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21. Scaling Up Development Interventions: A Review of UNDP's Country Program in Tajikistan

Author:
Johannes F. Linn
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
This study reports on a review of the United Nations Development Programmed' s (UNDP) country program in Tajikistan in terms of how it addresses the opportunities and challenges to scale up successful development interventions. It assesses to what extent the UNDP pursued well-articulated scaling up pathways in its overall program and in specific project areas, including its communities development program, its AIDS/HIV, tubercu¬losis and anti-malaria program, its support for aid coordination, its disaster risk management program and its energy and environment program. The study concludes that UNDP has incorporated key elements of a scaling up approach in its Tajikistan program, but also identifies additional ways to develop a more systematic approach to scaling up. This study is part of a broader program of research and analysis carried out under the auspices of the Brookings Global Economy and Development Program.
Topic:
Development, United Nations, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Central Asia and Tajikistan

22. Climate Change Investment through the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience in Tajikistan

Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Tajikistan is a poor country with limited industry, significant energy production from hydropower, and a low carbon footprint. Poverty in Tajikistan is predominantly found in rural areas, and is increasingly feminized as significant numbers of men migrate to other countries for work. This mountainous terrain of Tajikistan leaves many of its population reliant on marginal land for their livelihoods and thus vulnerable to climate change.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Central Asia and Tajikistan

23. EU Assistance to Central Asia: Back to the Drawing Board?

Author:
Jos Boonstra and Jacqueline Hale
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
European Union (EU) assistance in general and to Central Asia in particular is a complicated, many sided and fairly opaque business. In 2007, a few months prior to the Council's approval of an EU Strategy for Central Asia under the German Presidency, the Commission also presented two documents: an overarching Regional Strategy Paper for assistance to Central Asia over the period 2007–13 (RSP) and a more detailed and programme-orientated Central Asia Indicative Programme (IP), from 2007 until 2010.4 Over a seven-year period, 719 million Euros were to be set aside for assistance to the region through the new EU Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI). In addition, the EU has allocated more modest funds through global thematic instruments. Meanwhile, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and more recently the European Investment Bank (EIB) are stepping up activity in Central Asia and several member states have their own assistance programmes (foremost Germany) that are likely to match the DCI amount.
Topic:
Development and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Europe, Central Asia, and Germany

24. The U.S. Aid "Surge" to Pakistan: Repeating a Failed Experiment? Lessons for U.S. Policymakers from the World Bank's Social-Sector Lending in the 1990s

Author:
Nancy Birdsall and Molly Kinder
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
During the 1990s, the World Bank and several donor partners provided a “surge” in external aid to support Pakistan's social sectors. Despite the millions of donor dollars spent, the program failed. Poverty was higher in Pakistan in 2004 than it was a decade earlier when the antipoverty program began. This working paper re-releases a CGD analysis of the World Bank's program, which was prepared in 2005 by CGD researchers Nancy Birdsall, Milan Vaishnav, and Adeel Malik. The analysis reports the many problems donors faced while working with Pakistan's government to improve health and education outcomes. A new preface by Nancy Birdsall and Molly Kinder identifies the key lessons from this massive donor experiment that are relevant today, as the United States and other donors prepare to increase their assistance to Pakistan to historic levels.
Topic:
Development, Poverty, Foreign Aid, and World Bank
Political Geography:
Pakistan, United States, and Central Asia

25. The Resource Curse and Rentier States in the Caspian Region: A Need for Context Analysis

Author:
Hannes Meissner
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
Although much attention is paid to the Caspian region with regard to energy issues, the domestic consequences of the region's resource production have so far constituted a neglected field of research. A systematic survey of the latest research trends in the economic and political causalities of the resource curse and of rentier states reveals that there is a need for context analysis. In reference to this, the paper traces any shortcomings and promising approaches in the existent body of literature on the Caspian region. Following on from this, the paper then proposes a new approach; specifically, one in which any differences and similarities in the context conditions are captured. This enables a more precise exploration of the exact ways in which they form contemporary post-Soviet Caspian rentier states.
Topic:
International Relations, Democratization, Development, Political Theory, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
Central Asia and Caspian Sea

26. Securing Afghanistan

Author:
Seth G. Jones and C. Christine Fair
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
More than seven years after U.S. forces entered Afghanistan, important gains made in bringing stability and democracy to Afghanistan are imperiled. While there have been some positive developments in such areas as economic growth, the Taliban and other insurgent groups have gained some ground in the country and in neighboring Pakistan, the drug trade remains a significant problem, and corruption has worsened in the Afghan government. According to United Nations data, insurgent incidents have increased every year since the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban regime. The situation in parts of Afghanistan's south and east is particularly concerning because of the twin menace of insurgent and criminal activity. Despite these challenges, the insurgency remains deeply fractured among a range of groups, and most have little support among the Afghan population. This presents an opportunity for Afghans and the international community to turn the situation around.
Topic:
Security, Political Violence, Development, Economics, and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, and Central Asia

27. A New Direction for U.S. Policy in the Caspian Region

Author:
Martha Brill Olcott
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
With Washington's influence on the Caspian region at its lowest ebb in many years, the Obama administration could reverse this trend with a new approach that accepts Russia's presence and China's interest as historical and geographical givens and emphasizes short- and medium-term problem solving in multilateral and bilateral settings instead of long-term political and economic transformations. The United States can accomplish more in the Caspian region by focusing on military reform and building security capacity than on forming military alliances. The United States should switch from a multiple pipeline strategy to a policy that advances competition by promoting market pricing for energy producers, consumers, and transit states. The United States could facilitate the introduction of renewable sources of energy as a stimulus to economic recovery and a source of enhanced social security. The United States should develop a nuanced strategy that encourages political development through social and educational programs and local capacity building. The Obama administration should name a high-level official as a presidential envoy to this region.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, Development, Economics, and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, China, Washington, and Central Asia

28. The multiple paradoxes of the agriculture issue in Central Asia

Author:
Sébastien Peyrouse
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
Agriculture constitutes one of the main sectors in the economies of Central Asia: cotton production and export, mainly in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, and to a lesser extent in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan; a booming grain sector in Kazakhstan; and a long tradition of vegetable cultivation throughout the region. The agrarian question is a sensitive one since the population is still predominantly rural in four of the five republics (all except Kazakhstan) and because food safety is not ensured in the two poorest states (Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan). Land reform would be a priority for the growth of investment, increased productivity, and, consequently, the reduction of rural unemployment and poverty. However, pressed by the choice of cotton versus self-sufficiency in food production, the Central Asian states remain hesitant. They must also manage many structural problems, including high levels of corruption in the agrarian administrative organs, the opacity of decisionmaking structures for the export of production, quasi-slavery in some impoverished rural areas, child labour, and serious environmental problems related to the overuse of the soil.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
Europe, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan

29. Petersberg Papers on Afghanistan and the Region

Author:
Wolfgang Danspeckgruber
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:
Afghans and Afghanistan have faced many challenges, suffering, and destruction in the past. However time and again, they have risen after and have rebuilt. Since the 2001 Bonn Conference and the subsequent extensive international engagement in Afghanistan–both military and civilian–much has changed and much has been achieved. But today, many are not satisfied.
Topic:
Security, Development, Human Rights, International Cooperation, Treaties and Agreements, and Governance
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Asia

30. Auf der Suche nach Sicherheit. Die internationale Intervention in Nordost-Afghanistan

Author:
Jan Koehler
Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 700
Abstract:
Das vorliegende Arbeitspapier untersucht Wirkungszusammenhänge von transnationalen Konstellationen staatlicher und nicht-staatlicher Akteure mit der Erzeugung von Sicherheit sowie Entwicklung als Governance-Leistung in Nordost-Afghanistan. Ausgangspunkt der Untersuchung ist die Frage, wie die afghanische Bevölkerung Veränderungen der eigenen Sicherheit sowie lokale Entwicklungsherausforderungen über die letzten Jahre wahrgenommen hat. Das Papier besteht aus zwei Teilen. Zunächst erläutert der Autor im Rahmen einer Fallstudie die relevanten internationalen, nationalen und lokalen Akteurskonstellationen in der Zielregion und bettet die Ergebnisse der quantitativen Befragungen ein in den Kontext der qualitativen Untersuchungsergebnisse zu lokalen gesellschaftlichen und politischen Entwicklungen. Anschließend wird detailliert das methodische Vorgehen erläutert, welches auf kreuzperspektivischer Analyse der quantitativ und qualitativ erhobenen Daten gründet. Die Analyse zeigt, dass im heutigen Afghanistan Sicherheit und Entwicklung als Ergebnis transnationaler Governance entstehen können. Diese Governance-Leistungen sind auf die lokale Ebene beschränkt; sie erreichen nicht die regionale oder gar die nationale Ebene. Die Untersuchung zeigt allerdings auch, dass transnationale Governance-Leistungen im Unterschied zur strategischen Zielsetzung der internationalen Interventen gerade die nationalen und sub-nationalen staatlichen Institutionen schwächen und deren Legitimität beeinträchtigt, die durch die Intervention aufgebaut und gefestigt werden sollen.
Topic:
Security, Development, and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Central Asia