitutions. It explores the root causes of conflict on the continent, including poor governance, inequality, and lack of accountability, and asks why women remain largely absent from formal negotiations despite evidence of their impact. The discussion also turns to economic empowerment, particularly in agriculture, and what it would mean to reimagine international development around human capital and sustainable growth.

This episode of CID Voices explores how development finance institutions have evolved from counter-cyclical lenders during the financial crisis into impact-driven investors operating under mounting fiscal scrutiny. The conversation moves through the tensions shaping DFIs today: the push toward private capital mobilization and what it means for additionality, the segregation of capital pools across risk and return profiles, the challenges of local currency financing in emerging markets, and the growing pressure from governments to instrumentalize DFIs as part of national strategies. It closes on the geopolitical turn in development finance, including the DFC's reframing around national security, and what a future that blends development, climate, and defence finance might look like.

In this CID Voices Road to GEM26 podcast episode, Harvard Kennedy School student Carissa Tridina speaks with Professor Chatib Basri, former Finance Minister of Indonesia and current visiting scholar at CID, about the structural shifts reshaping development and financing today. As global aid shrinks and countries’ debt burdens rise, governments face tighter fiscal space and more complex political trade-offs as they try to build sustained growth. During the episode, we explore how building state capacity in domestic financing, institutional credibility, and leadership is critical. The conversation also looks at Professor Basri’s experience with Indonesia’s political economy reforms, and whether the lessons learned can be applied to the present and across different contexts in an increasingly fragmented global economy. Whether you're interested in international development, financing, or state capacity, this episode offers timely insight into how the shifting landscape affects all development actors.

In this episode CID Voices Road to GEM26 podcast, Harvard Kennedy School student Stuti Goyal speaks with Vishnu Venugopalan, an Indian Administrative Service officer and Practitioner in Residence at the Harvard Center for International Development. Anchored in CID’s research theme of Trade, Growth, and Regional Economics, the conversation explores how countries position themselves within shifting global supply chains. Drawing on his experience leading investment promotion in Tamil Nadu, Venugopalan reflects on the practical realities of industrial policy — from attracting private firms and investment to building the institutional capacity required to sustain manufacturing ecosystems. The discussion moves beyond strategy to implementation: how governments identify binding constraints, coordinate public goods, and translate global ambitions into local economic opportunity. Venugopalan also reflects on workforce development in an era of automation and on his experience deploying digital tools to reduce maternal mortality in Tamil Nadu’s public health system. What does it take for countries to move up global value chains? And how can governments design policies that turn industrial growth into inclusive development?

In this episode of the CID Voices Road to GEM26 podcast, Harvard Kennedy School student, and CID podcast producer, Ritul Madhukar speaks with Michael Croft, UNESCO’s Representative to Mozambique, whose career has spanned crisis and transition contexts in Libya, Nepal and Vietnam. Anchored in CID’s research theme of Culture, Institutions, and History, the conversation explores what it takes to build and sustain trust and strengthen public institutions in fragile environments. Drawing on decades of experience, Croft reflects on the role multilateral organizations play in shaping civic ecosystems, aligning governments and partners, and navigating historical legacies that continue to shape development outcomes. He argues that effective development is less about importing solutions and more about convening coalitions. What does it mean to reimagine development today? And can multilateral institutions adapt to meet the moment?