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| 1 |
ID:
100604
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2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
THE UN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE in Copenhagen on 7-19 December came close to collapse and ended in "taking note of" an extremely contradictory document passed in the dying hours of the conference the Copenhagen Accord whose future remains uncertain. The climate forum in Copenhagen demonstrated yet again that we are still at the very start of a long and thorny path toward developing a universal, comprehensive, fair and efficient strategy of the world community for combating climate change.
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| 2 |
ID:
146697
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Development became a G20 priority under the Korean presidency in 2010 and has remained central to global summitry ever since. Although the G20 has formally involved itself in the post-2015 process following the St. Petersburg Summit in 2013 and emphasized the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a core priority under Turkey's presidency in 2015, the UN remains the main channel for global negotiations and discussions of the post-2015 development agenda up to its approval and adoption in September 2015 and will continue to play the leading role in the follow-up implementation and tracking of SDGs. The present paper argues that as the SDGs come to dominate the agenda and action of donors and issues of financing take central stage, the G20 can play an important role in facilitating the implementation of the SDGs due to its various strengths, although it also faces serious challenges. The paper also points out that as the 2016 G20 chair, China can make great contributions in advancing the implementation of the SDGs both domestically and internationally.
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| 3 |
ID:
193483
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Scholarship on global environmental assessments call for these organisations to become more reflexive to address challenges around participation, inclusivity of perspectives, and responsivity to the policy domains they inform. However, there has been less call for reflexivity in IPCC scholarship or closer examination of how routine concepts condition scholarly understanding by focusing on science and politics over other social dynamics. In this article, I suggest that scholarly reflexivity could advance new analytical approaches that provide practical insights for changing organisational structures. Through reflecting on my understanding of the IPCC, I develop actors, activities, and forms of authority as a new analytical framework for studying international organisations and knowledge bodies. Through its application, I describe the social order of the IPCC within and between the panel, the bureau, the technical support units, the secretariat and the authors, which is revealing of which actors, on the basis of what authority, have symbolic power over the writing of climate change. The fine-grained analysis of organisations enabled by this analytical framework reveals how dominance can and is being remade through intergovernmental relations and potentially, identifies avenues that managers of these bodies can pursue to challenge it.
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| 4 |
ID:
148031
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| Summary/Abstract |
Many argue that autocratic regimes allocate revenues from foreign aid with the aim of stabilizing their rule rather than serving economic and social development. However, donors often condition foreign aid on reforms in recipient states. We argue that when those conditions for reform focus on participative processes and government accountability, they positively affect democratization. We evaluate our claim based on different types of World Bank and IMF lending programs for a panel of 100 low- and middle-income countries over the years 1980–2011. Our results suggest that aid positively affects democratization when it strengthens domestic accountability mechanisms and thereby reduces its fungibility for recipients. The World Bank and the IMF’s poverty reduction strategy programs provide a notable case of this effect.
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| 5 |
ID:
113352
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2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article provides a historical account of the creation of the ldc category in 1971, analyses the motives of the main actors and examines the motivation of the UN to establish the category. A literature review, official document analysis and expert interviews indicate that, from the perspective of both developed and more advanced developing countries, the initial ldc identification process aimed to generate a reduced list of mostly small and economically and politically less significant countries. Contrary to the official narrative, this served the interests of both developed countries (by undermining the UN's implicit effort to normalise/depoliticise international assistance) and more advanced developing countries (disturbed by the discrimination created within the developing countries' group, favouring the most disadvantaged among them).
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| 6 |
ID:
097346
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2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The majority of evidence on gasoline demand elasticities is derived from models based on national data. Since the largest growth in population is now taking place in cities in the developing world it is important that we understand whether this national evidence is applicable to demand conditions at the local level. The aim of this paper is to estimate and compare gasoline per vehicle demand elasticities at the national and local levels in Mexico. National elasticities with respect to price, income, vehicle stock and metro fares are estimated using both a time series cointegration model and a panel GMM model for Mexican states. Estimates for Mexico City are derived by modifying national estimates according to mode shares as suggested by Graham and Glaister (2006), and by estimating a panel Within Groups model with data aggregated by borough. Although all models agree on the sign of the elasticities the magnitudes differ greatly. Elasticities change over time and differ between the national and local levels, with smaller price responses in Mexico City. In general, price elasticities are smaller than those reported in the gasoline demand surveys, a pattern previously found in developing countries. The fact that income and vehicle stock elasticities increase over time may suggest that vehicles are being used more intensively in recent years and that Mexico City residents are purchasing larger vehicles. Elasticities with respect to metro fares are negligible, which suggests little substitution between modes. Finally, the fact that fuel efficiency elasticities are smaller than vehicle stock elasticities suggests that vehicle stock size, rather than its composition, has a larger impact on gasoline consumption in Mexico City.
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| 7 |
ID:
063877
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| 8 |
ID:
063953
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| 9 |
ID:
136060
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| Summary/Abstract |
Like many other developing countries, South Asian nations have been experiencing increased foreign direct investment inflows over the past decade as developing countries get a larger share of cross-border investments that were once sent to developed countries. Nonetheless, South Asia’s inflows of foreign direct investment remain the lowest relative to gross domestic product among developing country regions. Why are South Asia’s foreign direct investment inflows so low and what lessons can be drawn for developing countries as a whole? The analysis in this article uses a novel empirical model that accounts for possible trends in convergence in the ratio of foreign direct investment to gross domestic product between countries and cross-sectional data for 78 countries from 2000 to 2011. The sample contains 52 developing countries. The analysis finds that two key factors are at work—high overall regulatory restrictions on foreign direct investment and specific restrictions placed on doing business with other countries. These factors include overall trade restrictiveness, which reduces the benefits to cross-border investments, and weak institutions to protect foreign investors and facilitate investment. Nonetheless, the potential for faster growth in intra- and inter-regional foreign direct investment flows is significant. The main factors leading to this conclusion are South Asia’s current low levels of foreign direct investment, the many unexploited opportunities for embodied knowledge transfer, and supply-chain linkages. The overall lessons for developing countries are that liberalizing policy constraints in both trade and foreign investment, keeping corporate tax rates modest, and improving governance and transparency could help to substantially improve foreign direct investment flows.
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| 10 |
ID:
132541
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2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
HIV is no longer a death sentence" - that hopeful declaration-which would have been unthinkable even a decade ago- has now become a cliché by repetition whenever experts, physicians, academics and journalists gather to chart progress in fighting the disease and to set goals for the future. But for many people, sadly, that statement is not actually true. There remains no cure for the disease, and not everyone can get access to the anti-retrovirals (ARVs) that have done so much to help so many. This reflects the painful truth that poverty remains a major impediment to good health in the developing and even the developed world.
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| 11 |
ID:
082214
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| 12 |
ID:
127940
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2014.
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The history of the Bank of Israel is often told as a story that leads from servitude to independence. According to this conception, the bank was a weak and marginal institution during the developmental period of the state, and it turned into an independent actor in the neoliberal period. This article argues that the portrayal of the bank as marginal during the developing period fails to recognize the essential role it played in contributing to the capacity of the state to allocate credit more effectively. It maintains that that Bank of Israel provided the state with market compatible instruments in order to govern the banking system and depoliticized the allocation of credit. The establishment of the bank had two effects on Israel's political economy: it enabled the government to weaken its dependence on the Histadrut as an agent of development and it allowed it to nurture linkages with the private sector.
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| 13 |
ID:
170310
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Debates on the legitimacy of global governance pay remarkably little attention to whether and how developing countries can influence global governance. Instead, the focus lies significantly on addressing legitimacy challenges such as access and exclusion in global governance. Despite their merits, these debates often stop short of addressing a crucial question: How can weak states harness increased participation in global governance if they are ill-equipped to do so? To respond to this question, this article lays down a framework of mechanisms that might induce more influence by developing countries. The article makes two claims. First, we should understand influence as the combination of two skills: translation of global governance and empowerment to defend the interests of a country at global decision-making processes. Second, increased influence by developing countries must be stimulated by leveraging both domestic capacities (actor-level mechanisms of influence) and resources available at the international system (system-level mechanisms).
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| 14 |
ID:
097430
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2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Biomasses created from natural resources such as firewood, charcoal and forest crops are still the main source of energy in many communities in the developing countries of the world. The absence of modern techniques, in terms of energy conversion and the lack of resource planning, places a great burden on the environment, not only in terms of deforestation but the polluting residual emissions created by the burning of such fuels. Even in some developed countries, it is possible to find rural areas that have no access to the conventional national electrical grid. The lack of this facility is detrimental to the social and economic development of any country or community. Renewable energy systems have been used in many cases to mitigate these problems. The present paper introduces the concept of an alternative Hybrid Power System configuration that combines photovoltaic modules and digesters fuelled by goat manure as the basis for rural sustainable development. Attention is drawn to the Northeast Region of Brazil, one of the largest semi-arid regions in a single country. The regional conditions of Northeast of Brazil are not unique, suggesting that other countries of a similar nature would benefit from the same energy system.
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| 15 |
ID:
065962
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| 16 |
ID:
153138
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| Summary/Abstract |
The 1940s saw an intensification of worldwide interest in the problems of development and underdevelopment. One consequence of this was a rapid evolution of the language of global development. The reconstruction of its genesis is most commonly attempted through the analysis of literature on the subject and accounts by those who took part in or observed the debates of the time concerning the world’s development and structure. This article proposes a different approach which locates important events in the evolution of the modern language of global development on timelines tracing populational, political, socio-economic and civilisational processes.
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| 17 |
ID:
078283
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2007.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Do states and decision-makers ever act for moral reasons? And if they do, is it only when it is convenient or relatively costless for them to do so? A number of advocacy movements-on developing country debt relief, climate change, landmines, and other issues-emerged in the 1990s to ask decision-makers to make foreign policy decisions on that basis. The primary advocates were motivated not by their own material interests but broader notions of right and wrong. What contributes to the domestic acceptance of these moral commitments? Why do some advocacy efforts succeed where others fail? Through a case study of the Jubilee 2000 campaign for developing country debt relief, this article offers an account of persuasion based on strategic framing by advocates to get the attention of decision-makers. Such strategic but not narrowly self-interested activity allows weak actors to leverage existing value and/or ideational traditions to build broader political coalitions. This article, through case studies of debt relief in the United States and Japan, also links the emerging literature on strategic framing to the domestic institutional context and the ways veto players or "policy gatekeepers" evaluate trade-offs between costs and values.
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| 18 |
ID:
130994
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2014.
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Given the considerable sovereignty costs involved, the adoption of modern investment treaties by practically all developing countries presents somewhat of a puzzle. Based on a review of leading explanations of investment treaty diffusion, the article advances a new theory using behavioral economics insights on cognitive heuristics. In line with recent work on policy diffusion, it suggests that a bounded rationality framework has considerable potential to explain why, and how, developing countries have adopted modern investment treaties. To illustrate the potential of this approach, the case of South Africa is studied in depth.
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| 19 |
ID:
166564
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| Summary/Abstract |
Since the middle of the last century, the world has seen the emergence of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF). According to the Sovereign Wealth Funds Institute (2012), these legal entities can be defined as “a state-owned investment fund or entity that is commonly established from balance of payments surpluses, official foreign currency operations, the proceeds of privatizations, governmental transfer payments, fiscal surpluses, and/or receipts resulting from resource exports.” The SWFs are governed by the Santiago Principles, a document constructed by the IMF's International Working Group of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IWG) to recommend and to standardize the applications and investments of this kind of fund. SWFs are created in order to meet macroeconomic demands, using a series of investments strategies, which including foreign assets acquisitions. For instance, the Norwegian Government Pension Fund is one of the world's model SWFs. Its revenue is obtained from petroleum exploitation and is considered a savings fund, although part of the financial return can be applied in budget deficit. Following this example, Brazil created the Pre-Salt Social Fund to invest pre-salt petroleum revenues, and consists of a savings fund, according to the IMF classification. The present article focuses on the analysis and comparison of the legal structures of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund (GPF) and the Brazilian Pre-Salt Social Fund (SF), aiming to understand if the Brazilian fund applies the Norwegian standards.
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| 20 |
ID:
117617
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| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In the era of regional international relations and more interdependence, organisations like the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) can play a meaningful role in international level as well as regional in years to come. The recent summit of the BRICS reiterates that more cooperation is needed at various levels. In Delhi declaration, it is called for a more representative international financial architecture, with an increase in the voice and representation of developing countries and the establishment and improvement of a just international monetary system that can serve the interests of all countries and support the development of emerging and developing economies. Moreover, these economies having experienced broad-based growth are now significant contributors to global recovery. This is true. One must acknowledge the fact that the roles of the BRICS countries are composed of various political systems, various subcontinent, but in the changed context, all these countries are coming under the purview of the 'developing countries' in broader terms. That makes the BRICS beyond the regional boundaries to set a benchmark in the regional cooperation. China's permanent status in the United Nations makes the BRICS more strategically oriented and pragmatic aspects of foreign policy engagement in the twenty-first century. The political leadership and vision is equally important with economic engagement. The four major theories of the international relations (IR) are striking in this respect which includes liberalism, realism, constructivism and Marxism. Theoretical framework relevant to regionalism in focusing on IR theories is also analysed in this article. The main argument of the article is that there is no prescribed regional model and BRICS has to tune to the member countries' regional and political frameworks to engage with. Therefore, the framework of analysis is more or less critical about the Western engagement and it is region focused.
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