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182. The Pentagon, Information Operations, and Media Development
- Author:
- Peter Cary
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- Abstract:
- A core principle of the United States is that a free and independent press is vital to the formation and maintenance of democracies. During the Cold War, the State Department's media outreach into the former Soviet Union and other Communist- leaning nations was largely limited to the broadcasts of the U.S. Information Agency (USIA). With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the effort broadened: USAID began to encourage and develop independent media in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In the early 1990s, when the Balkans erupted in conflict, that region became the focus of assistance for media development.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Cold War, Development, Mass Media, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Russia, United States, Europe, and Berlin
183. Can Donors Be Flexible within Restrictive Budget Systems? Options for Innovative Financing Mechanisms
- Author:
- Benjamin Leo
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- This paper focuses on how budgetary scorekeeping systems affect governments' ability or willingness to support innovative development finance initiatives and explores several options to overcome the restrictions the systems often impose. As a starting point, it assumes that donor governments, such as the United States, will not reform their budgetary system regulations to accommodate innovative development finance commitments due to political and budget policy concerns. In general, each option outlined entails important financial, political, and bureaucratic challenges and tradeoffs. In other words, there are no silver bullets. However, there are possible approaches that may merit further exploration by donor governments that want to support specific innovative development finance initiatives but are constrained by existing budgetary systems.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- United States
184. When Does Rigorous Impact Evaluation Make a Difference? The Case of the Millennium Villages
- Author:
- Michael Clemens and Gabriel Demombynes
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- When is the rigorous impact evaluation of development projects a luxury, and when a necessity? We study one high-profile case: the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), an experimental and intensive package intervention to spark sustained local economic development in rural Africa. We illustrate the benefits of rigorous impact evaluation in this setting by showing that estimates of the project's effects depend heavily on the evaluation method. Comparing trends at the MVP intervention sites in Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria to trends in the surrounding areas yields much more modest estimates of the project's effects than the before-versus-after comparisons published thus far by the MVP. Neither approach constitutes a rigorous impact evaluation of the MVP, which is impossible to perform due to weaknesses in the evaluation design of the project's initial phase. These weaknesses include the subjective choice of intervention sites, the subjective choice of comparison sites, the lack of baseline data on comparison sites, the small sample size, and the short time horizon. We describe how the next wave of the intervention could be designed to allow proper evaluation of the MVP's impact at little additional cost.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Nigeria
185. Austerity and the IMF
- Author:
- Kenneth Rogoff
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- It is a great honor to present the fifth annual Richard H. Sabot lecture at the Center for Global Development. In this talk, I will take up a relatively narrow but absolutely fundamental question in the international monetary system, particularly in developing countries: Is the International Monetary fund (the IMF) guilty of bringing excessive austerity to the countries that turn to it for bailout funding? Should the IMF instead put much more weight on encouraging countercyclical fiscal policy, as it does in rich countries? Extremely difficult and complex issues underlie these seemingly straightforward questions. My modest aim in this lecture is to help clarify the issues so as to promote rational dialogue.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Organization, International Monetary Fund, and Foreign Aid
186. Aid for Trade: Supporting Trade Preference Reform
- Author:
- Susan Prowse
- Publication Date:
- 09-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Aid-for-trade programs can help strengthen low-income countries' supply capacity and knowledge of trade preferences, which will allow them to take fuller advantage of these preferences. Aid for trade to support preference reform can be divided into three categories: (i) creation of information-sharing mechanisms to ensure that governments, SMEs and other businesses are aware of the opportunities that preferential market access offers; (ii) capacity-building support to overcome supply-side and policy constraints; and (iii) support to ease the adjustments to preference erosion that will inevitably occur. As with other aid initiatives, coordination and cohesion among assistance programs is critical for success. Delivery mechanisms such as the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF), the Trade Facilitation Facility (TFF), and the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF), are aimed at facilitating such coordination, but more could be done. And, as preference programs are intended to be temporary, aid for trade can also facilitate graduation from these programs and compensate beneficiaries for preference erosion. Unfortunately, this area is still lacking the level of innovation and financial support needed.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Foreign Aid
187. The Road to Olive Farming: Challenges to developing the economy of olive oil in the West Bank
- Author:
- Lara El-Jazairi
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- For thousands of years, the olive tree has been an integral part of the Palestinian landscape: a symbol of Palestinian identity, culture and tradition. The majority of Palestinian farmers are at least partially dependent on olive cultivation. The current profitability of olive farming is evident in the increase in recent years of farmers who are planting new trees and tending to their orchards. In a good year, the olive oil sector contributes over $100 million income annually to some of the poorest communities. Olive cultivation also has strong social and political aspects, as the planting of olive orchards is often an attempt to prevent the confiscation of land by Israel or settlers and to protect Palestinian livelihoods.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Development, Humanitarian Aid, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Palestine and Arab Countries
188. How Can Donors Create Incentives for Results and Flexibility for Fragile States? A Proposal for IDA
- Author:
- Alan Gelb
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- International Development Association (IDA) donors and others operating a country performance-based allocation system face two difficult problems: how to strengthen incentives to produce and document development results and how to increase flexibility for fragile states. Fragile states have the greatest need for projects, but their projects tend to rate poorly in performance-based allocations systems, which provide little incentive to produce successful projects in fragile states or other countries.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Foreign Aid
189. The Legacy of the Jubilee Debt Relief Movement: Agreements, Lessons, and Remaining Challenges
- Author:
- Benjamin Leo
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Over the last 25 years, the international community has pursued a series of measures to address unsustainable debt burdens in low-income countries. Early actions focused on debt relief for official bilateral claims—initially by rescheduling—followed by increasing levels of debt stock reduction. During this period, the Paris Club repeatedly reduced or rescheduled the debts of a number of countries.
- Topic:
- Debt, Development, and Foreign Aid
190. Lessons to Be Learned: Political Party Research and Political Party Assistance
- Author:
- Gero Erdmann
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- German Institute of Global and Area Studies
- Abstract:
- Generally speaking, the effects of international political party assistance are viewed negatively, or at least controversially. This study attributes some of the shortcomings of political party aid to the poor relationship between assistance providers and political science party research. They simply operate in different worlds. Party assistance lacks clear-cut concepts and strategies in practice, which makes it difficult to adequately evaluate it. At issue is its “standard method,” with its “transformative” intention to change the party organization of the assistance receivers. At the same time, the scholarship on political parties can provide only limited help to assistance providers due to its own conceptual and methodological restrictions, such as the Western European bias underlying its major concepts, the predominance of a functionalist approach, and the scant empirical research on political parties out-side of Europe and the US. Taking a cue from recent political party research, we could begin to question the overarching role of political parties in the transition and consolidation process of new democracies. Other research findings emphasize the coexistence of different types of party organizations, and the possibility of different organizational developments, which might all be consistent with consolidating democracy. All this suggests the necessity of abandoning the controversial aim of the “transformative impact” of political party aid.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Politics, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe