34 research outputs found
(Re)distribution and Growth: What is the Role of Social Protection?
Considerations of social justice, as opposed to growth, must provide the linchpin of a social protection agenda because the chronically vulnerable and poor are typically in their predicament because of institutionalised patterns of disadvantage. Furthermore, if the primary purpose of social protection programming is to transform the lives of large numbers of vulnerable people, only a radical agenda based on considerations of (re)distribution, recognition and representation will suffice, precisely because resource transfers alone (including provision of assets or jobs) will not be able to transform the terms of engagement upon which the vulnerable and poor interface with society
A complex network approach to structural inequality of educational deprivation in a Latin American country
To guarantee the human right to education established by the fourth UNESCOâs Sustainable Development Goal, a deep understanding of a big set of non-linear relationships at different scales is need it, as well as to know how they impact on learning outcomes. In doing so, current methods do not provide enough evidence about interactions and, for this reason, some researchers have proposed to model education as a complex system for considering all interactions at individual level, as well as using computer simulation and network analysis to provide a comprehensive look at the educational processes, as well as to predict the outcomes of different public policies.
The highlight of this paper is modeling the structure of the inequality of a national educational system as a complex network from learning outcomes and socio-economic, ethnicity, rurality and type of school funding, for providing a better understanding and measuring of the educational gaps. This new approach might help to integrate insights improving the theoretical framework, as well as to provide valuable information about non-trivial relationships between educational and non-educational variables in order to help policymakers to implement effective solutions for the educational challenge of ensuring inclusive and equitable education.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio
How big is big enough? Toward a sustainable future by examining alternatives to the conventional economic growth paradigm
This study addresses how the sustainability crisis may be overcome by using alternatives to the
conventional economic growth paradigm. Based on a literature review, the paper identifies and
discusses three alternatives, namely negative, zero and positive economic growth. These alternatives
are compared from a feasibility and policy perspective in relation to the transition toward
sustainable development. The three alternatives are associated with very farâreaching sets of
policies that have different focal points with regard to how the paradigm shift from the conventional
growth paradigm can be realized. All these alternatives, however, challenge the effectiveness
of market forces. The shortcomings of the alternatives (resistance to voluntary transition
with negative or zero growth, no proper consideration of the rebound effect for positive growth)
hinder the transition and must be further addressed by policyâmakers in public and private
sectors, as well as by civil society
African Dreams: Locating Urban Infrastructure in the 2030 Sustainable Developmental Agenda
This paper examines African urban infrastructure and service delivery as an entry point for connecting African aspirations with the harsh developmental imperatives of urban management, creating a dialogue between scholarly knowledge and sustainable development policy aspirations. We note a shift to multi-nodal urban governance and highlight the significance of the synthesis of social, economic and ecological values in a normative vision of what an African metropolis might aspire to by 2030. The sustainable development vision provides a useful stimulus for Africaâs urban poly-crisis, demanding fresh interdisciplinary and normatively explicit thinking, grounded in a practical and realistic understanding of Africaâs infrastructure and governance challenges
Towards Robust, Authoritative Assessments of Environmental Impacts Embodied in Trade: Current State and Recommendations
Global multiregional input-output databases (GMRIOs) became the standard tool for tracking environmental impacts through global supply chains. To date, several GMRIOs are available, but the numerical results differ. This paper considers how GMRIOs can be made more robust and authoritative. We show that GMRIOs need detail in environmentally
relevant sectors. On the basis of a review of earlier work, we conclude that the highest uncertainty in footprint analyses is caused by the environmental data used in a GMRIO, followed by the size of country measured in gross domestic product (GDP) as fraction of the global total, the structure of the national table, and only at the end the structure of
trade. We suggest the following to enhance robustness of results. In the short term, we recommend using the Single country National Accounts Consistent footprint approach, that uses official data for extensions and the national table for the country in question, combined with embodiments in imports calculated using a GMRIO. In a time period of
2 to 3 years, we propose work on harmonized environmental data for water, carbon, materials, and land, and use the aggregated Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Inter-Country Input-Output GMRIO as default in combination with detailing procedures developed in, for example, the EXIOBASE and Eora projects. In the
long term, solutions should be coordinated by the international organizations such as the United Nations (UN) Statistical Division, OECD, and Eurostat. This could ensure that when input-output tables and trade data of individual countries are combined, that the global totals are consistent and that bilateral trade asymmetries are resolved
Cities and climate change mitigation: Economic opportunities and governance challenges in Asia
Cities are central to the fight against climate change, but the IPCC recently noted that many cities â and particularly those in the developing world â lack the institutional, financial and technical capacities needed to switch to low emission development paths. Based on detailed case studies of three Asian cities, this paper finds that the adoption of low emission development strategies (LEDS) at the urban level could be economically attractive. However, it also argues that without a coordinated multi-level, cross-sectoral governance framework these opportunities for low carbon urban development are likely to be left unexploited. As these governance conditions are frequently not in place, we argue that these case study cities, and cities in similar contexts, are likely to miss even the economically attractive low carbon development opportunities and become increasingly locked in to higher cost, higher carbon development paths. Due to their growing size and importance, we conclude that the presence or absence of governance arrangements that enable the adoption of low carbon development strategies in Asian cities will have global implications for climate change