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132. Development assistance for peacebuilding
- Author:
- Rachel M. Gisselquist
- Publication Date:
- 02-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- Development assistance to fragile states and conflict-affected areas is a core component of peacebuilding. It includes support for the restoration of core government functions, delivery of basic services, the rule of law, and economic revitalization. Yet, while aid has been among the largest financial inflows to fragile states in recent years, its impact has been mixed. Better understanding of what works and why thus remains a core challenge for development researchers and practitioners.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Foreign Aid, Conflict, and Peace
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
133. Aid, environment and climate change
- Author:
- Channing Arndt and Finn Tarp
- Publication Date:
- 12-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- Development aid by itself cannot ‘save the planet’. Yet, development aid and institutions have the potential to remain important catalytic actors in achieving developmental and global environmental objectives. Developing countries must be crucial players in successful climate change mitigation as they are responsible for 88% of the growth in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since 1970. However, the current aid architecture — which was designed in the 1970s when environmental issues were a distant concern — is not well suited to support environmental challenges that extend beyond low-income countries.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Development, Environment, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
134. The Politics of Effective Aid and Interstate Conflict
- Author:
- Ömer F. Örsün
- Publication Date:
- 01-2017
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
- Institution:
- Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
- Abstract:
- The link between foreign aid and military conflict has received little attention in both aid effectiveness and interstate conflict research. This study provides a first-cut analysis of the impact of foreign aid on interstate conflict among recipient countries. In doing so, it opens the black box of state and builds on the previous research in the aid effectiveness literature and on the signaling processes in the conflict literature. Previous research indicates that the effectiveness of aid in improving citizen welfare is conditional on the presence of democratic institutions. This study shows that this conditional relationship has a detrimental effect on crisis bargaining outcomes. Foreign aid, on the one hand, increases citizen welfare in democratic regimes; hence, also governments’ ex- ante re-election prospects. On the other hand, foreign aid retards government ability to generate audience costs and to send informative signals to their opponents. Analyzing all dyads from 1961 to 2001 yields robust support for this view. As aid inflows increase, targets’ resistance propensity against threats issued by democratic governments becomes statistically indistinguishable from threats issued by autocratic governments. Moreover, democratic states are not significantly more peaceful to each other than non-democratic pairs once we take into account the amount of foreign aid they receive.
- Topic:
- Foreign Aid, Democracy, Conflict, and Aid Effectiveness
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
135. Putting politics into international development? It’s about time
- Author:
- Charles Cadwell
- Publication Date:
- 04-2016
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Urban Institute
- Abstract:
- It may be difficult in the current political season to welcome news that international development agencies are paying more attention to the politics of reform when designing their assistance programs to poor countries. But we should be relieved that agencies like the World Bank, the UK’s Department for International Development, and our own US Agency for International Development are doing just that. For too long, aid programs operated with the convenient fiction that assistance work was purely technical. The premise of many programs was “simply transfer missing knowledge, skills, or cash to people in the foreign government or local organizations, and they could adopt policies and programs to promote growth and reduce poverty."
- Topic:
- Poverty, Foreign Aid, International Development, and Economic Growth
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Global Focus, and United States of America
136. Networked security between “restraint” and “responsibility”? Germany’s security policy towards Africa
- Author:
- Ulf Engel
- Publication Date:
- 10-2016
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- Ulf Engel assesses the recent evolution of German security policy towards and engagement in Africa which should serve as a useful comparative model for Canada. Notably, in 2014 the German government adopted a comprehensive and networked approach through its Africa Policy Guidelines which is something completely lacking in Canada.
- Topic:
- Security, International Cooperation, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, Canada, Germany, and North America
137. How to Reverse Five Years of Failure on Bahrain
- Author:
- Human Rights First
- Publication Date:
- 02-2016
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Human Rights First
- Abstract:
- On the fifth anniversary of the mass protests in Bahrain that threatened to bring down the country’s autocratic regime, Bahrainis continue to suffer severe repression and political instability. Although the scale of mass arrests and torture the government used to suppress the uprising in March, April, and May of 2011 has diminished, and there have been some largely cosmetic reforms introduced since then, arbitrary arrests and torture in custody continue. Leading human rights activists and peaceful opposition leaders who were able to work relatively unimpeded since 2011 are now in jail, forced into exile, or facing trumped-up charges. The leading civil society and nonviolent political opposition figures arrested and tortured in 2011 remain in prison and there seems to be no prospect of any political dialogue between the government and opposition groups. The protests have not stopped, and a minority have taken on a violent edge, with over a dozen policemen killed since 2011. The country’s prisons are bulging with political detainees, many of whom were sentenced in mass trials after an unfair judicial process. This blueprint draws on dozens of interviews with Bahraini human rights defenders, civil society activists, journalists, academics, families of detainees, lawyers, U.S. government officials, and others. Despite repeated requests for permission to access Bahrain, Human Rights First has been denied entry to the country since 2012. This report examines conditions in Bahrain, the strengths and shortcomings of the U.S. response, and potential opportunities for the U.S. government to support civil society and strengthen respect for human rights. Though the smallest country in the Middle East, Bahrain exemplifies several of the major challenges for U.S. policy in the region. 2016 promises to be a defining year as a series of issues converge to threaten Bahrain, including: sectarian tensions exploited by ISIL and other Sunni extremists and by Shi’a-dominated Iran; economic vulnerability linked to sharply falling oil prices; corruption and political instability; a lack of reform leaving the root grievances of the large scale public protests unresolved; and U.S. government support for an authoritarian status quo seen as the best way of protecting major military investments—in Bahrain’s case, the U.S. Naval Fifth Fleet base. This year will also be important as President Obama shapes his legacy in the Middle East. In 2009, at the start of his presidency, he delivered a message of hope in Cairo: “America does not presume to know what is best for everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election. But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose. These are not just American ideas; they are human rights. And that is why we will support them everywhere.” Much has changed in the intervening years. In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly in September 2015, President Obama opted for analysis rather than exhortation, noting, “repression cannot forge the social cohesion for nations to succeed. The history of the last two decades proves that in today’s world, dictatorships are unstable. The strongmen of today become the spark of revolution tomorrow.” He continued: “I believe a government that suppresses peaceful dissent is not showing strength; it is showing weakness and it is showing fear. History shows that regimes who fear their own people will eventually crumble, but strong institutions built on the consent of the governed endure long after any one individual is gone.” Yet the U.S. government’s handling of the enduring crisis in Bahrain has too often failed to draw obvious conclusions from the administration’s own analysis of the detrimental impact of human rights violations on stability and progress. As a result, in the absence of actions and policies that would suggest the contrary, many in Bahrain and across the region view the Obama Administration as supportive of the repressive leadership in Manama. This support for the dictatorship is rendering Bahrain less stable, undermining U.S. efforts to prevent violent extremism, and further damaging Washington’s credibility in the region.
- Topic:
- Human Rights, Foreign Aid, Reform, and Protests
- Political Geography:
- United States, Middle East, Bahrain, and Manama
138. Aid for governance: How to support effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions for sustainable development?
- Author:
- Rachel M. Gisselquist and Danielle Resnick
- Publication Date:
- 11-2016
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- Aiding government effectiveness in developing countries has been a priority issue for the international donor community since the 1990s. With the Paris Declaration in 1994, donors further committed to aiding government effectiveness in a manner consistent with local ownership and harmonization with national development objectives. These issues have received renewed attention in discussions surrounding the Sustainable Development Goals, which have highlighted the importance of effective governance and institutions.
- Topic:
- Development, Foreign Aid, Governance, and Inclusion
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
139. NGOs, International Donors, and the Postmaterial Disjuncture in Latin America
- Author:
- Samuel Handlin
- Publication Date:
- 08-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Institution:
- German Institute of Global and Area Studies
- Abstract:
- NGOs have proliferated in the developing world, assuming key political roles as intermediary organizations representing public in- terests. Yet at least in the three Latin American countries examined here, the proportion of the NGO sector focused on postmaterial issues mas- sively outpaces the proportion of the mass public that considers these issues highly salient. This article demonstrates this “postmaterial disjunc- ture” and theorizes that international donors help drive it by favoring NGOs that pursue postmaterial issues. This hypothesis is evaluated by analyzing a unique dataset containing information on over 700 NGOs. Organizations pursuing postmaterial issues are more than three times likely to receive international funding than are otherwise identical NGOs pursuing material issues. While international donors may be well inten- tioned, their postmaterial agendas shape the issue orientation of the NGO sector, resulting in potentially adverse consequences for its ability to effectively represent mass interests.
- Topic:
- Foreign Aid, NGOs, and Donors
- Political Geography:
- South America, Latin America, and North America
140. Commitment to Development Index 2014
- Author:
- Owen Barder and Petra Krylová
- Publication Date:
- 01-2015
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development (CGD)
- Abstract:
- The Commitment to Development Index ranks 27 of the world's richest countries on their policies that affect more than five billion people living in poorer nations. Moving beyond comparing how much foreign aid each country gives, the CDI quantifies a range of rich country policies that affect poor people.
- Topic:
- Development, Poverty, Foreign Aid, and Foreign Direct Investment