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The focus of this greatly improved third edition is to provide comprehensive quantitative information on African central government debt instruments, both marketable debt and non-marketable debt.
The coverage of data is limited to central government debt issuance as well as bi-lateral, multi-lateral and concessional debt and excludes therefore state and local government debt and social security funds.
This 11th edition of the African Economic Outlook reviews recent economic, social and political developments and the short-term likely evolutions of 53 African countries. This year’s edition will for the first time cover Eritrea and South Sudan. The focus of the 2012 AEO is the promotion of youth employment in Africa, presenting a comprehensive review of both challenges and opportunities Africa faces in providing its young population with sufficient and decent jobs.
Full-length country notes are available on www.africaneconomicoutlook.org
With more than two-thirds of the world’s poor living in rural areas, higher rural incomes are a pre-requisite for sustained poverty reduction and reduced hunger. This volume sets out a strategy for raising rural incomes which emphasises the creation of diversified rural economies with opportunities within and outside agriculture. Agricultural policies need to be integrated within an overall mix of policies and institutional reforms that facilitate, rather than impede, structural change. By investing in public goods, such as infrastructure and agricultural research, and by building effective social safety nets, governments can limit the role of less efficient policies such as price controls and input subsidies.
As the international community takes stock of what has been achieved on the occasion of the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, Korea (29 November to 1 December 2011), this report sets out evidence of progress and challenges in making aid more effective. This evidence should help forge a consensus beyond Busan that aid – and its effectiveness –represents only one element of a broader landscape of development finance and joint efforts to make aid more effective can and should inform a broader development effectiveness agenda.
Aid plays an important role in reducing poverty and inequality, stimulating growth, building capacity, promoting human development and accelerating the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Effective aid is critical both to maximise the impact of aid and to achieve long-term, sustainable development.
Aid to the health sector has increased substantially over the last 20 years from USD 5 billion in 1990 to USD 21.8 billion in 2007. Consisting of a growing and diverse range of actors, aid to the health sector faces complex governance and management challenges: for example, donors inadvertedly invest in duplicate and fragmented efforts, while partners are unable to take full responsibility and leadership. By reviewing these challenges against the aid effectiveness principles outlined in the landmark 2005 Paris Declaration and 2008 Accra Agenda for Action, this report provides insight and expounds lessons from the health sector to the broader challenges of aid effectiveness. Health, then, is used as a “tracer” sector to help assess the risks and benefits of the diverse range of actors, and promote co-ordination and coherence among development programmes.
This work is the result of a collaboration between the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness – an inclusive, international forum with the aim of improving aid delivery – through its Task Team on Health as a Tracer Sector and the World Trade Organization.
This study contributes to the current debate on achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), their relevance and what can be done after 2015, by looking at estimates of the cost of reaching the goals in 2015. In particular, it sizes the additional resources needed in developing countries to attain the goals.
This report presents a detailed analysis of the Dominican Republic’s financial system and offers a series recommendations to develop the country’s capital markets. The country has recently made big advances in the development of its capital markets, achieving high solvency in the banking sector, improving the institutional framework for the management of public debt and experiencing steady growth in the value of both the private bond market and the assets of pension funds. However, the level of financing directed to the economy is still small, given the country’s level of development, and there are important structural challenges that need to be addressed. Both the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry issue public debt, each with different purposes, and there appears to be little coordination between the two organs in terms of rate of returns and maturity of the issued bonds. The primary market of private bonds suffers from a long and complicated issuing process that stems from coordination and communication problems among the different regulators. The bond secondary market lacks key aspects of market infrastructure. Finally, institutional investors invest mostly on public debt instruments and bonds issued by finance sector firms.
The potential of diasporas as a source of economic and social development in origin countries and whether diasporas could help foster development depend on their characteristics, such as size, composition, skill levels and degree of concentration, but also on the degree of integration into the destination countries and the economic, political and social environment in origin countries. Governments of origin and destination countries can indeed facilitate the involvement of diasporas, by supporting networks, by facilitating communication channels with the country of origin, by creating an enabling environment, or – more directly – by easing skill mobility and use. In this regard, the capacity to characterise the profile of diasporas is instrumental.
This joint OECD/AFD publication includes 140 country notes summarising diaspora sizes, including the number of children of migrants born in the destination countries; the characteristics of emigrant populations (gender, age, education, labour market outcomes); the numbers and main destinations of international students; recent migrant flows to OECD countries; and information on the desire to emigrate of different population groups. The country note information is grouped into six regions: Asia and Oceania; Latin America and the Caribbean; OECD countries; Non-OECD Europe and Central Asia; Middle East and North Africa; and Sub-Saharan Africa. The situation in each region is introduced by a separate chapter, which looks at historical migration trends, the main characteristics of diasporas originating from the region, and likely future developments and challenges.
This report highlights the issues faced by local areas against the backdrop of policies or planning models that have directed local development in the past decades (e.g. introduction of new industries such as information technology/bio-technology following the de-industrialisation of mining/manufacturing industries) but today appear less suitable than expected to ensure the sustainability of local development.
This report is timely in discussing cases from 20 countries around the world and particularly signalling local strategies and initiatives for policy consideration and learning. The report considers together issues at the crossroads of modern local development in the context of demographic change: population mobility and urban shrinkage, regeneration strategies to stimulate sustainable growth, and social dynamics underpinning community stability.
The Development Co-operation Report is the key annual reference document for statistics and analysis on trends in international aid. This year, the Development Co-operation Report 2012 seeks to provide insights into how to address today’s sustainable development challenges, with a focus on inclusiveness and good governance to ensure that our finite resources are equitably distributed, now and in the future.
Sharing finite resources among a growing number people – and consumers – is a critical challenge. It is in this spirit that J. Brian Atwood, Chair of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), invited several intellectual leaders on the challenges of inclusive, sustainable development to contribute to this year’s report.
Recognising a need for better, tailored approaches to learning and accountability in conflict settings, the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) launched an initiative to develop guidance on evaluating conflict prevention and peacebuilding activities. The objective of this process has been to help improve evaluation practice and thereby support the broader community of experts and implementing organisations to enhance the quality of conflict prevention and peacebuilding interventions. It also seeks to guide policy makers, field and desk officers, and country partners towards a better understanding of the role and utility of evaluations. The guidance presented in this book provides background on key policy issues affecting donor engagement in settings of conflict and fragility and introduces some of the challenges to evaluation particular to these settings. It then provides step-by-step guidance on the core steps in planning, carrying out and learning from evaluation, as well as some basic principles on programme design and management.
The balance of economic power is shifting. Countries that were once poor are becoming economic powerhouses. Yet poverty persists worldwide, depriving billions of people of basic necessities and the prospects of creating a better life. How are we responding to this challenge? This book explores the multi-faceted world of aid and development co-operation – a range of global, and sometimes contested, efforts aimed at reducing the impact of poverty. It traces the history of these efforts, explains where they come from and where they are going, and asks whether they are achieving as much as they could. It also examines some of the ways in which development efforts can be made more effective in achieving lasting benefits through good governance and the creation of a deeper partnership between developed and developing countries. And it looks at how the economic emergence of countries like China and India is bringing a new dynamic to development co-operation.
This publication provides comprehensive data on the volume, origin and types of aid and other resource flows to around 150 developing countries. The data show each country's intake of official development assistance and well as other official and private funds from members of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD, multilateral agencies and other key donors. Key development indicators are given for reference.
This publication explores current global security issues, their development in West Africa and their potential impact on regional stability. It takes a close look at issues such as terrorism and trafficking, climate change, and the links between “security and development”. Some of these issues are still the object of heated debate. This book draws attention to the risk of oversimplified analyses and biased perceptions of security risks. It also highlights the need for coordinated policies and dialogue between West Africa, North Africa and OECD countries.
This policy guidance outlines a number of steps to be considered when building capacity for greening national development planning, national budgetary processes and key economic sector strategies. It identifies the key actors to be engaged in the decision making processes, outlines possible capacity needs and suggests how these can be addressed. This policy guidance is intended to support developing countries in their efforts to move to a greener development path. It is also intended to assist development co-operation and environment agencies in their efforts to support that process.
Peace processes hold the promise of re-starting non-violent efforts towards creating more equitable, resilient and developed societies. Yet, such processes are politically and psychologically complex, as well as high-risk. Many fail and such failure is harmful, as it reduces confidence and increases cynicism amongst parties to a conflict, citizens and international partners alike. International support can help a peace process to succeed but its nature and quality matter greatly.
“The Missing Piece” identifies seven recommendations to improve the quality of support that states and international organizations provide to peace processes. It does this through a thorough analysis of: the characteristics of today’s violent conflicts, the factors that influence the success and failure of a peace process and the current strengths & weaknesses of international support.
This report reviews the Korean catching up and it analyzes the recent reforms which have been put in place to address the territorial dimension in the design and implementation of industrial policies, with a view to share knowledge and policy experience with emerging and developing economies. Korea is a well known success case, but less is known about the efforts and reforms introduced to factor in the territorial dimension in its national development strategy.
The report identifies the advances and challenges of the Korean approach to regional development. Results show that beside the specificities of the Korean experience it conveys several lessons for developing countries: i) Planning actions on a multi-annual basis is essential to achieve policy goals in fields such as industrial and regional development where policy outcomes depend on structural changes that will require long term horizons to be materialised and where coordination across several ministries (such as education, infrastructure and access to finance) is needed. ii) It is important to establish mechanisms that ensure a high level political support to regional development as well as to target resources to regions. iii) Supporting industrial development in regions requires designing specific programs beyond administrative boundaries. iv) The space for bottom up initiatives and regional empowerment has to be matched by a gradual approach to build the necessary capabilities at the regional level.
Corruption and other governance problems result primarily from processes generated within the domestic political economy. There are major international factors, however, that interact with domestic processes: international drivers of corruption. This report introduces an analytical tool to help readers understand how these international drivers of corruption affect governance and corruption at the country level. It provides a means for identifying those drivers that matter most for domestic governance, as well as opportunities for international actors to work more effectively to improve governance in specific country contexts.
1.5 billion people live in countries affected by repeated cycles of violence and insecurity. These countries face tremendous challenges as they transition from conflict to peace. International support can play a crucial role in these contexts, but has so far struggled to deliver transformative results. This volume presents clear policy recommendations for better practice in order to improve the speed, flexibility, predictability and risk management of international support during post-conflict transition.
Even in the midst of a global financial crisis, Latin American and Caribbean economies find themselves in better condition than in years past. Latin America must seize this opportunity to design and implement good public policies. The greatest of the long-term objectives of Latin American states remains development: economic growth and structural change that is rapid, sustainable and inclusive. In particular, governments must reduce inequalities in income, public-service delivery and opportunities, as well as promote the diversification of economies, often concentrated on a few primary-product exports.
Improved efficiency of public administration is crucial to address both the short-term and long-term dimensions of these challenges. The real change, however, will come if Latin American and Caribbean states carry out meaningful fiscal reforms, making them not only more efficient but also more effective. The increased effectiveness of fiscal policy holds the promise to provide resources needed to address the key challenges of economic development. Three key priority areas for investing additional resources have been highlighted by many governments in the region for their potential to raise competitiveness and social inclusion: education, infrastructure and innovation. In each of these areas, more efficient administration and more effective strategic action is needed from states.