434 research outputs found
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Support for parliaments : Tanzania and beyond
Full text linkThis report presents an analysis of the Parliament of Tanzania (which includes the Bunge in Dodoma and the House of Representatives in Zanzibar), which has only recently taken up its ‘checks and balances’ functions. The report proceeds to outline the multi-donor parliament support rendered to the Tanzanian parliament, and to the parliaments of Zambia, Kenya, and Uganda, in order to compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of the different aid modalities. Based on general lessons, on the analysis of the Tanzanian parliament, and the comparative/contrasting cases of Zambia, Kenya, and Uganda, the report concludes on a set of recommendations for the development partners for future multi-donor assistance to the Tanzanian Parliament
Non-state actors and democratic consolidation
Full text linkThis working paper provides a review of the literature addressing the role of civil society or non-state actors in democratic consolidation, with particular reference to Malawi. Civil society comprises private businesses; media organisations; political parties; non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or voluntary associations, or more generally civil society organisations (CSOs); interest organisations, such as trade unions, confederations of employers and businesses, farmers’ associations, etc. Special attention is drawn to the question whether the concept of civil society and its diverse operationalisations emanating from European and North American contexts travel well to empirical realities elsewhere. The problem of donor dependence is also discussed
Teaching business in Tanzania: Evaluating participation and performance
Full text linkThere is increased awareness that success among small scale entrepreneurs in developing countries requires more than microfinance, and that an important limiting factor for business growth is the level of human capital among the entrepreneurs. The present paper uses a randomized control trial to evaluate a business training program in Tanzania. Our results show that there is a positive average treatment effect on business knowledge. It also appears that training has a stronger effect on the entrepreneurs with less formal education. Paradoxically, these entrepreneurs are also less consistent in their participation in the training program. An important implication from our study is therefore that when providing business training, special care should be given to ensure high participation rates
Conciliatory approches to the insurgency in Afghanistan: An overview
Full text linkThis report is a preliminary mapping of initiatives designed to promote peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan. It is a snapshot in time, focusing on practices or arrangements that were still ongoing during the second half of 2008, or had recently been undertaken and stored, as it were, in the public inventory of conflict mitigating and peacebuilding measures.
The report focuses on initiatives related to the insurgency mounted by Taliban soon after they were driven from power by the US and the Northern Alliance forces in late 2001. The insurgency steadily gained strength after 2004 and, while most strongly entrenched in the east and the south, by the end of 2008 the insurgents had moved closer to Kabul. They posed a serious threat to the authority of the government, were a growing source of regional tension, particularly in relation to Pakistan, and challenged the very credibility of NATO, which failed to get the military upper hand despite increasing force deployment. By the end of 2008, the international force level in Afghanistan had reached 79 000. With scheduled additions of US troops in 2009, it would rise to around 100 000, approximating the size of the Soviet contingent before Kremlin started the withdrawal in 1989
Faryab survey. Comparison of findings from Maymane, 2006 and 2009
Full text linkThis is a follow-up to an earlier survey conducted in Maymane district by the Organization for Sustainable Development and Research (OSDR) during a two-week period in early November 2006. In that survey 183 interviews were undertaken in 24 villages, of which 67 were with women and 116 with men. This was part of a conflict sensitivity analysis designed to inform a planned increase in Norwegian civilian involvement in the province.
The present follow-up survey took place in late December 2008 and early January 2009, in the same 24 villages. In all 201 persons were interviewed of whom 78 were women and 123 men. The interviews were supplemented by observations made by the interview team to help interpret the difference in responses between the 2006 and the 2008/9 surveys.
The survey identified two general trends from 2006 to 2009: (i) reduced trust among the population in the UN and ISAF, and (ii) a marked increase in development projects and their perceived quality and usefulness
What determines Chinese outward FDI?
Full text linkChinese outward foreign direct investment (FDI) has increased substantially in recent years. Though this has generated considerable interest in the motivations and drivers of Chinese investment abroad, there have been few systematic empirical studies of these questions. This paper performs an econometric analysis of the host country determinants of Chinese outward FDI in the period 2003-2006. The focus is in particular on institutional and natural resource-related determinants, and their interaction. We find that Chinese outward FDI is attracted to large markets, and to countries with a combination of large natural resources and poor institutions. Disaggregation shows that the former effect is related to OECD countries, whereas the latter interaction effect holds for non-OECD countries
Research into action. Synergising research and outreach for development and food security in Malawi. Mid-term review of the agricultural research and development programme (ARDEP)
Full text linkThis report presents the findings of a mid-term review of the Agricultural Research and Development Programme (ARDEP) based at Bunda College of Agriculture in Malawi. The objective of ARDEP is to apply new technologies to the challenges facing Malawian smallholders. The novelty of the programme is its mode of operation. It involves multiple stakeholders across sectors into a coherent system of implementation to ensure concerted action towards common goals. Demand-driven micro projects are designed to bring productivity-enhancing technologies out to the ultimate beneficiaries at the grassroots: the farmers themselves, in conjunction with and on the advice of scientists. These pilot micro projects are fully integrated into established government structures, and fit squarely into the overall government policy framework for the agricultural sector. The ARDEP concept and design are sound. Major results can be expected in the remainder of the programme’s lifetime. The sustainability of the micro projects themselves as discrete entities is reassuring, and the potential for scaling up is greatly enhanced through their integration into the established structures of the agricultural sector. A model of technological outreach has been arrived at, which promises to be sustainable because the government is involved as a key player
Exploring new political alternatives for the Oromo in Ethiopia. Report from Oromo workshop and its after-effects
Full text linkThis report is intended to stimulate a debate on political alternatives for the Oromo, an ethnic and social group in Ethiopia. It makes documents from an Oromo conference in Bergen at CMI available for the discourse among the Oromo in exile and also in Ethiopia. It argues that it is necessary to consider alternative strategies apart from armed resistance struggle. The contributors, scholars from different countries, with long experience in Ethiopian politics, consider it essential to discuss again issues of armed struggle and of the location of their political organisation in exile in Asmara. They strongly suggest the OLF to develop a detailed and credible, applicable plan for a political order that gives sovereignty back to the people. The report urges the <Oromo to design a model of how to organise a local administration that responds to the needs of the local people, and represents and defends their interests towards higher authorities. Such a vision is considered essential both to give the Oromo new hope, and to lend their organisation a more solid political credibility in international diplomacy, as well as among their own people
The pursuit of integrity in customs: Experiences from sub-Saharan Africa
Full text linkThis paper examines recent experiences from sub-Saharan Africa in combating corruption in customs. It argues that integrity reforms have been too focused on reforming formal institutions, and too little attention has been paid to the political economy of reforms and the role of informal institutions. In many customs administrations patronage runs through networks grounded on ties of kinship and community origin. Patronage undermines the implementation of policies and rules-of-law more generally. Opportunities for accessing illegal income tend to become institutionalised, leading to the creation of parallel organisations within customs, in which posts are valued essentially on the basis of the illicit gains to which they provide access. In such settings, customs officers are torn between compliance with abstract bureaucratic norms and concrete expectations of their networks of social belonging. Accordingly, policy initiatives should focus more on measures that reduce the possibility or attraction of favouritism versus acting in the general public interest. This calls for anti-corruption efforts based on thorough analysis of the political economy of customs, in order to understand the interests and incentives of key player
"If men and women were equal, we would all simply be people". Gender and poverty in northern Mozambique
Full text linkThis is the second report in the series ‘Gender Policies and Feminisation of Poverty in Mozambique’. While the first report went through existing quantitative data on the national level, this report focuses on the social relations and cultural perception of gender in the rural district of Mossuril and the city of Nampula in the northern province of Nampula. Structural changes and more limited patriarchal control in urban Nampula have opened up opportunities for women that they do not have in rural Mossuril – where they remain generally disadvantaged and with few options for social mobility. Urban women and female headed households are more likely to be economically independent from men and invest in the well-being of their household members