About the Summit

Duke Global Summit on Governance and Development in a Value Chain World

Duke University, October 29-31, 2014

Objectives, Activities, and Outputs

Duke University hosted a Global Summit for policy leaders thinking about value chains, governance and development in the world’s top international organizations. It combined working sessions involving the core participants along with public forums. Topics covered international trade, development assistance, public-private partnerships, and industrial policy, among others. In particular, the Summit had three main objectives:

• Direct policy impact: The summit involved people in positions to make policy at top international organizations—such as the World Bank, the IFC, the World Trade Organization, World Economic Forum, Inter-American Development Bank, African Development Bank, OECD, UNCTAD, UNIDO, ITC, and the ILO, among others—all of whom are interested in the policy implications of a world economy increasingly influenced by global and regional value chains.
• Influence on development discourse among practitioners: Outputs of the Summit reached a global audience interested in issues of globalization and development. In addition to the summit events, the proceedings were shared with a broader audience through the Summit website (used to publicize the event and as a resource for the interested public), live video stream, recorded participant interviews, and a mini-documentary.
• Academic research on governance and value chains: By interacting with leading practitioners, academic researchers gained a better understanding of the key issues and questions facing policymakers, and helped disseminate the results of the Global Summit to diverse groups.