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91. Danish positions on key developments in the European Union

Author:
Gry Thomasen
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The biggest surprise in the current Danish debate is that there is still very broad coverage of EU issues involving the media and public conferences, particularly regarding the Constitutional Treaty; energy and the environment; enlargement to South Eastern Europe and beyond; and more recently the difficult relations between Russia and the EU. The public debate over the Constitutional Treaty is active, while the government looks forwards to what the German Presidency, as well as the 'No' countries, put forward as suggestions after the French Presidential elections. Following Denmark's four-point suggestion at Lahti for an EU energy policy, the Danish concerns over renewable supply, increased efficiency, a liberalised market, and more research in order to improve energy security have heightened. After the Commission's report of enlargement and integration capacity, the Danish debate has focused on support for the Croatian bid for EU membership, whilst emphasising the need for considerable reforms in Turkey. Finally, following the rebuke by Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and Poland in Lahti on the question of human rights in Russia after the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the failure to overcome the Polish-Russia impasse at the EU-Russia summit is also important in the Danish debate.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Russia and Europe

92. Working in "Fragile States": Problems, Dilemmas, and Guidance

Author:
Finn Stepputat
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This brief provides a concise overview of the problems and dilemmas that confront organizations and companies working in fragile states and presents the major guidelines, recommendations and ethical frameworks that have emerged to address these issues.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Development, and Non-Governmental Organization
Political Geography:
Africa

93. State recognition of traditional authority in Mozambique: the legible space between state and community

Author:
Helene Maria Kyed and Lars Buur
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
In 2000 the Mozambican government initiated a process of formally recognizing traditional leaders both as representatives of local community interests and as assistants of local state organs. Twenty-five years after the FRELIMO government abolished the formal power of traditional leaders, the Decree 15/2000 provided for their re-inclusion in the performance of a long list of state administrative tasks and re-named chiefs or régulos as 'community authorities'. In line with post-war commitments to democratic decentralization, the Decree promises to enhance community participation in local administration and rural development. The role of traditional authority as intermediary between rural populations and the state is not a new problematique, but has been part of the ongoing process of state formation from Portuguese colonial rule, through post-colonial FRELIMO nation-state building, to today's liberal democratic governance. This article addresses some fundamental questions pertaining to the official recognition of traditional leaders as community authorities. It argues that the double role that they are expected to fulfil as both community-representatives and state-assistants is not equally balanced either in the Decree 15/2000 or in its implementation: the scale tips heavily towards the state-assistance role. After a brief history of traditional authority as a basis for understanding the recent official recognition, the article outlines the main techniques through which traditional leaders have been made legible as 'true' community representatives capable of working as state assistants. Based on analysis of the processes of legibility, the article scrutinizes the reified notions underpinning the Decree, such as the understanding of 'traditional rules' and the definition of 'community'. It concludes by pointing out some consequences of these reified notions for kin-based forms of community authority.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
Africa

94. Better (RED)â„¢ than Dead: 'Brand Aid', Celebrities and the New Frontier of Development Assistance

Author:
Stefano Ponte and Lisa Ann Richey
Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Bono's launch of Product (RED)™ at Davos in 2006 marks the opening of a new frontier for development aid. The advent of 'Brand Aid' explicitly linked to commerce, not philanthropy, reconfigures the modalities of international development assistance. American Express, Gap, Converse and Armani represent the faces of ethical intervention in the world, as customers are encouraged to do good by dressing well. Consumption, trade and aid wed dying Africans with designer goods, as a new social contract is created to generate a sustainable flow of money to support The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Aid celebrities – the bard, the teacher and the healer – guarantee the 'cool quotient,' the management and the target of this new modality. Bono is the rock-star who led his fans to believe that they could solve Africa's problems of AIDS and poverty. Jeffrey Sachs is the recently-radicalized economist who masterminded The Global Fund. And Paul Farmer is the physician who convinced the world that treatment of AIDS was possible in even the poorest communities. The consumer's signification of status through designer RED products does not represent the exploitation of the most downtrodden – it actually helps them. 'Brand Aid' creates a world where it is possible to have as much as you want without depriving anyone else. Promoted as new leftist development chic, compassionate consumption effectively de-links the relations of capitalist production from AIDS and poverty.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Humanitarian Aid
Political Geography:
Africa and America

95. Interim Return and Palestine: On Politics, Terminology and Structural Invisibility

Author:
Riina Isotalo
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Taking its cue from the literature on return migration and repatriation processes as well as the Palestinian refugee problem, this paper looks first at the issue of return to place of origin or not. Return migration to the West Bank and Gaza Strip is then considered in the light of this schema, and stipulations of the politicisation of a transnational paradigm and the structural invisibility of return migration are highlighted. The present paper argues that in the Palestinian context, return is a political issue for all parties concerned and that Palestinian return migration has been structurally invisible. The paper concludes that politicisation of a transnational paradigm should be acknowledged in studying Palestinians' transnational mobility and relations because otherwise the fact that some transnational practises might aim at permanent return can pass unnoticed.
Topic:
Development, Migration, and Politics
Political Geography:
Middle East and Gaza

96. Poor People in Environmental Management in Uganda and Tanzania

Author:
Kim Raben, Michael Kidoido, Dositeus Lopa, Zarupa Akello, and Jannik Boesen
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This is a paper on analysing the Participatory Environmental Management (PEMA) programme's impact on poverty, livelihoods, and the knowledge-attitudes-practices syndrome in the Kasyoha- Kitomi forest landscape in Uganda and the South Nguru forest landscape in Tanzania. The objectives of the Participatory Environmental Management (PEMA) programme are to improve the livelihood security of poor, natural resource dependent households [...] and enhance the capacity of civil society and government institutions to design and implement effective ICD programmes The principal purpose is to analyse the poverty situation in each landscape in terms of the level and composition of poverty and the factors causing the poverty of different groups of the population. A secondary purpose is, during the first phase, to be able to indicate the effects of forest management on poor people's livelihoods, to register their relationships with the forest, and not least to analyse the involvement of the poor and marginalised in new initiatives of landscape planning and environmental management. DIIS has developed a methodology for monitoring the poverty impacts of agricultural interventions at household level, which is now being used for this purpose.
Topic:
Development, Environment, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, and Tanzania

97. From Soldier to Civilian: Disarmament Demobilisation Reintegration in Afghanistan

Author:
Peter Dahl Thruelsen
Publication Date:
06-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This report sets out to explore the processes of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) within the context of post-conflict peace-building. I have tried to investigate the transformation of soldiers to civilians in the aftermath of war. The purpose of the research is to facilitate practical recommendations of DDR to be used in future cases of post-conflict peace-building.
Topic:
Security, Civil Society, and Development
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Asia

98. Supporting local innovation for rural development: analysis and review of five innovation support funds

Author:
Esbern Friis-Hanse and Henrik Egelyng
Publication Date:
06-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The aim of this study is to follow up the 1st GRA-World Bank workshop on in- novation systems at the community level, “Touching the Hearts of the People”, held in Kuala Lumpur 6-8 February 2006. By resolution, this workshop recommended that a 'review of existing innovation support funds and outline of a global mechanism to foster community level innovations' should be undertaken. The study is also, in part, a response to a recent report from the World Bank's Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program, which calls for the establishment of an “innovation fund to promote successful IK practices” (Gorjestani, N., in WB 2004; 45-53).
Topic:
International Relations, Agriculture, Development, and Economics

99. An Overview of the Certified Organic Export Sector in Uganda

Author:
Peter Gibbon
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper reports the results of a survey of almost all certified and in-conversion organic export operations in Uganda in late 2005. It covers products exported, company size and ownership, standards exported to, certification costs, total export values, value-added in Uganda, marketing channels, crop procurement systems, management of organic operations and the main challenges experienced by exporters. Findings include that numbers of certified exporters are growing rapidly. Export values are also growing, but more slowly: They reached USD 6.2 million in 2005. A handful of firms exporting coffee and cotton dominate the sector and this situation is likely to remain. Though the sector is maturing, most recent entrants are small, relatively weak and currently depend on donor support.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

100. A Complex Reality: The Strategic Behaviour of Multinational Oil Corporations and the New Wars in Sudan

Author:
Luke A. Patey
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper reports the results of a survey of almost all certified and in-conversion organic export operations in Uganda in late 2005. It covers products exported, company size and ownership, standards exported to, certification costs, total export values, value-added in Uganda, marketing channels, crop procurement systems, management of organic operations and the main challenges experienced by exporters. Findings include that numbers of certified exporters are growing rapidly. Export values are also growing, but more slowly: They reached USD 6.2 million in 2005. A handful of firms exporting coffee and cotton dominate the sector and this situation is likely to remain. Though the sector is maturing, most recent entrants are small, relatively weak and currently depend on donor support.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and War
Political Geography:
Africa and Sudan