The second Pathways to Development Conference brought together empirical work in economics, sociology, politics and political economy, to find solutions to the grand challenges constraining sustainable growth in Pakistan and the region.

Economic growth and poverty reduction can, and often do, exist with widening inequalities between and within countries. Inequalities matter because unequal societies have lower levels of human capital, less social cohesion and lower trust in the state. Inequalities threaten to destabilise societies, arrest development and create injustice and indignity for the poor and marginalised. Economic, social and political inequalities can systematically exclude marginalised groups from any progress experienced by wider society.

While economic growth rates are a mainstay in policy planning, much less attention is paid to how growth, development, participation, and progress is distributed across geographies and populations, or the ways in which burdens of poverty, violence and climate change are disproportionately borne by the few. Various forms of inequalities – gender, vast differences in wealth, identity-based discrimination along ethnic, religious and linguistic lines, by location and disabilities – intersect to exacerbate the effects of one on the other.

Keynote Speakers at Path2Dev 2023

• Dr. Amaney A. Jamal (Dean, School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Princeton University)
• Dr. Naila Kabeer (Professor of Gender and Development, London School of Economics and Political Science)
• Dr. Stefan Dercon (Professor of Economic Policy, Oxford University)
• Dr. Steven Wilkinson (Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, Yale University)

You can access the conference program here.

You can access videos of the conference sessions by clicking the links below:

Keynotes:

• Stefan Dercon | Political Economy of Economic Policy Advice
• Steven Wilkinson | War and Revolutionary Change
• Amaney Jamal | Public Opinion in Palestine Before the Conflict
• Naila Kabeer | Gender Justice and Wellbeing Economy

Panel Sessions:

• India, Pakistan and Bangladesh: Where did their growth trajectories diverge?
• Gender and Development from Multiple Perspectives
• Can Pakistan Grow with a Forty Percent Child Stunting Rate?
• Gender, Technology and Women’s Empowerment

Paper Sessions:

• Health and Immunization
• Historical Trajectory in Economic Development
• Poverty Alleviation
• Education and Development
• Climate Change and Adaptation
• Gender and Labor Markets
• Measurement of Poverty and Inequality
• Elite Capture and Political Economy
• Inequality, Policy and the Economy
• Early Career Session
• Judiciary and State Institutions