Sponsored in part by the World Bank outreach programme, the two day conference gave graduate students a chance to put their theoretical knowledge to the test. The questions posed to the panelists included ?What is International Development??, ?Who are the Actors in Development??, ?What Works and What Doesn?t??, ?How Useful is Trade for Developement??, and ?What influences World Bank policies??. The answers to these difficult questions were not always easy or straight forward. Students challenged World Bank staff, development practitioners, and academic experts. In turn, students were challenged by a simulated case-study in development. In this exercise, students represented Ugandan stakeholder groups trying to develop a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), a national development plan that would lead to World Bank financing.
