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Publications (21)
Research Brief
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Microfinance evaluations reveal a positive impact on per capita income, non-land asset value and poverty incidence. Across countries and methodologies, microfinance is most likely to have a short-term positive effect; regionally, the most positive impacts are seen in Africa. Women tend to benefit...
– Creating good jobs in Africa
The prevailing narrative about growth and development in Africa has shifted dramatically. During the1980s and 90s pessimism abounded. Today, a more optimistic narrative of development in the region largely reigns. However challenges still remain. In particular structural transformation has been slow...
– Growth and beyond
The questions of whether aid has impact and is effective have been the subject of considerable attention. This thematic issue brings together nine studies that speak to the diverse ways in which aid affects development outcomes including, but not limited to, growth. It takes stock of what we know...
– The latest evidence on the effectiveness of ODA
The death of aid has often been declared, and private capital flows as well as earnings from natural resources now far exceed official development assistance (ODA) in aggregate. However, the recent and sharp downturn in resource earnings, the ability of ODA to fund public goods that private capital...
Research Brief
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The most successful projects and programmes are those that give local partners real ownership over the development process. Aid to health is not always allocated to the areas where it is most needed. Aid fragmentation creates extra costs for recipient countries and reduces the effectiveness of...
Research Brief
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– Findings and Lessons for the Future
Under-nutrition is the single biggest cause of the global burden of disease, and many of those affected are children. Early childhood under-nutrition has severe consequences; it accounts for more than 35 per cent of deaths and another 35 per cent of the disease burden in children under five years...
Research Brief
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Aid has had positive effect on growth and poverty reduction on average in the long term. There is no evidence of aid systematically increasing infl ation or reducing the amount of credit available to private industry. In general aid that is channeled to human capital appears to be effective at...
Research Brief
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Most studies show that education aid has a modest but positive effect on enrolment levels. Less is known about the effect of aid on the quality of education. The effectiveness of education aid is to a large degree dependent on the stability of the institutions in the recipient country. Institutional...
Research Brief
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– Crucial for the Spread of Social Protection Programmes
Evaluations of social protection programmes have been much more comprehensive in Latin America than in sub-Saharan Africa. Monitoring and evaluation protocols are crucial to facilitate improvements in government effectiveness. Anti-poverty transfer schemes seem to be subjected to more evaluation...
Research Brief
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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. Institutional reforms that facilitate the...
Research Brief
It is a widely accept projection that many low income countries (LICs) will remain low income for some time to come. Consequently, when assessing the policy options available to LICs it is important to take a long-term view. In the WIDER Working Paper ‘Aid, Fiscal Policy, Climate Change, and Growth’...
Research Brief
– What We Know and What We Need to Know
In the 1960s food aid made up nearly 20 per cent of overall overseas development aid, today that figure is five per cent. Increasingly food aid is provided as emergency relief rather than as a form of long term support and many donors have expressed strong interest in switching from food to cash...
The design and implementation of effective aid policy requires a deeper understanding of the impact of aid and the overall environment in which development aid operates. This policy brief addresses four areas which are key to understanding how aid works: the relationship between aid and economic...
Research Brief
If food aid is to be more effective donors need to consider both the goals of the aid, and its economic implications. In May 2012, shortly before the annual G8 summit, the Obama administration announced the ‘New Alliance for Food Security’. The project enlists 45 private companies who are to invest...
Research Brief
Innovations in social protection systems design have moved forward quickly on the supply-side over the past decade. But the same degree of creativity has not been applied to the equally critical demand-side constraints to social protection. Without channels through which the demand for social...
Research Brief
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– Ways to Attain MDG4 and MDG5
Progress towards the achievement of MDG4 and MDG5 has been impressive with both maternal and child mortality being reduced by over 40 per cent since 1990. However, achieving the goal of a reduction of two-thirds by 2015 will not be easy. The Paris Declaration principles of ownership, alignment, and...
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