CIPE Guide to Governance Reform: Strategic Planning for Emerging Markets
http://tinyurl.com/lmljz9
In order for democracy to deliver value to citizens, it must be founded on good governance. Accountability, transparency, and citizen input in decision-making create the foundation for prosperous, entrepreneurial societies. Good governance is the means by which citizens of emerging markets countries devise local solutions to local problems.
David Roodman’s Microfinance Open Book Blog
http://blogs.cgdev.org/open_book/
This Open Book Blog is a way to share the writing of a book about the history and impacts of microfinance. CGD research fellow David Roodman posts and seeks feedback on draft chapters, burning questions, and useful sources.
EC’s report on EU development finance
http://www.eurodad.org/whatsnew/articles.aspx?id=3583
On the 8th of April 2009 the European Commission released its annual development finance Communication: ‘‘Supporting Developing Countries in Coping with the Crisis”. Eurodad has summarized and analysed the main elements on four issues central to aid effectiveness, debt, reform of international financial institutions, and taxation. For Eurodad, the EC’s annual Communication, based on questionnaires sent to Member States, is a useful, if limited, accountability exercise. It shows that much more needs to be done to implement existing European commitments on development finance, and to go further now that the financial and economic crises are severely affecting developing countries and may push a further 100 million people into poverty in 2009. Source: Eurodad
Entrepreneurship in post-conflict transition : the role of informality and access to finance
http://tinyurl.com/nczugr
The World Bank authors examine the factors affecting the transition to self-employment in Bosnia and Herzegovina, using the World Bank Living Standard Measurement Survey panel household survey for the years 2001-2004. In the beginning of the sample, the country changed its legal framework, with the primary aim to promote labor market flexibility and to encourage entrepreneurial activity. The analysis identifies individuals that switched to self-employment (employers and own account) during the sample period and the viability of this transition, in terms of business survival for more than one year. The results suggest an important role for financing constraints. Specifically, wealthier households are more likely to become entrepreneurs and survive in self-employment. After controlling for household wealth, having an existing bank relationship increases the likelihood of starting a business with hired employees and increases the chances of survival for the new entrepreneur. By contrast, overseas – and in some cases domestic – remittances decrease the likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur. Source: GTZ Online – Library Sustainable Economic Development.
European Development Cooperation to 2020
http://www.edc2020.eu/fileadmin/Textdateien/EDC2020_WP4_Webversion.pdf
This paper has been produced as part of a programme of work on the prospects for European Union development co-operation in the period up to 2020. It focuses specifically on the challenges Europe faces by the emergence of new actors in international development co-operation. In the past 10-15 years, the established development donors in the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) have forged a consensus about what aid is for, where it should be best directed and how it should be managed. With the increasing salience of a variety of new actors in international development, both governmental and nongovernmental, this consensus is being challenged at a time when aid budgets are under threat and when there are other new challenges for development cooperation, not least climate change. Source: EDC2020.
Finance in the Value Chain Framework
http://collab2.cgap.org//gm/document-1.9.34593/09.pdf
Value chain finance’ is defined and applied in many ways, referenced in countless articles and discussed at numerous conferences. This USAID brief paper is designed to clarify the term for practitioners, implementers and donors. Source: GTZ Online – Library Sustainable Economic Development.
Guide to responsible sourcing
http://tinyurl.com/dfqfjf
To help companies develop their own approaches to responsible sourcing, this guide provides a series of practical steps from a global and multisectoral perspective. These steps are based on real-life experiences from around the world, and can be used by companies of all sizes, sectors and regions.
How green is EU’s development aid?
http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2009/05/envi_tools.html
BirdLife International, FERN and WWF presented a new study analysing how useful are the EU tools designed to integrate environmental concerns into its development aid. To do so the report looks at 21 geographically diverse Country and Regional Environment Profiles (CEP& REP)”, and assesses them on the quality and information they provide using a standardised checklist. Source: BirdLife International
How to Ensure Development Friendly Economic Partnership Agreements –
Lessons Across Regions. Services – Investment – Other Trade Dimensions
http://www2.gtz.de/wbf/doc/How_to_ensure_development_friendly_EPAs.pdf
Negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) of the European Commission and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries have been ongoing since 2002, and they have attracted much attention from the development community. BMZ and GTZ have commissioned a series of analyses into issues covered by the CARIFORUM EPA which go beyond the trade in goods debate. By Dr. Regine Qualmann, GTZ Trade Programme. Source: GTZ NEDANews.
Impact assessments in finance and private sector development:
What have we learned and what should we learn ?
http://tinyurl.com/n7ntnl
Until recently rigorous impact evaluations have been rare in the area of finance and private sector development. One reason for this is the perception that many policies and projects in this area lend themselves less to formal evaluations. However, a vanguard of new impact evaluations on areas as diverse as fostering microenterprise growth, microfinance, rainfall insurance, and regulatory reform demonstrates that in many circumstances serious evaluation is possible. The purpose of this World Bank paper is to synthesize and distil the policy and implementation lessons emerging from these studies, use them to demonstrate the feasibility of impact evaluations in a broader array of topics, and thereby help prompt new impact evaluations for projects going forward. Source: GTZ Online – Library Sustainable Economic Development.
Improving impact evaluation production and use
http://tinyurl.com/cqrq3t
The past five years have seen a proliferation of impact evaluations (IEs) by development agencies across the globe. This report was commissioned by the UK Department for International Development’s (DFID’s) Evaluation Department to inform discussions on impact evaluation production and use within the Network of Networks Impact Evaluation Initiative (NONIE). It builds on an initial scoping study prepared for DFID which made recommendations on improving IE production and use, focusing on clustering, coordination, knowledge management, capacity strengthening and communication and uptake. This ODI report goes further by expanding both the literature review and the annotated database of IEs, as well as honing in on specific dynamics of IE production across sectors. Source: GTZ Online – Library Sustainable Economic Development.
Innovative firms or innovative owners ?
Determinants of innovation in micro, small, and medium enterprises
http://tinyurl.com/kq9jos
The authors develop a model of innovation that incorporates the role of both owner and firm characteristics, and use this to determine how product, process, marketing, and organizational innovations should vary with firm size and competition. The analysis finds that more than one-quarter of the microenterprises are engaging in innovation, with marketing innovations the most common. As predicted by the model, firm size has a stronger positive effect, and competition a stronger negative effect, on process and organizational innovations than on product innovations. Owner ability, personality traits, and ethnicity have a significant and substantial impact on the likelihood of a firm innovating, confirming the importance of the entrepreneur in the innovation process. Source: GTZ Online – Library Sustainable Economic Development.
Integrated Financing for Value Chains
http://www.woccu.org/functions/view_document.php?id=value_chain_techguide
WOCCU’s recent technical guide details the methodologies and lessons learned from WOCCU’s experience developing value chain finance initiatives for credit unions in Peru (USAID, 2006-09) and Kenya (USDA, 2006-10). The methodologies in these two countries are relatively new and still evolving, but they have proven successful in providing the missing financial link to help increase agricultural productivity.
Inventory of innovative farmer advisory services using ICTs
http://tinyurl.com/9tktpg
This paper documents all known innovative farmer advisory services or systems, currently in design, in existence or recently completed in Africa. The report notes that currently most farmers’ information is provided either by extension workers, through libraries or via websites. The authors assert that as the number of extension workers has been going down while that of farmers has been growing, there is a need for innovative information systems to address this gap.
Is Informal Normal? Towards More and Better Jobs in Developing Countries
http://tinyurl.com/mr6xov
Two billion people, or two- thirds of the global labour force, work in the informal sector. These workers receive low wages and have no formal contracts or benefits. In the context of the current economic crisis, likely to result in job losses in the formal sector, the study Is Informal Normal? by the OECD Development Centre provides evidence for policy makers on how to respond to the challenge of promoting more and better jobs for all.
Learning from Evaluation
http://tinyurl.com/kqloor
Evaluation serves two main purposes: accountability and learning. Development agencies have tended to prioritize the first, and given responsibility for that to centralized units. But evaluation for learning is the area where observers find the greatest need today and tomorrow. Asian Development Bank Knowledge Solutions by Olivier Serrat.
Open Access Guide for researchers based in Africa: Cheap or free Access to Databases and E-Journals
http://www.ilissafrica.de/en/howto/OpenAccessGuide.html
The internet library sub-Saharan Africa (ilissAfrica) is a portal that offers an integrated access to relevant scientific conventional and digital information resources on the sub-Saharan Africa region.
Participatory Approaches to Value Chain Development
http://collab2.cgap.org//gm/document-1.9.34596/13.pdf
Significant stakeholder involvement in a value chain development initiative increases the likelihood of success and sustainability. With broad participation, solutions to value chain constraints are generally more appropriate to the local setting, and when stakeholders understand and take ownership of the value chain development process they are more likely to remain actively engaged beyond the life of the project. USAID study. Source: GTZ Online – Library Sustainable Economic Development.
Participatory methods in the analysis of poverty: a critical review
http://tinyurl.com/nebw8m
This paper reviews and analyses the literature on on participatory methods in poverty analysis. The popularity of participatory poverty assessments has greatly increased in the last decade, and a growing number of development agents is adopting some forms of participatory methodology. this spread however seems to be possible even without a shared understanding of what participation stands for. This paper starts by introducing the broad lines of the debate on participation, before focusing more specifically on participatory methods in poverty analysis.
Private Sector Development in Post-Conflict Countries: A Review of current Literature and Practice
http://www.enterprise-development.org/download.aspx?id=1294
This Review by Naoise Mac Sweeney and Jim Tanburn discusses the characteristics of the post-conflict private sector, and the ways in which the development community can engage with it. It gives an overview of current approaches and experiences across most agencies active in the field. Edited by the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED). Source: GTZ NEDANews.
Promoting Economic Innovations in Sub-Sahara Africa
http://www2.gtz.de/wbf/doc/Promoting_Economic_Innovations.pdf
Based on a desktop enquiry, this GTZ paper by Nicole Rippin seeks to describe how innovations in the specific context of SSA emerge and how they can be promoted. Source: GTZ NEDANews.
Quantifying Achievements in Private Sector Development. Implementation Guidelines
http://www.enterprise-development.org/page/library-item?id=1309
These Guidelines have been developed by the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) as a companion to the DCED Proposed Methodology for Control Points and Compliance Criteria.
SmartAid for Microfinance Index 2009: Submission Guide. A Technical Guide
http://www.cgap.org/gm/document-1.9.9604/SmartAid_TechnicalGuide.pdf
This SmartAid Technical Guide distills learning from many years of CGAP’s work in aid effectiveness to measure what funders need to support microfinance effectively. The Guide draws from CGAP’s interactions with a broad range of donors and investors – through peer reviews and our ongoing microfinance work together.
Special Economic Zones: Performance, Lessons Learned, and Implications
http://tinyurl.com/mhqcct
This paper examines 30 years of experience in zones, reviewing development patterns and economic impacts of zones worldwide. The experience shows that while zones have been effective in addressing economic growth and development objectives, they have not been uniformly successful; successes in East Asia and Latin America have been difficult to replicate, particularly in Africa, and many zones have failed. Source: GTZ NEDANews.
Striving toward a Competitive Industry: The Importance of Dynamic Value Chain Facilitation
http://www.microlinks.org/ev_en.php?ID=33548_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC
This paper will highlights the importance of dynamic facilitation within the value chain approach. Specifically, it examines approaches for embedding active read-and-respond mechanisms within the management systems of a facilitator, while providing practical examples of how a program actively applies a follow-on facilitation strategy. By David Knopp, USAID. Source: GTZ Online – Library Sustainable Economic Development.
Tasks of the new European Commission
http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/id/ipa/06388.pdf
This publication of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung covers the financial and economic crisis which represents a window of opportunity for an active European Commission. The Barroso Commission has largely confined itself to managing the EU rather than acting as a driver of reform. The new European Commission will have to be measured by whether it will go beyond the necessary crisis management. What the EU needs is a long-term paradigm shift towards a social EU with a sustainable approach to the economy and a global presence.
The A-Z of German Media Development Cooperation
http://tinyurl.com/kvbrwl
This directory, an initiative by Forum Medien und Entwicklung (FoME), gives you an overview of the institutions and programmes currently involved in German media development cooperation.
The business of product innovation : international empirical evidence
http://tinyurl.com/mzx563 World Bank paper by Daniel Lederman.
It is so widely recognized that innovation is a key driver of economic growth that it is cliché to say so. This article studies product innovation by firms with data from 68 countries, covering more than 25,000 firms in eight manufacturing sectors. The author assesses the predictions of inter-disciplinary research on innovation by firms. The econometric evidence suggests that globalization and local knowledge increase the likelihood that firms will introduce new products. By contrast, domestic regulatory impediments to competition are not robustly correlated with product innovation.
The Debate on the Developmental State: Evidence from the Indian Software Industry
http://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/publications/dv/file51754.pdf
The author, , draws on a well documented case study of the successful Indian software industry in staking out a new position on the continuing debate on the preconditions for an effective developmental state. One of his major points is that supporters of such a state often assume, unrealistically, that state autonomy – namely, complete independence from vested political and economic interests- is a prerequisite for successful state interventions, such as in industrial policy. By Jyoti Saraswati, Department of Politics, Queen Mary, University of London, The Centre for Development Policy and Research Development Viewpoint #31.
The Impact of the Business Environment on the Business Creation Process,
http://tinyurl.com/mjncf7
New data from the 2008 World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey indicates a very strong and statistically significant relationship between entrepreneurship and a better business environment. Data for 100 countries on the number of total and newly registered corporations over an eight-year period (2000– 2007) were collected directly from registrars of companies around the world. This paper—a product of the World Bank’s Finance and Private Sector Team, Development Research Group, and Investment Climate Advisory Services Group—is part of a larger effort in the departments to study entrepreneurship.
USAID Poverty Assessment Tools Update
http://www.povertytools.org/tools.html
USAID and the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland want to make sure you are aware of the currently available Poverty Assessment Tools (PATs), the tools in development, and the resources available to implementers. There are 26 current USAID PATs, and new tools are expected to be available in late 2009 for Bolivia, Liberia, Nepal, Nigeria, West Bank, and Senegal.
USAID Value Chain Resources available in French and Spanish
View French resources at http://www.microlinks.org/francais
View Spanish resources at http://www.microlinks.org/espanol
Value Chain Finance, Integrating ICT into Value Chain Development, and Participatory Approaches to Value Chain Development are part of a briefing papers series emphasizing action-oriented recommendations for improved practice. In addition to these briefing papers, microLINKS contains a number of other resources available in French and Spanish.
Value Chain End-Market Research Toolkit Available
http://www.microlinks.org/ev_en.php?ID=39116_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC
The End-Market Toolkit: Upgrading Value Chain Competitiveness with Informed Choice informs implementers on the process and value of end-market research efforts for value chain development, provides a portfolio of tools, and grounds these tools through case studies of their practical application. The toolkit is divided into two broad sections in line with common practices in market research: Phase I: Secondary End-market Research, and Phase II: Primary End-market Research.
What future for the Cotonou Agreement?
http://www.cncd.be/spip.php?article610
The Cotonou Agreement is the jewel in the crown of EU development cooperation with the countries of the South and lays claim to a large proportion of development spending. However, nine years after its conclusion civil society organisations both in Europe and in the 77 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific are asking questions. Does it really promote sustainable development, human rights and development cooperation in a spirit of mutual respect? The various authors who have contributed to this publication show that there are grounds for scepticism and that commercial and political interests tend get in the way. The book raises some serious questions by suggesting that although next year should only mark the half-way stage, the Cotonou Agreement has actually already run its course and invites the reader to think about why, despite the agreement’s imperfections, that conclusion is worrying. Source: CNCD
Working in Teams
http://tinyurl.com/m6t5e2
Cooperative work by a team can produce remarkable results. The challenge is to move from the realm of the possible to the realm of practice. Asian Development Bank Knowledge Solutions by Olivier Serrat.
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