Speakers

Dr Ismail  Serageldin
Founding Director Emeritus, BA

Biography:

Founding Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), the new Library of Alexandria, inaugurated in 2002, is currently, Emeritus Librarian, and member of the Board of Trustees of the Library of Alexandria. He is advisor to the Egyptian Prime Minister in matters concerning culture, science, and museums. He serves as Chair and Member of a number of advisory committees for academic, research, scientific and international institutions, including as co-Chair of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center (NGIC), and serves on the Advisory Committee of the World Social Science Report for 2013 and 2016, as well as the UNESCO-supported World Water Scenarios (2013) and the executive council of the Encyclopedia of Life (2010) and Chairs the Executive Council of the World Digital Library (2010).  He has held many international positions including as Vice President of the World Bank (1993–2000). He also co-chaired the African Union’s high level panel for Biotechnology (2006) and again for Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in 2012-2013, and was a member of the ICANN Panel for the review of the internet future (2013)

Opening Session:
Why are we concerned about measurement and quantification?  What are the challenges that face us in developing evidence-based policies and regulations now and big Data analytics in the future…. These question provide the background for this conference, whose goals are not just to review the latest thinking on the issues but also to nurture the creation of a network of interested researchers.

Measurement of Poverty:
Most people think of poverty in terms of income, and a poverty line.  But even the definition of income (usually GDP/Capita) is severely flawed. In addition, the issues of inequality and modeling are important.  Further, while such approximations may be understandable, they miss complexity of the social, cultural and political marginalization aspects of the phenomenon of poverty.  They miss the need for understanding extreme poverty, and the development of community resilience to external shocks.  Household income and expenditure surveys do much to address some of these lacunae as do gender studies. The refinement of the measurements of poverty is fascinating and essential for better understanding and dealing with this sad phenomenon.

Valuation of the Intangible Benefits of Culture Heritage:
Reflections with Special Emphasis on Historic Cities, What is the value of the physical cultural heritage and its constituent elements?  Why should we conserve historic monuments in the middle of a growing city? For whom should we conserve? How do we estimate the quantitative value of the cultural heritage?  How much should countries be willing to spend on protecting this cultural heritage?  To answer these questions, we will not only look at benefit cost approaches, but also we will look at techniques to estimate the economic value of intangible benefits, drawing on techniques developed in environmental analysis.  The result is a very rich and exciting overview that should trigger discussion among all concerned with the value of our heritage and the importance of conserving it.

Closing Session:
That will depend on the events at the conference.