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Begin New Search Publishing Institution Institute for Development and Peace Publication Year within 25 Years

21. Assessing Business-Related Impacts on Human Rights

Author:
Dyan Tromp
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
With a view to informing the policies and practices of states, business enterprises, and other stakeholders towards universal corporate respect for human rights, this study proposes principled and practical indicators to support the assessment of human rights impacts with which business enterprises may be involved. The study identifies a wide array of contexts in which application of the proposed indicators would help to strengthen state approaches to protecting rights-holders against business-related harm in terms of law, policy, regulation, adjudication and participation in multilateral, international and regional organizations. The study also presents a practical methodology for how the proposed indicators can strengthen current private sector approaches to implementing the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, particularly in terms of assessing the human rights risks and impacts that may be associated with core business operations and business relationships.
Topic:
Human Rights, Business, Regionalism, and Private Sector
Political Geography:
Global Focus

22. Terrorism: Undefinable and Out-of-Context?

Author:
Jochen Hippler
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
Terrorism studies have developed since the 1970s. But the research field still suffers from several weaknesses: the inability to formulate a consensus on what exactly “terrorism” is; the vagueness and arbitrariness of the practical usage of the term “terrorism”; its politicization and the habit to use it as a moral label instead as an analytical tool; and the tendency to use the term outside of any political context. This study firstly reconsiders these conceptual weaknesses, and proposes how to deal with them. Secondly, it suggests to focus terrorism studies more on the political contexts, which produce domestic and international terrorism, by using the key example of terrorism resulting from a context of civil wars and insurgencies. The study argues that terrorism is not an ideology, not a type of warfare, rarely a strategy, but mostly a tactical instrument, which has to be analyzed in the respective political contexts.
Topic:
Civil War, Development, Terrorism, Conflict, and Peace
Political Geography:
Global Focus

23. Enhancing Climate Change Resilience in Fragile States

Author:
Katharina Nett
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
Climate change is increasingly perceived as a threat to human security and a challenge to the problem-solving capacity of states and societies, particularly in fragile states. While there is substantial literature on climate change adaptation in conflict-affected contexts, much less attention has been paid to how to enhance resilience in contexts of fragility and low state capacity. This paper argues that in order to effectively address the complex, in- tertwined risks resulting from the interplay of state fragility and climate change, a compre- hensive approach to resilience is needed that encompasses both climate change adapta- tion and state-building. An analysis of the climate change adaptation strategies and instru- ments of the UNFCCC and the EU shows that while there are some promising first ap- proaches, donors and international organisations working in the field of climate change adaptation need to build their adaptation strategies on a thorough understanding of the fragile context and take more action to adjust their policy instruments to the special needs of fragile states.
Topic:
Security, Climate Change, Environment, Governance, Fragile States, and Resilience
Political Geography:
Global Focus

24. Building Inclusive Smallholder Agriculture Finance

Author:
Simon Striegel
Publication Date:
11-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
Despite the increasing liberalization and penetration of rural financial markets in the global South, small-scale agricultural producers’ scarce access to formal financial services still constitutes a fundamental roadblock to improving financial inclusion and, thus, rural livelihoods. High transaction costs combined with covariant risks, a lack of financial literacy and the prevalence of moral hazard in agicultural lending impair the profitability and, hence, the availability of smallholder agricultural finance. Based on the theoretical concept of New Institutional Economics and underpinned by empirical evidence from small-scale coffee producers and financial institutions in Tanzania, this paper identifies major challenges of smallholder finance in the country and possible pathways through which financial inclusion can be elevated. The assessment of Tanzania’s smallholder-based coffee sector and financial system reveals that while organizational development among small-scale producers is clearly insufficient, inclusive rural financial systems, above all, depend on cohesive, well-governed and - managed producer organizations which qualify and act as intermediation points between small-scale producers and financial institutions.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Finance, Rural, and Farming
Political Geography:
Africa and Tanzania

25. Human Rights Due Diligence through Stakeholder Engagement?

Author:
Brigitte Hamm and Anne Schax
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
The report examines to what extent stakeholder engagement as a form of private governance can contribute to a corporation’s human rights due diligence performance. It takes as the basis for investigation a case study of a stakeholder engagement program implemented by the oper- ating company SMI for a planned copper-gold mine in the Philippines during the project’s pre- operational phase. The analysis examines criteria for good stakeholder engagement set out by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and uses the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as the conceptual framework. For the case investigated here, it is established that SMI’s stakeholder engagement program as well as the IFC’s guidelines evince several shortcomings from a human rights perspective, which in turn negatively affect other due dili- gence processes.
Topic:
Human Rights, United Nations, Governance, and Humanitarian Crisis
Political Geography:
Philippines, Asia-Pacific, and Global Focus

26. Bedingungen nachhaltigen Handelns. Eine Fallstudie über die Implementierung eines landwirtschaftlichen Klimaanpassungsprogramms im bolivianischen Tiefland

Author:
Martin David
Publication Date:
01-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
The adverse effects of climate change are a genuine risk for global food security. Especially the populations of low income countries are highly depending on the agricultural sector and so particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. This paper evaluates a local program of adaptation to climate change in the Bolivian lowlands. The departmental government of Santa Cruz began a pilot-program to secure departmental food security and to acquire knowledge for the design of future politics of adaptation to climate change. In a Farmer Field School, implemented by a cooperating Nongovernmental Organisation, farmers were taught sustainable agricultural practices to make their crops more resistant against natural disasters, related to the effects of climate change. This theory-based cased study examines – using the method of fuzzy-set- Qualitative Comparative Analysis those conditions, which enabled and disabled the implementation of the program. It thus tries to shed light on the question, if transferred knowledge can lead to action. Based on this analysis recommendations are made for future designs of such types of cooperation.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Food, and Governance
Political Geography:
South America

27. Die Global Governance des Wassers. Eine Untersuchung der Wasserpolitik und städtischen Versorgungslage in Uganda

Author:
Anne Siebert
Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
Over the past decade, Uganda has developed strong water and sanitation sector reform policies grounded in a constitutional guarantee to the human right to water. This yielded not yet to comprehensive results in improvement of the supply situation. This Working Paper analyzes and critically evaluates this rights-based water reform process on global and national level to identify the context-specific conditions in Uganda for the successes and failures. It investigates the related policies in Uganda; and also has a look at formal and informal sectors of society. In particular, the paper asks whether and how human rights-based arrangements and strategies can serve as a model for addressing the urgent water sector challenges. Furthermore, the paper discusses how policy transfer, rights awareness, and community participation in context of water supply and sanitation might be influenced in a sustainable way.
Topic:
Human Rights, Water, and Governance
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

28. Ressourcensegen – Ressourcenfluch? Fallstudie der entwicklungspolitischen Chancen und Risiken des Ressourcenbooms in der Mongolei

Author:
Paul Kriews
Publication Date:
07-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
Natural resources play a significant role for a country's development: The beneficial dynamics of a prosperous commodity sector have therefore long been considered as a key factor for a country's positive economic development. Paradoxically, however, one can observe frequently in resource-rich countries that the commodity sector has no positive effect, but rather fatal implications for a country's development. The assumption that resource-rich countries use their wealth for the advancement of sustainable development appears to be incomplete. This paper identifies the basic problems and dangers associated with resource wealth; possible options for action are identified and traced, using the example of Mongolia. The central question is whether Mongolia can escape the so-called resource curse. In this paper, a set of criteria is used, to elaborate whether the necessary conditions for a responsible use of the existing resource wealth in Mongolia are given.
Topic:
Economics, Environment, Natural Resources, and Governance

29. Local accountability in Mozambique

Author:
Julia Bastian
Publication Date:
09-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
The debate on decentralization has identified local accountability as a key factor for successful decentralization processes in developing countries, stressing that the account ability of subnational governments towards the national level may prove detrimental to their accountability to the citizens. Based on the distinction of formal and informal institutions and the discussion of accountability as a concept, this Working Paper identifies accountability mechanisms relevant at the local level and analyses their functioning, interaction and factors that influence their effectiveness. This analytical grid is then applied to the case study of Mozambique, in a structured and focused comparison of the municipalities of Beira and Catandica. The analysis shows that accountability mechanisms at national level do not necessarily undermine accountability towards the citizens, but even may have an activating effect on other accountability mechanisms. Funding, access to information, political competition at the local level and informal influences that emanate from formal organizations, such as political parties, are factors that influence the effectiveness of accountability mechanisms at the local level.
Topic:
Government, Governance, and Reform
Political Geography:
Mozambique

30. The BRICS Development Bank: A New Tool for South-South Cooperation?

Author:
Jan Schablitzki
Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
The Sixth BRICS Summit, held in July 2014 in Fortaleza, Brazil, resulted in agreements to establish a New Development Bank (NDB) as well as a Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA). This Policy Brief discusses the impact of the NDB on the existing architecture of development finance, focusing on the bank’s potential contribution to the BRICS’ South-South cooperation. The first section outlines the BRICS countries’ rational for establishing the NDB. In the following section potential development paradigms that are likely to be adopted by the NDB are addressed. Since no decision has been taken on the bank’s future governance, this section will be based on the experiences from the BRICS’ national development banks. Once the NDB’s governance is agreed upon, it will impact whether and to what extent the new bank will cooperate with the existing international system of development finance. A third section discusses the NDB’s potential appeal for the Global South. The Global South shares with the BRICS a disappointment with the existing system, and connects specific hopes and expectations with the foundation of the NDB. Examining the Banks effect on South-South cooperation, the section includes prospects on the Bank’s capital potential and by that its potential contribution to the prevalent demand for infrastructure financing in developing countries. A final section summarises the points made and aims to put the present perceptions of the NDB in rather cautious perspectives.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Infrastructure, and Developing World
Political Geography:
Global Focus