Somalia has long been a byword for statelessness and extreme insecurity. However, eight years of transitional rule are set to end in 2012, and expectations are rising that continued military-led stabilisation, changing regional security dynamics and efforts to rebuild the Somalia state might soon enable the country to declare an end to two decades of civil war.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Development, Islam, Fragile/Failed State, and Governance
International responses to conflict have highlighted the role of natural resources and other forms of wealth in helping to sustain “self-financing wars”. For over a decade there have been sporadic attempts to come to grips with the international dimensions of the economies of conflict, but concrete efforts to grapple with the problem have been sporadic and incoherent. However, in 2011 developments at the UN and OECD have laid the foundations for a more coherent approach, one that seeks to control the irregular war economies in part by excluding the results of unacceptable activities from global value chains. This is a step in the right direction. However, as this policy brief argues, the effectiveness and legitimacy of this approach relies on the conscious development of a strategy that defines clear norms as the basis for exclusion, builds the capacity in the public and private sector for managing the process of exclusion, and mitigates any unintended harms resulting from exclusion to vulnerable people in conflict-affected areas.
Topic:
Development, Economics, United Nations, War, and Natural Resources
The concept of liveability is simple: it assesses which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions. Assessing liveability has a broad range of uses, from benchmarking perceptions of development levels to assigning a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages. The Economist Intelligence Unit's liveability rating quantifies the challenges that might be presented to an individual's lifestyle in any given location, and allows for direct comparison between locations.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, Infrastructure, Financial Crisis, and Urbanization
We study the determinants of households' choices of lighting fuels in Kenya, including the option of using solar home systems (SHSs). The paper adds new evidence on the factors that influence the introduction and adoption of decentralized and less carbonâ€intensive energy sources in developing countries. We capitalize on a unique representative survey on energy use and sources from Kenya, one of the few relatively wellâ€established SHSs markets in the world. Our results reveal some very interesting patterns in the fuel transition in the context of lightingâ€fuel choices. While we find clear evidence for a crosssectional energy ladder, the income threshold for modern fuel use – including solar energy use – is very high. Income and education turn out to be key determinants of SHSs adoption, but we also find a very pronounced effect of SHSs clustering. In addition, we do not find a negative correlation between grid access and SHSs use.
Underfunded, understaffed, and suffering from opaque governance and political repression, the public higher education system that Egypt's new civilian government inherited from the Mubarak era is deeply flawed. Yet change in this area has stopped far short of a revolution.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, Education, Regime Change, and Youth Culture
Much recent commentary on Russia consists of binary attempts to predict the country's future: Putin or Medvedev? Will Putin maintain his grip on power or will his system collapse? The result is a short-sighted and one-dimensional discussion. The reality is much more complicated.
Topic:
Corruption, Democratization, Development, Politics, and Governance
Africa will become predominantly urban within 20 years, according to a United Nations report, with cities tripling in size and megacities developing throughout the continent. This suggests significant changes for Africans' consumption of media in general and digital media in particular, with implications for Africa's cities, politics, and civil society.
Topic:
Development, Science and Technology, Communications, and Mass Media
Mikkel Funder, Ian Christoplos, Ida Peters, Adam Pain, and Esbern Friis-Hansen
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This literature review summarises selected theories of institutional change, with a particular emphasis on issues relevant to the Climate Change and Rural Institutions (CCRI) research programme. The review focuses on concepts that can be applied in understanding how and why meso level institutions operating at district and provincial levels respond or fail to respond when faced with climate change related upheavals. The review examines the concepts of path dependency, gradual institutional change and institutional bricolage, and how these tools might be used to understand processes of change in meso level institutions when faced by catastrophic environmental change.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Energy Policy, and Governance
Banks in emerging markets are increasingly weighty in global finance and still enjoy plenty of room to grow in their home markets. But they will do so in innovative ways that set them apart from the lenders of the developed world.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, Globalization, and Science and Technology