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Politicisation and the Role of Business in Trade Negotiations
No full textThe changing geo-political landscape has shifted focus from generalised normative preferences in trade policy towards more realist goals that seek to create the best advantage for a country under given circumstances. Consequently, as trade issues have become linked to polarised debates including on immigration and environmental issues amongst others, politicisation of trade negotiations has received significant attention. In this paper, we hypothesise that the extent of politicisation of trade negotiation issues is linked to the dominance of the key narratives on the issue. We also assess the role of business response on the issues and how these develop and link with politicisation patterns over the course of negotiations. Using big data from news media articles complemented with evidence from semi-structured interviews, we analyse politicisation and the role of businesses in the context of UK–India trade negotiations (2022–24) towards a free trade agreement. We analyse politicisation patterns identifying UK–India trade negotiation issues that have been salient and with several actors engaging with different views. We identify five specific sets of cross-sectoral trade negotiation issues in relation to labour, environment, migration, regulations, and pharma with differences in the extent of politicisation. Our analysis shows the increasing politicisation of the specific issues on labour and migration rooted in polarisation of views across actors in India and the UK. As dominant narratives emerged on these and other issues and became more pronounced during the trade negotiations, we find evidence of business organisations’ engagement and influence on the extent of politicisation depending on the type of trade issue and how it is debated in the media. Increasing outsider lobbying from businesses can amplify the extent of politicisation, but this is likely for issues which can arguably yield benefits for both trade partners in negotiations.</p
Towards Transformative Change: Grass-roots Innovations for Food Security During Crises in Brighton & Hove, UK
No full textThis Working Paper analyses the emergence and evolution of three community-led initiatives focused on food insecurity, with the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and the ensuing cost-of-living crisis as the backdrop. These initiatives are located in the city of Brighton & Hove, in the United Kingdom (UK), and include: Chomp, a free holiday lunch club catering to families on low incomes; Rock Farm, a community space and horticultural therapy project located in the outskirts of the city; and Brighton Food Factory, a social enterprise initially conceived as a warehouse for storing gleaned food from local farms and processing it into affordable ready-to-eat meals for low-income individuals. Guided by social innovation theory, the paper explores the significance of the crisis context in prompting innovation and outlines benefits and challenges associated with these grass-roots innovations. It also discusses the transformative potential of these innovations, and how they support conditions that can drive broader social change in the future. While currently challenged by dwindling resources and rising needs, in the context of the cost-of-living crisis, these projects are examples of how local connections and community embeddedness are important elements driving innovations that are responsive to emerging needs. Although small in scale, these innovations are building individual and collective capacities, strengthening networks, and helping to reimagine local food relations.</p
Learning from the AHRC Disability Inclusive Development Networks
No full textThis report details the findings and recommendations associated with an inclusive participatory learning process that was facilitated with disability-inclusive, development-focused research networks funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).The learning process involved a total of 30 participants and included principal investigators (PIs), partners, and people with disabilities who were part of the networks in various ways. The objective was to explore what had been learned from the networks to inform considerations for future research, both for researchers and funders.</p
Taxing the Wealthy in Haiti: Evidence from a Survey Experiment on Property Tax Preferences
No full textHow can the wealthy become more supportive of taxation in fragile conflict-afflicted countries? Haiti, one of the poorest and most unequal societies in the Americas, is highly reliant on aid and lacks tax revenue. From a self-interest perspective, the affluent should become more supportive of taxation when the returns from it serve their own interests (taxes are earmarked, have a short discount rate, and redistribution is universal rather than pro-poor). However, in states that struggle to provide adequate returns, we also expect trust and social recognition to drive the affluent to support taxation. The affluent should be more supportive of property tax proposals when they trust the tax authorities and tax collector, and when they receive social recognition for their tax payment. We test our argument with a conjoint experiment of property tax-related reform proposals in an online survey collected in Haiti during winter 2023/24, when there was an unexpected gang insurrection.Our study shows how gang uprisings can erode the wealthy’s trust in municipal tax administrations, making them indifferent to both local and central government when it comes to tax administration. Despite institutional failure, the affluent in Haiti support taxes being collected by bureaucrats, and in collaboration with traditional (community and religious) leaders. We also find that the affluent, compared to the average respondent, prefer tax proposals when they receive public recognition from their peer group. The wealthy are also more supportive of property taxation when they know the revenue will benefit the general population, rather than specific groups. Our findings help identify a number of cost-effective strategies that can be used to build support for property taxation in institutionally fragile conflict-ridden states.</p
Cross-Border Dynamics Between Burundi and Tanzania in the Context of Viral Haemorrhagic Fever Outbreaks, 2025
No full textThis brief summarises key considerations regarding cross-border dynamics between the Republic of Burundi and the United Republic of Tanzania in the context of viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) outbreaks in Tanzania and the Republic of Uganda.On 13 January 2025, the World Health Organization reported a suspected outbreak of Marburg virus disease (MVD) in Kagera Region of north-west Tanzania.1 On 20 January 2025, the government of Tanzania officially declared an outbreak.2 As of 26 February 2025, there have been 10 deaths from two confirmed and eight probable cases in Kagera’s Biharamulo and Muleba Districts. This is the second MVD outbreak in Kagera Region. In 2023, there were eight confirmed cases and one probable case, with six deaths, in Bukoba District.3,4 The origin of these outbreaks is yet to be confirmed.On 30 January 2025, the government of Uganda declared a Sudan virus disease (SVD) outbreak in Kampala, the capital city. SVD is one of six known viruses within the genus Ebolavirus and one of four that capable of causing Ebola virus disease (EVD) in humans and other primates; it is the sole member of the species Sudan Ebolavirus. As of 5 March 2025, 14 cases have been confirmed, with four deaths.5 This is Uganda’s sixth Sudan virus disease outbreak. The previous outbreak, in 2022, resulted in 164 cases and 55 deaths.6MVD and SVD are VHFs. Both can spread between humans through direct contact with infected bodily fluids or via contaminated surfaces and materials.7,8 The potential for VHFs to spread into neighbouring countries makes understanding the dynamics at the Burundi-Tanzania border crucial.This brief is based on a rapid review of existing published and grey literature, programmatic documents, previous ethnographic research in Tanzania and informal discussions with in-country colleagues.</p
Reading Pack: Humanitarian Action - 2nd Edition
No full textThe purpose of humanitarian action is to support people affected by armed conflicts and disasters by helping them to save their lives, alleviate their suffering, maintain their dignity, assist their recovery and increase their resilience.This reading pack from the Knowledge for Development and Diplomacy programme (K4DD) provides thought-provoking introductions by international experts and highlight the emerging issues and debates within them. It aims to help inform policies that are more resilient to the future.This publication is a new updated edition of the ‘Reading Pack: Humanitarian Action’ authored by Hugo Slim. This edition provides some light-touch updating of some of the reading list documents and links in the November 2020 edition as part of the K4DD programme, funded by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).</p
K4DD Mpox Health Evidence Summary No 10
No full textBi-weekly Mpox Health Evidence Summaries aim to signpost FCDO and others to the latest relevant evidence on Mpox.</p
Scenarios for Negotiating a UN Framework Convention on International Tax
No full textNegotiations have started on a new United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on International Tax – a development that could shift the balance of power in international tax. This area has long been dominated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and G20 – the Convention could provide the UN with a more central role in shaping global tax policies. This process was set in motion in December 2022 by UN resolution 77/244, ‘Promotion of inclusive and effective international tax cooperation at the United Nations’. An Ad Hoc Committee was formed to develop the terms of reference (ToR) for drafting the Convention – this approved draft ToR in August 2024. The African Group at the UN are driving this effort, with support from much of the global South. The global North remains sceptical. The push for a new framework comes amidst a backdrop of increasing complexity in international tax standards, and a perceived imbalance in allocation of taxing rights between countries. A significant concern is that there is no political body to oversee the work of technical institutions like the Inclusive Framework. This has resulted in a disconnect between technical negotiations and political decision-making in some global South countries.This research analyses discussions that took place in 2024. It distils the most important lines of conflict around negotiating the UN Framework Convention, and articulates the main scenarios for a way forward.Summary of Working Paper 218.</p
Environmental Governance in an Uncertain World [Editorial]
No full textIf a single motif could capture realities in today's world, uncertainty - and the complexity that underlies it - would be a likely candidate. Ecological, social, political and economic systems are undergoing change at a rapid pace. Changes occur simultaneously on multiple scales, in space and over time, and through numerous forms of geographical interdependence and historical path-dependency. Economic globalisation, shifting patterns of political governance and new expressions of community and identity are all part of this growing complexity, both as contributors and responses to it. Interactions within and between processes and systems constantly generate unpredictable outcomes and surprises; the result is a world that is inherently less predictable and knowable. In this context, conventional models that have guided the study of environment and development interventions, based on notions of equilibrium and predictability, fail to hold up. In this Bulletin, we focus on local natural resource issues as one key area of environmental governance, asking how rural people sustain their livelihoods in an uncertain world and what institutional arrangements mediate their access to resources. We argue that the recognition of uncertainty and complexity requires a significant re-thinking of conventional wisdom concerning resources, resource users, community and institutions governing common property The past few decades have seen community-based, decentralised and participatory approaches to natural resource management proliferate in national and international donor agendas. While these approaches have rightly focused on the role of local people and institutions in resource use and conservation, their efforts have often been undermined by failure to take on board socio-political, economic and ecological dynamics and complexities ranging from the local to the global. Thus, in the run-up to the 2002 Johannesburg (Rio + 10) Summit, it is a good time to reflect on how assumptions shaping the landscape of environment and development can be more attuned to the uncertain world we live in, in order to develop more appropriate and effective approaches to environmental governance.</p
Unpacking Tax Relations in Contexts of Fragility: A Case Study of Somalia
No full textThe broader tax literature suggests that taxpayers are more likely to pay taxes when states provide ‘reciprocal returns’, including collective public goods and services, basic security, some level of representation, and accountability of public institutions.While such explanations of taxpayers’ willingness to pay taxes are compelling in the context of developed states, they are less applicable to more fragile polities. In such settings, the state typically has low enforcement capacity and struggles to provide security or effectively deliver public goods in an accountable manner.This paper seeks to contribute to and bridge gaps in the literature by exploring tax relations in one of the world’s most fragile contexts. It focuses on Somalia, where businesses in the Telecommunications (Telecom), banking, and financial sectors emerged in the context of statelessness.Summary of ICTD Working Paper 217.</p