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Experience from Bangladesh with ethical trading initiatives
Get PDFSince the 1990s there has been increasing concern in the North about products from the South and the conditions under which they are produced. In least developed countries labour conditions are considered to be at a very low level. Ethical trading initiatives, where importers impose codes of conduct on producers supplying Northern markets, are aiming at improving working conditions in factories in the South.
This study uses the example of the ready made garment sector in Bangladesh to go through and evaluate the process of codes implementation. It also looks at the impact of ethical trading initiatives in Bangladesh.
Based on interviews with Bangladeshi producers and importers with experience from Bangladesh, the study produces a set of recommendations for codes implementation. This includes the process of elaborating and presenting the codes, auditing the firms and making a corrective plan.
In Bangladesh ethical trading has had a positive impact on the workers in factories that are compliant with codes of conduct. Working conditions have improved in large factories that receive direct orders from retailers. But small and medium firms, often operating as subcontractors, find it too expensive to comply with the codes. They are losing out in competition with larger factories, where costs of compliance are easier to handle. Many workers have lost their jobs as a result of this.
Due to ethical trading there seems to be a change in importing strategies towards larger factories and longer lasting trading relationships. But this change in strategy can also be explained by an increased preference among importers for higher quality products
The Influence and Effects of Financial Development on Economic Growth. An Empirical Approach
Get PDFThe financial sector plays an important part in economic growth as it can reduce the cost of acquiring information, conducting transactions and facilitating saving mobilisation. By providing these services, the financial sector can enhance resource allocation and increase aggregate savings. This report examines the empirical relationship between financial development and economic growth and to what extent this relationship differs across group of countries.
The analyses are based on three indicators which measure the financial sector by size (liquid liabilities) and activity (credit provided to private sector and credit by banks). The employed data set includes a representative selection of 60 countries over the period 1965-1997.
The analysis concludes that i) a positive statistical relationship exists between financial development and economic growth; and ii) developing countries grow faster than industrialised countries (some evidence of convergence). Financial sector developments therefore seem to have at least the same importance in developing countries as in industrialised countries
Political Islam in the Middle East
Get PDFThis report provides an overview of the political Islam in
the Middle East, with a special emphasis on the Islamic
resurgence in the Levant (Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon,
Palestine and Syria). Following an introduction to the
ideological roots of present-day Islamist movements, the
report examines the prospects for popular democracy
amidst widespread political violence. In brief, the report
shows that Islam need not be incompatible with democracy
and that there is a tendency to neglect the fact that many
Middle Eastern countries have been engaged in a brutal
suppression of Islamist movements, causing them to take up
arms against the state. In the third section the report
reviews some of the theories used to explain the Islamic
revival and discusses their empirical significance. The
conclusion argues in favour of moving beyond the “gloom
and doom” approach that portrays Islamism as an
illegitimate political expression and a potential threat to
the West (“Old Islamism”). Instead, there is an urgent need
for a more nuanced understanding of the current
democratisation of the Islamist movements that is now
taking place throughout the Middle East (“New
Islamism”)
Community Driven Development in Contexts of Conflict. Concept Paper Commissioned by ESSD, World Bank
Get PDFViolent conflict represents not only a significant barrie r to
development; it also wipes out efforts to improve the situation.
Experience from many developing countries has shown that
Community Driven Development (CDD) programmes have
been particularly effective in establishing or expanding
essential social services and physical infrastructure at the local
level. However, using CDD approaches in a conflict context as
a means in post-war rehabilitation represents new challenges.
When carried out in contexts of past or persistent conflict,
CDD projects are confronted with some major challenges:
•communities where projects are set may be deeply
divided;
•power is unequally distributed;
•lines between combatants and civilians may be
blurred;
•a need to address past traumas may give rise to calls
for inquiries or trials; and
•economic recovery and basic services may be urgently
needed.
Nonetheless, the point of departure in this paper commissioned
by the CDD unit of the Environmentally and Socially
Sustainable Development (ESSD) Network of the World Bank,
is that participatory and demand-led development approaches
might potentially address three critical concerns in conflict
contexts:
•The need for speedy and cost-effective delivery of
reconstruction assistance.
•The need to improve the state-citizen relationship.
•The need to create alternative forms of community
organisation that foster reconciliation between
factions of the society
Norway and Security Sector Reform in Developing Countries
Get PDFSecurity sector reform addresses two main challenges: (1) assisting institutions capable of providing security for the state and its citizens and (2) ensuring appropriate governance of these institutions in accordance with the principles of democracy and civilian oversight.
This report is based on a study prepared as an input in a policy debate on the role of security sector reform in Norwegian assistance to peace building in developing countries. The report reviews the evolution of thinking around external assistance to security sector reform, and discusses the policies and programmes of the main donor agencies. The report also provides an overview of Norwegian support to security sector reform. This is followed by a case study of Southern Africa. The final section provides suggestions and recommendations for the future role of security sector reform in Norwegian support to peace building and development
The effects of disasters on income mobility: Bootstrap inference and measurement error simulations
Get PDFWe evaluate the impact of disasters on income mobility by drawing on “natural experiments”. While the poor have a much higher probability of remaining poor when entering a crisis compared to normal times, there is also a negative effect in the year after. Richer households seem to be unaffected. A simple bootstrap method is proposed to facilitate statistical inference for mobility matrices. Also, we simulate measurement error to illustrate its magnitude on these matrices. Small errors induce a substantial downward bias of the probability of remaining poor, while comp arisons across states seem more robust, which is promising for impact analysis
The SAPRIN Report: An assessment of the empirical analysis supporting main conclusions
Get PDFIn 1996, the World Bank and a network of non-governmental organizations (SAPRIN) started cooperating on an evaluation of 15 years of structural adjustment programs (SAPs). The background of our paper is the criticism raised with respect to the scientific quality of the summary report produced by the SAPRIN network. We make two types of fairly simple “quality checks” of their conclusions.
Firstly, are the findings and conclusions presented in the SAPRIN Report with respect to trends and changes in poverty indicators corroborated when we compare them with poverty indicators in the underlying country studies, standard reference literature and public statistics? We find a tendency to depict trends in poverty as being more severe than what generally is supported by available statistics. This may be attributed to the fact that participatory methods have generated the bulk of the empirical data collected in the SAPRI process. This is of course valid information, but its source and its representativity ought to have been better documented in the reports.
Secondly, are the inferences about the causality and attributed effects of SAP plausible given other major factors that have impacted on the countries’ economies in the period concerned? Neither the country studies nor alternative data sources support the conclusions in the SAPRIN Report that SAP caused increased poverty and unemployment in the countries concerned. Existing data for Ghana and Bangladesh indicate that poverty was reduced and social indicators improved during the period of study, despite a history of severe crisis both before and during the SAP. The major causes of the poor performance of Ecuador, especially in recent times, are probably related to the large external shocks.
The scientific weaknesses of the SAPRIN Report notwithstanding, its contribution to the international development policy discourse must be assessed in a wider perspective. The work has given important information on how vulnerable groups and NGOs in poor countries themselves experience SAP. This has important implications for the design of economic reform programs, most notably to win public support for the desired measures
Responsiveness to the concerns of the poor and accountability to the commitment to poverty reduction
Get PDFTaking its cue from the poverty-reduction thrust of the Millennium Development Goals, this paper proposes an analytical framework for answering the fundamental question:
How can we increase the responsiveness of decision-makers to the concerns of the poor and hold them accountable for their commitment to reducing poverty? The paper develops an approach to poverty reduction based on three interlinked concepts – voice, responsiveness, and accountability. Voice refers to the articulation of the concerns of the poor and their conversion into political demands. Responsiveness addresses the sensitivity of decision-makers to the voice of the poor and its expression in action or inaction. Accountability pertains to the relationship between bearers of rights and legitimate claims and the agents responsible for fulfilling those rights and claims. The authors distinguish between an array of agents with povertyreducing mandates or obligations. Furthermore they suggest schema for assessing the means whereby the voice of the poor can be heard better, for reviewing the mechanisms for enhancing the responsiveness of decision-makers to the plight of the poor, and for increasing accountability to the commitment to poverty reduction. The paper raises a number of questions for discussion and interspersed in the text are boxes with examples pointing to ways forward. The paper was first developed as the issues paper of the conference: ‘Responsiveness and accountability for poverty reduction: Democratic governance and the Millennium
Development Goals’, jointly organised by UNDP, Oslo Governance Centre and the Chr. Michelsen Institute at Solstrand Fjord Hotel, Os, Norway, 18-19 November 2002
Trust & Trade... Is distance dead?
Get PDFThis report explores the facts behind the buzzwords ´globalisation` and ´the new economy`. In general we associate these concepts with a borderless world where economic transactions are managed through rapid electronic communication. This notion is questioned in this report, which presents an overview of investigations that have been conducted on trade flows. They conclude that trade is drastically reduced by distance and borders, contradicting the notion of a borderless world. The report emphasises, furthermore, that this phenomenon cannot be explained only by transportation costs. Another barrier to trade has to exist. The report outlines different possible explanations of this phenomenon, but focuses strongly on the significance of trust in transactions. It concludes that there is a range of explanations working together to explain why there is less trade over longer distances.
However, the reduced possibility of finding trusting relations at distant locations is presented as a strong argument and a possible solution to the ´mystery of the missing trade`
Lowering barriers to agricultural exports through technical assistance
Get PDFSanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) regulations imposed by the developed world, significantly reduse the export opportunities of developing countries. Under the SPS Agreement, developed countries are obliged to provide technical assistance to developing countries, to help them meet SPS requirements. A survey of providers of technical assistance reveals, however, that assistance is allocated in an ad hoc manner. This article argues for a more systematic allocation of technical assistance to developing countries, based on relevant data and comparisons of benefits and costs of different kinds of capacity building. Data is presented which highlights the major problems of developing countries in exporting to the European Union, complementing earlier studies of exports to the United States