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422. Credit Co-operatives in Locally Financed Economic Development: Using Energy Efficiency as a Lever
- Author:
- Robert J. McIntyre
- Publication Date:
- 02-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- In most transitional and many developing countries institutions capable of supporting economic development with localized saving-investment cycles have not developed. This crucial gap is in no way addressed by either country-level macro programmes dealing with 'development finance' or by donor-driven 'micro credit' schemes of Grameen and other types operating at a lower (local) level. The latter seldom evolve into financial institutions able to sustain themselves on the basis of local resources, do not operate on a sufficient scale to trigger dynamic local-level economic growth, and are ultimately artificial manifestations of concessional or charitable aid. The advantages of credit co-operatives in mobilizing and financing local economic development a contrasted with the disadvantages of both conventional micro credit and the most recent neoliberal fashion of so-called 'new wave financial institutions'. Both precedent and the structural logic suggest that this is a promising space for the development of a localized financial system based on credit co-operatives, which elsewhere have overcome the SME credit famine and stimulated local saving-investment cycles. Recent Russian developments are placed in the context of earlier experience in structurally similar conditions. These lessons apply to all other former Soviet Union states, as well as other countries.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Humanitarian Aid, and Third World
- Political Geography:
- Russia
423. Aid Allocation and Aid Effectiveness: An Empirical Analysis
- Author:
- George Mavrotas and Alessia Isopi
- Publication Date:
- 01-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- The paper performs aid allocation analysis using OECD-DAC data covering 20 aid donors and 176 recipients over the period 1980-2003. We improve upon earlier work in this area by employing inter alia the variable 'past outcome' measuring aid effectiveness in order to link together aid allocation and aid effectiveness. In line with previous work, we also account for both altruistic and selfish donor motives in the empirical analysis. As expected, empirical results based on To bit estimates of aid allocation for individual donors vary quite significantly among donors. We also test the robustness of our results by estimating individual regressions for the major donors over the period 1990-2003 in view of major events in the aid arena during that time that could potentially have an impact on the aid allocation process. Our results seem to be similar to those derived over the 1980-2003 period, thus implying that this was not the case. Overall, both altruistic and selfish donor motives seem to motivate aid allocation for most donors over the two periods under examination. However, when we further restrict our time dimension to the 1999-2003 period, some important policy changes with regard to selectivity seem to emerge for a small group of donor countries.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Development, Economics, and Humanitarian Aid
424. Decentralizing Aid with Interested Parties
- Author:
- Ira N. Gang and Gil S. Epstein
- Publication Date:
- 01-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- This paper analyses the decentralization of decisionmaking in aid-giving in a theoretical rent-seeking framework. In this analysis the root donor establishes a necessary criterion for potential recipients: good governance. The potential recipients compete in hierarchal contests for funds. The paper investigates whether, under certain reasonable conditions, fashionable aid procedures will lead to the development of a poverty trap.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Humanitarian Aid, and Politics
425. On the Empirics of Aid and Growth: A Fresh Look
- Author:
- George Mavrotas and Jan-Erik Antipin
- Publication Date:
- 01-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- The paper contributes to the empirics of aid and growth by taking a fresh look at the aid-policies-growth nexus emanating from the very influential but also debatable paper on the subject by Burnside and Dollar: 'Aid, Policies and Growth'. We employ three different datasets (including the one used in the Burnside and Dollar paper) and Bayesian instrumental variable methods to test the robustness of the central finding of the Burnside and Dollar paper related to the aid and policy interaction coefficient. In doing so, we applied Bayesian instrumental variable technique s to find the most probable parameter values in the growth equation. We also test for the exogeneity of the instrumental variables used. We find that the marginal effect of the disputed (Aid/GDP) x Policy variable on real per capita GDP growth is substantially smaller than in Burnside and Dollar, thus casting serious doubts on the robustness of their findings, and most importantly, on the validity of the policy lessons emerged from the Burnside- Dollar study.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Humanitarian Aid
426. Aid Project Proliferation and Absorptive Capacity
- Author:
- David Roodman
- Publication Date:
- 01-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- Much public discussion about foreign aid has focused on whether and how to increase its quantity. But recently aid quality has come to the fore, by which is meant the efficiency of the aid delivery process. This paper focuses on one process problem, the proliferation of aid projects and the associated administrative burden for recipients. It models aid delivery as a set of production activities (projects) with two inputs—the donor's aid and a recipient-side resource—and two outputs—development and 'throughput', which represents the private benefits of implementing projects, from kickback s to career rewards for disbursing. The donor's allocation of aid across projects is taken as exogenous while the recipient's allocation of its resource is modelled and subject to a budget constraint. Unless the recipient cares purely about development, an aid increase can reduce development in some circumstances. Sunk costs, representing for the recipient the administrative burden of donor meetings and reports, are introduced. Using data on the distribution of projects by size and country, simulations of aid increases are run in order to examine how the project distribution evolves, how the recipient's resource allocation responds, and how this affects development if the recipient is not a pure development optimizer. A threshold is revealed beyond which marginal aid effectiveness drops sharply. It occurs when development maximization calls for the recipient to withdraw from some donor-backed projects, but the recipient does not, for the sake of throughput. Donors can push back this threshold by moving to larger projects if there are scale economies in aid projects.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Debt, Economics, and Humanitarian Aid
427. Overcoming Obstacles to Humanitarian Assistance in Darfur
- Author:
- Dorina Bekoe and Kelly Campbell
- Publication Date:
- 01-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- Civilians and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, western Sudan, are increasingly being attacked by militia groups. At the same time, it is progressively more difficult to deliver humanitarian assistance to Darfur as aid agencies are hampered by increased banditry and continued obstruction by the government of Sudan (GOS). Moreover, the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) does not offer adequate protection as it continues to operate with severe budgetary constraints, inadequate amounts of military officers and equipment, and a limited mandate that does not allow it to prevent incidents or respond sufficiently to attacks. On December 14, 2005, the Sudan Peace Forum of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) convened to address the continuing challenges facing the delivery of humanitarian assistance in Darfur. Firsthand accounts of the humanitarian crisis were presented by Sloan Mann of the United States Agency for International Development; Michael Heller Chu of the United Nations Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance; and Jonathan Morgenstein of USIP. Ambassadors Chester Crocker and Francis Deng co-chaired the meeting. This USIPeace Briefing summarizes the discussion on the rising insecurity faced by civilians in Darfur, the challenges facing AMIS, the response by the GOS, and the opportunities for the international community to facilitate humanitarian assistance in Darfur.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Government, and Humanitarian Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa, United States, and Sudan
428. 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
429. Oxfam Publishing: Back to work: how people are recovering their livelihoods 12 months after the tsunami
- Author:
- Steve Jennings
- Publication Date:
- 12-2005
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- A year has passed since the tsunami, and it is time to remember the many who lost their lives. It is also time to assess the effectiveness of the relief and reconstruction operations so far. This report is intended to outline the work that has been undertaken to restore and improve the livelihoods of tsunami-affected people. It recognises the poverty in which many people were living before the tsunami. It describes how the tsunami destroyed what meagre livelihoods these people had, and how it threatened to plunge millions more into poverty.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Disaster Relief, and Humanitarian Aid
- Political Geography:
- Asia
430. Oxfam Publishing: A place to stay, a place to live: challenges in providing shelter in India, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka after the tsunami
- Author:
- Alex Renton and Robin Palmer
- Publication Date:
- 12-2005
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- On 26 December 2004, an earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered a tsunami that hit the coasts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, the Maldives, Malaysia, Burma, the Seychelles, and Somalia.
- Topic:
- Disaster Relief, Humanitarian Aid, and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Malaysia, India, Asia, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, and Somalia