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Publications (19)
Research Brief
Fragile and conflict-affected states, like Sierra Leone, can maintain a strong public financial management structure if they are able to find foreign support for administrative capacity and sufficient domestic political and executive support. PFM legal framework, budget planning and scrutiny, still...
Research Brief
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 much less likely to affect more ‘deep-seated’...
Research Brief
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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 of democratic processes, perceptions of economic...
Research Brief
– Exploring the Fatal Flaw
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 aid initiatives. Haiti has received more than US$20...
Research Brief
pdf
A secure environment is an important component of successful economic development initiatives. Policing reforms in African states have been disappointing; the image of state policy and police–community relations remain poor. States that have enacted successful police reforms have had four important...
Research Brief
pdf
Japan’s post-war liberalizing reforms were a success. This was partly due to the fact that US occupation preserved the strength of national institutions and made effective use of their capacity. Improvement in the scope of the state and the strength of Afghan institutions has been weak, despite the...
Research Brief
pdf
Kosovo and East Timor share many similar characteristics, and yet they have had divergent results in post-conflict state building. East Timor has enjoyed far greater development success since its independence, whereas Kosovo is now the poorest and most economically depressed country in Europe. Many...
Research Brief
pdf
Transitional justice processes often fail to adequately deal with gender issues. Attempting to deal with gender-based violence during periods of transitional justice is often seen as destabilizing and a threat to future stability. Women’s rights are still often seen as yielding rights that have to...
Research Brief
pdf
The natural resource sector in Liberia has failed to produce links to other important sectors of the economy, and in particular has failed to create jobs for the large majority of the population. Creating new and productive jobs is key to national reconciliation. The aid community needs to...
Research Brief
The civil service is the backbone of the state, and can either support or undermine a country’s entire system of governance. Donor’s recognize this important fact and have often tried to promote civil service reform in the countries they are providing aid to. However these attempts have all too...
Research Brief
– Budget Support, Aid on Delivery or Project Aid?
One persistent concern raised during discussions of whether aid effectively promotes the goals of donors is fungibility, that is; the possibility that aid is used in ways not intended by donors when disbursing the funds. It could be used to lower taxes, to fund projects in a different sector, or...
Research Brief
Foreign aid has been slow to react to the challenge of urbanization, but must do so if it is to be an effective force going forward. In the WIDER Working Paper ‘Improving Donor Support for Urban Poverty Reduction: A focus on South Asia’ Nicola Banks argues that if a donor’s urban poverty reduction...
Research Brief
Australia has a plan to double its Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) by 2015. To attain this goal identifying new channels through which aid can be delivered, and used, as effectively as possible is crucial. One example of this is an aid-delivery mechanism, based on a partnership with churches...
Research Brief
A donor dilemma: aid effectiveness in fragile states. Donors are often faced with the dilemma that those countries most in need of aid are often those least likely to spend it effectively. This dilemma can be characterized as an instance of the Tingenberg rule which states that for policy objectives...
Research Brief
In a recent UNU-WIDER working paper 'Fiscal composition and aid effectiveness: A political-economy model' Paul Mosley examines the claim that aid would have, in the long term, a negative impact on productivity and stability of expenditure in recipient countries, due to its tendency to undermine tax...
Research Brief
– What Does the Evidence Say?
Donors are concerned about how their aid is used, especially how it affects public spending. For low-income countries that receive significant amounts of aid relative to GDP, most of the aid spent in the country is given to the government either directly, or by financing services that would...
Displaying 16 of 19 results