EU must stand up for gender rights in development policy | Euractiv

The biggest battle for the future of international development is the ideological one: deciding whether to make women and men, and their sexual and reproductive health and rights, equal, writes Neil Datta on Euractiv.

“Public awareness of the potential to drive development by advancing gender equality is gaining momentum […]The biggest battle for the future of international development is the ideological one: deciding whether to make women and men, and their sexual and reproductive health and rights, equal”, writes Neil Datta, secretary of the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development.

In the report on “Women’s rights and the right to food” of Olivier De Schutter, UN’s special rapporteur clear causal links between improving gender equality and improving food security are found.

Since 2000 the international community has agreed that gender equality is one of the biggest challenges that must be achieved in order to reduce global poverty. So important, in fact, that it deserves its own Millennium Development Goal. But the danger of it being dealt with in exclusion is that the complexity, and its interwoven connections with other areas of development, will be neglected, as the battle for gender equality is categorised alongside the battle for the poor to become rich or the sick to become healthy.

Unlike most other development challenges, gender equality requires ideological social change to take place. Social change that has often taken decades, generations or even centuries to come about in places where it has already started to occur. The argument to provide money, medicine, education, clean water, housing, bed nets, infrastructure or working toilets is a simple one that requires little ideological debate to agree with. And these are ideas for which quantifiable indicators can be found to placate cash-strapped donors in search of value for money. Source: Euractiv

Filed under: European Union, Governance, equality, gender

Increased Policy Space under Globalization – networkideas.org

A severe blow to active Keynesian policy intervention occurred as a result of the New Classical resurgence in macroeconomics. With a vertical aggregate supply curve in the short and the long runs (New Classicals) or at least in the long run (New Keynesians), it has been argued that the economy settles down at a unique non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) without any government intervention. Implicit in the NAIRU theory is that the prices can decrease just as they can increase. However, if the prices cannot decrease, the aggregate supply curve would be an inverse-L shaped curve, both in the short and the long runs. Furthermore, with globalization, the expectations-augmented Phillips curve becomes horizontal because of an absolute decline in the bargaining power of the working class in the advanced countries. This means that not only would the economy settle at less than ‘full employment’, but the only way it could be brought closer to that is through active policy intervention. In the present case, manoeuvrability of fiscal policy increases since the threat of accelerating inflation practically disappears.

via networkideas.org – Increased Policy Space under Globalization, by Rohit Azad and Anupam Das
September 19, 2012..

Filed under: Development, Economy, Governance, Publications, Research

How to monitor and evaluate anti-corruption agencies: Guidelines for agencies, donors, and evaluators – U4 guide

How to monitor and evaluate anti-corruption agencies: Guidelines for agencies, donors, and evaluators
This report provides technical, methodological, and practical guidance to assist staff of Anti-corruption agencies (ACAs) in undertaking monitoring and evaluation and shows how the outcomes and impact of the work of ACAs can be evaluated in an objective, evidence-based manner. Download Report from U4.

Filed under: Governance, Corruption, Webguide

THE CLUB OF ROME – A New Path for World Development

THE CLUB OF ROME – A New Path for World Development.

It is clear that the present path of world development is not sustainable in the longer term, even if we recognise the enormous potentials of the market and of technological innovation. New ideas and strategies will be needed to ensure that improved living conditions and opportunities for a growing population across the world can be reconciled with the conservation of a viable climate and of the fragile ecosystems on which all life depends. A new vision and path for world development must be conceived and adopted if humanity is to surmount the challenges ahead.

In response to this intellectual and practical challenge, the Club of Rome will undertake a three year programme on “A New Path for World Development” so as to achieve a better understanding of the complex challenges which confront the modern world and to lay solid foundations for the action which must be taken to improve the prospects for peace and progress.

Filed under: Crisis, Development, Economy, Governance, Publications

Global report reveals poor transparency and accountability in government spending

The International Budget Partnership’s Open Budget Survey 2010 is the only independent, comparative, regular measure of budget transparency and accountability around the world. Produced every two years, the report reveals that 74 of the 94 countries assessed fail to meet basic standards of transparency and accountability with national budgets. This opens the door to abuse and inappropriate and inefficient use of public money according to the report. http://internationalbudget.org/what-we-do/open-budget-survey/

Filed under: Development, Governance