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41952. Pro-poor growth and poverty reduction in Nigeria
- Author:
- John E. Ataguba, Chukwuma Agu, and Hyacinth Ichoku
- Publication Date:
- 11-2012
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)
- Abstract:
- The government of Nigeria has placed poverty reduction at the centre of the country’s economic policy and development programs since independence. Though this was not explicitly targeted in earlier development plans (1962 to 1975) of the country, it featured in more pronounced ways in latter programs and projects, many of which specifically targeted elimination of poverty. These targeted programs and projects covered a wide range of sectors of the economy including agriculture, health, education, housing and finance. In fact, they became so commonplace, scattered and ubiquitous that the Obasanjo regime (1999-2007) had to set out to rationalize and merge them in 1999. The various institutions that have arisen from the disparate poverty reduction programs were then consolidated into the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP). This, headed by the President, was charged with the sole mandate of eradicating poverty. There are different opinions that exist regarding the level of success of these programs and policies. Some people believe that these programs have had positive impact on the poor while others believe that they have made the poor poorer.
- Topic:
- Poverty, Inequality, Economic Growth, and Economic Policy
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Nigeria
41953. Explaining the Pentagon’s Defense Strategy
- Author:
- Julie Zelnick and Mieke Eoyang
- Publication Date:
- 05-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Third Way
- Abstract:
- The purpose of this paper is to translate the long and technical national security strategic directive the Obama Administration laid out on January 5, 2012 into plain language and provide policymakers with guidance on how to make the case for the President’s plan. The directive has four over-arching goals, which are reflected in the budget
- Topic:
- Security, Defense Policy, Imperialism, and Military Strategy
- Political Geography:
- United States, North America, and Global Focus
41954. The Insistence of the Material: Theorizing Materiality and Biopolitics in the Era of Globalization
- Author:
- Christopher Breu
- Publication Date:
- 08-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
- Abstract:
- In what follows, then, I will first provide a brief account of the value and limits of the cultural turn. I will then map out some of the trajectories of the recent material turn, putting it in dialogue with older materialist approaches and suggesting the ways in which we can draw on both older and newer approaches to the question of materiality in order to theorize the bodies, objects, biopolitics, political ecology, and political economy in our globalizing present.
- Topic:
- Politics, Culture, and Material Culture
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
41955. An Interdisciplinary Forum on Time and Globalization
- Author:
- Christopher Breu
- Publication Date:
- 09-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
- Abstract:
- How do globalization and temporality relate to one another? This was the question addressed by a 2011 workshop sponsored by Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition (IGHC) at McMaster University. In the past, globalization and temporality have both been characterized as moving forward independently of human volition, carrying all of us along in their flow. Now there are large literatures challenging this view, and showing how globalization and time are constructed and modified by humans. However, with some important exceptions (Harvey 1990, Sassen 2000, Appadurai 2005, Bauman 2000), the literatures on globalization and on temporality have developed separately from one another. It is important to bring these literatures into closer dialogue, because a great many urgent issues in contemporary human affairs involve interactions between temporality and globalization. These range from individual-level questions, such as managing the accelerated pace of everyday life, to large epochal problems, such as climate change, that may not always be readily apprehended, but are no less significant. The workshop participants, drawing on their backgrounds in a variety of academic disciplines, addressed the relationship between temporality and globalization in a variety of settings. Six of the papers presented at this workshop are gathered in this IGHC Working Paper. The assembled papers, individually and jointly, identify a number of themes of particular relevance to any comprehensive discussion of globalization and time. By way of introduction, it is useful to briefly consider how the most prominent of these themes are addressed by the contributors.
- Topic:
- Globalization, Human Development, and Time
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
41956. Africa Capacity Indicators 2012: Capacity Development for Agricultural Transformation and Food Security
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF)
- Abstract:
- In Africa, the challenges impacting on the agricultural sector growth are multi-faceted. They include but are not limited to, an over-dependence on rainfall, weak capacity to respond to shocks, political governance, choice of crops, changing needs and changing food habits due to globalization, land degradation, land renting and sale to foreign companies. All of these contribute to an unnecessary level of food insecurity. The aforementioned are exacerbated by the low level of commitment to the sector in terms of policy and physical and human investment, especially in Agricultural Research, Extension and Education. This is coupled with the ineffectiveness and inefficiency in the supply side of the Agricultural Knowledge and Information System (AKIS) – institutional and process – and the absence of an organized and structured demand side of AKIS – the farmers.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Development, Food, and Food Security
- Political Geography:
- Africa
41957. Iran: a revolutionary republic in transition
- Author:
- Rouzbeh Parsi (ed)
- Publication Date:
- 02-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Union Institute for Security Studies
- Abstract:
- This Chaillot Paper examines recent domestic developments in the Islamic Republic of Iran. It presents an in-depth assessment of the profound changes that the Iranian state and Iranian society have undergone in the past three decades, with a particular focus on the last tumultuous five years. In its exploration of this theme it not only shows the growing rift between the official discourse and self-image of the ruling elite and the society they govern, but also highlights the fact that external observers have many misperceptions about Iran.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Islam, Nuclear Weapons, Political Economy, Governance, and Nuclear Power
- Political Geography:
- Iran and Middle East
41958. Engaging African diasporas for peace: cornerstones for an emerging EU agenda
- Author:
- Judith Vorrath
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Union Institute for Security Studies
- Abstract:
- Over the last decade, researchers and policy-makers have paid increasing attention to diasporas. They have focused on diasporas not merely as a challenge, but as a source of largely untapped potential. Their transnational nature and peculiar position as non-state actors linking host and home countries has been identified as an important basis for engagement. Diaspora groups from sub-Saharan Africa in Europe, which according to a 2008 Council of Europe parliamentary report on immigration are roughly estimated to comprise between 3.5 and 8 million people, are not only a relevant force, but often come from homelands that have experienced or are still facing armed conflict. Against this background, this Occasional Paper addresses the question of what contribution diaspora communities can make to promoting peace in their homelands and how the European Union can engage with African diasporas in the field of peace and security.
- Topic:
- Development, Globalization, Migration, Diaspora, and Immigration
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Europe
41959. The EU and Mindanao: innovative avenues for seeking peace
- Author:
- Alistair MacDonald and Gabriel Munuera Viñals
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Union Institute for Security Studies
- Abstract:
- The confrontation between Muslim and Christian inhabitants of Western Mindanao, between the 'Moros' and the Philippine State, belongs to that category of 'forgotten conflicts' of which most international relations practitioners are often only vaguely aware. The conflict has historical roots that reach back centuries and has evolved with many twists and turns, culminating in an equally long and no less convoluted peace process. However, this conflict has important international ramifications and is one in which the international community is today actively involved, with facilitating and monitoring mechanisms involving states as well as non-state actors. In particular the European Union has been playing an increasingly important role, including in relation to diplomatic efforts aimed at finding a lasting solution to the conflict, based on its holistic approach to crises and interaction with European NGOs.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Diplomacy, International Cooperation, Islam, and Religion
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Israel, Philippines, and Australia/Pacific
41960. The EU's and China's institutional diplomacy in the field of climate change
- Author:
- Pietro De Matteis
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Union Institute for Security Studies
- Abstract:
- This Occasional Paper aims at providing a new perspective on the relevance of climate change for the EU's external action. Considering its linkages with various areas such as energy security, economic growth and diplomacy, and indeed its importance in terms of future political stability, climate change is a major 'game-changer' in international relations. The issue of climate change, and how to deal with it, therefore presents governments with a significant opportunity to reshape the international order in the light of the major global transformations currently underway. The development of the climate change regime presents the EU with both an opportunity and a threat, in as much as it may either accelerate Europe's decline as a foreign policy actor or, on the contrary, reinvigorate its diplomatic ambitions.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Development, Diplomacy, Environment, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- China, Europe, and Asia