Crime

Art versus violence

For years, the rate of violence in Colombia has stayed stubbornly and alarmingly high. Local peace initiatives are relying on the arts and creativity with remarkable success. State agencies, moreover, are turning to innovative methods, especially when reaching out to victims of violence. By Cletus Gregor Barié »» read more

Niger

Africa’s new oil exporting nation

Chinese companies have done in Niger what their western competitors failed to achieve since 1960. They developed oil fields near the border with Chad. Production is dwarfed by Nigeria, however, and that West African giant’s policies still have a great impact on Niger. »» read more

Aid effectiveness

When funding is discontinued

Development cooperation depends on donors and recipient governments agreeing on what needs to be done. Last year, Malawi experienced what it means when these parties no longer achieve consensus and donors stop granting budget support. By Raphael Mweninguwe »» read more

Donor action

Results matter, not input

Andris Piebalgs, the European commissioner for development affairs, considers the recent High Level Forum in Busan an important step towards achieving results more effectively. In his essay, he explains why. By Andris Piebalgs »» read more

News

McDonald’s leaves Bolivia

The global market leader for industrial fast food pulled out of Bolivia in January. »» read more

Haiti

Reconstruction in slow motion

Haiti continues to suffer from the effects of the earthquake two years ago. But the causes of many problems run deeper. Civil society organisations say that donor commitment remains crucial. »» read more

Comment

Dubious raids

That police officers and public prosecutors raided the offices of civil society organisations in Cairo caused international alarm. One of the institutions affected was the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation. By Eva-Maria Verfürth »» read more

Health care

Scooter pharmacies

Poor people tend to pay more than rich people do for the same medicine, but nonetheless often do not get ­access to the medication they need. A new publication shows how all this could change. »» read more

Democracy

Populism and bloodshed

In many developing countries, elections compound the problems they are supposed to solve. Though the motives of foreign aid workers and election observers are good, bloodshed is proof of democracy promotion often failing. »» read more

Comment

Religion wins

Egypt’s lower-house elections ended in mid-January. The result was a faith-based landslide that will leave its marks on the country’s yet-to-be-drafted constitution. What role the military will play in the future remains to be seen. By Ronald Meinardus »» read more

December edition

Letters to the editor

Readers' feedback to the articles of Vera Dicke and Peter Hauff in our December edition. »» read more

Civic participation

Grassroots matter

Civil society organisations are struggling in the Republic of Niger. The basic legal provisions for their activities are in place, but they lack money, education and members. If aid agencies want to help, they should start at ground level. By Michael Konow »» read more

Comment

The menace of Boko Haram

Islamist terrorism in Nigeria has local roots and international implications. Nigeria must improve governance and do more to develop its disadvantaged northern states, which are predominantly Muslim. By Vladimir Antwi-Danso »» read more

Good governance

Sensible but insufficient

For the European Union, it matters very much that democratic change succeed in the Arab world. The EU was just as unprepared for the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East as it was for December’s street protests in Russia over electoral fraud. In the future, a new European Endowment for Democracy is supposed to make sure that shortcomings of this sort do not occur again. So far, however, the Endowment does not seem to amount to more than holding conventions on the topic regularly. That will not do. By Maria Elisabeth Rotter »» read more

Multilateral summit

“A rather solid  foundation”

At the end of last year, the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness was held in Busan, South Korea. Earlier multilateral summits of this kind were held in Rome in 2003, in Paris in 2005 and in Accra in 2008. “Managing for Development Results” became a guiding principle of the aid effectiveness debate early on (see box by Vera Dicke). The Busan summit coined the new term “Focus on Results”. Hans Dembowski discussed the implications with Antonio Tujan Jr. of BetterAid, an international umbrella organisation for civil society agencies. Interview with Antonio Tujan Jr. »» read more

Brief History

New paradigms in a new millennium

The average newspaper reader in Germany is not aware of what terms like “ownership” or “managing for results” mean in development circles. Indeed, the general media hardly covered important aspects of the international aid debate in the past ten years. »» read more

Africa

Regional cooperation

The appreciation of regional integration is a striking feature of the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, the document that was agreed at the recent High Level Forum. In Africa, this is a very important matter. It offers new approaches to more effective development efforts and south-south cooperation. By Mamadou Lamine N’Dongo »» read more

Policy ownership

“We must learn to say no”

Aid money will not be made effective use of unless donor governments accept the policy Ownership of developing countries. All parties concerned still have a long way to go to fulfil the promises of the Paris Declaration, says Guatemala’s Karin Slowing Umaña. Interview with Karin Slowing Umaña »» read more

Policy advice

Bridging the gap

In the past decade, knowledge-based development cooperation has become a hot topic among policymakers, implementing agencies and research institutes. New technologies, global challenges and innovative policy tools make well-founded advice to policy­makers ever more important. Many implementing agencies, more­over, understand that a critical outsider’s view can help them to improve their performance. By Fabian Scholtes »» read more

Aid effectiveness

Subtly distorted

Unless development efforts are country-owned, they do not succeed. The international community is right to emphasise this matter, but it has not taken the right approach to dealing with it. Instead of disbursing large sums to countries that lack the necessary leadership, donor governments should invest more in global public goods. They could also do more to help build country ownership by helping to broker solutions to the collective action challenges that often prevent more coordinated efforts within developing countries. By David Booth »» read more