Translating Commitment Into Results

The Development Co-operation Report is the key annual reference document for statistics and analysis on trends in international aid.

With the financial meltdown and the economic crisis in their fifth year already no one can any longer be in doubt about their exceptional gravity, their truly global impact and their profound effects hurting vulnerable groups and the very poor especially. As the world looks for an exit from this economic crisis – the worst in eight decades – the focus of attention is naturally on the causes, the factors that account for its wide reach and severity, as well as on strategies that might bring it to a closure. The quest for exit strategies is at the very centre of the issues and concerns explored in the present volume, produced by the IIAS. Like the preceding volumes, but even more emphatically, this volume, representing a collective endeavour of scholars and practitioners from many parts of the globe, finds cause to lay the blame, for our difficult predicament, on the institutional deficit, the policies, the practices and values that have followed in the trail of a highly misleading and erroneous model of governance. The «Market Model of Governance» as it is known, sought to reform, the structures and culture of administration and government in private sector ways. While instrumental values like efficiency and effectiveness were raised and praised profusely, those of democratic governance were discounted by comparison. In particular, integrity, the rule of law and due process, equity, legality and public service professionalism suffered a steep decline, in several parts of the world. Likewise, the invasion and the capture of public space, inevitably led to an unprecedented surge of greed, abuse and corruption that contributed directly to the crisis which is upon us. Looking for exit strategies, as its title aptly suggests, the present volume offers a rich menu of ideas drawn from the current experience of all the world ́s main regions. Not surprisingly, two concepts stand out throughout the book as necessary correctives, as well as pressing remedies to the world ́s ongoing malaise. They call for the recapture of our common administrative space and the reaffirmation of the values and virtues appropriate for democratic governance. To the IIAS, none perhaps are more important than public service professionalism and none other can contribute more effectively to the reform and consolidation of sound institutions for national, sub national, global and regional governance. For these reasons, at this juncture, the new volume like the others should be featured in every public library and become a vademecum of all scholars and practitioners of public administration and politics around the world.

Tillage agriculture has led to widespread soil and ecosystem degradation globally, and more particularly in the developing regions. This is especially so in Africa where traditional agricultural practices have become unsustainable due to severe exploitation of natural resources with negative impacts on the environment and food system. In addition, agricultural land use in Africa today faces major challenges including increased costs, climate change and a need to transform to more sustainable production intensification systems. Conservation Agriculture has emerged as a major alternative sustainable climate smart agriculture approach in Africa and has spread to many African countries in the past decade as more development and research, including in sustainable mechanization, has enabled its extension and uptake. It is key to transforming Africa's agriculture and food system given its ability to restore soil health, biodiversity and productivity of millions of smallholder farms as well as larger-scale farms. This book is aimed at all agricultural stakeholders in the public, private and civil sectors in Africa engaged in supporting the transformation of conventional tillage agriculture to Conservation Agriculture. The book will be of interest to: researchers, academics, students, development stakeholders, public and private sector investors and policy makers as well as institutional libraries across the world.

Despite the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region's impressive economic growth, over 1 billion of its people still lack access to electricity and modern cooking solutions. To achieve universal access to modern energy by 2030, this book exhorts EAP countries to advance simultaneously on two paths: (1) accelerate programs for grid and off-grid electricity through appropriate policies and innovative technologies; and (2) scale up access to clean cooking fuels and efficient cooking stoves, particularly for biomass in poor rural areas.

Global transformations – from population ageing to digitalisation, rising inequalities and climate change – have created profound uncertainties for young people and future generations, despite unprecedented access to information, education and technology. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened pre-existing challenges in youth’s mental health and employment, while raising concerns about the sustainability of public finances.

This book focuses on the indicators of fragility and the resilience of state-led interventions to address them in sub-Saharan Africa. It analyzes the ‘figure’ of fragile states as the unit the analysis and situates the study of fragility, governance and political adaptation within contemporary global and local political, economic and socio-cultural contexts. The chapters offer an indispensable, econometrically informed guide to better understanding issues that have an impact on fragility in governance and nation-building and affect policy-making and program design targeting institutions in various circumstances. These issues, as they relate to the indicators of fragility, are the contexts and correlates of armed conflicts on statehood and state fragility, the poverty-trap, pandemics and household food insecurity, and child labor. Case studies from across 46 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries are assessed to offer clear, broad and multidisciplinary views of what the future holds for them and the international donor communities at large. Regarding state-led interventions, the authors utilize insightful statistical methods and epistemologies to explain the correlates of behavioral language frames and conflict de-escalation on battle-related deaths across the conflict zones within the sub-region, the regional and country-level interventions to end child labor, the institutional frameworks and interventions in the advancement of food security and health. This book will be of interest to scholars of economics, development, politics in developing countries, Area and African Studies, peace, conflict and security studies.

Maternal-Child Health is one of the greatest challenges the world has to cope with today. Every year, thousands of women, newborns and children die unnecessarily, particularly in resource-poor settings. There is a great disparity caused by food insecurity and hunger, environmental health risks, sanitation challenges, cultural barriers and non-accessibility to diagnosis and treatment. "Maternal-Child Health: Interdisciplinary Aspects within the Perspective of Global Health" addresses these issues. The contributions of this book are based on the ONE HEALTH concept by focusing on infectious and non-communicable diseases and to present interdisciplinary views from more than 60 authors who come from 14 countries. The aim is to shape our understanding on Maternal-Child Health Solutions by looking at > agricultural and environmental > economic, social and theological > biomedical and nutritional > clinical human and veterinary as well as > epidemiology and > public health expertise. The Göttingen International Health Network is corresponding to a variety of different geographic regions and programs to improve global health perspective and health of the most vulnerable: mothers and their children.