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Begin New Search Topic Third World Political Geography Africa

21. Policies that increase vulnerability to corruption

Author:
Dwight Ink
Publication Date:
12-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The National Academy of Public Administration
Abstract:
My comments on donor policies that increase vulnerability to corruption grow out of experience of directing the Agency for International Development programs in the Western Hemisphere, as well as assessing USAID missions in Africa, the Near East, and Asia. Following this work, I headed a non-profit organization, the Institute of Public Administration, which has been heavily involved in the transition of countries in Europe and Asia from dictatorships to market economies and democratic societies. I should point out, however, that my background is in management, not banking or economics.
Topic:
Development, Non-Governmental Organization, Poverty, and Third World
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and Asia

22. Food Aid and Informal Insurance

Author:
Stefan Dercon and Pramila Krishnan
Publication Date:
01-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Households in developing countries use a variety of informal mechanisms to cope with risk, including mutual support and risk-sharing. These mechanisms cannot avoid that they remain vulnerable to shocks. Public programs in the form of food aid distribution and food-for-work programs are meant to protect vulnerable households from consumption and nutrition downturns by providing a safety net. In this paper we look into the extent to which food aid helps to smooth consumption by reducing the impact of negative shocks, taking into account informal risk-sharing arrangements. Using panel data from Ethiopia, we find that despite relatively poor targeting of the food aid, the programs contribute to better consumption outcomes, largely via intra-village risk sharing.
Topic:
Development, Non-Governmental Organization, Poverty, and Third World
Political Geography:
Africa and Ethiopia

23. Health, Shocks and Poverty Persistence

Author:
Stefan Dercon and John Hoddinott
Publication Date:
01-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
In this paper we review the evidence on the impact of large shocks, such as drought, on child and adult health, with particular emphasis on Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. Our focus is on the impact of shocks on long-term outcomes, and we ask whether there are intrahousehold differences in these effects. The evidence suggests substantial fluctuations in body weight and growth retardation in response to shocks. While there appears to be no differential impact between boys and girls, adult women are often worse affected by these shocks. For children, there is no full recovery from these losses, affecting adult health and education outcomes, as well as lifetime earnings. For adults, there is no evidence of persistent effects from transitory shocks in our data.
Topic:
Development, Poverty, Science and Technology, and Third World
Political Geography:
Africa, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia

24. 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

25. AIDS and Developing Countries: Democratizing Access to Essential Medicines

Author:
Tom Barry, Robert Weissman, and Martha Honey
Publication Date:
08-1999
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Foreign Policy In Focus
Abstract:
Africa and the developing world are facing an HIV/AIDS crisis equated by the U.S. surgeon general to the plague that decimated Europe in the fourteenth century. Combinations of available pharmaceuticals-too expensive for nearly all of the infected people in the developing world-could enable many afflicted with HIV/AIDS to live relatively normal lives. Compulsory licensing and parallel importing policies could help developing country governments make essential medicines more affordable to their citizens.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Science and Technology, and Third World
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, and Europe

26. Networks in International Capacity Building: Cases from Sub-Saharan Africa

Author:
Kenneth Prewitt
Publication Date:
01-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Social Science Research Council
Abstract:
Networking is ubiquitous, Networks are not. By networks we have in mind professional and scientific collaborations unrestricted by geography—a group of scholars taking advantage of improved mobility and communication to work across institutional and national boundaries. This report draws from a conference that inquired into the role of networks in research, training and institution-strengthening in sub-Saharan Africa—terms commonly, if loosely, associated with "capacity building." Although the conference focused on networks that were making headway toward their declared goals, the purpose was not to celebrate success stories. It was to be analytic, with the intention of identifying generic questions and preliminary answers, particularly lessons of use to those involved in building, maintaining, strengthening and funding professional networks.
Topic:
Development and Third World
Political Geography:
Africa

27. Africa on the Internet: Starting Points for Policy Information

Publication Date:
07-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Africa Policy Information Center
Abstract:
Electronic networks—and particularly the new tools of e-mail and the World Wide Web (see below for an overview of basic concepts and a glossary with short definitions)—have great potential for enhancing global democratic access to policy-making processes. But de facto access to effective use of these technologies is biased in all the predictable directions: by race, gender, economic status, and location. Africa, to date the least connected continent, is particularly disadvantaged. By cutting the costs of long-distance communication, however, the information revolution is also opening up new possibilities. How well Africa and Africa's friends take advantage of these opportunities will depend at least as much on our collective capacity to learn as on the material resources available to us.
Topic:
Science and Technology and Third World
Political Geography:
Africa