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181. Cambodia's Bumpy Development Road: Implications for US Interests

Author:
Donald Jameson
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
When US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Cambodia in late 2010, she told senior Cambodian government officials "this does not look like the country I have been reading about in the press." Most first-time visitors to Phnom Penh would likely react similarly. The city hosts a vibrant society, with traffic-clogged streets, a proliferation of stylish restaurants and boutiques, and buildings under construction everywhere, many of them high-rise apartments and office blocks. If the visitor were to venture outside the capital, large-scale investment in infrastructure, especially roads and bridges, with construction underway on additional projects are what greet the eye. In addition, there are extensive land clearing projects underway for new plantations to grow rubber, palm oil, cashews and other tropical products, as well as new industrial sites springing up along main transportation arteries. In short, Cambodia is clearly a country on the move economically.
Topic:
Development, Foreign Aid, and Infrastructure
Political Geography:
United States, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia

182. Budget support lessons from post-conflict support to Mozambique

Author:
Lars Buur
Publication Date:
04-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Mirroring an international trend, the new Danish development strategy has support to fragile states as one of its five priority areas. In line with this commitment, and as a relative novelty, the development strategy emphasizes the need to take risks and operate in risky environments. This is clearly important, not only for fragile state engagement and post-conflict reconstruction efforts, but for aid delivery more generally. Nonetheless, this also potentially creates a double-bind situation when risk-taking clashes with the consequences of risk-taking, particularly when tax payers' hard-earned revenue is at stake and politicians become nervous about negative media coverage and bureaucrats fear for their careers. In such a situation, risk-taking is politically and bureaucratically fraught. Development aid in general, and aid to fragile states in particular, is indeed a risky business, circumscribed by processes of rent-seeking, corruption, primitive accumulation and political favouritism; besides the more mundane – but no less risky – policy, planning and implementation failures where “white elephants” can easily be nurtured. Fragile states come in many shapes and supporting them requires considerable flexibility, independence, responsiveness, and local and political knowledge in order to seize the moment of golden opportunity.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Democratization, Humanitarian Aid, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Africa

183. Sensitivity of Loan Size to Lending Rates

Author:
Samuel Kobina Annim
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
This paper examines the combined effect of interest rates and poverty levels of microfinance clients on loan size. Cross section data on 2,691 clients and non-clients households from Ghana is used to test the hypothesis of loan price inelasticity. Quantile regression and variants of least squares methods that explore endogeneity are employed. We find the expected inverse relationship only for the 20th to 40th quantile range. The semi-elasticity of loan amount responsiveness to a unit change in interest rate is more than proportionate and significant for the poorest group only. Market segmentation based on poverty level is suggested in targeting and sustaining microfinance clients.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Markets, Poverty, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Africa

184. Aid Supplies Over Time: Accounting for Heterogeneity, Trends, and Dynamics

Author:
Sam Jones
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
The recent financial crisis has rekindled interest in the foreign aid supply behaviour of bilateral donors. Using the latest data covering the period 1960-2009, this paper examines how such behaviour is related to domestic factors. Based on a simple empirical model, a distinction is made between long-run supply trends and short-run dynamics, which motivates use of error correction methods. Panel econometric techniques are employed that are consistent in the presence of parameter heterogeneity and cross-section dependence. Results support the error correction framework, but point to very substantial heterogeneity between countries. There is also good evidence that donor behaviour continues to evolve over time. As such, past trends in aid supplies are unlikely to provide a good guide to those of the future.
Topic:
Development, Bilateral Relations, Foreign Aid, and Financial Crisis

185. Strained Alliances: Iran's troubled relations to Afghanistan and Pakistan

Author:
Janne Bjerre Christensen
Publication Date:
04-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This report offers a critical examination of Iran's influence in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Two points are made: that Iran's top priority is its own regime's survival and its regional policies are directed by its national security concerns. Secondly, that Iran's engagements in Afghanistan are clearly guided by the presence of the US. Iran's predominant interest is in stabilizing Afghanistan, but as long as Afghanistan is neither safe nor stable, Iran will play a double game and engage with its regional neighbours according to the US–Iran equation. Deterrence, counter-containment and competition are the keywords in these complex relations. The report outlines Iran's reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, its political platform and 'soft power', and the bonds of mutual dependency in terms of water rights, refugees and drug trafficking. It examines Iran's alleged military interventions and the reasons for playing this double game. Lastly, the report discusses Iran's tense relationship with Pakistan with regard to both Afghanistan and the troubled region of Baluchistan.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Development, Power Politics, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, and Iran

186. Challenges to Democracy Promotion: The Case of Bolivia

Author:
Jonas Wolff
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
Bolivia offers a critical, but atypical, case for international democracy promotion. The ongoing political transformation initiated by President Evo Morales constitutes one of the few experiences in the world of a serious effort to build a democracy different from the existing Western liberal models. And this presents a significant challenge to democracy promotion efforts.
Topic:
Democratization and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
United States, Latin America, and Bolivia

187. Funding Free Expression: Perceptions and Reality in a Changing Landscape

Author:
Anne Nelson
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
In early 2011, the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) and the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) launched a research project to explore shifts in funding patterns for international freedom of expression activity. Twenty-one major donors responded to a survey, which was supplemented by eight in-depth interviews with donors and additional research on trends in Europe and the United States.
Topic:
Civil Society, Human Rights, International Affairs, Mass Media, and Foreign Aid

188. Averting Tomorrow's Global Food Crisis: The European Union's role in delivering food justice in a resource-constrained world

Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Why, in a world that produces more than enough food to feed everybody, do so many – one in seven – go hungry? Oxfam's new global campaign, GROW, seeks answers to this question. GROW aims to transform the way we grow, share, and live together. GROW will expose the failing governments and powerful business interests that are propping up a broken food system and sleepwalking the world into an unprecedented and avoidable reversal in human development.
Topic:
Agriculture, Economics, Foreign Aid, and Food
Political Geography:
Europe

189. Minding the Money: Governance of climate change adaptation finance in Nepal

Author:
Katie Wiseman and Raju Pandit Chhetri
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Climate change is an urgent concern in Nepal. In recent years, the country has faced more than its fair share of extreme weather patterns. Increases in temperature extremes, more intense rainfall, drier winters and delays in summer monsoons have become quite common and are expected to get worse. In fact, a recent Climate Change Vulnerability Index, calculating susceptibility to impacts of climate change over the next 30 years, places Nepal 4th out of 170 countries. This report examines the national situation of climate change adaptation policy and programming, highlighting key areas of progress, weakness and challenges. The report notes that current initiatives have yet to deliver benefit to the marginalized and vulnerable communities in the country - the very groups that need it most. Based on the findings, the report presents a set of recommendations for the Government, donor community and civil society.
Topic:
Civil Society, Climate Change, Environment, Poverty, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Asia and Nepal

190. GAVI's Future: Steps to Build Strategic Leadership, Financial Sustainability, and Better Partnerships

Author:
Amanda Glassman, Lisa Carty, J. Stephen Morrison, and Margaret Reeves
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
On June 13, the GAVI Alliance convenes its first pledging conference in London with the aim of securing $3.7 billion to immunize an additional 250 million children by 2015. Founded in 2000, GAVI is an innovative partnership that combines donors, partner governments, UNICEF, WHO, civil society, and the private sector. It is designed to accelerate the financing and delivery of selected vaccines and related health services to the world's most disadvantaged populations. As GAVI enters its second decade of operations, it has established itself as a quiet success. And as it strives to sustain and expand its model of operations, it simultaneously strives to make itself better known and understood; better led, managed, and resourced; better assured of essential high-level political and financial support; and better served by well-functioning relations with its many essential partners.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Health, and Foreign Aid