Warwick in London is a key partner - together with the Brookings Institution - in a unique major international conference being hosted by the UN agency, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Rome in January 2017.

The three day conference - 'Investing in inclusive rural transformation: innovative approaches to financing' - begins on 25 January 2017, and will be hosted at the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance and IFAD’s headquarters in Rome.

The conference will bring together policy and decision-makers, representatives of government organisations, the private sector, research and academic institutions, multilateral and bilateral development organisations, civil society and others for solutions-focused events and discussion.

Siobhan Benita, Chief Strategy Officer for Warwick in London and Co-director of the Warwick Policy Lab, will host the centre stage event on the final day of the conference, conducting an interview with Indian Economist Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia and facilitating a discussion with Dr Ahluwalia and conference guests on the topic of “Rural Development - An Enabling Environment”.

Dr Ahluwalia is the former Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of the Republic of India, a position which carries the rank of a cabinet minister. He was one of the main architects of India’s economic reform.

Professor Rocco Machiavelli, London School of Economics and also a Research Associate at the Warwick Policy Lab, will take part in a panel discussion on the “policy frameworks for boosting investment”.

The conference forms part of a wider collaboration between IFAD and the Warwick Policy Lab. Warwick in London’s partnership with IFAD creates opportunities for research student placements, and closer working between international development academics and practitioners.

The collaboration has already resulted in the final roll-out of IFAD’s Rural Development Report 2016 being hosted at Warwick in London in December.

The Rural Development Report is IFAD’s flagship publication which brings together leading thinkers to analyse the experiences of rural development in over 60 developing countries.

The report outcomes will form an integral part of the conference in January.

The conference will be live-streamed from the conference website.