WIDERAngle

Expert commentary from our network

About

The WIDERAngle publishes expert commentary and analysis of the latest research in global development. The WIDERAngle supports UNU-WIDER’s missions to undertake research and policy analysis on the most pressing concerns affecting humanity and provides a forum for knowledge sharing, discussion, and debate.

 

To see past newsletters, visit our WIDERAngle archive.

 

Write for the WIDERAngle

We accept submissions that represent sincere efforts to advance knowledge on topics related to the promotion of sustainable and equitable development for all. Although many of our writers are established in their fields, we particularly encourage submissions from early-career researchers, policy professionals, and writers who represent Global South countries and perspectives.

 

For guidelines on WIDERAngle submissions, please refer to our Guidelines for submissions.

 

Send submission queries to editorialteam@wider.unu.edu.

 

EDITORIAL TEAM

Executive Editor: Annett Victorero

Managing Editor: Timothy Shipp

Assistant Editor: Tristan Reid

 

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Securing a future for the next generations – navigating today’s global challenges

by Frederik Matthys
In an era frequently described as ‘unprecedented’, the global landscape often seems daunting. Countries classified as democracies are increasingly outnumbered by those classified as autocracies, interstate conflicts have escalated, and the multifaceted impacts of climate change—from health crises to forced displacement—continue to intensify. Meanwhile, gender inequality persists, progress in poverty and inequality reduction has stalled, or even reversed in some contexts, and multilateral co...

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...

What are foresight methods and how can they secure our common futures?

by Aicha Robei
Future tools and foresight thinking are crucial instruments to improve decision-making for a common future. As a Youth Foresight Fellow with UNICEF, I firmly believe that utilizing foresight, a sophisticated approach for anticipation and strategic planning, is essential in tackling and lessening the impacts of climate change, conflict, and inequality.Foresight allows us to think about the speculated future based on models and data to solve problems and chart a path to a prosperous and nurturing...

202 Blogpost

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    Blog
    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...

    Blog
    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...

    Blog
    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...

    Blog
    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...

    Blog
    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...

    Blog
    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...

    Blog
    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...

    Blog
    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...

    Blog
    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...

    Blog
    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...

    Blog
    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...

    Blog
    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...

    Blog
    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...

    Research Brief
    The role of tax and benefit policies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador
    Blog
    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
    Pushing for policy innovation
    Blog
    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...

    Blog
    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...

    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...

    Blog
    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...

    Blog
    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...

    Blog
    From Africa rising to rising debt in Africa: The looming debt crisis
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    Africa’s rising public debt continues to attract increased attention regionally and internationally. The narrative about Africa seems to have...

    Policy Brief
    Aid is not dead
    Policy Brief
    Aid, environment and climate change
    Blog
    Tackling gender inequality from all directions
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    Improving the position of women continues to be an important concern in development. As we strive to make better living standards possible for people...

    Policy Brief
    Development assistance for peacebuilding
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    Effective taxation policies to promote equitable growth and development
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    Taxation is a crucial source of revenue for countries around the world and plays an important role in development efforts. In order to truly foster...

    Blog
    An economist’s view on migration and refugees

    Few issues have been so contentious in recent years as international migration. The refugee crisis sparked not least by the Syrian war has shown that...

    Blog
    Building on success in development aid

    In academic discourse, it has become almost ritualistic to begin a piece on foreign aid by highlighting the sharp controversies over its effectiveness...

    Blog
    Economic Lessons from Recent Research for Achieving SDG8
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    This article is part of UNU’s “17 Days, 17 Goals” series, featuring research and commentary in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development...

    Policy Brief
    Four key areas to improve aid effectiveness
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    Development Finance: The Role for Aid in Africa
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    Aid’s future, its history, and its impact were the topics of a policy workshop held by UNU-WIDER in co-operation with the Embassy of Denmark in Dar es...

    Blog
    The Future of Development – Aid and Beyond
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    Just over a year ago, in March 2014, UNU-WIDER published a report entitled: What do we know about aid as we approach 2015? It notes the many successes...

    Blog
    Climate Finance - Moving Beyond the 'Polluter Pays'
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    Climate change adaptation funding is frequently characterized as reparations or compensation for costs imposed by historical emissions. This...

    Research Brief
    Debt

    ​In the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, debt crises have plagued low-, middle-, and high-income countries at various times. Indebted countries have generally addressed balance of payments crises either by (a) obtaining International...

    Blog
    Africa's Failure to Industrialize: Bad Luck or Bad Policy?
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    16 December 2014 John Page On 20 November 2014 the United Nations celebrated the 25th Africa Industrialization Day. But perhaps ‘celebrate’ is not...

    Research Brief
    Structural Change – Critical for Poverty Reduction in Africa

    Economic growth has had a negative effect on unemployment and poverty reduction in Africa. The transition from low- to middle income requires within sector increases in productivity and a shift of labour resources from low productivity agriculture to...

    Blog
    Aid, Growth, and Other Issues – An Interview with Finn Tarp
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    11 September 2014 by Roger Williamson In this interview Finn Tarp, Director of UNU-WIDER, discusses the evidence uncovered in the aid and growth and...

    Research Brief
    The Impact of Civic Education Programmes on Political Participation

    Civic education programmes can have meaningful and relatively long-lasting effects in terms of increasing political information, feelings of empowerment, and mobilizing individuals to engage in political participation. Civic education programmes are...

    Research Brief
    How Effectively Were the Paris Principles Applied to State-Building in South Sudan?

    The five Paris principles of effective aid were only nominally successfully implemented in the state-building process of South Sudan. While the importance of the first principle, ownership, was highlighted in development plans in Southern Sudan...

    Research Brief
    Lessons from the National Solidarity Programme in Afghanistan

    The National Solidarity Programme (NSP) serves as a success story that has improved many Afghan lives and laid the groundwork for potential longer-term development. The NSP had a positive effect on access to drinking water and electricity, acceptance...

    Research Brief
    Every Drop Counts – Improving Aid to Water and Sanitation

    Each dollar of aid per year provides 0.17 people with access to water or sanitation. This amounts to a cost of US$5.88 per person. Due to economies of scale, countries with large populations benefit more from aid to the water and sanitation sectors...

    Research Brief
    Is unpaid care work addressed well in World Bank projects?

    Only three out of 36 World Bank investments in Malawi, Mali, Niger and Rwanda appropriately address women’s unpaid care work. Despite the lack of World Bank investments specifically targeting unpaid care work, Bank investments do appear to be...

    Research Brief
    Aid Failures in Haiti

    Aid to Haiti has not been effective due to failure of the country’s political and economic elites to participate and assist in the development process. US foreign policy has in some cases reinforced the tendency for elites to personally profit from...

    Blog
    Africa’s Low Hanging Fruits

    23 April 2014 Justin Yifu Lin and Yan Wang At the onset of its miraculous rise in 1979, China had been trapped in poverty for centuries and was poorer...

    Blog
    Lessons from Behavioural Economics for Development Policy
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    23 April 2014 Jukka Pirttilä​ In conventional economic theory, agents are assumed to be able to make rational choices, unaffected by emotions and not...

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    Does Aid Make Economic Sense?
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    26 March 2014 Finn Tarp Foreign aid is often seen as different from other forms of investment, and some argue that rather than having a positive...

    Blog
    The Nordic Contribution to Development
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    26 March 2014 Tony Addison The Nordic countries have a long-standing commitment to development, and their work in peace-building has taken Nordic...

    Blog
    On Aid and Growth – An Interview with Sam Jones
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    28 February 2014 In this interview Sam Jones summarizes the findings of original UNU-WIDER work on the impact of aid on growth. Using data covering...

    Blog
    Brazil's Economics Success: Lessons for Africa – An Interview with Armando Barrientos and Ed Amann
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    24 January 2014 In this interview Armando Barrientos and Ed Amann give an introduction to their research project at the Brooks World Poverty Institute...

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    Inequality in Latin America: The Role of Conditional Cash Transfer – An Interview with Armando Barrientos
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    24 January 2014 In this interview Professor Armando Barrientos reviews the recent UNU-WIDER project on inequality in Latin America which looks at the...

    Blog
    Report from Gender Equality Results Meeting
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    Roger Williamson The Danish State Secretary for Development Policy Charlotte Slente, welcomed the participants and contributors to the meeting and...

    Research Brief
    Foreign Aid and Malian Democracy

    In Mali aid has had a positive impact on some areas of democratic consolidation such as strengthening the economy and civil society, election support and conflict resolution. Three significant structural problems were not addressed properly by donors...

    Research Brief
    Aid to Mozambique

    In Mozambique donors have shifted focus from project aid to budget support in an effort to reform the public sector and ‘justice, legality and public order’. While budget support has increased state capacity and helped Mozambique’s donor community...

    Research Brief
    The Unintended Consequences of the MCP on Foreign Aid for Family Planning

    Sub-Saharan Africa receives 48 per cent more family planning aid than other regions. Countries with high fertility rates and large populations tend to receive more family planning aid The USA’s Mexico City Policy (MCP) reduces total foreign aid to...

    Research Brief
    Zambia – Foreign Aid and Democratic Consolidation

    Democracy assistance and donor support have been key in fostering a new type of civil society, dominated by NGOs, the legal community and churches. The bulk of donor funding to Zambia is channelled to the executive through budget support, this has...

    Research Brief
    Africa’s Democratic Trajectory

    Development aid was effective in promoting democratic transitions during the 1990s in African countries beset by economic crisis domestic discontent, and a high dependency on aid. Development aid also influenced democratic transition indirectly...

    Research Brief
    The Impact of Foreign Aid on the Fiscal Behaviour of the Ugandan Government

    Foreign aid is a significant element of Uganda’s long-run fiscal system. Aid is associated with increased tax collection effort and public spending in Uganda. Development assistance is also associated with reduced domestic borrowing in Uganda. Aid is...

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    The Complicated Effects of Foreign Aid on African Democracy
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    13 December 2013 Annett Victorero The effects of development aid are not straightforward, and often have unintended consequences. An inflow of money...

    Research Brief
    Gender Mainstreaming

    The three Nordic development agencies Danida (Denmark) Sida (Sweden), and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (FMFA) all recognise gender mainstreaming as an important part of the policy-making process. Gender equality is a well-funded...

    Research Brief
    An Assessment of a Village Development Programme in Mozambique

    The programme did lead participating households to use improved seeds. Food consumption scores did not improve after the programme. However during the programme participating households moved to more sustainable strategies to cope with food shortages...

    Research Brief
    Impact of Aid for Health and Education on Gender Equity and Human Development

    Initial high human development index scores and per capita income have a strongmimpact on the outcomes of aid to the health and education sectors. An increase in the share of the government budget allocated to education and health improves overall...

    Displaying 64 of 202 results