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32. The Big Question: How should borders be drawn?
- Author:
- Bonnie Glaser, Tsuneo Akaha, Aarthi Rao, Ruairi Nolan, Peter Taylor, Howard Eissenstat, Eun- Ju Kim, Anssi Paasi, Henk van Houtum, and Richard Schofield
- Publication Date:
- 03-2013
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- World Policy Journal
- Institution:
- World Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- Boundaries define nations. Across Europe and Asia, through Africa and Latin America, old frontiers are being challenged. The primacy of the state is under increased scrutiny as the telecommunications revolution erases once impermeable divides. We have asked our panel of global experts how borders should be drawn on land, on sea, and in the blogosphere.
- Topic:
- Demographics, Science and Technology, International Affairs, Communications, and Border Control
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, Asia, and Latin America
33. Bigger Cities, Smaller Screens: Urbanization, Mobile Phones, and Digital Media Trends in Africa
- Author:
- Adam Clayton Powell III
- Publication Date:
- 09-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- Abstract:
- 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
- Political Geography:
- Africa and United Nations
34. Escaping the Vicious Cycle of Poverty: Towards Universal Access to Energy
- Author:
- Glada Lahn, Arno Behrens, Jorge Núñez Ferrer, Eike Dreblow, Mathilde Carraro, and Sebastian Veit
- Publication Date:
- 03-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- Despite the continuous efforts of developing countries and the international community to reduce energy poverty, some 2.7 billion people around the world still rely on traditional biomass for cooking and heating and 1.3 billion people do not have access to electricity. Over 80% of the energy poor live in rural areas and roughly two thirds in sub-Saharan Africa and India. While fossil fuels will inevitably play a major role in expanding on-grid energy supply, this study shows that renewable energy sources – and especially small decentralised solutions – have huge potential for providing reliable, sustainable and affordable energy services for the poor, particularly in rural areas of developing countries. Many challenges remain, including financing, capacity-building, technology transfer and governance reforms. A careful assessment of the environmental impacts of renewable energy technologies, particularly those on water, is an important prerequisite for donor finance. With the right design, energy access projects can also bring a host of developmental co-benefits. It should be possible for international initiatives including the UN's Year of Sustainable Energy for All and the EU's partnership with Africa to build on the rich experience and lessons learned from pilot projects over the last two decades in order to optimise donor effectiveness in this area.
- Topic:
- Energy Policy, Poverty, Science and Technology, United Nations, and Natural Resources
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, and India
35. Covering Elections: The Challenges of Training the Watchdogs
- Author:
- Rosemary Armao
- Publication Date:
- 03-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- Abstract:
- An unparalleled opportunity for media developers to boost democracy is at hand in the Middle East and North Africa, where once repressed media and civil society groups are forming in the wake of popular uprisings that toppled or are threatening regimes. New constitutions are being drafted, new forms of government debated, and new representatives selected, all against a backdrop of new citizen empowerment and tension among differing parties if not, as in the case of Egypt, outright violence. In addition, new media and technology have radically changed both the political debate in societies and how that debate is covered compared to the past.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Government, Science and Technology, Mass Media, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Egypt
36. Does Lack of Innovation and Absorptive Capacity Retard Economic Growth in Africa?
- Author:
- Steve Onyeiwu
- Publication Date:
- 03-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- This paper reviews the innovative capabilities and absorptive capacities of African countries, and investigates whether they have played significant roles in the region's slow and episodic economic growth. Results from cross-country regressions covering 31 Sub-Saharan African countries suggest that growth in Africa is not simply a question of capital accumulation, fertility rates, aid dependency, and stable macroeconomic environment. It is also about strengthening the capacity of African countries to assimilate and effectively use knowledge and technology. Contrary to the views held by many analysts, the growth of African economies does not depend so much on their ability to innovate, but rather on their capacity to absorb and effectively use new technologies. Beyond technological issues, the paper confirms the stylized facts that the size of the government and political stability are important for the growth performance of African countries.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- Africa
37. Who will feed the World? The production challenge
- Author:
- Lucia Wegner and Gine Zwart
- Publication Date:
- 04-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Against a background of increasing food insecurity, agriculture in developing countries must undergo a significant transformation in order to increase production and respond to climate change. It is estimated that feeding 8.2 billion people – an additional 1.4 billion – in 2030 would require raising overall food production by some 50 per cent between 2005/07 and 2030. Feeding a larger urban population in a context of increasing scarcity of land and water, while also adopting more sustainable production methods, is a daunting challenge. In Africa, where it is predicted that population levels will double during the same period, the challenge will be even more acute.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Development, Poverty, Science and Technology, Food, and Famine
- Political Geography:
- Africa
38. Who Drives Change? Comparing the Evolution of Domestic Climate Governance in India and South Africa
- Author:
- Babette Never
- Publication Date:
- 08-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- German Institute of Global and Area Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper compares and contrasts the nature and scope of change in the domestic climate governance of India and South Africa between 2007 and 2010. It uses an actor-centered approach to analyze the drivers of change. An exploratory test of fit shows that the concept of "communities of practice" captures the trends and actor relations well for the South African case, while more simple networks could be identified in India. Using data from an expert survey and from semi-structured interviews, this paper finds that both countries have generally not yet surpassed the level of second-order change, or double-loop learning. Differences exist for more specific parts of climate governance. Three resulting hypotheses give conditions for the development of either communities of practice or of networks, as conceptualized in formal network analysis. They target (1) the number of participating actors, (2) the size of the scientific landscape and the degree of competition among scientists, and (3) the centrality of a governmental actor with a certain knowledge and attitude within a network.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Environment, Science and Technology, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Africa, South Asia, India, and South Africa
39. News on the Go: How Mobile Devices Are Changing the World's Information Ecosystem
- Author:
- Dale Peskin
- Publication Date:
- 09-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- Abstract:
- The connected society reached a milestone at the end of 2010: More than 4 billion people paid for mobile phone service. That's six of every 10 people on the planet. During a period of unprecedented technological innovation, the spread of a decades-old technology may seem like an obvious achievement. That is until you consider that the hand-held device has become the hub for thousands of innovations that are changing the way the world communicates.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Development, Education, Science and Technology, and Mass Media
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Eurasia, and Asia
40. Zap It to Me: The Short-Term Impacts of a Mobile Cash Transfer Program
- Author:
- Rachid Boumnijel, Amanda McClelland, Niall Tierney, and Jenny C. Aker
- Publication Date:
- 09-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Conditional and unconditional cash transfers have been effective in improving development outcomes in a variety of contexts, yet the costs of these programs to program recipients and implementing agencies are rarely discussed. The introduction of mobile money transfer systems in many developing countries offers new opportunities for a more cost-effective means of implementing cash transfer programs. This paper reports on the first randomized evaluation of a cash transfer program delivered via the mobile phone. In response to a devastating drought in Niger, households in targeted villages received monthly cash transfers as part of a social protection program. One-third of targeted villages received a monthly cash transfer via a mobile money transfer system (called zap), whereas one-third received manual cash transfers and the remaining one-third received manual cash transfers plus a mobile phone. We show that the zap delivery mechanism strongly reduced the variable distribution costs for the implementing agency, as well as program recipients' costs of obtaining the cash transfer. The zap approach also resulted in additional benefits: households in zap villages used their cash transfer to purchase a more diverse set of goods, had higher diet diversity, depleted fewer assets and grew more types of crops, especially marginal cash crops grown by women. We posit that the potential mechanisms underlying these results are the lower costs and greater privacy of the receiving the cash transfer via the zap mechanism, as well as changes in intra-household decision-making. This suggests that m-transfers could be a cost-effective means of providing cash transfers for remote rural populations, especially those with limited road and financial infrastructure. However, research on the broader welfare effects in the short- and long-term is still needed
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Development, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- Africa