Third World Aid Conference Begins Today

The problems of Third World countries will be spotlighted this weekend, as an undergraduate group hosts a three-day symposium on the dilemmas surrounding international development and foreign aid.

The third annual conference sponsored by the Overseas Development Network (ODN) gets underway today at the Kennedy School of Government and will continue through Saturday afternoon.

The symposium will be highlighted by two forums which will take place tonight and tomorrow evening.

The first, led by S. Shahaid Husain, vice president of the World Bank, focuses on the problem of taking cultural differences in account when formulating development strategies, said Kamal Ahmad '87-88' who founded the ODN in 1983 with his brother, Nazir Ahmad.

Representative Stephen Solarz (DNY) will leadFriday night's forum which will discuss theproblems of combining political and humanitariangoals in foreign aid projects, said Paul G.Bograd, Associate Director of the K-School'sInstitute of Politics.

The symposium will also include a series ofseminars on a variety of subjects, includingpoverty in communist countries, the role of womenin the development process, and health care inIndia.

The ODN is a nationwide consortion of collegecampus groups concerned with internationaldevelopment. In addition to sponsoring conferenceslike the one this weekend, the ODN funds studentinternships and grassroots projects in Third Worldcountries.

The Harvard chapter of the ODN theHarvard-Radcliffe International Development Forum,is cosponsoring this weekend's event.

"The symposium stems largely from ourfrustration with many development groups. Manyexperts seem to feel they have a very clear'strategy' for dealing with the world's poor,"Ahmad said. "In our experience the issues arequite complex."

"What we hope to do is not so much find answersas to make [these development experts] pause andreflect on some of the deeper questions," Ahmadsaid.

"Of course it's educational, but it's alsoexplorational. We want to stimulate debate," saidGina R. Levy '86, a member of ODN.

Matina S. Horner, president of RadcliffeCollege, of OXFAM America, and representativesfrom more than 12 colleges including MIT,Dartmouth College and Stanford University areamong the 400 people expected to participate inthe event.

ODN also sponsored a fast earner this yearwhich raised over $2500 for an agrarian collectivein Zimbabwe. Additional funds from that fastsponsored a seminar which taught 100 singlemothers various skills to enhance their incomes