I am not going to make a long speech. Anybody who wants to know
more about your career should buy a copy of the book about you written
by John Shaw. It is an exhaustive account of an extraordinary career*.
What I do want to do is lay out two or three reasons why you deserve
the award – though there is one other which is actually the
most important.
The first is the longevity of your contribution, Hans. This is
a triumph in itself. You have been working in the field now for
70 years, and this month marks your ninety-fourth birthday. That
is worth a round of applause.
The second is your intellectual contribution, exhaustively detailed
in John Shaw’s book. Almost everything we all think we have
discovered about development was discovered by Hans and his collaborators,
usually before the Second World War. For example, the first book
Hans produced, Men Without Work, involved extraordinary field work,
reminiscent of George Orwell and other authors of the time. The
research involved visiting and living with unemployed families around
the UK, putting together an account of what it meant to be poor
in the UK in the 1930s, and what might be done about it. And lo
and behold, the book contains an interesting discussion about social
capital, and its importance to the communities of the unemployed
in the 1930s. The book is also based on a wonderful combination
of quantitative and qualitative analysis, a lesson to all of us
working in this field.
I am not going to list all the things Hans has done, because you
mostly know. If you are a student, it is on your reading lists.
If you are already a professional, you will have grown up with it.
The debate on terms of trade, Prebisch-Singer - which, actually,
as you all know should be Singer-Prebisch, because Hans got there
first. The work on human capital, on employment, the informal sector,
redistribution with growth, basic needs, children, aid and food
aid . . . Through all this, Hans has prided himself on being a dissenting
economist. He has not toed the party line. Hans is somebody who
has thought these ideas out for himself and has taken unpopular
positions where it has been appropriate.
Those two are reasons enough for us to make an award to Hans Singer,
but there are two others that I want to mention.
The first is the theme of today’s conference, ‘Bridging
Research and Policy’. Hans has been a one-man bridge, like
Atlas, holding up the bridge between research and policy, pretty
well for 70 years. The United Nations was founded partly in this
room. Hans was one of the very first economists ever appointed to
the UN, in 1947, and made a series of extraordinary contributions
- not just to thinking, but also to institutional development. The
UN Special Fund: Hans was there at the beginning. UNRISD: Hans was
there at the beginning. The Economic Commission for Africa: there
was Hans. The African Development Bank. The World Food Programme.
UNIDO. These are institutions which today are a vital part of the
apparatus for tackling poverty in the world. Many of them owe their
origins and their founding ideas to one person, Hans Singer.
This is what I admire about Hans. He is passionate about development,
but he is also practical. He is rigorous, but also relevant. He
is philosophical, but also political, in the way he things about
how to make change happen. Having listened to Matthew Taylor and
NC Saxena this morning, we can see that they are both worthy successors
of the kind of work that Hans has been involved in.
That I think, is a very good reason to make an award to Hans, but
there is one other - for many of us in the Development Studies community
in the UK, probably the most important of all: Hans’ personal
qualities.
Hans has been somebody who, more than anybody else I can think
of in the profession (there are actually one or two others, some
of whom are here) has nurtured younger people from all over the
world, has mentored them. There is a famous story at IDS, an old
story, about the visiting Fellow who spent a year at IDS, and at
the end of his year wrote a letter to the Director to say he would
particularly like to thank the one Fellow who spoke to him during
his time at IDS. You can be quite sure that that Fellow was Hans
Singer. He has always had time to talk, time to listen, time to
read, time to correct your spelling mistakes, time to help you think
through the strategic implications of what you have said.
I can bear witness to that from my own experience. I first met
Hans in the garden of the Fairview Hotel in Nairobi in 1972, during
the ILO Employment Mission, a famous study which Hans led, jointly
with Richard Jolly. Hans was immediately interested in me, in what
I might do next, and whether I should go and do a Master’s
degree at Sussex. That was 32 years ago, and hardly a day has gone
past since when I haven’t been grateful to Hans, for the support
he has given me, for the affection he has shown me, and for the
professional guidance that he has provided.
Hans, everyone in this room, everyone in Development Studies, respects
your for what you have achieved, for your intellectual contribution,
and for your contribution to institution building and to poverty
reduction. Everybody in this room admires you for your fight against
Fascism, for your commitment to liberal ideas, for continuing to
be a dissenting Economist even when it was difficult.
But there is something even more important. We love you Hans, for
who you are. For what you have done for us. For the leadership you
have provided to our sector throughout the world, in rich countries
and in poor ones. We hope to carry on that light.
