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• Learning the Lessons? Assessing the response to the 2012 food crisis in the Sahel to build resilience for the future

  Posted: 15 May 2013 11:39:27 GMT

  In 2012, the Sahel region of West and Central Africa was once again hit by a severe food crisis, affecting over 18 million people at its peak. At the start of 2012, when the crisis began to unfold, many governments, donors and aid agencies were determined not to make the same mistakes again.

  This Oxfam briefing paper considers how well they collectively performed, and the lessons that must be learned to improve future responses. The analysis reveals that, although the 2012 response was bigger and, in many respects, better than responses to previous crises, there were still significant shortcomings that need to be addressed. Technical, financial and political barriers prevented governments from effectively leading the response. Diverging messages on the likely severity of the crisis led to paralysis and unnecessary delays in mobilizing a response. Donor funding was no more timely than before. As a result, millions of people still did not get the help they needed.

  

• Providing development aid to Africa : comparing South Africa with China, India and Brazil

  Posted: 14 May 2013 09:02:38 GMT

  South Africa’s planned development aid agency, South African Development Partnership Agency, is expected to be established in 2013. This provides a good opportunity to assess South Africas current role as provider of development aid to other African countries. This will be assessed against traditional development aid from the north (the OECD countries), but primarily South Africa’s evolving aid policies and practices will be compared to those of the other main South powers – China, India and Brazil. They have all in recent years rapidly expanded their development aid projects in Africa.

• Nutrition interventions for older people in emergencies

  Posted: 07 May 2013 14:47:46 GMT

  In emergency situations, older people may find it hard to access food. For example, when they are displaced, older people may face difficulties in registering for the general food rations, meet challenges in accessing food distributions and difficulties transporting the food.
  
  This document provides general guidance for the implementation of emergency nutrition activities ensuring the inclusion of older people and addressing their specific needs. Its primary target is humanitarian actors working in the field – no specific knowledge of nutrition is assumed.
  
  While the guidance recognises the connection between nutritional wellbeing, food security and health care it does not provide guidance on programming in these areas. These can be found in other HelpAge documentation.  At both global and field level, this guidance can also be used to highlight and advocate for the nutrition needs of older people in humanitarian crisis.

• Decentralising the management of bilateral development cooperation programmes in Tanzania: a Finnish example

  Posted: 18 Apr 2013 17:28:51 GMT

  What is the potential of the decentralisation of bilateral development cooperation programmes as an aid to improving their performance in regard to poverty reduction?
  
  This book presents evidence-based observations on how decentralising the management of  bilateral development cooperation programmes could act as the best approach in managing bilateral development assistance in a manner that best contributes to poverty reduction in a recipient country. It presents a case study of Rural Integrated Project Support (RIPS), a bilateral development cooperation programme between Finland and Tanzania in Lindi and Mtwara regions.
  
  Thress main lessons were lerned from the programme:
  

  • if the change process is designed in such a way that space is created for stakeholders to take leading roles in setting the objectives of change and determining the key areas for reforming a particular programme, then the process is likely to address the needs of local partners and the outcomes of the process are likely to meet those needs
  • good leadership and the support of top management are the main pillars of the change process, both in terms of articulating country policy changes and creating space for staff to innovate and improve overall programme performance
  • it appears that the concept of Operational Integration may be applied as a strategy for programme management in bilateral development cooperation. Such a concept works to aid in creating space for dialogue between the local partners’ perspectives and those of the development programme

  

• Predicting the cost and impact of cash transfer programmes: the power of microsimulation tools

  Posted: 05 Apr 2013 15:39:10 GMT

  Cash transfers to households are becoming an increasingly common policy instrument for reducing poverty, particularly in some countries of sub-Saharan Africa. However pilot schemes are not always modelled at their design stage to estimate whether the cash transfers would have an affordable impact on poverty if scaled up. This briefing note explains how to overcome this problem by using a simple microsimulation tool.
  
  The tool uses household survey data to predict the costs and poverty outcomes of cash transfer programmes under different scenarios before any programme is launched. It can also simulate how the benefit will be distributed among households with different consumption levels or different household composition – something that is not possible with tools that use macro-level data such as national population data. The briefing note explains the key steps needed to use the tool and the issues that should be considered along the way.

• Can the UN adjust to the changing funding landscape?

  Posted: 05 Apr 2013 14:58:03 GMT

  Private sources of financing have become a growing feature of UN budgets. This report argues that an evaluation of the private financing of UNDP activities reveals both advantages - increased resources, more technical expertise, better management - and challenges such distorted priorities, unhealthy competition, weakened multilateralism.
  
  The increase in non-core funding constitutes a permanent change in the development scene. The UN continues to play a vital role in delivering programs with the use of such funds. It is a standard bearer for international treaties and principles; its universality means legitimacy; it adds value through its large network of offices and administrative capacities; and its perceived neutrality facilitates access to a range of partners in different country contexts. These advantages help explain the attraction of the UN system for delivering programs with resources from new funding sources. Hitherto, few other organizations have been able to perform this role. However, this role cannot be taken for granted, particularly with the emergence of new global organizations in the public, charitable, and for - profit sectors. Working with these funds has brought much benefit to the UN’s development work but also carries risks. As these changes are here to stay, it is essential that the UNDP and other vital organisations of the UN system find ways of optimising the use of these resources without diminishing their core purpose and values.

• Increasing the effectiveness of Aid for Trade: the circumstances under which it works best

  Posted: 26 Mar 2013 13:58:24 GMT

  Aid for Trade has emerged as an important vehicle for assisting developing countries to improve their trade capacity and to benefit from the expansion of global markets. But any optimism on the volume of Aid for Trade flows is punctuated by the ongoing global economic crisis, which is likely to have important implications for trade and development.
  
  This working paper seeks to assess the impact of Aid for Trade thus far, and what has worked and what the barriers to improving the impact of Aid for Trade are.
  
  The authors argue that  Aid for Trade works best when:
  

  • it is targeted at reducing the cost of trading, for example through investment in infrastructure, improving trade facilitation and strengthening value chains. These should be driven and guided by support to the capacity of institutions that devise trade policies and regulations. Experience shows that investment in infrastructure, trade facilitation and the strengthening of value chains is most effective when it is integrated into and driven by a country’s broader trade policy and strategy
  • it addresses the binding constraint to growth. This will be largely country-specific and, according to traditional growth diagnostics, can relate to factors that affect the availability of finance of an investment project or factors (e.g. infrastructure, skills, transport costs) that affect returns to an investment
  • there is effective coordination between donors and recipients around the design, implementation and monitoring of the Aid for Trade programmes, as well as coordination among different donors, within donor agencies themselves (e.g. between country offices and headquarters), between different ministries within a recipient country government and between recipient governments and their regional trading partners
  • the selection of instruments and modalities for delivering Aid for Trade are able to address trade-related constraints at the transnational and regional level. Many Aid for Trade projects are targeted towards improving trade for individual countries, when in fact greater gains can be made by focusing on ensuring greater integration of trade within regions
  • the M&E of impacts, outcomes and outputs is realistic (the achievement of objectives can be traced along a feasible results chain), based on the collection of baseline data, and lessons contribute to the design of future projects

  

• Focusing on what matters in Aid for Trade

  Posted: 26 Mar 2013 13:33:57 GMT

  Aid for Trade (AfT) has emerged as an important vehicle to help the private sector in developing countries to improve its trade capacity and to benefit from the expansion of global markets, which would allow for economic growth and job creation, and help developing countries to move from reliance on aid to the use of trade to generate higher standards of living.
  
  This Briefing Paper draws on a review that suggests AfT is subject to the same failures of collective action that affect aid in many other sectors. It discusses the success criteria that help to determine the effectiveness of AfT barriers and opportunities, design and implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.
  
  It concludes with the following suggestions:
  

  • demand for specific AfT projects must be driven by the recipient country, and AfT must address barriers to trade in a measurable way
  • improving understanding of the nature and causes of coordination failures and information asymmetries specific to the political economy of recipient countries and regions, as well as donor agencies
  • given that trade is, by definition, cross-border, there is a strong economic rationale to strengthen regional institutions as well as for more investment in trans-national corridor approaches
  • investing in the collection of baseline data and providing measurable outcomes (e.g. port clearance time; trade volumes) would help to address concerns about attribution

  

• Parliamentary engagement development with the Millennium Goals

  Posted: 18 Mar 2013 09:05:31 GMT

  This manual outlines mechanisms that can be used in parliaments to improve engagement around the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It highlights examples of best practice in making MDGs a central part of Parliamentary work, and provides practical advice on how to effectively implement some legislative mechanisms to utilise the MDGs in Parliaments. It also suggests some practical advice and possible tools to use in implementing these mechanisms.

• Working differently in fragile and conflict-affected situations: the ADB experience

  Posted: 03 Mar 2013 19:53:27 GMT

  One in every four of the world’s people lives in fragile and conflicted settings. This handbook is an Asian-based attempt to encourage new thinking and mainstreaming of innovative engagement in fragile situations.
  
  The paper highlights that:
  

  • fragile and conflict-affected situation (FCAS) countries lag far behind in development
  • for development aid to be effective, modes of engagement must be customised to the specific needs and local context of the affected country
  • failure to engage in fragile and conflict-affected situations differently and in an innovative manner is likely to entail major human, social, economic, and security costs

  
  The author states that in terms of FCAS, there are common challenges, as well as lessons from how development agencies are already responding to these circumstances.
  
  Lessons include:
  

  • programmatic approach to fragile and conflict-affected situations is needed, yet flexibility is required - significant adjustments during the implementation are likely to exist
  • a deeper understanding of the country contexts, longer term commitment to working in with other partners in the country and increasing presence on the ground are critical ingredients for efficiency
  • depending on the stage of conflict and fragility, the country strategy may be formulated as a country partnership strategy, an interim operational strategy, a regional strategy, or a watching brief
  • in FCAS countries, it is recommended to anticipate potential problems before they occur, thus a security management risk perspective and an evaluation of the full range of risks to which communities are exposed are of great importance
  • assessment tools are essential to understand the FCAS setting and to effectively formulate appropriate operational strategies and assistance program development
  • in this sense, political economy analysis can contribute to improved prioritisation of reform efforts, and social assessment can help identifying proper assistance delivery approaches

  
  The document also underlines that a national development policy dialogue is totally required.

• Aid, trade, charade?

  Posted: 03 Feb 2013 18:33:35 GMT

  In recent years, there has been much re-thinking on what aid is and how it should be delivered. This paper addresses these questions and related issues from a Pacific perspective.
  
  The paper argues that many aid programs are more about political and economic self-interest. In this context, it shows that China does not even attempt to say politics and aid are separate. Australia, in turn, is acting as the “big brother”, yet its aid is viewed as a substitute for the deeper engagement that can only come with a more mature relationship as development partners.
  
  The document elaborates the state and also draws on the findings of concerned publications to introduce the following points:
  

  • there is increasing dissatisfaction with aid programs in both donor and recipient countries, and a growing body of evidence suggests the need for substantial change
  • in this sense, intangible aid is a good example to prove that aid is not only ineffective, but even counter-productive and should be totally scrapped
  • moreover, there is little to suggest that the aid relationship has truly adapted to the shifting economic, political and technology landscapes

  
  Likewise, the author presents the following conclusions:
  

  • changing the language of aid may help shift the relationship between donors and recipients to something closer to a real partnership
  • it may also help with more transparent delivery and better ways of measuring the effectiveness of development support
  • absorptive capacity constraints are real, but should not be seen as an immutable barrier to growth, and development support should always be seen in human terms
  • identically, it is time to have a frank Pacific discussion on the general concerns relating to aid effectiveness, and understand the region’s landscape and recognise what works in that local context

  

• Enhancing opportunities for regional migration in the Pacific

  Posted: 03 Feb 2013 18:32:56 GMT

  The history of the Pacific is a history of migration, yet modern barriers to migration impede development in the Pacific island countries facing degraded resources and high rates of population increase. This paper examines international migration in the Pacific, and argues that there should be greater opportunities for the people of Pacific countries to migrate between their home states and the developed states of the Pacific rim.
  
  The author indicates that migration from Pacific islands to the Pacific rim can be a powerful tool for promoting human development in the region, which suffers from limited land and marine resources and high rates of population growth. In this context, both the US and New Zealand have been reasonably generous in facilitating migration from two Pacific islands. However, Australia stands out as the Pacific neighbour with the greatest possibility to develop new migration streams.
  
  Conclusions are as follows:
  

  • developed states (particularly Australia) should assist developing states of the Pacific by promoting controlled migration because it is an effective means of giving development assistance and fostering stronger regional relations
  • preferential visa quotas and seasonal worker schemes go some way towards satisfying the needs of Pacific islanders but other options should also be addressed
  • the arguments for more permeable borders do not affect all Pacific countries equally - the greatest priority should be to enhance labour mobility for countries facing very challenging circumstances

  
  Still, the paper emphasises that migration is one avenue for improving the position of Pacific islanders, but must be considered alongside other policy initiatives.
  

• Establishing International Development Assistance Strategy in Russia

  Posted: 26 Jan 2013 09:01:00 GMT

  The paper analyses the establishment and development of the national system of international development assistance in Russia. Covering the period from 2005 to 2010, the paper examines how national priorities for international development assistance were defined, how foreign aid was increased on the threshold of Russia’s G8 Presidency, and how the emerging structure of aid governance evolved. Russia’s participation in multilateral and development cooperation institutions is also considered. The author proposes recommendations for further development of the system of international development assistance in Russia.

• Coordinating development in conflict states: donor networks in Somalia

  Posted: 25 Jan 2013 17:25:50 GMT

  Multilevel, networked systems of governance are a fundamental fact of life in most African conflict settings. This article looks at the coordination networks that influence the management of aid-in-conflict in the case of Somalia. The paper clarifies that while coordination is a source of peer accountability, formal coordination in Somalia remains largely weak, non-binding and elusive. Consequently, the country is marked by general unease about accountability across all involved actors. The author underlines that humanitarian and development activities overlap over decades, notably in South Central Somalia. In addition, at the multi-sectoral level, divisions persist as to who leads coordination and through what means. The document states that the internal division and perceived bias of key UN institutions, combined with their multiple roles make their task a difficult one. Nevertheless, the paper emphasises that effective solutions to problems can be found. Conclusions are as follows: • the middle ground, the attempt to build capacity for public policy during engagement, would be a crucial part of any coherent strategy of engagement • comprehensive aid strategies that comprise various logics of engagement need to be given shape by relatively autonomous donor country offices • often, creative and successful coordination can occur based not on multi-sectoral agreements but programme-specific engagement that over time can be replicated in other areas • differences in approaches will persist due to the heterogeneity of all actors and the multiplicity of interests involved • trilateral dialogue about aid, including Somali counterparts, donors and the UN system should be tangible and at technical levels.

• No future without justice – Report of the Civil Society Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectives

  Posted: 25 Jan 2013 13:19:33 GMT

  This paper argues that the world faces a number of global crises which reflect the failures of the dominant model of development and economic progress. This model ignores human rights and the ecological limits of the global ecosystem, and considers poverty as a primarily technical challenge in which categories of inequality and social justice are neglected.
  
  As a response, the Civil Society Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectives brought together 18 civil society activists and scholars from different disciplines to draw lessons from the current crises, looking beyond conventional development concepts and goals, questioning the models and measures of development and social progress, and presenting alternatives. For example, when thinking about indicators and goals, the report suggests moving beyond GNP/GDP as a primary indicator, and instead focusing on equity and distribution, well being, human rights and sustainability. Ideas for progression include emphasising progressive taxation so that rich individuals, transnational corporations and large landowners can be taxed accordingly, and strengthening participatory, gender and human rights budgeting initiatives, ensuring that budgets are complying with government’s obligation to promote, protect and fulfil the economic, social and cultural human rights of present and future generations. The report also recommends focusing on small producers and ecological farming, since these farming methods secure long-term productivity, increase resilience, conserve the soil and protect biodiversity. Such methods have the potential to produce more food per hectare than industrial agriculture but implementation will require a significant shift in investment. Gender sensitive policies are an essential part of increasing and stabilising this local food production.
  

• DRAFT: Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Health in the Post-2015 Development Agenda

  Posted: 25 Jan 2013 13:12:45 GMT

  This is a draft working paper on sexual and reproductive health and rights in the context of the post-2015 framework. Universal health insurance is a critical factor in achieving health coverage because of the role it can play in providing financial protection against expensive health costs. Equally the design of health insurance schemes can have major implications for women and girls as it can either facilitate or impede access to sexual and reproductive health services. For example compulsory social insurance schemes that are linked to formal employment may exclude from coverage large proportions of women who work in the informal sector, or do not participate in waged employment. On the other hand, social protection health insurance schemes that target poor and marginalised women with no-fee services or conditional cash transfers may facilitate access to services as well as simultaneously incentivising health-seeking behaviour. The post-2015 development framework should also focus on impediments to receiving sexual and reproductive rights and health, such as social and cultural norms and encourage specific associated programmes. Suggestions include addressing the deprioritisation of immunisations for girls in countries where son preference is prevalent, or stigma and discrimination against unmarried women seeking sexual health services in health facilities.

• Linking Rio +20, Cairo +20 and MDGs +15 from South Feminist Perspectives – DAWN panel at the People’s Summit

  Posted: 25 Jan 2013 13:07:35 GMT

  This article outlines a panel session organised by Development Alternatives with Women of a New Era (DAWN) at the People’s Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The panel, moderated by Gita Sen, focused on looking beyond poverty to environmental and social justice and a development in which everyone can participate. Speakers included Alex Garrita from Mexico, who drew parallels between Rio +20 and the UN Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994, alerting the audience to the push to control women’s fertility. She thought the main challenge of Rio +20 was to ensure women’s reproductive rights were in place before the move to the post MDG process. Another speaker Nicole Bidegain saw three options for post-2015: the extension or reformulation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or the introduction of a new framework. She proposed that feminists should be advocating for a new framework which is not minimalistic or donor driven, but instead holistic, including human rights, equity, sexual orientation and gender identity, and the care economy. She added any post-2015 agenda must address issues of financing and the reform of global economic and financial governance as little can be achieved without this.

• The Future Asia Pacific Women Want

  Posted: 24 Jan 2013 16:17:37 GMT

  This outcome statement is from the women’s and civil society networks and organisations present at the regional dialogue on sustainable development and the post-2015 development agenda in November 2012, Bangkok. The statement argues that while UN agencies have affirmed that the principles of human rights, equality and sustainability should guide discussions on post-2015, it will not be possible to do this without also considering crises around food, climate, finance and fuel and their position within the development model. The paper gives some background on the key gender issues within the Asia-Pacific region, drawing attention to the significant challenges around poverty, inequality, insecurity and violence that must be tackled by the post-2015 agenda. The statement is then divided into four sections:
  
  • Women workers’ rights
  • Women in conflict and transition to peace
  • Sexual and reproductive health and rights
  • Women’s political agency
  
  Each section outlines some of the key problems experienced in the Asia-Pacific region and makes recommendations on how a post-2015 development framework should begin to tackle these problems.
  

• Mind the gender gap: accelerating gender commitments in the MDGs and shaping the post 2015 development framework

  Posted: 24 Jan 2013 16:12:56 GMT

  This position paper from the African women’s rights regional steering group on the post-2015 development framework builds on discussion that took place at the African women’s consultation in October 2012. It contains two sections; the first is on gender in the current MDGs, and the second looks at gender within a post-2015 framework. While recognising that the MDGs have been successful in drawing attention towards poverty as an urgent global priority, the authors argue that the simplification of the goals and a focus on quantification rather than quality has meant that the development agenda has been reduced to meeting basic material needs, and has not addressed equity, empowerment or building sustainable capacity for economic growth. The paper states that “gender targets continue to be a moving goal with inequalities persisting in many countries and contexts”. It goes on to list some examples of this, including the low progress made on MDG 5 to reduce maternal mortality. However, the authors also make ten recommendations for priority action by African states before the MDGs end.
  
  When considering the post-2015 development framework, the paper argues that any framework should seek to redress ideological assumptions within the current MDGs. For example, it should recognise that Africa has rich natural and human resources, which if managed well, could facilitate sustainable and equitable growth in the continent. It should also integrate human and women’s rights principles, rather than taking a sole focus on economic growth. Five groups of minimum outcomes are suggested as a way of ensuring that any new framework can recognise and address the gaps inherent in the MDGs. These groups are:
  
  • Accessible universal primary education and strengthening of post primary education
  • Women’s health and zero tolerance on violence against women
  • Guarantee women and girls’ property rights
  • Accelerating women’s economic empowerment
  • Governance, peace and security
  • Environmental sustainability
  
  A set of outcomes is suggested for each group.
  
  Finally, the paper sets out a series of overarching concerns. These cover: the donor centric view that has previously shaped the MDGs; aid flows and internal resource mobilisation; regional integration agendas; quantity versus quality; and the aid effectiveness agenda.
  
  
  
  The African women’s rights regional steering group on the post-2015 development framework includes FEMNET, AAWORD, EASSI, WiLDAF-WA, SADC Gender Protocol Alliance, Akina Mama wa Afrika, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Oxfam and Urgent Action Fund Africa.
  

• The post-2015 development framework and the realisation of women’s rights and social justice

  Posted: 24 Jan 2013 13:27:12 GMT

  This paper offers the authors’ reflections on the post-2015 development framework, including the strengths and weaknesses of the MDGs, what has changed since 2000, and the challenges of the post-2015 period. While the MDGs helped people to hold their governments to account, they had a range of weaknesses which are listed by the authors. Some of these weaknesses were that they became linked to aid conditionality, they paid no attention to the unpaid economy, and they reduced the gender equality goal to parity in educational enrolment, women’s share of seats in parliaments and share on non-agricultural employment. The paper goes on to set out the key international and national changes since 200, which include many developing countries becoming middle income countries and some becoming donors, the global financial crisis, and the weakening of women’s rights due to claims that they are at odds with traditional cultural values.
  
  The paper argues that the post-2015 framework must not be just a continuation of the MDGs, which make no reference to macroeconomic policies. It must seek to design macroeconomic policies that support the realisation of human rights. The authors discuss some alternative understanding of development that have been put forward, including human development, inclusive growth and sustainable development. They explain why none of these are sufficient, and that any new understanding of development needs to be framed in terms of social justice, articulated in terms of human rights norms. Instead of the current MDG 3 on gender equality and women’s empowerment, made up of weak indicators, gender issues should be discussed in terms of women’s rights, the paper states. It finishes by discussing indicators for post-2015 development, noting that they should not be detached, stand alone targets, but rather indicators of the conduct of policy processes and of the extent of rights being realised.
  

• The UN post-2015 development agenda – a critical analysis. AWID Friday File

  Posted: 24 Jan 2013 13:20:02 GMT

  This brief article contains a critical analysis of the post-2015 process so far at the time it was published and discusses the ways that women’s rights advocates are organising to influencing the process. It argues that despite there being little clarity on how the post-2015 process will link to actual policy making, many women’s rights advocates see the process as a possible opportunity to reframe the development model and fight for a more democratic, inclusive and accountable international development system that can tackle the structural factors behind poverty, inequality and crises. It states the importance of joining the post-2015 process to others such as the review of the International Conference on Population and Development or the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It also points out that the post-2015 process should be genuinely participatory, involving civil society at all stages.
  
  The article lists some of the ways that women’s rights groups have been engaging with the process in different regions, for example through the Africa women’s regional civil society consultation and the regional dialogue on sustainable development and the post-2015 agenda in Bangkok. By taking part in such arenas, women’s groups and gender activists have an opportunity to influence broader civil society messages, the article argues.
  Rather than rushing to develop new development goals, care should be taken to address fundamental questions around the type of development we want to see and the ideology that underpins it. The article makes the interesting point that the messages and demands of ongoing mobilisations and struggles such as Indignados, Occupy and others should be introduced into the post-2015 discussion, as a way of ensuring that inclusive development strategies emerge from local resistance and struggles.
  

• Women’s empowerment and gender equality in the post-2015 framework

  Posted: 24 Jan 2013 13:15:37 GMT

  This is a background paper for the Addressing Inequalities Global Thematic Consultation for the post-2015 development agenda. Based on learning from MDG3, existing research, and the experiences of GADN members, authors Jessica Woodroffe and Sharon Smee of the UK Gender and Development Network (GADN) argue that, without a strong and explicit focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment, the post-2015 framework will fail to achieve the social transformations required to eradicate poverty and empower the people who are most excluded.
  
  They see the necessity for a twin-track approach to address structural gender inequalities: a stand-alone goal on gender equality, together with mainstreaming gender across the framework. They emphasise that a standalone goal on gender is essential to foster the political will, resources and national ownership needed to create sustainable and effective action. The authors also explain the importance of transformative targets that reflect lasting change in the power and choices women have. Political will and technical capacity should be directed toward making data available to measure these targets.
  
  Specific recommendations are made for ensuring that gender equality remains an international priority in the post-2015 framework, and that the energy and investment expended to date is not wasted. They include the following:
  
  - Focus on the most marginalised people in society, recognising that the majority of these people are women and girls.
  - Reflect an understanding that women’s poverty is, in part, a result of their socially enforced gender roles and relations and that without specifically addressing the causes of gender inequality women’s poverty will persist.
  - Gender equality and women’s empowerment should be mainstreamed throughout the framework by: agreeing specific targets under each goal that reflect the gender barriers women and girls face and attempt to tackle the structural causes; developing gender sensitive indicators, based primarily on need rather than availability of data; and substantially increasing the availability of sex-disaggregated data.
  
  
  Additional information:
  More gender resources related to the Global Thematic Consultation on Addressing Inequalities in the post-2015 development agenda can be found at: http://www.worldwewant2015.org/node/268948/folder/134342
  

  

• Communique - Women's Consultation on the Africa We Want Post 2015

  Posted: 24 Jan 2013 13:00:41 GMT

  This communique from the African Women's Regional Civil Society Consultation on the Post 2015 Development Framework conveys a collective desire for a re-orientation toward issues perceived to have been neglected by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Despite significant achievements accomplished by the MDGs, there is concern that qualitative aspects of these achievements have received too little focus. Additionally, areas such as climate change and peace and security have been excluded.
  
  The document notes that Africa is advancing well economically, but that women's rights must be expanded in areas beyond economic growth, such as structural social inequalities. It then goes on to make a number of recommendations for all actors to accelerate the existing MDGs. These cover a wide range of issues, including: prioritising reproductive health provision to marginalised groups such as rural women, sex workers, women with disabilities, etc; increasing freedom of expression and access to transparent information; the eradication of re-canonicalization of extractive industries and land; and ensuring government accountability and responsibility on women's rights.
  
  The communiqué offers five recommendations for the post 2015 development framework:
  
  - Education - ensure accessible and universal education, with a focus on eliminating barriers that limit the retention of girls through gender-sensitive policies, facilities and curriculum. Post-primary education should be prioritised.
  - Women’s health and violence against women – Universal and comprehensive access to quality gender-responsive health care and protection from violence, supported and enforced by legislation and multi-sector support.
  - Property rights and law – Review and reform legislation to eliminate gender discrimination. Empower women to claim land rights through raising legal literacy.
  - Accelerate women’s economic empowerment – Utilise employment law, social welfare and wealth redistribution, infrastructure development, and labour-saving technology.
  - Governance, peace and security – Re-centre human security as a crucial enabler of women’s participation in peace building, reconstruction, and conflict transformation. Increase women’s participation in private and public decision-making.
  
  
  Additional information:
  This communiqué was signed by representatives of regional, sub-regional, national and grassroots women's organisations and networks who participated in an Africa Women's Regional Civil Society Consultation (21st and 22nd October 2012) organised by FEMNET, AAWORD, EASSI, WiLDAF- WA, SADC Gender Protocol Alliance, AMwA in partnership with IPPF-ARO, Oxfam and Urgent Action Fund.
  

• Summary report of the e-discussion on gender equality, global thematic consultation on addressing inequalities, October-November 2012

  Posted: 24 Jan 2013 12:55:36 GMT

  Hosted by the World We Want, this global e-discussion on gender equality was co-convened by UN Women and UNICEF in partnership with civil society as part of the global thematic consultation on addressing inequalities in the post-2015 development agenda. At the time this summary was written, hundreds of people had contributed to the gender equality e-discussion. This document highlights the most important issues and key messages from the conversation from 3 October to 2 November 2012. It reports that action is required in the following six priority areas:
  
  1. Combat all forms of gender-based violence;
  2. Ensure women’s sexual and reproductive rights and access to quality healthcare;
  3. Enact and enforce laws that promote gender equality and eliminate laws, policies and practices that are harmful to women and girls;
  4. Prioritise access to quality education and skills development for all women and girls, especially those from socially excluded groups;
  5. Ensure women’s full participation in society, including in the economic, legal, social and political life of their communities; and
  6. Enact economic and social policies that contribute to achieving gender equality and align with human rights principles.
  
  Among the recommendations and conclusions are the following:
  - Gender equality cannot be limited to the aforementioned six priority areas;
  - An overhaul of the structures that produce and perpetuate gender inequality is needed;
  - Transformational change must be grounded in equality and non-discrimination principles, and recognise that gender equality can only be achieved if both women and men are involved and their rights fully realised;
  - There should be a transparent, inclusive and participatory process, facilitating the genuine participation of women and men, with mechanisms at local, national and global levels for setting priorities, monitoring progress and holding governments accountable; and
  - Gender equality should be fully integrated throughout the post-2015 development framework - with targets and indicators that capture outcomes by sex and by the intersection of gender with other forms of inequality.
  - There should be a specific goal that focuses on addressing the most widespread and fundamental forms of gender-based inequalities.
  
  
  Available in Englush, French and Spanish.

  Additional information:
  Read more about the Global Thematic Consultation on Addressing Inequalities in the Post-2015 Development Agenda at: http://www.worldwewant2015.org/node/275878
  

  

• New dynamics for gender equality in a changing context

  Posted: 21 Jan 2013 10:38:40 GMT

  Wendy Harcourt delivered this keynote address at the UN Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) Vienna Policy Dialogue, the aim of which was to make policy recommendations for more effective and coherent international cooperation to achieve gender equality in the post-2015 development agenda. In her address, Harcourt highlights major threats to gender equality posed by the current context; then she talks about the strategic narrative points for participants to thread together themselves.
   
  The biggest threat that she sees is carrying on with ‘business as usual’, which is not working. She emphasises the need to look at the underlying problems that are causing increasing inequalities and the crises we are facing, and to recognise that the world has changed in ways that the old MDG framework cannot address.
  Harcourt names three ways in which the world has changed and is challenging business as usual:
  
  1. The BRICS are powerful countries that do not have the same colonial narrative and history as that which formed the OECD development agenda of today. The OECD is also a very different player now on the global stage as it faces its own internal crises.
  
  2. New types of political citizens, netizens, hold promise for new forms of governance, citizenship and democracy. There are questions regarding how they will engage in the development agenda, and what kind of gender equality is informing their organising.
  
  3. Amidst of numerous crises (climate, energy, etc.), there is general agreement that the sustainable development debate needs to be revisited, and that sustainability must be at the core of the post 2015 agenda. Questions as to how this will be done include the incorporation of non-Western knowledge and the participation of women.
  
  Among the discussion threads Harcourt names are that patriarchal patterns and gender inequalities are replicated from the most micro to the most macro levels. Masculinity in development must be part of the gender equality agenda. Also, we need to answer why there is a lack of adherence to the agreed human rights frameworks. She says that one answer may be the reductionism of the MDGs, which “missed the insights of those agreed norms”.
  
  Additional information:
  
  During a series of consultations in preparation of the 2014 DCF, the Vienna Policy Dialogue brought together senior representatives, experts from national and local governments, civil society organisations, parliaments, women’s organisations and the private sector with representatives of international organisations.
  For more information, visit the UN webpage for the Vienna Policy Dialogue on Gender Equality: http://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/newfunct/dcfviennadialogue.shtml
  

  

• The Millennium Development Goals Report Gender Chart 2012

  Posted: 21 Jan 2013 10:20:10 GMT

  The biennial Gender Chart, an addendum to the Millennium Development Goals Report, depicts the situation of women and girls in developing regions with indicators used to monitor the MDGs. It is divided into eight sections – one for each goal. Although some progress has been made in a number of the gender dimensions, more needs to be done in every country and at every level to reduce persistently high levels of inequality based on sex. The following are some of the findings:
  
  Goal 1: Globally, women continue to be more likely to live in poverty than men.
  
  Goal 2: More children are in school, but gender gaps still exist. Little progress has been made since the 1990s in closing secondary attendance gender gaps.
  
  Goal 3: There are large gender gaps in business ownership. Women continue to gain representation in parliaments, but the pace of change is slow.
  
  Goal 4: Under-five girls are more likely to survive than boys, except in Southern Asia where, in some countries, mortality rates still reflect practices related to son preference.
  
  Goal 5: Age at the time of first marriage is rising, but women in poor and rural areas continue to marry young. During childbirth, urban rich women are much more likely to be assisted by a skilled health professional.
  
  Goal 6: Every year, more than one in five new HIV infections take place among young women.
  
  Goal 7: Sub-Saharan Africa lags behind the rest of world in access to water. Where water sources are not readily accessible, women and girls often bear the burden of collection.
  
  Goal 8: While the total amount of bilateral sector-allocable aid has increased, the proportion devoted to gender equality objectives has stalled. Because of the crosscutting nature of the gender goal, assistance to gender programmes should be increased in order to pave the way for attainment of the MDGs.
  
  The Gender Chart was co-produced by UN Women and the UN Statistics Division for the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on MDGs Indicators.
  
  Additional information:
  
  An audio interview with UN Women’s Laura Turquet and the United Nations’ Keiko Osaki Tomita regarding the 2012 Gender Chart can be heard at: https://soundcloud.com/un-women/2012-mdg-gender-chart
  

  

• The art of development: investing in the creative economy

  Posted: 17 Jan 2013 22:01:25 GMT

  The Pacific islands have long been seen as having limited economic potential. This paper explores how the creative economy - based on art, music, film, media, etc. - can be an important element in the broader development agenda.
  
  The paper figures that across the Pacific, rhetoric of cultural importance is often heard, but rarely seen translated into national development priorities.
  
  Findings are that:
  

  • the creative sector in the Pacific islands is largely informal and making a living from a creative or artistic pursuit in the region is not an easy thing to achieve
  • prioritising the creative economy is missing in discussions with donors about developmental assistance
  • as a result, the burden of developing and promoting the creative sector mostly rests within the arts community

  
  The document indicates that prioritising arts and culture can be a start-point for governments and donors. In this respect, there are opportunities to promote creative economy through tourism and exhibit creative works in metropolitan markets.
  
  Conclusions are as follows:
  

  • developing and maintaining a vibrant arts and culture policy is central to nation building in the Pacific region
  • appropriate commercialisation that assist with both preserving and developing culturally inspired creative pursuits is required
  • still, policy and practice need to protect rights associated with ownership of cultural knowledge, particularly with respect to asserting authenticity
  • in addition, more and better information is needed on both the supply and demand sides to know what the economic realities are of the creative sector
  • critical policy initiatives include providing infrastructure, financing and investment in the arts and establishing appropriate legislative frameworks
  • moreover, developing export markets, encouraging the establishment of creative clusters and setting up mechanisms for effective data collection are also vital

  

• Assessment of effectiveness of China aid in financing development in Sudan

  Posted: 19 Dec 2012 09:01:20 GMT

  This paper discusses the effectiveness of Chinese development aid to Sudan. It finds that there has been a significant increase in Chinese loans and grants offered to the country, but these have had mixed impacts. They provided alternative sources of finance to complement domestic capital and financing to development projects, but simultaneously Sudan’s debts to China increased from 0.9 per cent in 1999 to 13.45 per cent in 2007. The paper argues that the effectiveness of Chinese aid is undermined by China offering aid tied to trade, foreign direct investment and importance of oil to the Chinese economy, and explains that despite the recent global economic crisis, China has maintained offering tied aid to maintain its access to oil in Sudan. The findings imply that even when a country is facing binding political and economic sanctions, it can still be able to finance a high growth strategy, if it is endowed with natural resources and a partner that is in need for such resources.

• Redefining 'aid' in the China–Africa context

  Posted: 19 Dec 2012 09:01:17 GMT

  Discussions on the politics of Chinese engagement with Africa have been marked by China being criticised for using aid in exchange for preferential energy deals and undermining good governance in Africa. This paper argues that these criticisms not only ignore the longer-term motivations and modalities of Chinese aid and the historical diversity of China-Africa relations, but also uncritically assume western aid to be morally superior and more effective in terms of development outcomes. The paper consists of three parts: it discusses the debates surrounding Chinese engagement in Africa; it maps the historical development of China-Africa engagement and investigates the impacts of the changing modalities of Chinese aid with reference to case studies on Angola and Ghana; and it offers a comparative analysis of these two cases. It argues that Chinese and western donors employ different ideologies and practices of governance to conceal their own interests and political discourses in Africa.

• European development cooperation to 2020: challenges by new actors in international development

  Posted: 19 Dec 2012 09:01:11 GMT

  After an exceptionally positive period in the 1990s, development cooperation policy has come under increasing pressure since the beginning of the new millennium. This paper focuses specifically on the challenges Europe faces by the emergence of new actors in international development cooperation. It sets out the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) consensus and its implications for international development cooperation, outlines the main categories of new actors and identifies key issues that the growing presence of new state actors in development co-operation raises. It goes on to examine non-state actors in more detail, then outlines the challenges for EU development cooperation in the next decade in order to flag issues on how and at what levels to deal or engage with ‘new donors’ and their respective agendas for the purpose of conducting a European policy for global development.

• China and the African oil sector: channels of engagement, motives, actors and impacts

  Posted: 19 Dec 2012 09:01:02 GMT

  China’s rapid economic growth and urbanisation puts pressure on the country’s scarce domestic natural resources, which are essential for powering the ever-growing economy. Consequently, China is increasingly engaging with low income countries to ensure access to overseas natural resources, particularly energy resources. In search of affordable oil resources, China has turned to Africa. This paper aims to assess the channels of engagement, motives, actors, beneficiaries and the direct and indirect impacts of China’s engagement in the oil sector in Africa. In recent years, about 30 to 40 per cent of Chinese crude oil imports have been drawn from African oil-producing countries such as Sudan, Angola and Nigeria. The paper uses the 'rising powers framework' for assessing these issues and to elaborate the links to trade, investments and aid.

• Report on South-South cooperation in Ibero-America 2010

  Posted: 19 Dec 2012 09:00:55 GMT

  There has been no major shift in the trend of international development cooperation in Ibero-America in recent years. This report explores the evolution of South-South cooperation modalities as practiced by Ibero-American countries - in particular horizontal South-South cooperation (bilateral and regional) and triangular cooperation. It also reviews the successful instances of South-South cooperation in the region; assesses country visions about this form of cooperation in the Ibero-American space; and analyses the situation of cooperation institutions in each country.

• Marrying new global players with the international aid transparency initiative: the future of aid data governance

  Posted: 18 Dec 2012 17:44:02 GMT

  Development aid forms an important link between rich countries, poor countries and poor people. But there have been serious concerns raised by aid critiques about the quality and accuracy of the global aid data.This paper explores the relationship between established players and new global players as they both grapple with rival definitions of aid quality. The authors argue that the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standard should have the potential of ‘coordination and cooperation’ between the diverse sets of the Development Assitance Committee (DAC) as well as non DAC donors because of its ability to create homogeneity among these far apart actors. However IATI can only be seen as be implemented’ or ‘practised’ when the practice of all the signatories is changed start reporting their aid flows according to IATI standards.

• DAC (traditional) & non DAC (emerging) donors at the crossroads: the problem of export credits

  Posted: 18 Dec 2012 17:44:00 GMT

  Given the growth in the number of official donors, and especially when non Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donors like China and India are continuously increasing their respective aid financing, it becomes apparent that exclusion of their aid data will prohibit getting a full picture of the future aid architecture. In order to respond to the future trends of such aid flows from non DAC donors, it is essential to better understand the ways in which they can engage with the existing aid reforms initiative such as standardisation of aid data within the International Aid Transparency Initiative. The paper attempts to locate lines of credit (also called officially supported export credits) against the backdrop of new actors and their policies in development cooperation. The paper also looks at the global export credit sector and institutional arrangements for its approval in DAC & non DAC countries

• China Africa in agriculture: a background paper on trade, investment and aid in agriculture

  Posted: 18 Dec 2012 17:43:43 GMT

  This paper investigates China-Africa exchanges in agriculture, which is a relatively small component of the China-Africa trade. After a brief introduction to Chinese and African agriculture, the first part of the paper analyses Chinese and African trade and discusses two issues: Is Chinese demand and Africa supply complementary; and what could be the consequence of a transformation of Chinese consumption of domestic agricultural imports? The second part looks at Chinese aid to agriculture and the third part examines Chinese investment in African agriculture with special emphasis on investment in land.

• Agricultural transformation, growth and poverty reduction

  Posted: 18 Dec 2012 17:43:40 GMT

  This report summarises discussions from the ‘Agriculture, food security and rural development’ conference, held in Bamako, Mali, April 2010. The conference was organised to exchange experiences and promote learning on topics related to promoting growth and reducing poverty. The dialogue among participants from China, African countries and institutions, and the donor community focused on two themes: China’s experience of economic growth and poverty reduction, including the contribution of international assistance and its relevance for other developing countries, particularly in Africa; and China’s economic cooperation with Africa and the lessons that China and the members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) can share with each other to increase the collective impact of foreign aid on reducing poverty in Africa.

• The potential role of non-traditional donors’ aid in Africa

  Posted: 14 Dec 2012 09:01:20 GMT

  Increasing South-South cooperation will result in more development assistance for African countries. This paper challenges the perception that non-traditional aid lacks transparency and contains little or any conditionality thereby undermining the development efforts of ‘traditional’ donors. Moreover, this paper examines the implications of the re-emergence of China, India, Brazil and South Africa as important ‘non-traditional’ donors to Africa on sustainable development and aid flows and governance. The author argues that maximising the development potential of South-South cooperation and ensuring policy coherence and effectiveness coordination between both traditional and non-traditional donors will be crucial. Moreover, African ownership of development assistance (traditional or non-traditional) is an imperative.

• Non-DAC donors and humanitarian aid: shifting structures, changing trends

  Posted: 14 Dec 2012 09:01:15 GMT

  In the past few years the role of ‘non-DAC donors’, a group of donors that sits outside the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member group, has gained great prominence and has generated much interest within the international development community. This report analyses the changing patterns in non-DAC donor development and humanitarian financing, focusing specifically on the main players and the changing trends in delivery and recipient allocation. It provides a context to the data to try and understand why these government donors allocate humanitarian aid in the way that they do – what are the barriers, the incentives and the influences? It also looks at the various levels of non-DAC donor reporting and the transparency of the aid information available.

• Post-crisis prospects for China-Africa relations

  Posted: 14 Dec 2012 09:01:10 GMT

  China’s rapid growth has transformed its relationship with Africa; it is now Africa’s third largest trading partner. The China-Africa relationship could be described as ‘commodities-for-infrastructure’, although a shift to broader cooperation on development is now evident. This paper discusses how China’s relationship with Africa is contributing to its overall development, whith particular emphasis on the central role of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The principal conclusion is that while China is likely to remain engaged with Africa in the medium term, to reap the full benefits, African countries need to transform this engagement into additional development opportunities.

• The understanding and practice of development in China and the European Union

  Posted: 14 Dec 2012 09:01:06 GMT

  China’s role in international development rose to prominence in the mid-2000s, when new Chinese actors began engaging in public and private activities in the global South. This has implications for low income countries for which China offers an alternative model of partnership and development, for the policies and practices of international aid, and the relationships between China and established donors. Failure to understand and engage with these implications could result in missing an opportunity to reverse the fortunes of countries in the global South. This paper is the first of a two-part series on China as a rising power and what this means for low income countries and the international development community. It explores the different understandings and practices of development in China and the European Union, reflecting on differences and similarities between the old and new powers in relation to development, aid and the interests, actors, policies and practices involved.

• Africa, China and the ‘new’ economic geography of development

  Posted: 14 Dec 2012 09:00:58 GMT

  This article discusses the economic geography of development in Africa and the role played by China in developments on the continent. It questions China’s intentions and motivations for engagement with Africa, including China’s need to fuel its burgeoning capitalist economy, as well as imperialist concerns. The oil industry in Africa and migration of Chinese workers into various African countries are also discussed. The paper argues that although China clearly matters for Africa, its significance is not as great as some have led us to believe. It points out that much of China’s commercial interests are not vastly different to other commercial interests in the continent, yet in contrast to some donor countries and agencies, the Chinese are thinking long-term and do not see Africa as a ‘basket case’ (viewed only through the prism of aid and development), but as a region of profitable economic possibilities.

• The developmental impact of Asian drivers on Ethiopia with emphasis on small-scale footwear producers

  Posted: 14 Dec 2012 09:00:55 GMT

  This paper examines the developmental impact of China and India on Ethiopia by examining macro-level trade, investment and aid relations, and micro-level impacts on local small-scale footwear producers in Ethiopia. Both secondary and primary data were used in the study. At the macro level, there is clear evidence of an increase in trade between Ethiopia and China and India. However, the trade balance disfavours Ethiopia and China has displaced other countries as export destinations for Ethiopia. At the local level, Chinese imports of footwear have forced local enterprises to downsize their activity and lose assets and money. The paper underlines that the Ethiopian government, non-government organisations and local producers should work together in order to withstand the negative impacts of footwear imports by raising the competitiveness of the local producers.

• OECD Development co-operation report 2009

  Posted: 13 Dec 2012 14:12:51 GMT

  This edition of OECD's annual Development Co-operation Report provides key statistics and analysis on the latest trends in international aid. It reports back on the Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness and also addresses fragmentation, a major problem when aid comes in too many small slices from too many directions.  Drawing on case studies from number of countries, it offers five lessons on how the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness can be used to make the link between development policy and human rights, environmental sustainability and gender equality.
  
  Chapters cover:
  

  • Globalisation: A Shifting Context for Development Policy
    
  • How Fragmented Is Aid?
  • How Predictable Is Aid?
  • What the Reports Are Saying
  • The Bigger Picture: The Paris Declaration and Broader Development Goals
  • Efforts and Policies of Bilateral Donors

  

• Transparency of Chinese aid: an analysis of the published information on Chinese external financial flows

  Posted: 13 Dec 2012 09:01:11 GMT

  There are many myths and misconceptions about the level of information publically available on Chinese efforts and activities in the developing world. With the growing momentum around ‘aid transparency’ since the Third High Level Forum on aid effectiveness (HLF-3) in Accra in 2008, this paper on China’s aid information was prepared to provide a firmer footing for the discussions going forward. The paper explores opportunities to improve publicly available information on Chinese foreign assistance and how to ensure comparability with other donors. It maps and assesses the levels of aid information made available across Chinese agencies that engage in various forms of international cooperation.

• China, Africa and the international aid architecture

  Posted: 13 Dec 2012 09:01:02 GMT

  This paper analyses China’s growing foreign aid and export credit programme as an element of the changing international aid architecture. It finds that practices governing Chinese aid and development finance diverge from clear standards and norms of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on transparency and definitions, the management of concessional export credits and the management of sovereign debt. In the area of environmental and social protections, corruption and governance, the paper finds mixed results. The paper concludes that the global aid regime is not well-institutionalised regarding democracy and human rights, and Chinese practice is not as different in this arena as often believed.

• Whose aid? Whose influence? China, emerging donors and the silent revolution in development assistance

  Posted: 13 Dec 2012 09:00:59 GMT

  The term ‘emerging donors’ is used as a shorthand to contrast states such as China, India and Brazil with members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC), who are also referred to as ‘established donors’. This article analyses the background against which these emerging donors are increasing their aid and what has happened to the pledges by donors to increase aid, reduce conditionalities, enhance coordination and alignment, and reform the aid architecture. The conclusions point out that emerging donors are not overtly attempting either to overturn the rules of multilateral development assistance or to replace them. Rather, they are offering alternatives to aid-receiving countries, thus weakening the bargaining position of western donors, and exposing standards and processes that are out of date and ineffectual. The result is a serious challenge to the existing multilateral development assistance regime.

• Enhancing South-South and triangular cooperation: study of the current situation and existing good practices in policy, institutions, and operation of South-South and triangular cooperation

  Posted: 11 Dec 2012 09:00:52 GMT

  South-South and triangular cooperation has become a major subject of international development discussions. One of the key issues identified in such discussions is the lack of information on South-South and triangular cooperation implemented by different parties and the need to promote knowledge-sharing on the practices of South-South and triangular cooperation, especially existing good practice. This paper examines practices of South-South cooperation in several areas identified as key challenges and constraints by various conferences and studies. These issues are: policy and institutional framework; comparative advantages; demand-driven approach; sustainability; and achievement of results. The methodology of the study consisted of: a survey of pivotal and beneficiary countries, as well as donor and international organisations; case studies of good practices in twelve pivotal countries and four beneficiary countries; and a synthesis of the results of the survey and case studies.

• The riddle of the third sector: civil society, western aid and NGOs in Russia

  Posted: 09 Dec 2012 09:00:53 GMT

  This article explores the forms and logic of political activism encouraged by international development agencies in Russia, by focusing on the project to promote civil society development. It argues that the version of civil society that has been brought into being by western design - the third sector - is far from what Russian activists desired and what donor agencies promised. Despite its claims to allow a grassroots to flourish, the third sector is a professionalised realm of NGOs, inaccessible to most local groups and compromised by its links to a neoliberal vision of development. The article aims to push beyond polarised discussions of NGOs (where they are regarded as either good or bad) to show that despite its ambivalent effects, the idea of the third sector remains compelling to local actors. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork with provincial women’s groups, the article examines local responses to the third sector and considers its unexpected signifying possibilities.

• Emerging patterns in architecture for management of economic assistance and development cooperation: implications and challenges for India

  Posted: 08 Dec 2012 09:01:21 GMT

  Due to their rapid economic growth, international focus on the aid programmes of emerging economies, including India, has increased considerably. The timing of India’s announcement to set up a new and specialised agency for international co-operation, has further fuelled global speculations about an ambitious Indian commercial agenda. As most of the traditional donors are trying to achieve harmonisation and transparency under Paris Declaration, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has called for global discipline in the aid programmes. China has proposed supporting a United Nations-led initiative instead of joining the OECD. While India faces a major challenge in putting its house in order, it can no longer overlook the international placing of its aid programmes, which so far have been projected as a part of South-South cooperation.

• Emerging donors in international development assistance: the India Case

  Posted: 08 Dec 2012 09:01:19 GMT

  Over the past decade, India has quietly become a significant provider of development assistance. In fact, according to this report, the current trends suggest that the country could soon become a net exporter of development assistance. This transformation is driven by India’s perception of itself as a rising power, its competition with China for political influence and energy resources in developing countries, and the rapid growth of its domestic non-profit and private-consultancy sectors. This report explores the historical development of India’s transformation from recipient to donor of international development assistance. It examines the structure, flows and priority areas of Indian development assistance and looks at the emphasis placed on training, education and research for development. It further examines India’s approach to international collaboration and explores the emerging trends and future of India’s development assistance programmes.

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