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2. The Development Policy System under Pressure: Acknowledging Limitations, Sourcing Advantages and Moving towards a Broader Perspective
- Author:
- Victoria Gonsior and Stephan Klingebiel
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- German Development Institute (DIE)
- Abstract:
- This paper uses the development policy system as an entry point assuming that various fundamental changes along three dimensions – narratives (why?), strategies (what?) and operational approaches (how?) – can be observed over recent years. Changes are diverse, ranging from new narratives translated to the development policy context (such as the migration narrative) to strategic considerations (for instance, developing countries’ graduation implications), new instruments (in form of development finance at the interface with the private sector), and concepts for project implementation (including frontier technology). We discuss the implications and effects of these trends in terms of holistic changes to the wider development policy system itself. Do these changes go hand-in-hand with and ultimately build on and re-inform each other? Or are we actually observing a disconnect between the narratives that frame the engagement of actors in development policy, their strategies for delivery, and operational approaches in partner countries? Based on a consultation of the appropriate literature and information gathered during a number of expert interviews and brainstorming sessions, this paper sheds light on these questions by exploring current trends and by highlighting continuing disconnections between the “why”, “what” and “how” in the development policy system. Further, we argue that the importance of such disconnections is increasing. In particular, the persistent or even increasing disconnections in the development policy system can be more problematic in the face of a universal agenda and the need to upscale delivery to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- Topic:
- Development, Science and Technology, United Nations, Sustainable Development Goals, and Public Policy
- Political Geography:
- Germany and Global Focus
3. Contested Issues Surrounding Populism in Public and Academic Debates
- Author:
- Bertjan Verbeek and Andrej Zaslove
- Publication Date:
- 06-2019
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The International Spectator
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- Populism seems to be a well-established notion in public and academic debate alike. Nevertheless, several issues surrounding populism are still contested and thus merit closer attention. These contested issues encompass the extent to which populism is novel and ubiquitous; the scope of the phenomenon; the merits of the various definitions of populism; its political colour(s); the potential danger it poses to democracy; its appropriateness to govern; as well as populism’s impact beyond national borders.
- Topic:
- Government, Democracy, Populism, Public Policy, Radical Right, and Leftist Politics
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
4. Reasons for Using Mixed Methods in the Evaluation of Complex Projects
- Author:
- Michael Woolcock
- Publication Date:
- 03-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Evaluations of development projects are conducted to assess their net effectiveness and, by extension, to guide decisions regarding the merits of scaling-up successful projects and/or replicating them elsewhere. The key characteristics of ‘complex’ interventions – numerous face- to-face interactions, high discretion, imposed obligations, pervasive unknowns – rarely fit neatly into standard evaluation protocols, requiring the deployment of a wider array of research methods, tools and theory. The careful use of such ‘mixed methods’ approaches is especially important for discerning the conditions under which ‘successful’ projects of all kinds might be expanded or adopted elsewhere. These claims, and the practical implications to which they give rise, draw on an array of recent evaluations in different sectors in development.
- Topic:
- International Development, Humanitarian Intervention, and Public Policy
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
5. How effective are pro-youth laws and policies?
- Author:
- Aaron Azelton, Bret Barrowman, and Lisa Reppell
- Publication Date:
- 03-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Foundation for Electoral Systems
- Abstract:
- More than half the world’s population is under 30, yet young people remain underrepresented in government and decision-making processes. There is a growing consensus among practitioners and scholars that politically and civically engaged youth are integral to a country’s economic and democratic health. As national governments, international donors, and local advocates increasingly recognize that youth participation is vital to stability and success, a variety of public measures, policy mechanisms and legal reforms aimed at promoting youth engagement have gained traction. roponents of these measures contend that pro-youth policies and reforms can increase youth participation and, ultimately, result in better policy outcomes across a range of issues. However, there has been relatively little empirical research on if, and under what conditions, these pro-youth measures improve the quantity or quality of youth participation and representation in political processes.
- Topic:
- Social Movement, Youth, Public Policy, and Participation
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
6. Enhancing Public Health Outcomes in Developing Countries: From Good Policies and Best Practices to Better Implementation
- Author:
- Michael Woolcock
- Publication Date:
- 02-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- In rich and poor countries alike, a core challenge is building the state’s capability for policy implementation. Delivering high-quality public health and health care – affordably, reliably, at scale, for all – exemplifies this challenge, since doing so requires deftly integrating refined technical skills (surgery), broad logistics management (supply chains, facilities maintenance), adaptive problem solving (curative care) and resolving ideological differences (who pays? who provides?), even as the prevailing health problems themselves only become more diverse, complex and expensive as countries become more prosperous. The current state of state capability in developing countries, however, is demonstrably alarming, with the strains and demands only likely to intensify in the coming decades. Prevailing ‘best practice’ strategies for building implementation capability – copying and scaling putative successes from abroad – are too often part of the problem, while individual training (‘capacity building’) and technological upgrades (e.g., new management information systems) remain necessary but deeply insufficient. An alternative approach is outlined, one centered on building implementation capability by working iteratively to solve problems nominated and prioritized by local actors.
- Topic:
- Health, Developing World, State, Public Policy, and Policy Implementation
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
7. Transitional Justice in Relationship to Public Sphere and Civil Society: Theoretical Approaches
- Author:
- Edyta Pietrzak
- Publication Date:
- 01-2018
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Polish Political Science Yearbook
- Institution:
- Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
- Abstract:
- The article presents the entitled fields in the framework of their mutual influence. The notion of the public sphere is valuable for understanding the role that civil society plays in transitional justice processes. However transitional justice often reduces the idea of civil society to NGOs and ignores the social movements and civil engagement in the public realm that can be perceived as integral to the creation of new cases for understanding justice in transition. This fact results in the lack of perception of the civil society place in transitional justice processes. Thus the presented paper is based on hermeneutics, critical discourse analysis and dialogue between various theoretical approaches.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Transitional Justice, Public Policy, and NGOs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
8. The Big Stuck in State Capability for Policy Implementation
- 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:
- We divide the 102 historically developing countries (HDCs) into those with ‘very weak’, ‘weak’, ‘middle’, and ‘strong’ state capability. Analyzing the levels and recent growth rates of the HDCs’ capability for policy implementation reveals how pervasively “stuck” most of them are. Only eight HDCs have attained strong capability, and since most of these are small (e.g., Singapore, UAE), less than 100 million (or 1.7%) of the roughly 5.8 billion people in HDCs currently live in high capability states. Almost half (49) of these countries have very weak or weak capability, and thus their long-run pace of acquiring capability is also very slow. Alarmingly, three quarters of these countries (36 of 49) have experienced negative growth in state capability in recent decades, while more than a third of all countries (36 of 102) have low and (in the medium run at least) deteriorating state capability. At current rates, the ‘time to high capability’ of the 49 currently weak capability states and the 36 with negative growth is obviously “forever”. But even for the 13 with positive growth, only three would reach strong capability by the end of the 21st century at their current medium run growth.
- Topic:
- Developing World, International Development, State, and Public Policy
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus and United States of America
9. War on Drugs
- Author:
- Global Commission On Drug Policy
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Global Commission On Drug Policy
- Abstract:
- The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world. Fifty years after the initiation of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and 40 years after President Nixon launched the US government's war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed. In this seminal report, the Global Commission on Drug Policy calls on global leaders to join an open discussion on drug policy reform.
- Topic:
- War on Drugs, Public Policy, and Drugs
- Political Geography:
- United States and Global Focus