IDEAs or International Development Economics Associates is a pluralist network of progressive economists across the world, engaged in research, teaching, and dissemination of critical analyses of economic policy and development. Its members are motivated by the need to strengthen and develop alternatives to the current mainstream economic paradigm as formulated by the neo-liberal orthodoxy. The organisation is based in the South and led by economists based in several developing countries, but membership of the network is open to all those committed to developing and using alternative non-orthodox tools of economic analysis appropriate for meeting development challenges.

Background and structure of IDEAs
IDEAs was established in September, 2001, following a conference in Cape Town, South Africa, on "Rethinking Development Economics" organised by UNRISD with the support of Ford Foundation. The current Executive Committee was chosen at that conference, with the mandate to establish and build the IDEAs network. With financial support from UNRISD, a secretariat was set up in New Delhi in October 2001. For ease of financial transactions, IDEAs was formally registered in London, U.K., as a charitable friendly society in August 2002. Subsequently there have been some changes in the Executive Committee, with mutual consent of members. IDEAs is registered as an Industrial and Provident Society Number IP29339R.

The address of the registered office is:
21 Skylark Way,
Shinfield,
Reading RG2 9AD,
United Kingdom.

The address of the secretariat is:
International Development Economics Associates,
C/o Economic Research Foundation,
124 A/1 Katwaria Sarai Main Road (2nd floor),
New Delhi - 110016.
INDIA.

Telephone: + 91 - 11- 26611235, 26850050

Fax: +91 - 11- 26611764

email: response@networkideas.org or erf@vsnl.com

Both the London office and the New Delhi office have received funding from various sources since 2002. The organisations that have funded IDEAs by providing core support or sponsoring particular activities include UNRISD, Ford Foundation, UNDP and ActionAid. Both the London and Delhi offices have tax-free status and the Delhi office also has blanket clearance from the Government of India to receive foreign contributions.

IDEAs as an organisation provides for two kinds of membership. Regular members, are invited to join based on a decision of the Executive Committee which would take account of their suitability from the point of view of the objectives of the organisation and their demonstrated willingness to contribute to the functioning of the society. The second category, network members, consists of those are free to register if they so desire. Depending on their interests and qualifications they are involved in various activities of the network. The regular members of the society elect the Executive Committee, which in turn appoints a Programme Advisory Committee to assist in particular activities. Currently the network membership consists of more than 900 members from 85 countries. There are others who regularly visit the website (which currently receives around 10,000 hits per month) and also send in comments, responses and articles for the website.

The Executive Committee of IDEAs at present consists of the following seven persons who are all prominent economists and public intellectuals within their own countries:

• Professor Pasuk Phongpaichit, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand - Chairperson of Executive Committee. (Female)
• Professor C. P. Chandrasekhar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. (Male)
• Professor Erinc Yeldan, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey. (Male)
• Professor Jayati Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. (Female)
• Professor Alicia Puyana, Flacso, Mexico City, Mexico. (Female)
• Professor Saul Keifman, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Male)
• Professor Cui Zhiyuan, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. (Male)

The Advisory Board of IDEAs consists of the following eminent economists:

• Dr. Thandika Mkandawire, UNRISD, Geneva (Chairperson) (Male)
• Professor K. S. Jomo, Assistant Secretary General, United Nations, New York (He was also a founding member of the IDEAs and first Chairperson of the Executive Committee) (Male)
• Professor Samir Amin, Dakar, Senegal and Forum du Tiers Monde (Male)
• Professor Maria da Conceicao Tavares, UFRJ, Brazil (Female)
• Professor Kari Polanyi Levitt, Canada (Female)
• Professor Diane Elson, University of Essex, United Kingdom (Female)
• Professor Korkut Boratav, Ankara University, Turkey (Male)
• Dr. Arturo O'Connell, Director of Central Bank of Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina (Male)
• Professor Prabhat Patnaik, Jawaharlal Nehru Universty, New Delhi, India (Male)
• Professor Dani Rodrik, Harvard U niversity, USA (Male)
• Professor Amartya Sen, Harvard University, USA (Male)
• Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University, USA (Male)
• Dr. Rolph Van Der Hoeven, Director, Policy Coherence Group, International
  Labour Office, Geneva (Male)

The Activities Advisory Committee which assists in planning and implementing various activities in different regions, currently consists of:

• Dr. Christina Morales, University of Phillipines, Quezon City, the Philippines (Female)
• Professor Alicia Puyana, Flacso, Mexico City, Mexico (Female)
• Professor Berhanu Nega, University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Male)
• Dr. Sam Moyo, Director, Centre for Agrarian Studies, Zimbabwe (Male)
• Dr. Carlos Medeiros, Universidad Federal de Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Male)
• Dr. Saul Keifman, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina (Male)

The Secretariat in New Delhi consists of the following economists, researchers and other support staff including web managers, etc.:
Anilkumar Mani, Ranja Sengupta, Smitha Francis, Anamitra Roychowdhury, Arindam Banarjee, Surender Rana, Narendra Singh, Gangaram & Lalit Rawat. There is also a Company Secretary based in the UK who manages the London account, Kunku Soota.

Activities
While the website is the basic means of continuous interaction for the network, anf there is a core staff engaged in research and related activities to produce material for the website, IDEAs also organises various activities to encourage alternative research and dissemination of the research findings, as well as greater interaction and academic contact at a personal level, in the form of conferences, seminars and capacity building workshops held in different parts of the world.

Since 2002, IDEAs has organised a number of international conferences in India, Brazil, Ethiopia, Turkey and Mexico. Another major activity has been the holding of capacity building workshops for young economists, policy makers and activists, which have thus far been held in Turkey, India, Thailand, the Philippines and Ethiopia, as well as one held in Delhi specially for young economists and policy makers from Afghanistan. The aim has been to combine these workshops with subsequent participation in an international conference on development issues to as to provide more exposure to the participants. IDEAs has also held special seminars and sessions at large international events such as the World Social Forums (in Brazil and India), the Socialist Scholars' Conference (USA), the Annual Conference of the Middle Eastern Technical University in Turkey, the Annual Conference of the African Economic Association (in Ethiopia), the Socialist Scholars' Conference in the US, the Conference of the Turkish Social Science Association.

In addition, IDEAs has undertaken a major research project on comparing the macroeconomic implications of trade and financial liberalisation in China, India, Mexico and Turkey, for UNDP. IDEAs attempts to promote research by established and young scholars by taking up specific themes that are developed in the conferences. There is also ongoing research for the website, which is regularly updated not only with featured articles but also with analyses of current events, reviews of literature, economic briefs on particular topics, and so on. There have been requests for specific topics to be addressed in more detail, and resources are being sought to increase research activity in these areas. These include more analysis of alternative economic policies, detailed country studies, reviews of economic concepts and of economic and development literature on particular themes.

A brief list of the activities since 2002 follows:

1. Support for a conference in October 2002, in Bahia, San Salvador, Brazil, on "New directions in growth economics", attended by economists from different parts of Latin America and Europe.

2. A regional workshop at the Universidad Federal de Rio de Janeiro over 26-28 January 2002, entitled "New IDEAs in Development Economics", which included about 30 development economists from the region as well as from other developing countries.

3. Two workshops at the World Social Forum, Porto Alegre, Brazil, over 4-5 February 2002, on "Rethinking development economics in the age of finance", which also served to publicise IDEAs among progressive social scientists and social activists.

4. Workshop for young economists and policy makers on "Financial liberalisation and policy space for developing countries", Bilkent University, Ankara, 5-9 September 2002.

5. Regional meeting and special session in Ankara, Turkey, on "Ten years of financial crises in the developing world: What have we learned ?", organised as part of the Annual Meeting of the Middle Eastern Technical Universities International Conference VI, 11-15 September 2002. The session included contributions on Brazil, Argentina, and Turkey as well as some thematic papers, and helped in publicising IDEAs among a range of development economists in the Middle Eastern region.

6. An international conference (funded by the United Nations Development Programme, New York) on "International Money and Macroeconomic Policies of Developing Countries" over December 16-19 2002. This involved the participation of 35 eminent economists from across the world, as well as 40 Indian economists. A special effort was made to ensure the participation of young scholars from India and elsewhere in Asia, as part of a capacity-building exercise. This was made possible through funds from the Philippine Centre for Policy Studies. The conference was very successful, and the conference proceedings are being published as a book.

7. Two plenary sessions at the First International Conference on the Ethiopian Economy convened by the Ethiopian Economic Association on January 3-5, 2002. The broad topics were: "'Economic Development in Africa: From Adjustment to Poverty Reduction, What is New?' and "'Agricultural Production, the Role of the State and Liberalisation" Around 500 people attended the conference, and the participants came from diverse backgrounds. There were economists, people from the private sector of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce, Ministers and people from the Ethiopian Government, representatives from several foreign embassies located in Addis Ababa, as well as people from the World Bank, those from NGOs, and from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

8. Seminar on 'Fluid Finance, Global Crises and the Search for Alternatives' as part of the Asian Social Forum, Hyderabad, January 2-7, 2003. This was attended by approximately 250 people, including activists, economists, and a range of others, including many non-economists interested in these issues, and evoked a lot of response.

9. Workshop on 'Workers, Nation States and the Role of Finance' as part of the World Social Forum, Porto Alegre, Brazil, January 23 - 28th, 2003. The audience of about a hundred consisted of some academics, activists, people involved in policy making, and concerned citizens.

10. Workshop for young economists and policy makers from developing countries in Asia and Africa on " " at Bilkent University, Ankara Turkey, 1-5 September 2003.

11. Capacity building workshop, in collaboration with ActionAid Asia, for a group of 10 young Afghan economists/social scientists in December 2003 at New Delhi, around the theme "Macroeconomic policy in developing countries".

12. Participation with a series of events at the World Social Forum to be held in Mumbai in January 2004, around the theme "Resisting the new imperialism". There was a panel discussion on "The instruments of imperialism: War, trade and finance", attended by more than 2000 people, along with seminars on "The agrarian crisis", "Trade volatility and financial fragility", "Women and economic rights", "The world of labour" and "The impoverishment of nation states", each of which was attended by around 200 participants.

13. International conference on "The economics of the new imperialism" held at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, on January 22-24, 2004, with 20 international participants, 25 national participants and an audience of around 150 economists and students. The proceedings are being published as a volume.

14. Workshop for young Thai economists, policy makers and activists on "Liberalisation, macroeconomic policies and development options in Asia" in collaboration with MAIDS programme of Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok and Focus on the Global South, on September 25-28 2004, with around 35 participants.

15. Workshop for young Philippine economists, policy makers and activists on "Liberalisation, macroeconomic policies and development options in Asia" in collaboration with Action for Economic Reforms, University of Philippines, Manila, on September 27-30 2004, with around 40 participants.

16. International conference in association with FLACSO Mexico and CEPAL Mexico, on "Comparing development strategies and experiences" on October 7-9 2004, with around 35 participants from Latin America and 10 from other parts of the world.

17. Workshop for young African economists on Macroeconomic Policies, Agrarian Change and Development, December 12-16 2004, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Economic Association, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 45 participants from 14 countries in Africa.

18. International conference on "The Agrarian Constraint and Poverty Reduction: Macroeconomic Lessons for Africa", December 17-19 2004, with more than 70 participants from across the world. (This was part funded by UNDP New York.)

19. International conference on "Economic Liberalization and its Implications for Development Policy with Special Reference to India and Mexico", Mexico City, October 24 - 25, 2005. This was co-sponsored with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO). This had around 50 participants from Latin America and Asia. In addition, there was very substantial participation from the student community of UNAM and FLACSO, so that the audience numbered more than 100 people on both days. Some of the most eminent economists in Mexico, as well as policy makers from government ministries and economists from the UN-ECLAC, as well as some economists from other parts of the developing world such as India, presented papers.

20. International workshop on "Financial Crime and Fragility under Financial Globalisation", India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India, December 19-20, 2005. This involved around 40 economists, policy makers, lawyers and legislators from various parts of the world.

21. Workshop for young economists, policy makers and activists on "Reclaiming Development in the Age of Financial Globalization" Bilkent University, Ankara, 31 August - 3 September, 2005, co-sponsored by Bilkent University Department of Economics. This involved 42 participants from Africa, several countries in Asia, and three countries in Latin America as well as 20 from Turkey at the workshop as well as 8 instructors.

22. Special IDEAs session and participation at the Turkish Social Science Association International Conference on "Acts of Resistance against Globalization from the South", Ankara, 5 - 7 September 2005, which involved more than 200 participants from different parts of the world, including of course from Tu rkey. The proceedings are now being published in a book.

23. Capacity building workshop for 38 young economists and policy makers on "Macroeconomic constraints and policy alternatives in developing countries", over January 22-26, 2006. This involved young economists on the verge of completing or having just completed their Ph.D.s or young policy makers working in economic ministries or central banks of their countries. There were 5 from Africa, 7 from Latin America, 10 from other parts of Asia and 16 from India.

24. International conference on "Post-liberalisation constraints on macroeconomic policies", in Muttukadu, Tamil Nadu, India, January 27-29, 2006. This was organised with the collaboration of UNDP, New York, and involved a special focus on the implications of trade and financial liberalisation on macroeconomic policies in China, India, Mexico and Turkey, also presenting the results of the research project along these lines sponsored by UNDP. It involved a total of 85 economists and policy makers from different parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well as some economists based in Europe. A book based on the papers presented is now being worked on.

25. The 2nd International workshop on "ASEAN Expert Collaboration for FTA Negotiations with the United States" was held in Bangkok during 3-4 August, 2006, in collaboration with the Good Governance for Social Development and the Environmental Institute (GSEI), Bangkok, Thailand Research Fund (TRF), Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, and WWF-Thailand. The second in a series meant to provide research inputs for presenting alternative proposals before the Thai government team negotiating a proposed bilateral FTA with the US, the brainstorming sessions of the first one and a half days sought to throw light on various issues of dominating concern in existing US FTA models. This brought together economists from Mexico, Chile, Central America, along with Asian counterparts from India, Malaysia, Indonesia and of course Thailand. A special public hearing at the last session also involved policy makers, members of the Thai negotiating team, media and civil society activists.

26. An international capacity building workshop on 'Policy Trends, Growth Patterns and Distributional Outcomes under Globalisation', was held between 21-24th of August, 2006, at Shanghai, China in local collaboration with the Shanghai Administrative Institute (SAI), Shanghai, China at the institute premises. Over the four days of the workshop, which was meant for about 45 young scholars from round the world, twelve instructors from India, Malaysia, Mexico, Italy, Argentina, China, Thailand, Brazil and Ghana took lectures combined with question, answer sessions. There was also active interaction from the young participants in the form of the two hour participants' session each day where the participants presented their own work and received comments from the instructors as well as co-participants. This workshop placed special emphasis on young Chinese scholars by including as many as 24 of them, in order to familiarize them with the emerging problems that the developing world is facing in the era of globalization, in spite of some of them (including China) recording high rates of growth.

27. The workshop was followed by an international conference on 'Economic Openness and Income Inequality: Policy Options for Developing Countries in the New Millennium' during the 26th-27th of August, 2006 again in local collaboration with the Shanghai Administration Institute (SAI). The conference had about 90 participants from 22 countries. Beginning by looking at global trends from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective through 5 papers presented during the first two sessions, the conference followed up with region specific sessions on the issue of income inequality and trade liberalization. The regions covered were China, Asia including India and East Asia, Latin America and Africa. China received a lot of attention from both international and Chinese scholars because of its current conjuncture in terms of high growth but a critical situation vis a vis income and employment inequalities. The conference ended with a panel discussion on the key issues that the papers brought attention to and what it implied it terms of policy advocacy.

Further details on these activities are available on the following link IDEAs Activities >>

We envisage IDEAs to emerge as a participatory, pluralistic and democratic network, which would then have a life and momentum of its own. Given the success of past activities, IDEAs now has a large membership across the world, especially in developing countries. There is consequently a need to develop more active of national and regional committees, which could then pursue a wider range of activities within the heterodox tradition of IDEAs. In addition, there is very large scope to develop specific research activities and dissemination of such research not only among network members but among a wider audience.