On  April 7^th, ASAP hosted a symposium bringing together academics and practitioners to discuss the future of poverty alleviation after the expiration of the MDGs. Among those who participated in the discussion were:

• Branko Milanovic – Lead Economist, World Bank Research group; Visiting Professor, School for Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
• Gustav Ranis – leading development economist and the Frank Altschul Professor Emeritus of International Economics at Yale University
• Varun Gauri – Senior Economist in the Development Research Group (Public Services Team) at the World Bank
• Thomas Pogge – Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs, Yale University and Research Director, Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature, University of Oslo
• Philip Alston – John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law, New York University
• Hugh Evans – CEO of the Global Poverty Project

Undergraduate students in India, the UK and United States will form the core of ASAP\’s Global Student Advisory Board. The board is designed as a means of helping students share their insights and energies alongside their ASAP-member instructors, especially in helping ASAP achieve its impact aims for addressing severe poverty.

Inaugural members are Kuldeep Thakre of Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi; Zachary Foreman of Yale University, and Joshua Lindsey-Turner of the University of Birmingham.

Major Student Advisory Board initiatives for 2012 include developing an ongoing ASAP internship program, opening formal ASAP student chapters at several universities, and developing a student-led project in Delhi aimed at helping disadvantaged persons gain better access to their government-sponsored entitlements.

For more information, contact Luis Cabrera at a.l.cabrera@bham.ac.uk.

More than 100 academics, students and development professionals gathered at Yale University to debate the legacy and possible future of large-scale development aid at ASAP\’s One-Year Anniversary meeting.

Yale Professor Emeritus Gus Ranis, a top administrator at US Aid under the Johnson Administration, gave insight from his decades of experience in the field and classroom, and he stressed the continuing importance of promoting local ownership of development projects. Hugh Evans, a youth leader of the 2005 Make Poverty History Campaign, shared his experiences getting young people involved through his multi-country Global Poverty Project, and leveraging their involvement to secure large-scale commitments for overseas aid.

Phillip Alston, a Professor of Law at New York University who has filled several high-level human rights roles for the United Nations, offered an insider\’s view of the UN Millennium Development Goals effort, and of recent talks to determine what should replace the MDGs when they expire in 2015. World Bank Lead Economist Branko Milanovic shared his most recent findings on global inequality and its importance to numerous issues around global poverty, and ASAP Board Chair Thomas Pogge of Yale encouraged those present to put their energy and academic expertise to use within the ASAP network.

Earlier in the day, ASAP Board members gave updates from efforts underway in India, the United States, the UK and elsewhere. Those include the launch of a pilot ASAP Students group at the University of Birmingham, the development of the All Rights India project in Delhi, aimed at better publicizing the entitlements actually held by India\’s poor persons, and the development of an ASAP internship program at Yale.