Swimming Against the Tide: How Developing Countries Are Coping with the Global Crisis

Background Paper prepared by World Bank Staff for the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting, Horsham, United Kingdom on March 13-14, 2009

Fostering Social Change in Peru Through Communication: The Case of the Manuani Miners Association

Much has been done to formalize miners in Peru; since its inception in 2006 the Ministry of Environment passed laws to align mining policies with international standards. However, the combination of the necessity to have a source of income and the rapid acquisition of money that illegal and informal gold mining provides has proven a serious impasse for the Peruvian government; hence these mining practices keep growing. As part of the Initiative for the Conservation of the Andean Amazon II (ICAA II), the Manuani Miners Association in Madre de Dios, one of the regions more prone to illegal mining and bad environmental practices in Peru, started a land restoration, remediation, and reforestation process of the degraded rainforest. This case study analyzes how a program within ICAA II used communication to promote this significant change in behavior, what communicational tools were used, and what is their possible further applicability in similar scenarios to foster positive change

Taxation and Development: a Review of Donor Support to Strengthen Tax Systems in Developing Countries

Recent years have seen a growing interest among donors on taxation in developing countries. This reflects a concern for domestic revenue mobilization to finance public goods and services, as well as recognition of the centrality of taxation for growth and redistribution. The global financial crisis has also led many donor countries to pay more attention to the extent and effectiveness of the aid they provide, and to ensuring that they support rather than discourage the developing countries’ own revenue-raising efforts. This paper reviews the state of knowledge on aid and tax reform in developing countries, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Four main issues are addressed: (1) impacts of donor assistance to strengthen tax systems, including what has worked, or not, and why; (2) challenges in ‘scaling up’ donor efforts; (3) how to best provide assistance to reform tax systems; and (4) knowledge gaps to be filled in order to design better donor interventions. The paper argues that donors should complement the traditional ‘technical’ approach to tax reform with measures that encourage constructive engagement between governments and citizens over tax issues.Department for International DevelopmentBill and Melinda Gates Foundatio

The Mental Health of War?damaged Populations

Summaries This article draws upon the psychiatric, psycho?analytic and anthropological literature to show that we know very little about the psychological consequences of war and upheaval in the non?Western world. The small amount we do know suggests that while suffering is often intense, many of the therapeutic responses on offer are inappropriate as they are informed by psychiatric and psycho?analytic thought and practice which have little relevance to the majority of people living in the non?Western world

Building resilience from the ground up

This paper provides an overview and commentary on a special issue of the journal Disasters that reflects on experiences in resilience-building. Experiences are drawn from two recent DfID-funded programmes in some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries and contexts. These programmes have focused on scaling up action to build resilience, principally through the expansion and replication of good practices by influencing government policies, plans and investments. The papers provide insights that are each grounded in different contexts and understandings of local realities and the factors that support and undermine people’s resilience

Peopling mountain environments: Changing Andean livelihoods in north-west Argentina

Structural adjustment and neoliberal policy implementation in Latin America have had dramatic consequences for livelihoods and patterns of natural resource use in mountain regions. Restructuring of the agricultural economy has increased socio-economic hardship and reduced industrial labour requirements, altering traditional patterns of seasonal migration from these areas. This paper examines the implications of recent economic and political transformation for Andean livelihoods in the mountains of northwest Argentina. Case study material illustrates the local impacts of such changes on socio-economic dynamics, patterns of urban–rural interaction, and natural resource use. The research highlights the influence of agro-industrial restructuring, protected areas creation, and the distribution of social funds in the region. It reveals that local development is constrained and controlled not only by distant policies but also by contemporary local networks of political clientalism. The influence of both distant and proximate factors governing livelihoods and environmental impacts reinforces the value of geographical study in mountain areas, given its acute spatial and scalar awareness. The paper reaffirms the conception of mountain livelihoods as diverse and dynamic, shaped by economic, political, social and cultural factors as well as physical eality, and critiques the economic rationality of resource use assumed by policymakers and economic models