Emerging Non-state Actors in Global Development: Challenges for Europe

As part of the broader research programme on how 'new actors in international development' might influence European development cooperation in the coming decade, this paper provides an overview of the engagement of three types of non-state development actors: private foundations, corporate philanthropies, and global vertical programmes. In discussing financial commitments, funding priorities, and implementation approaches of these actors, the paper identifies key issues for European donors to consider in developing a response to their growing presence in the development landscape

Building long-term scenarios for development: The methodological state of the art with an application to foreign direct investment in Africa

"This study provides an introduction to scenario analysis as a tool for development policy planning. The study is divided into three parts. The first part of the study outlines the central characteristics of scenario analysis methods, distinguishes scenario analysis from other research approaches, and presents a general guide for building scenarios. Illustrations of applications of scenario analysis methods in fields related to global development complement the methodological discussions in this part of the study. A second part of the study develops an original illustration of how scenario methods can be applied to examine development policy issues byfocusing on the question of how foreign direct investment flows could change the African development landscape toward the year 2030. This chapter culminates with the presentation of four fictional narratives charting how investment patterns and development outcomes could unfoldover the next two decades.The third and final chapter of the study outlines several considerations that policymakers potentially interested in using scenario methods as a supplement to their existing planning tools should make in evaluating whether the application of these methods within their organizations is desirable." (excerpt

Land Tenure in Oceania

Discussions of land tenure in social anthropology have usually been deeply embedded in broader empirical and theoretical explanations of social, economic, legal, and political institutions. In this volume the editors have sought to correct the emphasis of previous studies by focusing our attention directly on land tenure in Oceania, without, it must be added, losing sight of the connections between land tenure principles and general social structure. The editors have deliberately looked for similarities by analyzing each tenure system from the same analytical and conceptual perspective. Chapters 1 and 9 specifically discuss the methodological and theoretical framework that evolved in the course of analyzing the seven tenure systems described in chapters 2 through 8. The difficulties and problems encountered by the contributors in presenting their data in comparable form is reflected by the more than three years of analysis, writing, editing, and rewriting necessary to complete this volume. The seven substantive ethnographic chapters illustrate the range and diversity in the land tenure practices which are found within the vast culture area of Oceania. The similarities in basic tenure principles between all seven systems seem all the more remarkable in light of the varied geographical and cultural settings of the seven societies. In all of these societies we find a complete absence of fee simple ownership and a corresponding presence of entailed family estates. The ethnography reveals tenure principles that detail an impressive number and variety of separate categories of property. Each category, in turn, includes an even greater number of rights and duties that symbolize different forms of proprietorship. The differential allocation of these rights and duties among persons and groups represents the exact point of connection between land tenure and social structure. For example, kinship principles that specify the distribution of authority within age, sex, descent, and status categories converge on such tenure principles as land use, land distribution, succession, and inheritance. Principles of political organization concerning the relative scaling of authority and power within the society have clear parallels in the land tenure system, where corporate and individual tenure privileges are differentiated. Economic principles subtly merge with land tenure principles in social domains, where land as a resource and land as a value intersect

Evaluation of User Acceptance of a Clinical Expert System

journal articleBiomedical Informatic

The politics of climate finance coordination

• Climate finance coordination challenges reflect political differences, including divergent interests among ministries involved in the governance of multilateral climate funds.• Differences in the histories and governance of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and Green Climate Fund (GCF) – two key multilateral climate funds – shape debate on their respective advantages and future roles.• The multilateral funds have encouraged cross-governmental coordination at country level. However, there are competing views on which governmental actors at national level are best-suited to take responsibility for coordinating climate finance planning and implementation.• The cross-sectoral orientation of climate finance coordination contrasts with existing development coordination approaches, which emphasize coordination within separate policy sectors

Donor Political Economies and the Pursuit of Aid Effectiveness

In response to corruption and inefficient state institutions in recipient countries, some foreign aid donors outsource the delivery of aid to nonstate development actors. Other donor governments continue to support state management of aid, seeking to strengthen recipient states. These cross-donor differences can be attributed in large measure to different national orientations about the appropriate role of the state in public service delivery. Countries that place a high premium on market efficiency (for example, the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden) will outsource aid delivery in poorly governed recipient countries to improve the likelihood that aid reaches the intended beneficiaries of services. In contrast, states whose political economies emphasize a strong state in service provision (for example, France, Germany, Japan) continue to support state provision. This argument is borne out by a variety of tests, including statistical analysis of dyadic time-series cross-section aid allocation data and individual-level survey data on a cross-national sample of senior foreign aid officials. To understand different aid policies, one needs to understand the political economies of donors

National interests and the paradox of foreign aid under austerity: Conservative governments and the domestic politics of international development since 2010

Since 2010, successive Conservative-led Coalition and Conservative governments in the UK have imposed domestic austerity while maintaining foreign aid commitments. They have done so in the teeth of considerable hostility from influential sections of the media, many Conservative MPs and party members, and large sections of the voting public. This paper explains this apparently paradoxical position by analysing these governments’ increasingly explicit stance that aid serves ‘the national interest’ in a variety of ways. While not a new message from donors, post-2010 Conservative governments have significantly powered up this narrative. The post-Brexit referendum government is less committed to foreign aid, and it may well institute cuts following changes in legislation. In the meantime, however, it too has focused on shifting discourse and substance towards a more insistent articulation and pursuit of ‘the national interest’