Students from Harvard Business School (HBS) and the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) teamed up yesterday to debate the effects of international development and answer the question, "Profits, Poverty or Progress?"

The two-day conference, which includes afternoon panels today on women and development, and development in the information age, kicked off yesterday afternoon after months of planning by the Political and Economic Development Professional Interest Council (PEDPIC) and the International Business Development Club (IBDC).

"We wanted to bring the community as well as people from the outside together to discuss pertinent development issues in bridging public and private partnership," said PEDPIC member Stephanie Sanok.

The joint effort brought together academics, business leaders and government officials in an effort to bridge the gap among the public, private and non-governmental sectors.

"A country must be prepared for constant change or else become a non-player in the world business game," said Georg Gamota, President of the Science and Technology Management Associates.

The panels offered a wide variety of topics, ranging from "Lessons and Hopes for Urban Development in Latin America" to "The Challenge of Micro-finance: Building Sustainable Financial Institutions that Service the Poor."

The two groups chose this year's theme of tensions between profit and Poverty in order to expand on last year's conference, "Mobilizing Finance for Development."

This is the third annual conference sponsored by IBDC and the second that has been co-sponsored by PEDPIC.

The groups decided to co-sponsor the conference last year when they became aware of their overlapping interests.

All of the events yesterday were held in the Belfer Center of the KSG. The conference continues this afternoon in HBS's Aldrich Hall.