The DFID-DSA policy forum, "International Development in the Face of Climate Change: Beyond Mainstreaming?", was held on Monday 2nd June 2008, organized by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, the Natural Resources Institute (University of Greenwich) and SouthSouthNorth.  The forum was held in London at the Maritime Greenwich Campus, University of Greenwich.

Our original introduction to the forum is set out below.

As is well known, climate change has many implications for development and global futures: for sustainability, equity and growth.  Much current debate and policy action focuses on resolving future problems through the ‘mainstreaming’ of climate change into development initiatives.  However, does our global future, and international development planning and practice, need to be restructured in more fundamental ways?  What alternative pathways for development need to be identified for different regions of the world?  And crucially, what is policy-realistic, and achievable?

This policy-focussed forum will promote discussion between policy-makers and researchers, in order to generate new thinking about how international development could be re-oriented and restructured, seeking synergies of understanding and constructive elaboration of differences.  Participants will include UK government advisers and programme managers and climate change experts from international agencies, NGOs and academia.

The day will begin with our keynote speakers: Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation, Bonventura Cuamba of SouthSouthNorth, Mozambique and Elwyn Grainger-Jones of DFID. This will be followed by case studies and a series of focussed working groups.  These working groups will produce documentation before the session to stimulate discussion. For the full programme, click here.

We warmly invite you to look at this website in the coming weeks as we post reports from the Policy Forum. We also warmly invite you to join the DSA's Study Group on Climate Change and Development - please go to http://www.devstud.org.uk/studygroups/climate-change.htm for details, with more to come soon. 

Any queries, please contact us.