8. Development Actors/Acteurs du développement

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The landscape of development assistance has changed over the past 60 years. The dominance of Western multilateral organizations working on fighting poverty, monitoring peace, and enhancing trade has been diminished by the increased influential voice and leadership of “other development actors” –emerging powers, private charities and foundations, and civil society. New actors also means new systems which questions the relevance of the overseas development assistance model and focuses attention to results and demand-driven development.



Le contexte de l’aide au développement a changé au cours des 60 dernières années. La domination des organisations multilatérales occidentales qui s’emploient à lutter contre la pauvreté, à surveiller la paix et à stimuler le commerce s’est affaiblie en raison de l’accroissement de l’influence et du leadership d’« autres acteurs du développement » — les puissances émergentes, les fondations et les organismes de bienfaisance privés, et la société civile. Les nouveaux acteurs sont aussi synonymes de nouveaux systèmes qui remettent en question la pertinence du modèle d’aide publique au développement et font porter l’attention sur le développement axé sur les résultats et la demande.



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Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Underestimated influence : UN contributions to development ideas, leadership, influence and impact
    (2013) Jolly, Richard
    Four-fifths of the UN’s work relates to development and international support in health, agriculture, employment, population, and statistics; with coordination of international systems for reporting on weather, air traffic control, patents, disease and crop production. Because of its global outreach, the UN has been a pioneer and leading influence on thinking and ideas about economic and social development. This chapter reviews milestones in the role of the United Nations, including a comparison of its approach vis-a-vis the initial Bretton Woods agreement (which set up procedures and institutions to regulate the international monetary system).
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    Consultative forums : state power and multilateral institutions
    (2013) Chin, Gregory; Heine, Jorge
    The global aid architecture is undergoing significant changes which could impair efficient delivery of global public goods. Given the considerable shifts in the balance of power in the global order over the past decade, this chapter explains how the rise of the BRICS countries (Brazil, China, South Africa, and India) as aid givers and their contestation with traditional donors is generating realignments in the structure of inter-state relations, the multilateral arrangements of the global aid system, and the main consultative forums for development cooperation. Internal dynamics of the individual BRICS countries are analyzed in separate chapters.
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    Development assistance
    (2013) Kharas, Homi
    Essentially a creation of the post-World War II era, development assistance has since experienced a series of rapid transformations. While the “donors’ club” initially consisted mostly of a small number of multilaterals and wealthy nations, today’s major players also include countries like Brazil and China as well as numerous non-state actors. This paper charts the history of development assistance as it evolved from a Cold War competition to a growth and poverty reduction enterprise. In the course of this evolution, the organizational structure of development cooperation has gone from an architecture to an ecosystem. The paper concludes with a discussion of three strategic questions of development assistance, noting the diversity of solutions devised over time.
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    Role and influence of international financial institutions
    (2013) Leipziger, Danny
    International financial institutions (IFI) analysis and ideas have dominated aspects of development strategy and ideology. This chapter discusses the Bretton Woods institutions — the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank and how they have influenced thinking on global development by governments, donors, and the international community. The focus is on how global developments have affected IMF and World Bank influence on thinking and practice, which has materially declined. The chapter concludes with reflections on whether the declining influence of the IMF and World Bank may be reversed.
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    World Trade Organization and development
    (2013) Tussie, Diana; Quiliconi, Cintia
    Some reflections are offered on current governance challenges of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The chapter discusses the most significant ways in which the trade regime has acted and reacted to the evolution of ideas on development. Chapter sections address how the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) evolved in its treatment of developing countries; the use of special and differential treatment (S&D); how the imbalance in rule making became evident with the results of the Uruguay Round; how debate has moved from the concept of S&D to the discussion of policy space.
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    Foundations and private actors
    (2013) Adelman, Carol; Spantchak, Yulya
    This chapter covers the value of private resource flows in development assistance, the actors involved, and the impact of private flows on the development landscape. While Official Development Assistance (ODA) comprised the majority of resource flows in international development during much of the twentieth century, today private money composed of philanthropy, remittances, and investment, significantly surpasses ODA. Additionally, with increased remittances, a more skilled labor force, open markets, and rise of communication technology, the developing world has changed. The private sector, with more flexibility and higher risk tolerance, is more likely to fund programs that government aid may not.
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    Civil society
    (2013) Naidoo, Kumi; Borren, Sylvia
    The concept of “civic driven change” counters an apolitical and technical understanding of development, which instead addresses political barriers that perpetuate poverty and inequality. ‘Shared interests’ can be both for the common good and or the benefit of a minority group. This chapter in “International development : ideas, experience and prospects” examines definitions of civil society, how it organizes for change by challenging roles within society, and how it can promote transformative thinking about development. In challenging the assumed roles of governments, corporations and individuals, civil society provides part of the checks and balances on political and economic power.
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    State as a developmental actor : state forms for social transformation
    (2013) Kerstenetzky, Celia Lessa; Kerstenetzky, Jaques
    From power states to welfare states, we track the history of ideas and practices of state developmental action through the ebb and flow of arguments for intervention. We compare justifications of state intervention based on the need to overcome economic discontinuities with arguments pointing to the risks of as well as antidotes to state capture by private interests, and with Amartya Sen’s broad approach to development. We also review significant national experiences of development and welfare states illustrating the different views, and identify the outgrowth of an integrated social, political, and economic defense of state intervention for welfare achievement, indicating democracy and welfare state regimes as emerging themes in the development discourse.