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62. Alternative development financing mechanisms: pre-crisis trends and post-crisis outlook
- Author:
- Sam Jones
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- External financial flows have long held a central place in debates about how to promote socio-economic development in poor countries. Alternative development theories typically map into different views regarding the desirable form and volume of external inflows. Over the past decade, development policy has witnessed a clear shift towards a poverty reduction agenda. Unsurprisingly, this has been accompanied by changes in views concerning development finance. A dominant refrain of the present agenda is that 'traditional' approaches to development finance, characterised by official bilateral and multilateral assistance to discrete projects through a combination of loans and credits, have been inadequate. In response, reforms of traditional aid and alternative approaches to financing have been advocated.
- Topic:
- Development, Humanitarian Aid, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- Africa
63. European Food Safety Regulation and the Developing Countries: Regulatory problems and possibilities
- Author:
- Morten Broberg
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper examines the European Community's food safety regime in order to identify those legal measures that cause the most problems for developing countries' exporters of food products and to point to possible solutions. It is shown that barriers ma y arise due to an array of requirements, some of which may appear to be rather minor legal amendments, such as changing a sampling plan. There is no easy solution to this problem, but three specific measures are proposed: Firstly, improved harmonisation of food safety measures in the industrialised countries. Secondly, when proposing new food safety measures the European Commission should identify the proposal's likely consequences on developing countries – and should explain how alternative measures will affect both food safety and the developing countries. And lastly, the European Community should strengthen its provision of development assistance to enable the developing countries to comply with the food safety standards.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Development, International Trade and Finance, Third World, and Food
- Political Geography:
- Europe
64. Using Indicators to Encourage Development? Lessons from the Millennium Development Goals
- Author:
- Richard Manning
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The Millennium Declaration included a highly significant innovation – universal, support by the world's governments for a short list of development results to be, achieved by a set date. As the target year of 2015 approaches, the paper compares the, MDG framework that emerged from the Declaration with other ways of measuring, and incentivising progress, sets out some initial hypotheses about its impact and addresses issues about its structure and coverage. This leads to proposals about how to, get the best value from the MDGs over the years to 2015 and five hypotheses about, how the world might approach the issue of what framework, if any, to put in place, to measure and incentivise development progress after 2015.
- Topic:
- Development, Health, Human Welfare, Humanitarian Aid, International Cooperation, International Political Economy, Third World, and United Nations
65. Whither aid? Financing development in Mozambique
- Author:
- Sam Jones
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Careful consideration of the appropriate level and composition of aggregate public spending is vital in low income countries, especially in the presence of large volumes of foreign aid. Not only can expansion of the public sector weaken economic growth, but also provision of public services may be difficult to retrench. These issues are relevant to Mozambique as the share of government in GDP already is comparatively high and strategic management of aggregate public spending historically has been weak. A new long-term macroeconomic model quantifies the implications of alternative aggregate spending profiles. It shows that small increases in minimum levels of government spending correspond to large increases in the duration to aid independence. Sharp reductions in aid availability would necessitate significant fiscal and economic adjustments, including cuts in real public spending per capita. For this reason, there is no room for complacency as regards the future of development finance to Mozambique.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Humanitarian Aid, International Political Economy, Poverty, and Third World
- Political Geography:
- Africa
66. Strategies for Growth and Poverty Reduction: Has Tanzania's Second PRSP Influenced Implementation?
- Author:
- Dennis Rweyemamu
- Publication Date:
- 09-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Tanzania's current growth and poverty reduction strategies are contained in its second PRSP. This document, and the processes leading to its formulation, has helped to mobilize donor funds. However, the content of the PRSP is largely irrelevant for implementation, and has contributed little to better inter-sectoral linkages and synergies both of which were its main purposes. The immediate reasons for this irrelevancy include a participatory planning process not aligned with the domestic political process and with no budget constraints which led to a shopping list of un-prioritized initiatives; an implementation machinery around the budget process which in practice does not ensure that resources are allocated in line with the document's priorities; and limited understanding and/ or acceptance across the spectrum of government institutions and political leadership that the PRSP is the overall strategic guiding document.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Poverty, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Tanzania
67. Aid, Paris and the Private Sector: How to Square the Circle
- Author:
- Jørgen Estrup
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Support for private sector development is an important item on the ODA budgets of most donor countries and recently, there has even been an upsurge in the weight given to 'private sector led growth'. In this working paper, Jørgen Estrup, an independent senior adviser with comprehensive experience in aid programmes supporting the private sector in developing countries, provides an overview of recent trends in donor support to private sector development. The paper goes through the history of and rationale for support to the private sector, and it identifies a number of distinct approaches to the subject. Moreover, the paper discusses these approaches in the context of the Paris Declaration and notes a conspicuous lack of coherence between the approaches to private sector development and the principles of the Declaration.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Markets, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Paris
68. Skilled Migration: Boon or Bane? The Role of Policy Intervention
- Author:
- Ronald Skeldon
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Often highly skilled migration from developing to Western countries is conceptualized as “brain drain” and as detrimental for development. However, recent research and policy development challenges mainstream assumptions of brain drain, insisting that skilled migration is a more complex phenomenon. In this paper, the evidence for the migration of the skilled either to prejudice or to promote development will be examined. The terms “brain drain” and “brain gain” immediately introduce into the debate value judgements, which are either negative, that migration is bad for countries of origin, or positive, that migration is good and can be used to promote development. The evidence for each is conflicting and the adoption of such judgemental terms obscures factual analyses. The paper argues that rather than focussing on the consequences of the migration, policy should focus more on the causes and particularly on training and education policies.
- Topic:
- Development, Markets, Migration, and Labor Issues
69. Institutional development or direct support to the poor
- Author:
- Neil Webster
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- There are two fundamentally different understandings of how to bring about development. One argues that through the right policies it is possible to create an enabling environment for the development of people and societies. The other emphasises that development can only take place if those who are supposed to benefit from it, insist on it themselves. In the second understanding development cannot be created from above or from outside. So-called cash transfer programmes having spread from Latin America to Africa and Asia are based on this understanding as they transfer money to poor people on certain conditions. The question is to what extent these programmes contribute to development.
- Topic:
- Development, Poverty, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Asia, and Latin America
70. The Future of European Development Cooperation: Seeking Global Solutions or Retracing a Niche by 2020?
- Author:
- Sven Grimm and Erik Lundsgaarde
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This article discusses the future prospects for European Development Cooperation. The authors argue that the way EU policy for global development will look in the future will depend on how the organization manages two key challenges. The first challenge relates to the changing political dynamics within an enlarged EU and the need to accommodate a diverse set of preferences concerning development policy priorities. The second challenge stems from an evolving external environment characterized by an increasing emphasis on global public goods and the multiplication of global development players. While both of these challenges place pressure on the existing European development consensus, they also offer an impetus for strengthened coordination in the development policy sphere at the European level.
- Topic:
- Development and Globalization
- Political Geography:
- Europe