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41. Are Electoral Coalitions Harmful for Democratic Consolidation in Africa?

Author:
Danielle Resnick
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Electoral coalitions are becoming increasingly popular among opposition parties in Africa because they offer many advantages with respect to reducing party fragmentation and increasing incumbent turnovers. At the same time, however, they are often comprised of parties that are defined predominantly by their leaders' personalities and exhibit little differentiation in terms of their policy orientation. Based on a dataset spanning all opposition coalitions since 2000 in Africa's electoral democracies, this paper demonstrates not only that coalitions rarely defeat incumbents but also that they are only competitive when major opposition parties are involved. More significantly, the paper highlights that in many countries, a sizeable share of total electoral volatility is due to fluctuations in voting for opposition parties that have belonged to coalitions. The paper argues that such volatility reflects the inability of coalition members to build loyal constituency bases over time, which is critical for party development and broader consolidation.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, and Politics
Political Geography:
Africa

42. Determinants of Industrial Embeddedness: Evidence from African Manufacturing Firms

Author:
Abdelrasaq Na-Allah
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Recent developments in policy initiatives as well as some current practical events have combined to put the spotlight on the issue of industrial embeddedness in sub-Saharan Africa. Though extant research documents some stylized facts, as determinants of its manifestations, their relevance to realities in the sub-continent, have until now been overlooked. Yet, it is difficult to ignore the fact that its constituent economies possess some peculiar attributes with potentially significant implications for embeddedness behaviour. Using data for the country of Lesotho, a probit model is estimated to ascertain the veracity of some of the widely acclaimed explanatory factors. We find, as we argue, that among all, the issue of supply potentials appears the most important.
Topic:
Development and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
Africa

43. Does Lack of Innovation and Absorptive Capacity Retard Economic Growth in Africa?

Author:
Steve Onyeiwu
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
This paper reviews the innovative capabilities and absorptive capacities of African countries, and investigates whether they have played significant roles in the region's slow and episodic economic growth. Results from cross-country regressions covering 31 Sub-Saharan African countries suggest that growth in Africa is not simply a question of capital accumulation, fertility rates, aid dependency, and stable macroeconomic environment. It is also about strengthening the capacity of African countries to assimilate and effectively use knowledge and technology. Contrary to the views held by many analysts, the growth of African economies does not depend so much on their ability to innovate, but rather on their capacity to absorb and effectively use new technologies. Beyond technological issues, the paper confirms the stylized facts that the size of the government and political stability are important for the growth performance of African countries.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Africa

44. Globalization Crises, Trade, and Development in Vietnam

Author:
Philip Abbott and Finn Tarp
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Vietnam has been among the most successful East Asian economies, especially in weathering the external shocks of recent globalization crises—the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis and the 2008-09 great recession, financial crisis and collapse of global trade. Its success contradicts its characterization as an example of export-led growth and highlights the role of the state, particularly in maintaining and influencing investment. Examination of economic performance and policy responses shows rising dependence on foreign finance around each crisis, and actions by the government to counteract that dependence and bolster the domestic economy while continuing to restructure the economy toward greater emphasis on the private sector. Growth, employment and poverty alleviation have been maintained at the expense of renewed inflation, larger budget deficits, and currency depreciation. The 'stop-go' nature of present …
Topic:
Development, Economics, Globalization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Asia

45. Research Capacity Development for Environmental Management in Cambodia: Outlining a Multi-Sector Approach

Author:
Kei Otsuki and Shimako Takahashi
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Research capacity development at the higher education level in order to improve environmental planning and management has been considered invaluable in ensuring the sustainable development of developing countries. In least developed countries (LDCs), such as Cambodia, people are especially vulnerable to environmental changes and advanced knowledge is urgently needed to enhance their socio-ecological resilience; however, governments lack both the financial and human resources needed to ensure adequate academic infrastructure for knowledge generation and dissemination. Furthermore, the international aid community has rarely placed emphasis on investing in higher education in developing countries; instead, producing basically skilled labourers through primary and secondary education was considered more effective in bringing return on investment and enhancing economic development. Neither national nor international development agendas have so far resulted in a substantial commitment to research capacity development of academic institutions in LDCs.
Topic:
Development, Education, and Environment
Political Geography:
Cambodia and Southeast Asia

46. Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries

Author:
Wim Naudé, Adam Szirmai, and Micheline Goedhuys
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Nobody can be left in any doubt as to the importance of innovation for prosperity upon reading that “people living in the first decade of the twentieth century did not know modern dental and medical equipment, penicillin, bypass operations, safe births, control of genetically transmitted diseases, personal computers, compact discs, television sets, automobiles, opportunities for fast and cheap worldwide travel, affordable universities, central heating, air conditioning . . . technological change has transformed the quality of our lives.”
Topic:
Development, Economics, Globalization, and Markets

47. Reasoning about a distributed probabilistic system

Author:
J.W. Sanders and Ukachukwu Ndukwu
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Reasoning about a distributed system that exhibits a combination of probabilistic and temporal behaviour does not seem to be easy with current techniques. The reason is the interaction between probability and abstraction, made worse by remote synchronisation. In this paper the recently proposed language ptsc (for probability, time and shared-variable concurrency) is extended by constructs for interleaving and local block. Both enhance a designer's ability to modularise a design; the latter also permits a design to be compared with its more abstract specification, by concealing appropriately chosen design variables. Laws of the extended language are studied and applied in a case study consisting of a faulty register-transfer-level design.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, International Organization, United Nations, and Political Theory
Political Geography:
United States

48. Promoting Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries: Policy Challenges

Author:
Wim Naudé
Publication Date:
04-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
This policy brief provides some fresh perspectives on the relationship between entrepreneurship and development, and considers policy design issues. It reports on the UNU-WIDER two-year research project “Promoting Entrepreneurial Capacity”, which aimed to understand whether and how entrepreneurship matters for development, how it could derail development, how entrepreneurs function in high growth as well as in conflict environments, and how female entrepreneurship differs across countries at various stages of development.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, and Third World
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Iraq, and Burundi

49. Toward a Global Science and Technology Policy Agenda for Sustainable Development

Author:
Paul A. David, Can Huang, Luc Soete, and Adriaan van Zon
Publication Date:
09-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
The current economic crisis has tended to sap the policy momentum that had developed during 2006 and 2007 behind public R programmes and institutional initiatives to expand the portfolio of affordable technological means of controlling global warming. This is unfortunate, since the international negotiations about concerted actions among the leading industrial countries to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have so far proceeded very slowly – too slowly, considering both the global nature of the problem and the size of the stakes involved. The initial “bargaining” stance taken by some important players, notably Japan and the United States, was in some respects disappointing in that it appears to fall far short of the EU member countries' endorsement in December 2008 of the package of EC directives designed to activate its “20-20-20” renewable energy strategy – a 20 per cent reduction of GHG emissions, and 20 per cent of energy consumption from renewable sources, by the year 2020. While there have been more promising developments recently, in the convergence towards that target in some of the legislation introduced in the US Congress, and the Obama administration's issuance of US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory directives requiring the use of the latest emissions control technologies on new and retrofitted electricity power plants, the outcome of the Copenhagen conference in December 2009 remains uncomfortably uncertain.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, International Cooperation, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States

50. Can We Eradicate Hunger?

Author:
Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis
Publication Date:
01-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
World hunger is prevalent yet receives relatively less attention compared to poverty. The MDGs have taken a step to address this with the resolution of halving the number of starving people in the world by 2015. A substantial and sustainable reduction in hunger will also greatly improve the chances of meeting the MDGs related to poverty reduction, education, child mortality, maternal health, and disease. Hunger though is not a straightforward problem of producing enough to feed the world's population; it has many cross-cutting dimensions. This study addresses a combination of economic, social, and political perspectives, drawing upon academic research of the economic factors and the experiences of international organizations and civil society.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Development, and International Organization