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302. Gender, equality and corruption: what are the linkages?
- Author:
- Craig Fagan and Marie Chene
- Publication Date:
- 04-2014
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Transparency International
- Abstract:
- Gender inequality and corruption are closely inter-linked. Gender inequalities undermine good governance, sustainable growth, development outcomes and poverty alleviation. Where countries have made advances in women's empowerment and gender equality, they have witnessed lower levels of corruption over time.
- Topic:
- Corruption, Gender Issues, Poverty, and Reform
303. Asset Declarations: An effective tool to fight corruption?
- Author:
- Craig Fagan
- Publication Date:
- 07-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Transparency International
- Abstract:
- Public sector officials who have achieved positions of power and managerial control over government budgets and spending can be particularly vulnerable to corruption. Asset declarations offer a critical tool to public officials and those they serve in the prevention, detection, investigation and sanctioning of corruption.
- Topic:
- Corruption, Government, Reform, and Budget
304. Value Subtraction in Public Sector Production: Accounting Versus Economic Cost of Primary Schooling in India
- Author:
- Lant Pritchett and Yamini Aiyar
- Publication Date:
- 12-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- We combine newly created data on per student government expenditure on children in government elementary schools across India, data on per student expenditure by households on students attending private elementary schools, and the ASER measure of learning achievement of students in rural areas. The combination of these three sources allows us to compare both the “accounting cost” difference of public and private schools and also the “economic cost”—what it would take public schools, at their existing efficacy in producing learning, to achieve the learning results of the private sector. We estimate that the “accounting cost” per student in a government school in the median state in 2011/12 was Rs. 14,615 while the median child in private school cost Rs. 5,961. Hence in the typical Indian state, educating a student in government school costs more than twice as much than in private school, a gap of Rs. 7,906. Just these accounting cost gaps aggregated state by state suggests an annual excess of public over private cost of children enrolled in government schools of Rs. 50,000 crores (one crore=10 million) or .6 percent of GDP. But even that staggering estimate does not account for the observed learning differentials between public and private. We produce a measure of inefficiency that combines both the excess accounting cost and a money metric estimate of the cost of the inefficacy of lower learning achievement. This measure is the cost at which government schools would be predicted to reach the learning levels of the private sector. Combining the calculations of accounting cost differentials plus the cost of reaching the higher levels of learning observed in the private sector state by state (as both accounting cost differences and learning differences vary widely across states) implies that the excess cost of achieving the existing private learning levels at public sector costs is Rs. 232,000 crores (2.78% of GDP, or nearly US$50 billion). It might seem counterintuitive that the total loss to inefficiency is larger than the actual budget, but that is because the actual budget produces such low levels of learning at such high cost that when the loss from both higher expenditures and lower outputs are measured it exceeds expenditures.
- Topic:
- Economics, Education, Privatization, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- India and Asia
305. Adjusting Assistance to the 21st Century: A Revised Agenda for Foreign Assistance Reform
- Author:
- George Ingram
- Publication Date:
- 07-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- A decade of reform of U.S. development assistance programs has brought significant and important improvement in the nature and delivery of U.S. assistance. But the 21st century world is witnessing constant change in development. More developing countries are ascending to middle income status and gaining the capability, resources, and desire to finance and direct their own development. The rapid expansion of private capital flows, remittances, and domestic resources has significantly reduced the relative role of donor assistance in financing development. Donors are becoming more numerous and varied. There is growing recognition that the private sector, both nationally and internationally, is an indispensable component of sustainable development.
- Topic:
- Development, Foreign Aid, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- United States
306. Pursuing gender equality in land administration
- Author:
- Helle Munk Ravnborg and Rachel Spichiger
- Publication Date:
- 02-2014
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Ensuring gender equality with respect to land rights is hailed as a key element of the recent land reforms, but actual results in this respect are limited. Achieving gender equality requires a comprehensive focus on land, family and other laws, including customary, pertaining to land and on their implementation on the ground.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Gender Issues, Governance, and Reform
307. From Juvenile System Reform to a Conflict of Civilizations in Contemporary Russian Society (De la réforme de la justice des mineurs au conflit de civilisations dans la société russe contemporaine)
- Author:
- Kathy Rousselet
- Publication Date:
- 06-2014
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
- Abstract:
- Youth delinquency has been a hot topic in Russian society for many years. Numerous associations, NGOs and international organizations have raised public awareness of the problem and have encouraged the government to place judicial reform on its agenda. However, debate over how to apply it, the various possible models and how to structure the relationship between social and judicial institutions has been limited. Discussion has instead focused on the relative priorities to be given to the interests of children versus those of the family, so-called “traditional” versus “liberal” values, and the extent to which the State should interfere in the private lives of Russian citizens. Discussion of the actual situation of children at risk and the concrete problems posed by reform have been overshadowed by rumors, encouraged by a discourse of fear in an increasingly violent society that tend to distort the real problems. Additionally, implementation of international norms and judicial reform has been largely blocked by the patriotic agenda of the State.
- Topic:
- Crime, Democratization, Human Rights, Sociology, Prisons/Penal Systems, Reform, Children, Youth, and Political Science
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, and Asia
308. Can one retell a Mozambican reform story through Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation?
- Author:
- Matt Andrews
- Publication Date:
- 02-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Many public sector reforms in developing countries fail to make governments more functional. This is typically because reforms introduce new solutions that do not fit the contexts in which they are being placed. This situation reflects what has recently been called the 'capability trap' in development—which results in many interventions producing new forms that are not functional in states across the globe. The work on capability traps suggests that reforms can yield more functional influence in even the most complex states, however; if reformers adopt non-traditional approaches to doing reform. In particular, the work suggests that reforms will tend to be more contextually fitted if: (i) They are driven by problems that agents in the context care about; and (ii) They are introduced iteratively—through a stepwise process where ideas are tried and lessons are learned and used to adapt (or fit) ideas to context. The capability traps work embeds these ideas into an approach to doing reform called Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA). This approach has deep roots in various literatures but many observers still ask how PDIA-type reforms could work to foster successful reform in complex hierarchical developing country governments and whether these approaches really help foster reforms that better fit such complex contexts. This paper responds to such question by describing an action research study where PDIA is being used to retell a story of reform that has to date been limited. The action research study is in Mozambique’s judicial sector and will examine whether and how a problem driven iterative approach can (i) flush out the contextual factors that often limit reform success, (ii) provide a viable route to find and fit reforms that actually foster greater functionality, and (iii) promote the authority needed to ensure change is implemented and institutionalized.
- Topic:
- Government, Developing World, Reform, and Public Sector
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Mozambique
309. Assessment on Changes regarding the Specially Empowered Judicial System in Turkey
- Author:
- Hande Özhabeş
- Publication Date:
- 05-2014
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
- Abstract:
- A number of amendments for criminal law have been instituted in Turkey in recent years within the framework of the judicial reform process that especially were geared towards the realization of the fair trial principle. Between 2011 and 2013, four groups of legal amendments named “Judicial Reform Packages” were passed. These brought about important improvements regarding fair trial, freedom of speech, personal liberty and security. The TESEV Democratization Program published a report evaluating the effect of these four judicial reform packages on rights and freedoms in September 2013. This brief report provides an evaluation of the amendment package instituted in March 2014 that included important changes vis-a-vis the specially empowered judicial system.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Law, Reform, Criminal Justice, and Justice
- Political Geography:
- Turkey and Middle East
310. India and Pakistan: The Opportunity Cost of Conflict
- Author:
- Shuja Nawaz and Mohan Guruswamy
- Publication Date:
- 04-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- India and Pakistan, born out of a single British-ruled entity in 1947, have continued an implacable rivalry marked by periodic wars and hostilities as well as through proxies. This unending conflict has led them to invest heavily in their militaries and even to choose nuclear weaponry as a deterrence on the part of Pakistan toward India and on India's part toward both Pakistan and China. Although there have been occasional moves toward confidence building measures and most recently toward more open borders for trade, deep mistrust and suspicion mark this sibling rivalry. Their mutual fears have fuelled an arms race, even though increasingly civil society actors now appear to favor rapprochement and some sort of an entente. The question is whether these new trends will help diminish the military spending on both sides.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, China, India, Asia, and Southeast Asia