434 research outputs found
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LSMS Data Quality in Maoist Influenced Areas of Nepal
Full text linkWe investigate whether the quality of LSMS data from Nepal is affected by the Maoists in the districts they control. We find, if any, only minor support for the hypothesis. Furthermore, the Maoists have less control in the plains (terai), where a majority of the population lives, so data from the terai sub-sample of NLSS2 is, in particular, not likely to be biased by the Maoists
When Men do Women's Work : Structural Adjustment , Unemployment and Changing Gender Relations in the Informal Economy of Accra, Ghana
Full text linkEconomic crisis and structural adjustment in Ghana have put large numbers of formal sector employees and civil servants out of work. This informalisation process has gendered consequences. Unemployed people, rural–urban migrants and school-leavers of both genders seek employment in the urban informal economy, and increasingly take up ‘female ’ occupations – particularly in retail trade. Overcrowding in women’s economic domains thus occurs. This study examines the livelihood strategies of informally employed men and women in Accra. It is argued that gender ideologies regarding appropriate occupations for women and men are continuously adapted in response to a changing political economy. Thus, even if female traders face competition, declining returns and a heavier dependency burden, frustration with government policies failing to create decent jobs (for men) is more prevalent than gender antagonism and ridicule of those who find gender-atypical ways of eking out a living
Governance Assessments and the Paris Declaration. A CMI Issues Paper Prepared for the UNDP Bergen Seminar September 2007
Full text linkIs it possible to carry out governance assessments and develop diagnostic tools for enhancing governance while adhering to the principles of the Paris Declaration? Or, are the two processes largely contradictory? What measures can be taken to promote greater harmonisation and reduce transaction costs on recipient countries? This paper aims to highlight some issues and provoke a discussion on governance assessments in relation to the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness’ expressed goal of national ownership, harmonization and alignment
Taxation and State-Building: Poor Countries in a Globalised World
Full text linkHow far has the recent global wave of tax reform contributed to state building in poorer countries? Our conclusion mirrors other general globalisation arguments: there are good things to report, but worrying problems in the poorest and most dependent countries. The reform agenda is least appropriate to those countries most in need of the state-building to which the taxation process has contributed at in other places and times. Governments in poorer countries have little choice but to go along with a reform agenda reflecting the priorities and needs of the more powerful actors in the international system. The contemporary tax reform agenda does not address the more urgent problems that the poorest countries face
Review of Haydom Lutheran Hospital. External Review Contracted by the Royal Norwegian Embassy, Dar es Salaam
Full text linkThis report reviews the performance of Haydom Lutheran Hospital (HLH), Tanzania. Focus is on HLH’s output and effectiveness as a hospital, HLH’s place in the Tanzanian health system, and on the role of HLH as a development agent. The report also discusses alternatives for sustained funding of the activities at HLH
Afghanistan: An Assessment of Conflict and Actors in Faryab Province to Establish a Basis for Increased Norwegian Civilian Involvement. How can Future Norwegian Involvement best be Targeted and Organised?
Full text linkThe situation in Faryab province in northern Afghanistan is characterised by a substantial military and political uncertainty. Violent acts could at any moment hamper the humanitarian and development efforts. At the same time the risk is great that Norwegian development actors might be associated with a provincial administration, a police and a judicial system the population regard as corrupt, oppressive and inefficient. It is a great challenge to balance this relation and at the same time assist in developing these governmental bodies to strengthen their professionalism and legitimacy.
This is one of the main findings in the risk assessment assessing the conflict and actors in Faryab.
The report further point out that relation and the balance between the central state in Kabul and the local authorities on provincial and local level are of utmost importance for any future developments.
The report recommends a clearer demarcation between the Norwegian military involvement and the humanitarian and development activities.
Questions related to governance are both important and challenging. Not least given a rather unclear situation where some governance bodies draw their legitimacy from the constitution, others grow out of development programmes while the traditional structures often continue to hold the strongest legitimacy in the population.
The report underlines that the ethnic dimension constitutes a possible line of conflict, not only in Faryab but generally in Afghanistan.
Lack of information in the local population about the mandate of the Norwegian military presence through the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) should also be viewed as a challenge for the humanitarian engagement. A wider dissemination of information on the PRT Mandate and activities financed by Norway needs to be secured.
Violence against women has a high occurrence in Faryab. Norway should prioritize to make work outside the homes available for women and to strengthen the availability of higher education
Arab Foreign Aid: Disbursement Patterns, Aid Policies and Motives
Full text linkThis report examines Arab aid flows and aid policies, and contrasts them with the broad picture of Western practice in these areas. The lack of analysis of Arab aid in the literature is unfortunate since (1) Arab countries have been major donors of foreign aid in general, (2) targeted strategic aid can be a powerful weapon of influence, especially for pursuing Arab donors’ own foreign policies, commercial interests or religious motives, and (3) it seems that Arab aid is different from Western aid in that it is used to promote Islam and build Arab solidarity. One aim of this report is to assess whether Arab and Western aid are set to work in opposite directions, or whether they can complement each other.
One feature of aid from the three major Arab donors, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the U.A.E., is that they give most of it (around 85 %) bilaterally, mostly in the form of loans, with a large share (about 50 % of national and multilateral Arab aid) going to Arab countries. This is not to say that the Arab multilaterals are not major financiers of development projects. On the contrary, Arab multilaterals have been built up over the years in such a manner that they are more important than the bilateral national aid agencies of the Arab countries. However, most of the Arab bilateral aid is channelled through their Ministries of Finance and is not open to public scrutiny; hence, the Ministry of Finance in each of the Arab donor countries seems to be the most important aid institution in the Arab region.
Anther feature is that while Arab aid has been very generous, it has also been very volatile – due both to the volatility of Arab countries’ revenue from their oil and gas exports and to their strategic use of aid to support their foreign policies. On the latter issue, much aid has gone to build and maintain allies in the Arab world and to reward supporters during military conflicts (Iran-Iraq war, the 1991 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait). This is the same motive for giving aid as is found for much Western aid.
Other motives important to Arab donors seems to be to support their own commercial interests; similarly, Western donors have a long history of pursuing tied aid and giving more aid to countries that are major importers of that donor country’s goods. Finally, Arab aid seems to go partly to Islamic countries, and coupled with the large flow of non-official aid into promoting Islam, it seems as though such religious aims are important to Arab donors.
Arab donors have not participated in the aid policy debate that has been so important to Western donors. This probably reflects the Arab view that recipient countries should be allowed to choose their own development path and not be obstructed by “imperialist” ideas from donor countries. The Arab donors thus have a long history of policy dialogue with recipient countries that Western countries can learn from if they are in fact interested in building partnerships with recipient countries
Turnaround: The National Resistance Movement and the Re-introduction of a Multiparty System in Uganda
Full text linkThis article addresses the process behind the National Resistance Movement’s (NRM) decision to open for a reintroduction of multiparty politics.
Why would a political movement that had been in power for two decades expose itself to competition, and at least theoretically, risk loosing the 2006 elections?
Is this turnaround of the NRM leadership explained by external pressure from the international environment or should it be attributed to debates within the NRM?
We seek to explain why the NRM opened for a transition to multiparty politics and how the NRM leadership sought to remain in control of the transition process.
We do so by relating the case of Uganda to theoretical perspectives that explain under what circumstances political movements, organisations or parties decide to implement fundamental changes. We argue that the impetus for change is explained by decline of support for the NRM in the 2001 elections, where
Museveni’s former ally, Col. K. Besigye, opposed him in the presidential election and received 29 per cent of the votes. How the NRM proceeded to implement the transition process is better explained by office seeking strategies: Through its control of the government, parliament, and the public sector, the NRM-O was able to tilt the playing field and minimise the possibility for the opposition to win
in the 2006 election
The Law, the Loss and the Lives of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon
Full text linkLebanon has been a reluctant host to Palestinian refugees since 1948. A mainstay of Lebanese policies vis-à-vis the Palestinian refugees has been preventing their permanent integration and settlement in the country. The question of naturalising refugees is one of the most contentious political issues in Lebanon today. Palestinian refugees tend to live in conflict-ridden environments, often at the margins of the host society. This first of all applies to the camp-based refugees, who languish in dilapidated and overcrowded camps. Unable to return to Palestine and marginalised by the host society, they are caught in a legal limbo. In order to understand the legal plurality that governs their refugee status, it is necessary to examine their rights as refugees in international law, regionally as hosted by Arab League states and nationally as residents of Lebanon. The rights regime is complex and contributes to a critical “protection gap” for the refugees. In particular, there is a need to explore the “politics of citizenship” in post-war Lebanon that widened the protection gap and institutionalised legal discrimination of refugees. This paper argues that legal discrimination of Palestinian refugees was instituted amidst growing fears of their permanent settlement in the country and institutionalised through the executive’s patronage of the legislature and the judiciary. The paper was prepared under the multidisciplinary research project “The Poor and the Judiciary” funded by the Research Council of Norway (2005–07). Field research for the paper was carried out in 2005, 2006 and 2007
Liberated Bonded Laborers: Are They Better Off? Welfare and Efficiency Implications of an Agricultural Reform in Western Terai, Nepal
Full text linkThis report investigates the welfare effects for bonded laborers (kamaiyas) in Western Terai of a ban on permanent labor contracts in July 2000. The ban was credibly enforced and within a short time the number of bonded laborers was reduced significantly.
By and large the bonded labor institution in this region must be seen as a voluntary agreement whereby a risk averse worker entered into an annual labor contract with a risk neutral landlord. The contract provided a fixed income which smoothed consumption for the worker, who thereby avoided exposure to an unpredictable labor market for casual workers. The kamaiya worker received other benefits as well, such as housing, food and access to credit. However, the working hours for kamaiyas were very long.
The former kamaiyas may be divided into two groups, those who have become sharecroppers and those who work as casual laborers. The bonded labor contracts have mainly been replaced by sharecropping. Both groups have in common that their annual income has become more volatile since 2000. However, I argue that both groups have become better off. The reason is that the ban on bonded labor has increased the wage level for casual workers in villages with a high presence of kamaiyas, which implies that the outside option of former kamaiyas has increased. I also argue that sharecropping is a more efficient institution than the kamaiya labor system