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321. Reimagining Africa’s role in revitalizing the global economy

Author:
Amin Mohseni-Cheraghlou
Publication Date:
10-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
The world economy now finds itself at a critical juncture, facing a series of extraordinary setbacks that have pushed down growth. Reigniting growth requires a unique combination of targeted policies, robust international cooperation, and a renewed look at the global economy, with a particular focus on Africa. Due to its burgeoning and youthful population, abundant natural resources, and a strategic geographical location that can facilitate global trade, Africa can play a major role in—and should be front and center of—any renewed efforts for revitalizing the global economy. A decade-long robust, inclusive, and green growth in Africa will not only move hundreds of millions living in the continent out of poverty but will also accelerate a global rebound and recovery. However, for this to materialize, Africa needs substantial investments in its failing and inadequate physical and social infrastructure. With access to basic infrastructure, alongside efficient institutions as well as its young population, massive natural endowments, and strategic location Africa can seize its economic potential and act as an engine of growth for the global economy for decades to come. Therefore, it is crucial to support Africa to unleash its immense economic potential, through massive and focused investments in the continent’s human capital and its physical and social infrastructure.
Topic:
Development, International Organization, Reform, European Union, Regulation, Finance, Economy, and Economic Growth
Political Geography:
Africa, China, Europe, and United States of America

322. Getting back on track: Unlocking Kosovo’s Euro-Atlantic and development perspective

Author:
Agon Maliqi
Publication Date:
12-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Atlantic Council
Abstract:
February 17, 2023, marked fifteen years since the Republic of Kosovo declared its independence, supported by many of its Western partners. Since then, the Balkan country has made a lot of strides and hit many roadblocks in its popularly supported path toward joining Euro-Atlantic structures like NATO and the European Union (EU), as well as in its pursuit of development objectives. Since February 2008, the security and political environment surrounding Kosovo has also changed in decisive ways, and mostly in a negative direction. The new global security environment shaped by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the rise of China has redefined and reshaped the parameters within which Kosovo attempts to achieve its strategic external and domestic goals, including the threat of renewed violent conflict. This paper attempts to take stock of the current state of play on both the domestic and external fronts, and to offer a few guiding principles to observers and decision-makers in Kosovo, as well as to its friends and supporters in the international arena, on how to move forward. In the new global security environment, smaller regions like the Western Balkans tend to become afterthoughts for Western observers and decision-makers, and individual countries of these smaller regions even more so. This is reflected in the EU’s enlargement fatigue, which has largely been responsible for the region’s stalled accession process over the past decade. Yet the Western Balkans are precisely the type of region in which tectonic geopolitical shifts have the greatest impact, and where their currents hit the hardest. As such, developments in Kosovo and the Western Balkans represent a broader vulnerability to European security as well as a microcosm of what a world shaped by global power competition looks like. This paper portrays how things look in one of the global battlegrounds—a small but important one for European security. The paper aims to achieve three main objectives. First, it aims to summarize the key challenges Kosovo faces as it tries to consolidate its external position and get to a new development level. It is written with a bird’s-eye view and, as such, it may omit a lot of important issues while zooming in with granular detail on a few others that are central to the topic. Second, the paper is written with the dual aim of both informing and updating foreign audiences who have a less detailed understanding of the region and Kosovo, while also being sufficiently thorough and informative for seasoned observers and decision-makers in Kosovo and in the Balkans. As such, the paper strives to achieve the balance of restating many basic facts while also hoping that others may be self-evident. Finally, the paper seeks to be forward-looking, and not to get bogged down in the abyss of immediate developments. The tensions and violent episodes witnessed during the past two years in Kosovo’s north make it particularly challenging to engage in an analytical exercise that looks at Kosovo’s medium- and long-term situation beyond day-to-day relations with Serbia. Yet, these developments illustrate the urgency and unsustainability of the status quo in the affairs between the two countries, which the paper deals with at length. The paper is structured in three main sections and makes ten (numbered) central arguments, which are then elaborated in more detail. The first section, titled The Story So Far (points one to three), offers a brief overview of the political and economic context of how things have played out since independence. It tells the story of how Kosovo managed to demonstrate resilience to a wide range of political and economic challenges, and how it also has hit major roadblocks in the pursuit of its Euro-Atlantic and development agenda. The second section, Forward View 1 (points four to seven, outlines a forward view of how Kosovo can consolidate its statehood and security over the next decade. It looks at the state of play and offers a blueprint for how Kosovo, with the help of its international partners, can get closer to being recognized and able to join multilateral organizations in the new geopolitical environment shaped by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The third section (points eight to ten) is a forward view of Kosovo’s development challenges and perspectives. It outlines some of the key elements that need to be in place for Kosovo’s economy to accelerate to a new level of sophistication, and for its institutions to deliver effectively.
Topic:
Security, Development, Diplomacy, Economy, and Business
Political Geography:
Europe, Kosovo, and Balkans

323. Climate Change and Trade to the EU Priority Sectors for Policy Intervention in South Africa

Author:
Jason F. Bell, Sumayya Goga, and Nishal Robb
Publication Date:
07-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for Business and Development Studies (CBDS), Copenhagen Business School
Abstract:
The deepening climate crisis has resulted in countries instituting a range of measures to curb emissions. The European Union (EU) has the most advanced climate policies, captured under the umbrella of its European Green Deal (EGD). While many of the measures being implemented impact countries within the EU, the measures are expected to impact Europe’s trading partners. The impacts on trading partners is occurring through changing regulations and policies such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), shifting consumer preferences, and impacts through value chains as a result of changing competitiveness of end products. EGD policies are forcing trading partners to the EU to adjust and decarbonise production processes, measure and report on emissions and other sustainability criteria, and, in some cases, even transform sectors to retain market share (the move towards electric vehicles). These policies include, among others, carbon taxes through the CBAM, the move towards electric vehicles in order to curb emissions, and a range of measures within the food sector. Together, these policies bring significant changes in the global trading system and the functioning of value chains. The costs associated with adjusting to these policies are high. Furthermore, these costs need to be borne by developing countries over and above the adaptation costs.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Climate Change, Development, European Union, and Trade
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and South Africa

324. Human security and energy transition in NATO's South

Author:
Eckart Woertz
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
Energy lies at the heart of human security and development challenges facing the arid and energy rich Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. While risks such as water shortages, food insecurity, political instability and forced migration have received ample attention from analysts, energy transitions have comparatively received less scrutiny. Energy transitions present more development opportunities than risks for external actors, and these risks transcend borders by entangling the MENA within a broader geography that ultimately affects European security. Within this entanglement lie opportunities that could be harnessed to improve cooperation, sustainability and human security for NATO and Partners in the MENA. Framing energy and climate change as security threats has a long history in international cooperation with the MENA. As NATO responds to the war in Ukraine and rethinks its crisis management tools, raising awareness of new risks while grasping potential opportunities becomes all the more important given the return of strategic competition to the MENA. The implementation of the 2022 Strategic Concept and its focus on “resilience” requires Allies to go beyond traditional securitized views of development. This Policy Brief highlights two trends that will likely impact energy transitions in the MENA for the coming years: transnational critical infrastructure; and the development of new hydrocarbon and alternative energy resources. The first will influence regional geopolitics while the second will impact energy security in the MENA and Europe. Concerning energy resources, we examine two developments: growing supplies of natural gas and green hydrogen – a zero emissions * Director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) and Professor of contemporary history and politics of the Middle East at the University of Hamburg. process of generating hydrogen from water. Cooperation with MENA countries on energy transitions can enhance European security by contributing to socio- economic development in MENA countries. To this end, NATO can play a
Topic:
NATO, Development, Human Security, and Energy Transition
Political Geography:
Europe, Middle East, and North Africa

325. Sick Development: How rich-country government and World Bank funding to for-profit private hospitals causes harm and should be stopped

Author:
Anna Marriott
Publication Date:
06-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Development finance institutions owned by European governments and the World Bank Group are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on expensive for-profit hospitals in the Global South that block patients from getting care, or bankrupt them, with some even imprisoning patients who cannot afford their bills. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of these same hospitals denied entry to patients suffering from the virus or sold intensive care beds at eyewatering prices to the highest bidder. These development institutions have woefully inadequate safeguards, invest via a complex web of tax-avoiding financial intermediaries, and offer little to zero evidence on the impacts their investments are having. Oxfam is calling on rich European governments and the World Bank Group to immediately halt their spending on for-profit private healthcare, and for an urgent independent investigation to be conducted into all active and historic investments.
Topic:
Development, World Bank, Economic Development, COVID-19, Private Equity, Universal Healthcare, and Profiteering
Political Geography:
Europe and Global South

326. Good Practices in the Provision of Global Public Goods: How multilateral development banks build on global public goods in their operations

Author:
Johanna Neuhoff and Hannah Zick
Publication Date:
07-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Oxford Economics
Abstract:
In our flagship report, ‘Multilateral Development Banks for Global Public Goods’, commissioned by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Oxford Economics highlighted the positive role that the use of GPGs can play in preventing and addressing crises that cross national boundaries. As part of that work, we wanted to identify and share promising practices and good examples of how the provision of GPGs can be supported through international funding—and in particular through MDBs. We gathered a longlist of 99 examples of MDBs supporting GPG provision based on comprehensive desk research and interviews with over 30 key actors in the realm of project development. From this, we selected 20 case studies to carry out “deep dive” research to showcase good practices of provision of GPGs by MDBs based on whether the intervention: benefitted not only people inside the country of implementation but also beyond the country’s borders; supported the implementation of framework conditions that change the incentive structure for the provision of GPGs; could be replicated in other countries; and rated a good practice in reports or named a good practice by interview partners from MDBs. As a result, we gathered examples of GPG projects supported by MDBs and multilateral institutions at the country level that might not have been intended to only support GPG provision—such as those GPG projects mostly financed via Trust Funds and FIFs—but which also produced high GPG effects by maximising the synergies between national and global benefits. The case studies are designed to inform stakeholders from MDBs and receiving countries involved in the programming and project designing of development cooperation alike. The case studies showcase promising and highly replicable ways of supporting the provision of GPGs in the MDBs’ country engagement—considering both national and cross-country benefits of an intervention. Furthermore, valuable lessons can be learned on the institutional set-up, financing, quantification etc. concerning the support of GPGs by MDBs. They include examples of projects in sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia & Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and South Asia, and which covered issues such as climate and the environment, global public health, peace and security, financial resilience, and a fair international trading system. In a synthesis report, we set out 12 recommendations to organisations implementing GPGs to ensure they maximise the benefits on the ground, based on our findings from the analysis of the case studies. These range from using cost-benefit analysis and focusing on projects with high cross-country benefits to helping coordination of in-country provision and encouraging regional learning.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Environment, International Trade and Finance, Institutions, Public Health, and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs)
Political Geography:
South Asia, East Asia, Germany, Latin America, Caribbean, Asia-Pacific, Global Focus, and Sub-Saharan Africa

327. A Conceptual Framework for Monitoring and Evaluation for Learning and Adaptation (MELA) in NGOs

Author:
James Ward Khakshi
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), Brac University
Abstract:
The significance of organizational learning in general and the learning roles of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in non-government organizations (NGOs) in particular is widely recognized. However, in many instances, the normative frameworks or recommendations tend to be overly theoretical or only partial to their real entirety, which limits their practical applications. This paper aims to contribute with a conceptual framework for monitoring and evaluation for learning and adaptation (MELA) specifically in NGOs. The MELA framework is designed to drive organizational and programmatic improvements by outlining a learning process that encompasses planning, creation, and adaptation based on the learning from M&E activities. The paper introduced the continuum of learning types, the planning process for adaptive management, characteristics of MELA, methodological implications for learning, and programmatic adaptations at operational, tactical, and strategic levels.
Topic:
Development, NGOs, Performance Evaluation, Adaptation, and Monitoring
Political Geography:
Global Focus

328. Community Governance During COVID-19: Case Studies from Rural Areas of Bangladesh

Author:
Tanvir Shatil, Md. Rohmotul Islam, Huraera Jabeen, and Shahaduz Zaman
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), Brac University
Abstract:
This working paper investigates community-driven initiatives in rural Bangladesh that emerged in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and persisted beyond the crisis. Focusing on the sustainability of these initiatives, the study explores the preconditions for collective actions, the development of community-level governance during the crisis, and the mobilization and longevity of these efforts. Supported by the Institute of Development Studies, the research aims to contribute valuable insights into community governance mechanisms in low-resource areas, offering potential solutions for designing resilient emergency interventions and addressing long-term development challenges.
Topic:
Development, Governance, Rural, COVID-19, and Community Initiatives
Political Geography:
Bangladesh and South Asia

329. The Comeback of Industrial Policy. The Next Geopolitical Great Game

Author:
Alessandro Gili, Davide Tentori, and Paola Magri
Publication Date:
12-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI)
Abstract:
Industrial policies are the key element underlying today’s geopolitical scramble and a pillar of national security. Reacting to Western weaknesses and bottlenecks in the global supply chains, highlighted by multiple shocks such as the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the recent Israel-Hamas war, the US in first place and the EU later have started to introduce new industrial legislation aimed at making up for lost ground with respect to other industrial powerhouses, such as China. Besides being policy tools to accelerate the green and digital transitions, however, the US Inflation Reduction Act and the Net Zero Industry Act, as well as the US and the EU Chips Acts, entail subsidies, local content requirements and export controls targeted at strengthening the domestic industrial base for critical technologies, fostering strategic autonomy and de-risking from excessive foreign dependencies. This race poses risks for the weaponisation of industrial policies and fragmentation of international trade and also potentially jeopardises technological development. How can we strike a balance between economic security and efficiency? Which sectors are the most critical and which ones are the leading global powers pursuing? What will the consequences be for global value chains and international trade? Is it possible to reach an agreement on rules for a new level playing field to prevent economic competition turning into economic warfare?
Topic:
Development, Industrial Policy, National Security, Science and Technology, European Union, Geopolitics, Trade, and Supply Chains
Political Geography:
China, Europe, and United States of America

330. The Last Hurdle? Unyielding Motherhood Effects in the Context of Declining Gender Inequality in Latin America

Author:
Mariana Marchionni and Julian Pedrazzi
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Distributive, Labor and Social Studies (CEDLAS)
Abstract:
We assess whether motherhood could be the last hurdle to achieving gender equality in developing countries by exploring the link between motherhood and the overall gender gap in the labor market for 14 Latin American countries over the last two decades. Using pseudo- panels built from harmonized household surveys and an event study approach around the birth of the first child, we find that the arrival of the first child leads to a sharp and persistent 35% decline in mothers’ earnings. This result is explained by a reduction in employment and a prompting shift towards occupations that favor more flexible work arrangements, including part-time and informal jobs. These effects are pervasive across countries and population groups. Furthermore, using an extended version of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, we identify motherhood as the primary source of income inequality between men and women. Motherhood explains 42% of the remaining gender gap and has progressively gained relative importance over the last two decades while other contributing factors, such as education and its associated returns, have shown a waning impact. Moreover, we find no clear cross- country association between the motherhood-related gap and per capita GDP or gender norms, while the contribution of other factors to the gender gap in earnings diminishes with higher per capita GDP and more gender-egalitarian social norms. This suggests that gender gaps stemming from the motherhood effect exhibit greater rigidity than other drivers of gender inequality.
Topic:
Development, Inequality, Gender, Decomposition, Motherhood, and Child Penalty
Political Geography:
Latin America