Search

Begin New Search Topic Development Political Geography Africa

541. Participation, Consultation, and Economic Reform in Africa: Economic Fora and the EG-DG Nexus

Publication Date:
10-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Agency for International Development
Abstract:
Economic restructuring, in spite of the social and political dislocations it can cause, remains an essential step in the process of growth and development for most developing countries. While conditions differ throughout the developing world, nearly all countries still struggle with the question of how to integrate economies in varying states of disrepair and non-competitiveness into the highly competitive global economy in a way that will provide for basic needs and ensure growth. At the same time, most of these countries are attempting to initiate or consolidate delicate and difficult transitions from authoritarian to democratic governance. This dual transition poses an important challenge for donors and others who support developing countries in their pursuit of democracy and growth.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
Africa

542. Political Science, International Relations, and AIDs in Africa

Author:
Catherine Boone and Jake Batsell
Publication Date:
02-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
Political Science as an academic discipline has been slow to grapple with the enormous implications of the AIDS crisis for society, politics, and economy in much of the developing world. This paper argues that political scientists do, in fact, have much to offer the struggle to understand and respond to the AIDS crisis. It also argues that research in this area could contribute to theory-building in areas of traditional concern to political science. There is a rich array of research agendas linking AIDS and politics that are worthy of systematic attention. We sketch out five of these as they relate to Africa. They have to do with explaining variations in state response to the pandemic; the relationship between African governments and NGOs; the AIDS challenge to neo-liberalism; AIDS and North-South tensions; and connections between AIDS and international security issues. The discussion is intended to be suggestive; it is intended to provoke and encourage research and scholarly debate on these issues.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Africa

543. On the Choice of Appropriate Development Strategy: Insights from CGE Modelling of the Mozambican Economy

Author:
Finn Tarp and Tarp Jensen Henning
Publication Date:
12-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
This paper makes use of a 1997 computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to analyse three potential strategies that Mozambique can pursue unilaterally with a view to initiating a sustainable development process. They include (i) an agriculture-first strategy, (ii) an agricultural-development led industrialization (ADLI) strategy, and (iii) a primary-sector export-oriented strategy. The ADLI strategy dominates the other development strategies since important synergy effects in aggregate welfare arise from including key agro-industry sectors into the agriculture-first development strategy. Moreover, the ADLI strategy can be designed so it has a relatively strong impact on the welfare of the poorest poverty-stricken households, and still maintain the politically sensitive factorial distribution of income.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Africa

544. The Coming Apathy: Africa Policy Under a Bush Administration

Author:
Salih Booker
Publication Date:
12-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Africa Policy Information Center
Abstract:
"There's got to be priorities," George W. Bush responded when asked about Africa in the second presidential campaign debate. Africa did not make his short list: the Middle East, Europe, the Far East, and the Americas. A Bush presidency portends a return to the blatantly anti-African policies of the Reagan-Bush years, characterized by a general disregard for black people and a perception of Africa as a social welfare case. Vice President Dick Cheney is widely expected to steer the younger Bush on most policy matters especially foreign affairs. Cheney's perspective on Africa in the 1980s was epitomized by his 1986 vote in favor of keeping Nelson Mandela in prison and his consistent opposition to sanctions against apartheid South Africa.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, and South Africa

545. HIV/AIDS and Failed Development

Author:
Joe Collins and Bill Rau
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Africa Policy Information Center
Abstract:
HIV/AIDS continues to cut into the fabric of African households and societies. It is not uncommon to hear that a quarter to a third of the adult population in several african countries are HIV infected. Against this reality of a rapidly spreading epidemic, some two decades of prevention interventions have met with but limited success. Whatever successes there might be are not to be lightly dismissed. The reasons for those successes, however, are not well understood and thus not readily applicable elsewhere. To date, most prevention efforts have focused on increasing individual awareness about risks of transmission and promoting individual risk reduction through a variety of means.
Topic:
Development, Human Welfare, and Third World
Political Geography:
Africa

546. Patterns of Trade and Foreign Direct Investment in Africa—A simple test of the new trade theory with multinationals

Author:
Lars C. Svindal and Leo A. Grünfeld
Publication Date:
12-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
In this study, we present an empirical survey of the patterns of trade and FDI in Africa based on a sample of 28 countries and their transactions with the OECD countries. These patterns are used to test whether the predictions of the new trade theory with multinationals as described by Markusen and Venables (1995,1998) fit the development in Africa. The theory states that multinational production will gradually outgrow trade as countries converge in terms of income, yet our econometric study gives only week evidence supporting such a pattern. Alternative explanations are also investigated,and it is shown that trade barriers, geographical distance, income per capita and access to ocean explain much of the variation in trade and FDI in Africa.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
Africa

547. Observing the 1999 Elections in Mozambique: Final Report

Publication Date:
08-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Carter Center
Abstract:
Shortly after Mozambique gained independence in 1975, civil war erupted and continued to rage for the next 16 years. In 1992 a peace agreement was negotiated, and in 1994 the country's first multiparty elections were held under U.N. auspices. President Joaquim Chissano and the ruling Frelimo party won the presidency and a majority in Parliament. Renamo, the former guerilla movement headed by Afonso Dhlakama, received nearly 34 percent of the presidential ballots and won 112 of the 250 seats in parliament.
Topic:
Democratization and Development
Political Geography:
Africa, United Nations, and Mozambique

548. Yet Another Transition? Urbanization, Class Formation, and the End of National Liberation Struggle in South Africa

Author:
David Everatt
Publication Date:
02-1999
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
Comparative Urban Studies Project Policy Brief Yet Another Transition? Urbanization, Class Formation, and the End of National Liberation Struggle in South Africa Presented February 8-9, 1999, at the Woodrow Wilson Center for the Comparative Urban Studies Project's Research Working Group on Urbanization, Population, the Environment, and Security funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. These policy briefs do not represent an official position of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars or the U.S. Agency for International Development. Opinions expressed are solely those of the authors. South Africa's negotiated settlement is widely hailed as a small miracle. What is the state of the miracle five years on?
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
Africa and South Africa

549. Ethnicity, Capital Formation, and Conflict

Author:
Richard N. Cooper
Publication Date:
12-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
"Development" implies change over time. More specifically, the term implies that particular features of the society, the economy and the polity increase in magnitude with the passage of time.This essay treats development as the process of structural change. As societies develop, they transform: towns grow, industry expands, and per capita incomes rise as labor shifts from employment in agriculture to employment in industry (Kuznets 1966; Polanyi 1944; Chenery and Taylor 1968 ). One source of increased incomes is a growing stock of productive inputs and, in particular, of capital. As each worker gains access to an increased stock of capital, each becomes more productive and the level of output per capita rises. Another source is technical change. In industry, possibilities exist for increasing returns to scale and for complementarities that agriculture lacks. Labor employed in town gains access to technologies that are more productive than those in villages. The shift of employment from agriculture to industry and from village to town therefore results in a rise in per capita output.
Topic:
Development, Ethnic Conflict, and Migration
Political Geography:
Africa

550. Social Funds in Stabilization and Adjustment Programmes

Author:
Giovanni Cornia
Publication Date:
04-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Well before the introduction of adjustment-related Social Funds (SFs), many developing countries had developed a variety of safety nets comprising food subsidies, nutrition interventions, employment-based schemes and targeted transfers. Middle-income and a few low-income countries had also achieved extensive coverage in the field of social insurance. In countries committed to fighting poverty, these programmes absorbed considerable resources (2-5 per cent of GDP, excluding social insurance) and had a large impact on job creation, income support and nutrition: for instance, in 1983, Chile's public works programme absorbed 13 per cent of the labour force. Their ability to expand quickly depended on a permanent structure of experienced staff, good portfolios of projects, clear management rules, adequate allocation of domestic resources, supply-driven execution and, with the exception of food subsidies, fairly good targeting.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, South Asia, South America, Latin America, Central America, Caribbean, and Chile