scholarly journals Governance and Sector Outcomes: Making the Connections

Author(s):  
Derick W. Brinkerhoff ◽  
Anna Wetterberg

A critical issue in international development is how donor-funded programs can support sustainable and long-lasting changes in assisted countries. Among the factors associated with sustainability is improved governance. However, many donor-funded initiatives are focused on achieving results in specific sectors, such as health, education, and agriculture. How can how governance interventions contribute to achieving sector-specific results? This brief explores this question and discusses how international development practice has incorporated recognition of the links between governance and sector outcomes. The brief develops a stylized continuum of how governance elements relate to sector interventions and contribute to expected outcomes. We discuss factors that either impede or impel governance integration and close with some observations regarding prospects for integrated programming. The audience for the brief is the international development policy and practitioner communities, and secondarily, academics with an interest in the topic. Key take-aways include: (1) there is ample evidence of positive contributions from improved governance to sector-specific outcomes, but few guideposts exist for practical and effective governance integration; (2) barriers to integration include urgent sector priorities that overshadow governance concerns, requirements to demonstrate progress towards ambitious sector targets, and complex choices related to measurement; and (3) sustainability and self-reliance are major drivers for integration and are facilitated by the flexibility and adaptation that governance integration enables.

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-52
Author(s):  
Adebusuyi Isaac Adeniran

Although extant reconstruction of the limits of international development practice has been implicated in the budding involvement of China in Africa, debates on China's actual intents and prospects have continued to rage. Engaging an exploratory design and a political-ecology approach, which affirms the significance of human factors in contextualising, structuring, and contesting the natural world, this study assesses specific short-term and long-term outcomes of China's Gansu-modelled water conservation project in Kano, Nigeria. The shared ecological interface between China and Nigeria has facilitated transfer of relevant technology to the Guinea and Sahel regions in Northern Nigeria. Chinese involvement in the Nigerian water/agricultural sector has resulted in improved indigenous farmers’ skills, yields, and incomes. Sustaining the trend of ongoing intervention would imply a significant boost to Nigeria's drive towards self-reliance, though a long-term cleavage towards such Chinese interventions might eventually imply neo-dependency.


2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-167
Author(s):  
B.C. Pemberton ◽  
W. Ng

This article discusses risk management processes in Britain’s civil nuclear industry from a corporate governance perspective. As an example of a hazardous industry that can inflict catastrophic environmental damage and fatalities, effective governance of Britain’s nuclear industry is a critical issue. Yet the industry’s history of corporate governance suggests that processes of corporate governance have regularly failed to meet core requirements of its stakeholders. A core requirement is for governance designs that recognize the interests of public owner–stakeholders. In meeting this requirement, the article offers a framework for a relationship-driven form of corporate governance that enables meaningful stakeholder engagement in decision-making.


Author(s):  
Paul Walsh ◽  
Ciara Whelan

Ireland’s involvement in international development has become a significant aspect of its foreign economic policy. Its engagement has moved from priorities that were largely domestically determined in the early 1970s and based on bilateral relationships between Ireland as donor and the recipient programme countries, toward priorities and involvements within a multilateral policy framework. This has come about through Ireland’s increasing engagement with international organizations, particularly the UN and the EU. However as the boundaries blur between Overseas Development Aid (ODA) policy and shared global goals, such as addressing climate breakdown and mitigating the scale of international distributive inequality, this can lead to tensions within countries about the implications of international commitments for the priorities at play in domestic politics. This is evident where Ireland’s ODA-driven commitments in the international field are in tension with domestic policy priorities, but also where tension arises in the area of national economic development policy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 1044-1060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Crelis F Rammelt ◽  
Maggi Leung ◽  
Kebede Manjur Gebru

Inclusiveness, with its emphasis on productive employment, has become central in development policy. From this perspective, unwaged-work is condemned for not being sufficiently productive; that is, for failing to lift incomes above a poverty threshold. However, insights from the sociology of work reveal a range of unwaged activities that are potentially highly productive in their contribution to self-reliance. The article explores whether these activities are undermined by the promotion of inclusiveness. The case study takes place in Tigray, Ethiopia. Through semi-structured interviews, the activities of different households were classified according to a typology of work based on the work of Gorz, Illich, Wheelock, Taylor, Williams and others. Results show the heterogeneous character of work and shed light on the meaning of productivity. The article ends with a discussion on the risk that inclusiveness may be achieved by replacing activities ‘that count’ with activities ‘that can be counted’.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Matilda Hegarty

<p>This dissertation documents research conducted with the 'Asociacion de Mujeres de Acosta'  (AMA), in a mountainous rural region of Costa Rica, in Central America. AMA was originally set up to counter some negative effects of Costa Rican society, such as 'machismo'  and the rural depopulation of women to the capital San Jose. The association implemented a Women In Development (WID) approach, which enabled women to gather and generate an income. The aim of my research is to examine the evolution of AMA since its inception, and to assess its current status in light of international shifts in development policy from WID to Gender And Development (GAD). It provides a rare opportunity to assess an organisation's evolution and its impact on women over a 30-year period. It also enables me to build on Kindon and Odell's earlier research with the organisation in 1990. The research uses qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, a focus group, a questionnaire and field notes, from five months of fieldwork in the community with members of AMA. The key findings show that AMA membership has decreased since its inception in 1980. Compared with results from previous research with AMA in 1990, my findings reveal that AMA has been slow to embrace international policy agendas and continues to adopt a WID approach. AMA does not yet reflect international and national development trends associated with gender and development, particularly in light of some similar organisations in Central and South America. While benefits have accrued to some of AMA members, they do not yet earn a decent wage to satisfy their needs. There are major intergenerational and interscalar issues, which are similar to those identified in 1990. These concerns are associated with power imbalances inside and outside of the association, traditional attitudes towards women due to the culture of 'machismo', and lack of appropriate information and funding sources. These issues appear to be stifling change and raise serious questions about the future sustainability of the association, as well as the relevance of international development policy changes for rural women in associations like AMA. Women of AMA are now looking for new projects and beginning to think about including men in the association. These slow changes, if enacted, may enable the organisation to survive another 30 years.</p>


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document