Week 1

One topic that resonated strongly with me this week was the need to focus on the poor instead of poverty. While I have seen heavy economic inequalities and their effects, particularly since moving to Mexico, I have still always thought of economic development in broad terms. Even working for a microfinance organization that targets development of individuals and communities, I still found this week that my perception of "real" (wide-scale) poverty alleviation involved macroeconomic policy, such as industrialization and trade policy. While those are important, they by no means guarantee that the poor will gain from it, instead of the rich absorbing all of the benefits. This understanding will definitely serve me in my practice of international development, as bringing people and communities - not entire countries - out of poverty is an important shift in focus.

Another was the TRIPS and ISDS policies associated with the TPP. The implications of the policies themselves are disturbing, but the reason that the topic stood out to me was the need to thoroughly analyze all sides of international policies, particularly power dynamics. At first glance, intellectual property rights protected by international law (as opposed of just one country's legal system) seem like a great idea - the notion of helping weaker countries guard their technology and to not allow it to be stolen seems valuable. However, as we learned, the actual effects of policies like this do more harm to developing nations, and more importantly, to poor individuals, than they protect them. This will be useful to my international development practice as I will now be more aware of power dynamics that are at play between economically strong countries and their weaker counterparts and manipulation that can take place through these policies.