Sakiko Fukuda-Parr

Biographical sketch (Feb 2008)

Sakiko Fukuda-Parr is Professor of International Affairs at the New School. She is a development economist working in the multidisciplinary framework of capabilities and human development. Her current work focusses on international development agendas and human rights perspectives, the nexus of armed conflict and poverty, and global technology.

Prior to coming to the New School, she was a Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government where she worked on the book on the political economy of agricultural biotechnology. From 1995 to 2004, she was director of the UNDP Human Development Reports. Created by Mahbub ul Haq to advocate policy options that expand human choices and freedom, this annual publication that tracks global poverty and development has been an influential source on policy challenges for politicians, governments, NGOs, media, and researchers. The 10 reports Sakiko led covered a broad range of themes, from globalization to new technologies, democracy, human rights and cultural diversity. She has had a long career in international development, starting at the World Bank where she worked on agriculture in the Middle East, and moving on to UNDP where her assignments included managing programs in East and West Africa, and leading policy initiatives for aid effectiveness and capacity development.

Her publications, in addition to the Human Development Reports, include: The Gene Revolution: GM Crops and Unequal Development (main contributor and editor); Readings in Human Development (edited with Shivakumar); Rethinking Technical Cooperation – Reforms for capacity building in Africa (with Elliot Berg); Capacity for Development (edited with C. Lopes and K. Malik), and numerous papers and book chapters on issues of poverty, gender, human rights, technology.She founded and is editor of the Journal of Human Development, and is on the Editorial Board of Feminist Economics. She is also on the board of several NGOs that advocate human rights and technology for development.

Sakiko received her BA from Cambridge University (UK), MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (USA), and MA from the University of Sussex (UK).

Sakiko is a citizen of Japan and grew up in Tokyo, Washington D.C., London and Manila. She is married to Francis Parr, and lives in New York with their two children.

Curriculum Vitae: Please download here 

NEW: Click here to view Professor Fukuda-Parr's Remarks to the UN Commission on the Status of Women 

Office Hours: Mondays 8:00 - 9:00 pm, Tuesdays 5:00 - 6:00 pm and by appointment

Current Courses:

Human Rights Based Approach to Development (download syllabus) – not often offered in international affairs programs, this course covers core theories and concepts of human rights (economic, social, cultural, civil and political) as they relate to the challenges of poverty and inequality. Though concerned with development, this course provides introductory theories to human rights overall. (First offered in fall 2007)

Economics II: Development Economics (download syllabus) - This course covers the core development economics literature, focussing on economic growth, its determinants and consequences on improving human lives.

Past Courses: 

Case studies in human rights and poverty - In this course, students develop  case studies on human rights related to poverty, such as the human rights of street children, of migrant workers.

Comparative Development Experience – a required introductory course to development. This course covers intellectual history of development thought, current paradigms and discourses, and policy challenges of globalization.  

Poverty and Inequality in Development – a foundation course for the Development Concentration. This course covers concepts, theories and current policy debates, including growth, peoples empowerment, and globalization.  

Human Development and Development Ethics – not often offered in international affairs programs, this course covers three conceptual frameworks for incorporating ethical considerations in development policy choices such as child labor, resettlement, etc.

Critical Issues in International Development Cooperation – this course covers current policy debates about aid effectiveness and reforms.

Latest working papers and publications: (download full publication list)

2008. ‘An integrated framework for peacebuilding, human rights and development: Reflections on Liberia's Poverty Reduction Strategy' (with Erin McCandless) in Kenneth Omeje ed. War to Peace Transition: Conflict, Intervention and Peacebuilding in Liberia, University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland

2008. ‘Are MDGs Priority in Development Strategies and Aid Programmes? Only Few are', International Poverty Center Working Paper no. 28, October 2008 http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCWorkingPaper48.pdf 

2008. ‘Conflict-development nexus: survey of armed conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa 19980-2006' (with M. Ashwill, C. Messineo, E. Chiappa). Journal of Peacebuilding and Development  Vol 4:1 pp 6-19

2008 ‘Integrating Conflict Prevention in Devleopment Policy and Aid Agendas: Policy Messages from the Wilton Park Confernce on Conflict Prevetion and Development cooperation in Africa, a policy workshop. November 8-11, 2007. Wilton Park, UK  available on webpage: http://www.jica.go.jp/english/resources/publications/study/topical/prevention/001.pdf

2008. "The intellectual journey continues: Today's global agenda and the new frontiers of human development" in Khadija Haq and Richard Ponzio, eds. Pioneering the Human Development Revolution: An Intellectual Biography of Mahbub ul Haq  Oxford University Press, New Delhi, Oxford and New York

2008. ‘Conflict-development nexus: survey of armed conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa 19980-2006' (with M. Ashwill, C. Messineo, E. Chiappa). Journal of Peacebuilding and Development  Vol 4:1 pp 6-19

2008. ‘Human Rights and Development’ in Kaushik Basu and Ravi Kanbur (eds) Social Welfare, Moral Philosophyand Development: Essays in Honour of Amartya Sen's Seventy Fifth Birthday Oxford: Oxford University Press. (earlier version available as University of Connecticut Human Rights Institute, Economic Rights Working paper 2007/4)

2007. Papers for Wilton Park Policy Workshop on Conflict Prevention and Development Cooperation in Africa: A Policy Workshop, November 2007:

‘Conflict prevention and development cooperation: Joint project of JICA and UNDP - A concept Paper’ (with Robert Picciotto) Background paper 1

‘Conflict-development nexus: A survey of armed conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa 1980-2005’ . (with M. Ashwill, C. Messineo, E. Chiappa) Background paper 4

‘Human Rights, State Capacity and Economic Policy’ (with Juan Alberto Fuentes)

2007. “Human Rights and National Poverty Reduction Strategies: Conceptual framework for human rights analysis of poverty reduction strategies and reviews of Guatemala, Liberia and Nepal” University of Connecticut Human Rights Insittute, Economic rights Working Papers 2007 (2).

2007. “From Income to a Multidimensional Measure of Poverty: the Case of the Human Poverty Index” Poverty in Focus, International Poverty Centre, UNDP, Brasilia

2007. ‘Rethinking the policy objectives of development aid: from economic growth to conflict prevention’ UN WIDER Research Paper 2007/32

2007. “International Obligations for Economic and Social Rights: The Case of the Millennium Development Goal 8.” in S. Hertel and A. Minkler (eds.), Economic Rights: Conceptual, Measurement, and Policy Issues, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

2007. The Gene Revolution: GM Crops and Unequal Development. Earthscan, London. Editor and main contributor (author of 4 of 12 chapters and coordinator of study that compares 8 country and sub-regional experiences developed with Rockefeller foundation grant).

2006. Millennium Development Goal 8 – international human rights obligations? Human Rights Quarterly. Vol 28. nr. 4