WIDERAngle

Expert commentary from our network

Two poems by Neide Sigaúque

by Neide Sigaúque
On 15 May, poet Neide Sigaúque was commissioned to perform two poems on the themes of the WIDER Development Conference The world at crossroads – securing the future generations held in Maputo, Mozambique.One cannot sleep here, let alone dream I am Neide Sigaúque,A womanfrom the southern side of the Third World,Mozambique, 'land of the good people'.I was born in an independent country —independently of my parents' liberation struggle,today dependent on external aid.A country with an economy...

Counting (on) the labour market to secure a just transition

by Haroon Bhorat, François Steenkamp
The climate stabilization imperative emerging from the Paris Agreement is, in so many ways, absolutely critical to securing the planet’s future for all. The Agreement necessitates a transition away from fossil fuel-based economic production, particularly the use of coal as a source of energy. In 2021, coal constituted 36% of global primary energy supply, while accounting for 40.3% of global CO2 emissions.Whilst the use of coal as a primary energy source varies across countries, South Africa is...

Quantifying the economic impact of conflict traps

by Joan Margalef
As we look towards securing a brighter future for coming generations, we must address the complex challenges that threaten sustainable development and global stability. Among these challenges, conflict stands out as a particularly destructive one. In our latest research, we find that a country that falls into conflict is expected to lose 20% of its GDP per capita after 30 years, compared to if it had always been at peace. Even for small countries, this represents a substantial economic loss...

264 Blogpost

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How to get back on track to ending poverty – the imperative for a livable planet
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We are off track to end poverty. Despite remarkable progress over the past few decades, the goal of eradicating poverty remains elusive, and SDG1: End...

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Time to rethink theory on the role of finance in development: The new structural financial economics framework

The primary role of finance is to serve the ‘real economy’¬—the part of the economy that produces goods and services. Yet in practice, the financial...

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Taking localisation beyond labels and lip service

Donors increasingly speak of locally led aid response, but often do not walk the walk. Case in point is the United States Agency for International...

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Development aid cuts will hit fragile countries hard, could fuel violent conflict

Fragile and least developed countries have had their development assistance cut drastically, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation...

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Will growth be enough to end poverty?: New Projections of the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Today, October 17th is the UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (you already knew that, right?). In new analysis for UNU-WIDER, we...

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Oslo conference turns the spotlight on sustainable development financing
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With the deadline for achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals just seven years away, there is an increasing sense of urgency over the...

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Why the Aid Effectiveness Principles are important for development

Demonstrating empirically the Aid Effectiveness Principles' global impact on development is a challenge. But according to Rachel M. Gisselquist...

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91% of sub-Saharan African workers don’t save for old age: Why that’s a problem and how to fix it
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Less than 10% of the workers in sub-Saharan Africa save for old age, the lowest rate for any region in the world. That implies most of the...

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Four global problems that will be aggravated by the UK’s recent cuts to international aid

UK economic forecasts have improved markedly since the September 2022 mini-budget. The economic recession may now be more shallow and public borrowing...

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$1 trillion in the shade: The annual profits multinational corporations shift to tax havens continues to climb and climb

About a decade ago, the world’s biggest economies agreed to crack down on multinational corporations’ abusive use of tax havens. This resulted in a 15...

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From Monterrey to Addis Ababa, and what has happened since?
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The importance of domestic revenue mobilization and taxation for sustainable development is widely acknowledged in global development discussions, but...

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What is next for development effectiveness in a post-aid world?
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Improving the effectiveness of global development spending may seem like a fool's errand given the state of the world today. Yet this is precisely the...

Policy Brief
Building evidence around the effectiveness principles

This policy brief draws on the studies presented at the International Research Conference on the Effectiveness of Development Cooperation on 17–18 November 2022, in Brussels, Belgium and jointly organized by UNU-WIDER and the European Commission (DG...

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Global tax reforms, net-zero, and domestic revenue: Food for thought from the DRM programme
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Domestic revenue mobilization (DRM) and taxation have gained prominence lately on the global agenda, most recently with the resolution for the United...

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Empirical research is crucial for better tax enforcement in the developing world
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I had the privilege to participate in the UNU-WIDER Winter School as one of the lecturers. In this blog, I explain my main takeaways for students and...

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Fintech and domestic savings: A perfect match coming true in sub-Saharan Africa
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Financial technology (FinTech) is a major force disrupting the structure of financial services in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and enabling access of...

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Sales recovered faster from the pandemic than employment: Evidence from tax administrative and survey data in Zambia

Like most other countries, the government of Zambia introduced restrictions to control COVID-19, which considerably curtailed normal economic activity...

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Putting it all together: Highlights from The puzzle of peace
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‘Understanding how to sustain peace means understanding conflict itself. Yet conflict and peacebuilding are often addressed separately’ – Patricia...

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Solving the puzzle of peace: Overcoming the curse of Finland
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At The puzzle of peace conference in Helsinki, Adnan Khan, Chief Economist at the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, lamented what he...

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Virtuous circles and downward spirals: The power of ideas & the limits of technocracy
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What will it take to shake loose the distemper of our times, and initiate a virtuous spiral of renewal? In a recent UNU-WIDER webinar, Alan Hirsch and...

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Unlocking the mystery of domestic savings: What difference do they make?

The socioeconomic fallout from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore discussions on domestic resource mobilization (hereafter DRM)...

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Co-creation for fair and efficient taxation: Research recommendations to improve policies

How can we determine the taxation of wage earners or multinational corporations in a fair manner? Will simplifying tax administration help increase...

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Foreign aid can help stem the decline of democracy, if used in the right way

Democracy is having a hard time. In India, once the world’s largest democracy, the pandemic has hastened the country’s slide toward authoritarianism...

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What does COVID-19 mean for Africa?: Challenges, but also opportunities

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an exceptional social and economic crisis all over the world, with Africa among the hardest-hit regions. What are the...

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Slow death or new direction for the UN?
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For most of its 75-year existence, the United Nations has struggled to strike a balance between its lofty founding aspirations and realities on the...

Research Brief
Monetary policy and firm size in South Africa

Monetary policy affects the real economy through various channels, including the interest rate, exchange rate, credit, and asset price channels. The credit channel has recently received considerable attention. Small firms are more sensitive to...

Research Brief
Estimating tax gaps in the non-financial sector

Many governments, particularly those in developing countries, have set an objective to improve tax revenue mobilization to offer more and better public services to their citizens. To develop effective revenue-raising strategies it is necessary to...

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Global poverty: coronavirus could drive it up for the first time since the 1990s

As COVID-19 slows in developed countries, the virus’s spread is speeding up in the developing world. Three-quarters of new cases detected each day are...

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The end of poverty postponed?: Over a billion people living in poverty and a $500 million per day loss of income for the poorest people in the world could soon be reality

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to dominate headlines as the death toll rises and economies falter. However, far too little attention is being given...

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Being the change you want to see
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While growing up, I was troubled by the scale of the socioeconomic gap between the haves and the have-nots in the community around me. I saw cases...

Research Brief
The impact on jobs and earnings of offshoring in South Africa

The success of an economy’s manufacturing sector is often critical to economic growth and development. As a major contributor to exports, site of innovation, adopter of international best practices, and engine of job creation, an internationally...

Policy Brief
The politics of social protection in Eastern and Southern Africa

Since the mid-1990s, there has been in Africa something of a ‘quiet revolution’ in poverty reduction strategies with the proliferation of social assistance programmes that entail cash transfers to the poor. The past two decades have also been...

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Reflections on the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics
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The award of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics to Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo of MIT, and Michael Kremer of Harvard University, has led to a...

Research Brief
Racial inequality and demographic change in South Africa

Over the past 20 years, researchers have been looking at the economic lifecycle of individuals around the world using National Transfer Accounts (NTA) data. The focus of this research has been on understanding how societies produce, consume, share...

Policy Brief
Resurgent Asia

In 1820, Asia accounted for two-thirds of world population and over half of world income. The subsequent decline of Asia was attributable to its integration with a world economy shaped by colonialism and driven by imperialism. By 1970, Asia was the...

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How can developing countries pay for the SDGs?

With official development assistance under strain, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will require developing countries to rely increasingly...

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The vital role of aid in development

The UNU-WIDER research programme on foreign aid (ReCom) began in 2010, in a period of strong aid scepticism. Dambisa Moyo’s well-known book, Dead Aid...

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Narendra Modi’s performance on the Indian economy: Five key policies assessed
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When Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister in spring 2014 the Indian economy was in the doldrums. There was a clear policy paralysis in India’s...

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