The Curse of the One-size-fits-all Fix

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glada Lahn ◽  
Paul Stevens
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Performance Measures ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Extractive Industries ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
International Aid Agencies ◽  
Commodities Prices

In the context of falls in extractive commodities prices since 2011, this chapter examines the history of thinking about the interplay between extractive industries and economic development. Just as ‘the resource curse’ fails as a generic explanation on account of the huge diversity in country contexts, so does the one-size-fits-all governance solution, which international aid agencies, industry, and banks have promoted in support of ‘extractives-led growth’ since the early 2000s. Asking why the sector has not in many cases yielded more durable economic gains reveals the need for greater attention to a country’s capacity to diversify, options for pacing development, and appropriate performance measures.

Disadvantage, Fairness, and Power Crises in Africa

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanri Mostert ◽  
Heleen van Niekerk
Keyword(s):  
Distributive Justice ◽  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Extractive Industries ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Energy Justice

Realizing energy justice in Africa requires targeting the difficulties that the continent faces. Energy justice is a concept emanating from three philosophical notions, namely distributive justice, procedural justice, and recognition justice. The practical challenges of achieving energy justice are illustrated well in the coal and oil industries of Africa, a continent plagued by the resource curse. Moreover, despite being energy-poor, African countries often export their mined fossil fuels, providing other parts of the world with the energy necessary to live productive and dignified lives. These considerations, in conjunction with Africa’s history of colonialism and the concomitant denial of people’s rights require distinct approaches to distributive, procedural, and recognition justice in extractive industries. This chapter outlines these approaches and explores uniquely African responses to some of the injustices that prevail in Africa’s extractive industries.

scholarly journals Agricultural Productivity Differences

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Vernon W. Ruttan ◽  
Yujiro Hayami
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Agricultural Productivity ◽  
National Policy ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Agricultural Output ◽  
International Aid Agencies

Growth in aggregate agricultural output, and productivity is generally recognized as a necessary condition for economic development. The persistent differences productivity among countries and regions (Figure 1) have severely dampened the optimism among national policy makers and planners and among officials in the international aid agencies as to the possibility of substantially narrowing the gaps in productivity (total, land, and worker) in the feasible future.

Evolution Without Progress? Humanitarianism in a World of Hurt

2009 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 621-663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Social Science ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Aid ◽  
International Ethics ◽  
The World ◽  
Ethical Change ◽  
History Of ◽  
Selection Mechanisms ◽  
International Aid Agencies

AbstractMany theories of international relations contain a narrative of progress and explain that progress with reference to evolutionary imagery. This article examines critically: the relevance of Darwinian and Lamarckian models of international relations to the evolution of international ethics and institutions; and the possibility that the ethics and norms are likely to be more consistent with existing world orders than challengers to it. Specifically, this article draws from evolutionary social science and organizational theory to develop a framework to explore the initial diversity of the meaning and practices of humanitarianism; how the combination of environmental mechanisms and organizational culture led many humanitarian agencies to adapt to their environment in ways that incorporated politics; and the subsequent countermovement by some agencies who wanted to purify humanitarianism. I then apply this framework to explain the recent history of four international aid agencies. I conclude with several observations regarding how the model as applied to these cases allows us to examine critically the selection mechanisms that do and do not account for ethical change and how scholars of international norms, ethics, and progress should be attentive to how principled actors are creatures of the world they want to transform.

FROM ‘MIGRANTS’ TO ‘REFUGEES’: IDENTITY, AID, AND DECOLONIZATION IN NGARA DISTRICT, TANZANIA

2015 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
JILL ROSENTHAL
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Constitutive Relationship ◽  
Nation State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nation State Formation ◽  
Local Narratives ◽  
International Aid Agencies

AbstractThis article argues that international aid to Rwandan refugees in Ngara district during decolonization unfolded as part of a broader project of nation-state formation and regulation – one that deeply affected local narratives of community and belonging. While there is an extensive scholarship on decolonization and nationalism, we know less about the history of the nation-state as a refugee-generating project, and the role of international aid agencies therein. The history of Rwandan refugees in Ngara district, Tanzania, reveals the constitutive relationship between nation-building and refugee experiences, illustrating that during decolonization local political imaginations congealed around internationally-reified categorizations of the ‘refugee’ and the ‘citizen’.

Reversing the ‘Resource Curse’ Phenomenon in Nigeria: An Assessment of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Act After a Decade

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 141-162
Author(s):  
Nelson Ojukwu-Ogba ◽  
Patrick Osode
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Extractive Industries ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Driving Potential

Abstract Natural resources endowment is a blessing to the endowed states due to their catalytic development-driving potential. The exploitation of the endowment should result in rapid socio-economic development. However, for most developing states, the blessing of these natural resources strangely tends to turn disadvantageous; a phenomenon that has been distinctly identified in the literature as ‘the resource curse’. This paper examines that phenomenon, using Nigeria as a case study given the serious environmental, political and socio-economic challenges occasioned by the country’s exploitation of its oil and gas endowment. The paper particularly considers the impact of the statutory intervention in Nigeria to reverse the trend through the instrumentality of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Act (NEITI Act) 2007. The paper further explores what could be the most effective means of containing the said problems in light of their implications for the future of the country and its people.

scholarly journals A COMPARATIVE STUDY: ONE VILLAGE ONE PRODUCT (OVOP) AS AN ENGINE OF LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN JAPAN AND INDONESIA

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-94
Author(s):  
Arin Widiyanti
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Central Java ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Revitalization Effort

The One Village One Product (OVOP) is a voluntary local community movement that drives the Local Economic Development (LED) and the revitalization effort, which was initiated in 1979 in Oita prefecture, Japan. The research examines the OVOP approach by comparing the OVOP program in Indonesia, particularly the case study of OVOP in Sragen regency, Central Java province, to the original OVOP program of Oita prefecture in Japan. This study takes Oita as the observation, since Oita is considered as the region in which the OVOP concept is conducted successfully. For that reason, this research is aimed for taking a lesson to be learned and to be applied in Indonesia, in which in Indonesia the respective concept has not so far succeeded. The key feature of the OVOP implementation in Oita is the bottom-up approach that is well adapted in Japanese experience of local economic development. The case studies illustrated that, when it was transferred to Indonesia, the principles of OVOP were not directly copied from the OVOP in Japan. In Indonesia, OVOP was reconfigured into a government program with a top-down approach. This study will mainly focus on comparing both study cases qualitatively. Basically the characteristics OVOP literature reviews are: the History of the Oita-Japan OVOP program, the study about specific programs outside of Japan based on the Oita OVOP model and the study that compares Oita-type programs across countries. However, this paper found a few studies which focus on the particular role of private companies in initiating and maintaining the OVOP programs, as distributors and suppliers, this topic become main research object for the research

Devil’s excrement or manna from heaven?

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald U. Mendoza ◽  
Harold J. MacArthur ◽  
Anne Beline Ong Lopez
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resource ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Extractive Industries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Natural Resource Curse ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One ◽  
Main Message ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – This paper aims to provide an updated review of policy literature and evidence on the development implications of extractive industries. Design/methodology/approach – It synthesizes the main lessons drawn from an extensive review of policy and academic literature on this topic. It outlines the risks attached to the natural resource curse as well as the associated solutions, as demonstrated by empirical evidence and policy experience. Findings – Based on the authors’ review of case studies and multi-country empirical analyses, there is a mixed picture on the link between extractive industries and inclusive growth. The authors find that, on the one hand, significant risks are commonly associated with the natural resource curse faced by countries that wish to tap this wealth for development. On the other hand, the mixed results also suggest that the many challenges related to expanding extractive industries are not necessarily unavoidable. Practical implications – For policymakers, the main message is that some countries that have taken important steps to improve the governance of their wealth as well as channel these toward productive investments – notably human capital – appear to have transformed the natural resource curse into a boon for development. Originality/value – The main contribution of this paper is that it provides the most comprehensive review to date on this body of the policy and academic literature. It will serve as a guide for policymakers, civil society and other stakeholders working on issues linked to extractive industries.

Mechanisms of Resource Curse and Economic Policy

2007 ◽  
pp. 4-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Polterovich ◽  
V. Popov ◽  
A. Tonis
Keyword(s):  
Real Exchange Rates ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Budget Deficits ◽  
Resource Abundance ◽  
Fuel Prices ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Resource Wealth ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
Rich Countries

This paper compares various mechanisms of resource curse leading to a potentially inefficient use of resources; it is demonstrated that each of these mechanisms is associated with market imperfections and can be "corrected" with appropriate government policies. Empirical evidence seems to suggest that resource abundant countries have on average lower budget deficits and inflation, and higher foreign exchange reserves. Besides, lower domestic fuel prices that are typical for resource rich countries have a positive effect on long-term growth even though they are associated with losses resulting from higher energy consumption. On top of that resource abundance allows to reduce income inequalities. So, on the one hand, resource wealth turns out to be conducive to growth, especially in countries with strong institutions. However, on the other hand, resource abundance leads to corruption of institutions and to overvalued real exchange rates. On balance, there is no solid evidence that resource abundant countries grow more slowly than the others, but there is evidence that they grow more slowly than could have grown with the right policies and institutions.

Misreading Egypt

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Schotter
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Narrative Form ◽  
Experimental Film ◽  
Tower Of Babel ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Sergei Eisenstein ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Modern Technologies

The first chapter of Hieroglyphic Modernisms exposes the complex history of Western misconceptions of Egyptian writing from antiquity to the present. Hieroglyphs bridge the gap between modern technologies and the ancient past, looking forward to the rise of new media and backward to the dispersal of languages in the mythical moment of the Tower of Babel. The contradictory ways in which hieroglyphs were interpreted in the West come to shape the differing ways that modernist writers and filmmakers understood the relationship between writing, film, and other new media. On the one hand, poets like Ezra Pound and film theorists like Vachel Lindsay and Sergei Eisenstein use the visual languages of China and of Egypt as a more primal or direct alternative to written words. But Freud, Proust, and the later Eisenstein conversely emphasize the phonetic qualities of Egyptian writing, its similarity to alphabetical scripts. The chapter concludes by arguing that even avant-garde invocations of hieroglyphics depend on narrative form through an examination of Hollis Frampton’s experimental film Zorns Lemma.

Theodor W. Adorno

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colby Dickinson
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
History Of Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

In his somewhat controversial book Remnants of Auschwitz, Agamben makes brief reference to Theodor Adorno’s apparently contradictory remarks on perceptions of death post-Auschwitz, positions that Adorno had taken concerning Nazi genocidal actions that had seemed also to reflect something horribly errant in the history of thought itself. There was within such murderous acts, he had claimed, a particular degradation of death itself, a perpetration of our humanity bound in some way to affect our perception of reason itself. The contradictions regarding Auschwitz that Agamben senses to be latent within Adorno’s remarks involve the intuition ‘on the one hand, of having realized the unconditional triumph of death against life; on the other, of having degraded and debased death. Neither of these charges – perhaps like every charge, which is always a genuinely legal gesture – succeed in exhausting Auschwitz’s offense, in defining its case in point’ (RA 81). And this is the stance that Agamben wishes to hammer home quite emphatically vis-à-vis Adorno’s limitations, ones that, I would only add, seem to linger within Agamben’s own formulations in ways that he has still not come to reckon with entirely: ‘This oscillation’, he affirms, ‘betrays reason’s incapacity to identify the specific crime of Auschwitz with certainty’ (RA 81).

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