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81. Double-Edged Prices: Lessons from the food price crisis

Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The recent sharp increase in food prices should have benefited millions of poor people who make their living from agriculture. However, decades of misguided policies by developing country governments on agriculture, trade, and domestic markets - often promoted by international financial institutions and supported by donor countries - have prevented poor farmers and rural workers from reaping the benefits of higher commodity prices. As a result, the crisis is hurting poor producers and consumers alike, threatening to reverse recent progress on poverty reduction in many countries. To help farmers get out of poverty while protecting poor consumers, developing country governments, with the support of donors, should invest now into smallholder agriculture and social protection.
Topic:
International Relations, Humanitarian Aid, Non-Governmental Organization, and Poverty

82. Drought Management Considerations for Climate Change Adaptation

Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Cambodia is one of the most disaster-prone countries in East Asia, with its vulnerability to annual floods and droughts. One of the reasons why it is vulnerable to natural disasters is that the livelihoods of the majority of people depend directly upon natural resources, with a large proportion of its population occupied in agriculture and related sectors, including animal husbandry. Extreme poverty, which limits access to food, water, and other basic amenities, increases vulnerability. These characteristics heighten Cambodia's exposure to the impacts of climate change too. The Mekong region has recently been showing signs of climate change, as illustrated in our previous report on VietNam ('Drought-Management Considerations for Climate-Change Adaptation: Focus on the Mekong Region – Report (VietNam)', October 2007). There is evidence of greater climatic extremes: both declining rainfall in the dry season and more violent rainfall in the wet season, causing flash floods. Increasingly powerful typhoons also appear to be occurring.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Energy Policy, Environment, and Non-Governmental Organization
Political Geography:
East Asia, Asia, Vietnam, and Cambodia

83. Multidimensional and Integrated Peace Operations

Author:
Niels Nagelhus Schia and Ståle Ulriksen
Publication Date:
01-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
Despite major institutional differences regarding mandate, roles and membership, the UN, the EU and NATO all face common security challenges and operate together in several theatres throughout the world. There is now broad consensus that today's security challenges can be most effectively addressed through an integrated approach. This has led to a process where the organisations have acknowledged the necessity and efficiency of cooperation within and with each other. In turn, international and regional organisations such as the UN, NATO, the EU and the AU, all have developed integration approaches. These include models and concepts such as NATO's 'the comprehensive approach' and 'Effects-based Approach to Operations (EBAO)', 'whole-of-government' approaches, and the UN's 'integrated missions' concept.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, International Relations, International Cooperation, and Non-Governmental Organization

84. Multi-Stakeholder Cooperation in Global Governance

Author:
Mikael Wigell
Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
Over the past few decades, new forms of international cooperation have emerged that go beyond traditional intergovernmental multilateralism. In this new mode of global governance, “global public-private partnerships”, “multi-sectoral networks”, “multi-stakeholder arrangements”, “plurilateral coalitions”, and “global public policy networks” bring multiple stakeholders – public, private and not-for-profit – together in common forums to engage in consensus-oriented problem-solving. Today, such multi-stakeholder cooperation can be identified in a variety of issue-areas across global, regional and local levels, involving a broad set of actors ranging from governments and international organizations to NGOs and transnational corporations. As such, these are initiatives that try to respond to the new challenges of governance in the age of globalization.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, Government, International Cooperation, Non-Governmental Organization, and Governance

85. Shifting Financial Flows to Low-Income Countries: From Official Aid to Private Finance?

Author:
Lotte Thomsen
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Within the last decades, the share of government aid in overall external financial flows to developing countries has decreased. It is estimated that between 75 and 85% of all current financial flows to developing countries derive from a variety of private sources, including remittances, investment, commercial loans and charity, compared to some 65% in 1990 (see also Jones, 2007). Similarly, it has been estimated that total private flows reached 647 billion USD in 2006, which is roughly four times their level in the 1980s. This may imply a diminished or different role for official financing from 'traditional' donors, at least in relative terms (Dorsey et al, 2008; Steer, 2008). Yet, it has been pointed out (Steer, 2008) that the size, impact and relation of private financial flows to public flows are not fully understood, not least because monitoring systems in many developing countries are rudimentary, and e.g. FDI widely underestimated. Simultaneously with this increase in private finance to developing countries, the number of both private and public aid sources, including bilateral donor channels, multilateral organizations, funds and programmes, have been growing so that they now are higher in number than the number of developing countries they are created to assist (IDA, 2007).
Topic:
Development, Emerging Markets, Government, and Non-Governmental Organization

86. New Rights Advocacy: Changing Strategies of Development and Human Rights NGOs

Author:
Paul J. Nelson and Ellen Dorsey
Publication Date:
04-2008
Content Type:
Book
Institution:
Georgetown University Press
Abstract:
Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.
Topic:
Development, Human Rights, and Non-Governmental Organization

87. The UN Central Emergency Response Fund one year on

Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Every year millions of people are affected by natural disasters and conflict. In 2006 alone, an estimated 46 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance. Yet, despite continuing reform of the global humanitarian system and increases in humanitarian funding, for many people the help they received was too little, too late, resulting in increased poverty, suffering and death.
Topic:
Disaster Relief, Humanitarian Aid, Non-Governmental Organization, and United Nations

88. PolicyWatch #1258: U.S. Support for the Iranian Opposition

Author:
Mehdi Khalaji
Publication Date:
07-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
Directly reaching the Iranian people can be achieved in two ways: (1) supporting political opposition groups that explicitly advocate regime change, and (2) empowering human rights and other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that do not directly engage in political action but support issues such as women and children's rights, labor rights, and religious freedom. Although the latter groups do not pursue political goals, the Iranian regime considers them subversive entities seeking to overthrow the Islamic Republic.
Topic:
Diplomacy and Non-Governmental Organization
Political Geography:
United States, Iran, and Middle East

89. Transnational Public-Private Partnerships in International Relations

Author:
Marco Schäferhoff, Sabine Campe, and Christopher Kaan
Publication Date:
08-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 700
Abstract:
Transnational public-private partnerships have become a popular theme in International Relations (IR) research. Such partnerships constitute a hybrid type of governance, in which non state actors co-govern along with state actors for the provision of public goods, and thereby adopt governance functions that have formerly been the sole authority of sovereign states. Their recent proliferation is an expression of the contemporary reconfiguration of authority in world politics that poses essential questions on the effectiveness and the legitimacy of global governance. Significant issues are at stake concerning whether transnational public private partnerships can in fact deliver public goods in an effective and legitimate way. This article surveys the literature with regard to three central issues: It addresses the questions why transnational public-private partnerships emerge, under which conditions they are effective, and under which conditions they are legitimate governance instruments. The article demonstrates that, at present, research on transnational public-private partnerships is theoretically under-informed and suffers from poor research designs. As is pointed out in the course of the article, future research on transnational public-private partnerships could benefit from well-known IR theories on international institutions, from compliance theories in particular. Applying these IR theories to partnerships opens up the possibility for the systematic comparative research that is necessary to obtain conclusive knowledge about transnational public private partnerships.
Topic:
Development, International Political Economy, Non-Governmental Organization, and Political Economy

90. Performance-based Incentives for Health: Demand- and Supply-Side Incentives in the Nicaraguan Red de Protección Social - Working Paper 119

Author:
Ferdinando Regalía and Leslie Castro
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Nicaragua's Red de Protección Social (RPS) is one of the first conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs implemented in a low-income country. Demand-side incentives, in the form of monetary transfers, are provided to poor households on condition that their children attend school and visit preventive health care providers. The design of the program is unique among CCT programs because these demand-side incentives are complemented by supply-side incentives aimed at improving the provision of health care. Health care providers are paid on the basis of their performance against predetermine d targets. Both private and nonprofit health care providers contracted by the government extend the coverage of services to previously underserved areas.
Topic:
Education, Health, Non-Governmental Organization, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Nicaragua