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361. Mine the (Development) Gap? A Case Study

Author:
Lauren Konken and Geneva List
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University (ISID)
Abstract:
How can strategic partnerships shape the lives and economic opportunities of communities surrounding large-scale mining operations? The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Anglo American PLC, and TechnoServe have pioneered a pilot partnership to implement a regional development plan that leverages the resources and skills of each contributing partner. The project, Beyond Extraction: Economic Opportunities in Communities Hosting Mining Operations, develops a flexible multifaceted program based on three pillars – local procurement, workforce development, and local government capacity building. From this systemic approach, onthe-ground operations will be tailored to the needs of local municipalities surrounding select Anglo American mining operations in each participating country. Each initiative builds on nearly a decade of program conceptualization and implementation through a pre-existing partnership between Anglo American and TechnoServe, combining lessons learned and resources from four enterprise development programs that have been executed collaboratively since 2006. Overall this new strategic partnership serves to elevate and expand Anglo American’s core business practices with the goal of developing local mining communities in ways that ensure sustainability and productivity beyond the lifespan of their mining operations in the region. In this case study we discuss the development of this strategic partnership as well as the challenges it has faced prior to its approval by the IDB in the summer of 2016. Within the context of global mining operations and the subnational regions in which it plans to operate, we analyze how the program goes beyond corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a public private partnership for development (PPPD). As the IDB develops an agenda for work within the extractives sector, this pilot builds on major corporate-bank partnerships surrounding large scale mining operations with a regional focus. The project serves as a precedent and key learning exercise from a multinational perspective for all partners involved as to the challenges and opportunities of strategic partnerships in the extractive sector.
Topic:
Development, Natural Resources, Mining, and Banking
Political Geography:
South America, North America, and Global Focus

362. Creating Value Through the Chain: SABMiller & the Tenderos

Author:
Shashank Aeri and Trevor N. May
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University (ISID)
Abstract:
Launched in 2013, the “4e Camino al Progreso” program is an Inter-American Development Bank/Multilateral Investment Fund-sponsored social investment project led by SABMiller and implemented by the executing agency FUNDES in six Latin American countries. Capitalizing on the opportunities inherent in the brewer’s value chain, the initiative provides business and leadership consulting to small retailers, known as tenderos, in impoverished neighbourhoods. The project aims to improve the profitability and sustainability of the stores, or tiendas, allowing their proprietors to achieve a better quality of life and contribute more time and resources to improving their communities. Empowering these retailers to become better business operators ultimately strengthens SABMiller and other companies’ distribution network, creating benefits for the local and regional economy. The case presents a promising model for similar corporate-social partnerships and contains innovative examples of how the private sector can contribute to substantive development initiatives. Given the partnership’s variegated players and contacts, the case highlights stakeholder relations strategies and challenges. The project’s design also demonstrates scalability and sustainability potential, although the ultimate success of these ambitions will depend on strategic decision-making and managing SABMiller’s evolution as it merges with Anheuser Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer. 1 While its ultimate results remain to be seen, this project raises three main lessons given its progress to date: first, sometimes even the most obvious solutions, such as using technology, do not come with an equally straightforward technique for adoption and implementation; second, reconceptualising the bottom of the pyramid as an engine of growth in the value chain, rather than simply a group of undervalued consumers; and third, understanding how productivity and efficiency contribute to sustainability, which may be undermined if this relationship is not recognized.
Topic:
Development, Business, Investment, and Private Sector
Political Geography:
Global Focus

363. Public Diplomacy of Western World Countries as a Tool of Democracy Promotion

Author:
Iryna Sukhorolska
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Liberty and International Affairs
Institution:
Institute for Research and European Studies (IRES)
Abstract:
Public diplomacy is an effective, steadily evolving foreign policy tool used all over the world. In the context of current global trends promoting one's own values and the way of thinking as an objective of public diplomacy is of special interest. Democracy and human rights are among the main values of the Western countries and are promoted by them through a wide range of measures aimed at foreign country's authorities as well as foreign public including different target audiences. This paper addresses the foundations of public diplomacy activity aimed at democracy promotion abroad. It states that the value of democracy is advantageous to public diplomacy of the West and allows it to hold leading positions offering an attractive model of development for the rest of the world. Democratization measures in conditions of the gradual development of democratic institutions as well as in crisis situations are considered.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Diplomacy, and Democracy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

364. A Critical Year for Humanitarianism

Author:
John Norris and Carolyn Kenney
Publication Date:
02-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for American Progress - CAP
Abstract:
2015 was a remarkable year for international diplomacy and multilateralism, culminating in two major compacts on climate change and the global development agenda: The Paris agreement on climate and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. In 2016, international efforts will focus on an area that will likely prove even more contentious and where the international system is fraying badly under the weight of current crises: the system of providing humanitarian relief around the globe in response to both man-made and natural disasters. Throughout 2016, world leaders and other international actors are set to participate in a number of high-level meetings and discussions to assess the state of humanitarian assistance. Their efforts will seek to improve the delivery of aid and address myriad underlying issues, ranging from how best to protect civilians in war zones to the effect of climate change on forced migration. The global scope of forced migration has already risen to severe levels, with most forecasts suggesting that the worst is yet to come. According to U.N. estimates, some 60 million people are now forcibly displaced, either as refugees, internally displaced persons, or asylum seekers. This is the highest level of forced migration the international community has faced since World War II, and the rate of displacement does not appear to be waning. This issue brief spells out the timeline of major upcoming events related to the humanitarian agenda in 2016 and discusses the scope of the major challenges the international community faces, including a lack of resources, repeated patterns of deliberate attacks on civilians, and a caseload that continues to expand rapidly. It also explores some of the issues that will likely prove most difficult to resolve given the current approach to reform, in which major structural changes—particularly to the U.N. system that helps deliver humanitarian aid—are largely off the table. Despite the enormous difficulties ahead, growing the number of actors involved in addressing humanitarian crises is the likely path to success.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Diplomacy, International Cooperation, Sustainable Development Goals, and Multilateralism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

365. Will the cities of the future work for everyone?

Author:
Solomon Greene and Sarah Rosen Wartell
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
A century ago, 1 in 10 people lived in urban areas; today, it’s more than half. By 2050, that fraction will rise to two thirds of the world’s population as cities of all sizes swell to accommodate an estimated 2.5 billion more urban dwellers. What will cities look like in the future? Next week, researchers from the Urban Institute will join global leaders at the United Nations’ historic Habitat III conference to take stock of our progress in creating sustainable cities that meet the needs of all residents, and to get ahead of anticipated changes that will create both opportunities and challenges for city dwellers, our nations, and our planet.
Topic:
Development, Urban, and Cities
Political Geography:
Global Focus

366. Olympics remind us of the importance of local governance

Author:
Jonah Lefkoe and Charles Cadwell
Publication Date:
08-2016
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
As the world’s greatest athletes, brave tourists, and the eyes of a global TV audience (London 2012 brought 3.6 billion global viewers, and Rio is expected to break viewership records in the United States) descend on Rio for the 2016 Olympics, Brazil’s political troubles and urban infrastructure are also in the spotlight. Awarding the Olympics to Rio was not a completely foolish act. In 2009, when Brazil won its Olympic bid, the country was recovering from the 2008 financial crisis faster than the United States and enacting new social programs to further assist its poor populations. From 2003 to 2014, 29 million Brazilians were lifted out of poverty, and income inequality, measured by the Gini coefficient, fell 11 percent. When the International Olympic Committee announced Brazil’s selection as the Olympic host, Brazilians threw a party on Copacabana Beach, and then-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) declared a new era for Brazil’s progress.
Topic:
Development, Poverty, Governance, Sports, and Olympics
Political Geography:
Global Focus

367. Managing Your Authorizing Environment in a PDIA Process

Author:
Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett, and Michael Woolcock
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
Development and state building processes are about change. Change is, however, elusive in many contexts. In prior work, we have offered problem driven iterative adaptation (PDIA) as an approach to tackle wicked hard change challenges. This is our fourth practical working paper on ‘how’ to do PDIA. The working paper addresses questions about authority, given that authority is needed to make change happen—especially in hierarchical government settings. This authority is often difficult to attain, however. It is seldom located in one office of person, and is often harder to lock-in with complex challenges, given that they commonly involve significant risk and uncertainty and require engagement by many agents responding to different kinds of authority. Every effort must be taken to address such challenges, and efforts should include an explicit strategy to establish an appropriate authorizing environment. This working paper suggests ideas to adopt in this strategy, with practical exercises and examples to help the reader apply such ideas in her or his own work.
Topic:
Development, Government, International Development, and State
Political Geography:
Global Focus and United States of America

368. Does the Level of Public Debt Matter?

Author:
Susan Schadler
Publication Date:
04-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Abstract:
Research on links between the level of a country’s public debt and its broader economic developments has been heatedly debated in the economic literature. Two strands of the research stand out — one linking the level of debt to a country’s GDP growth rate and the other examining the debt level as an EWI of economic crises. As a broad generalization, research at the moment favors the view that high levels of debt are not a cause, in and of themselves, of low growth nor are they particularly good predictors of impending economic or even debt crises. In principle, the empirical findings have obvious implications for policy makers confronting the question of how to fashion policies (and fiscal policy in particular) when a country has a high debt burden. The IMF, as both a contributor to the literature and an adviser concerned with preventing or dealing with debt crises, has a particularly important stake in navigating the findings. Whether in its surveillance (routine annual advice to all member countries) or the construction of its lending programs to support countries in or near crisis, the IMF must answer the question “how much does the level of debt matter?” Despite the empirical research that casts doubt on the importance of debt, the level of debt figures prominently in the algebra of debt sustainability and the IMF’s real world policy advice. This policy brief examines the nexus of the relatively strong conclusions coming from the academic research and the IMF’s policy advice. It addresses the following question: given that the broad conclusion from the academic literature is that the level of debt itself is not systematically bad for growth or stability, why does the debt level seem to figure rather prominently in the IMF’s policy advice and conditionality?
Topic:
Debt, Development, Economics, International Monetary Fund, Financial Crisis, GDP, and Global Markets
Political Geography:
Global Focus

369. Spotlight on Yemen's Forgotten War and Humanitarian Disaster: Preventing the Next Syrian Refugee Crisis

Author:
Jacqueline Lopour
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Abstract:
Humanitarian crises across the world are the worst since World War II, and the situation is only going to get worse. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), almost 60 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes — that is approximately one in every 123 people on the planet (UNHCR 2016a). The problem is growing, as the number of those displaced is over 60 percent greater than the previous decade. As a result, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced the first ever World Humanitarian Summit to be held May 23-24, 2016. The world’s attention is focused on the Syrian refugee crisis, which has displaced 11 million people. But in doing so, the global community has lost sight of an equally severe humanitarian and displacement crisis — the situation in Yemen. Yemen now has more people in need of aid than any other country in the world, according to the UNOCHA Global Humanitarian Overview 2016. An estimated 21.2 million people in Yemen — 82 percent of the population — requires humanitarian aid, and this number is steadily growing (UNOCHA 2016a).
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Development, Human Rights, Humanitarian Aid, Poverty, War, and Refugee Issues
Political Geography:
Yemen and Global Focus

370. Innovation: Key to a 21st Century Alliance

Author:
John Berry
Publication Date:
09-2016
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Council of American Ambassadors
Abstract:
Over 200 years ago, one of our founding fathers Benjamin Franklin urged us to innovate, with the warning: “When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.” One of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, was not only a talented statesman, he was an inventor and tinkerer extraordinaire. Innovation lies at the very heart of what it means to be an American. From the beginning, our country was a grand experiment. We believed then—and now—that freedom plus hard work equals progress. Innovation, invention, and creativity help turn progress into success.
Topic:
Development, Diplomacy, International Cooperation, and International Affairs
Political Geography:
America and Global Focus