Political Order and Poverty Eradication

Introducing the concept of viability, this study clarifies that the key to solving the poverty problem is to provide external assistance to nonviable residents. The study then proposes a simple model and explains that 1) although private market mechanisms are efficient for economic growth, public market mechanisms mobilizing societal resources are necessary and effective for poverty eradication; and 2) strong state capacity, competent leadership, and high social trust and support will benefit poverty eradication. The concept of viability and the model was further applied to compare the war on poverty in the US and the poverty alleviation plan in China in the following aspects: background and top design, public versus private market mechanism, leadership, social trust, and achievement. In addition, a cross-country investigation was conducted to obtain preliminary empirical evidence. The findings in this study support the concept and the model, which inspired us to provide some discussions.

Citizen Art and Human Rights: Collective Theatre Creation as a Way of Combatting Exclusion

In this article, through the lens of critical theory and collective theatre creation, we will look at how a group of homeless individuals in the city of Seville (Spain) has been able to assert their human rights using art. Through the words of the actors themselves, we will reveal the obstacles they face in accessing the city’s public sphere, and their deconstruction. By creating and producing plays, as well as interacting with the audience, the participants became not just actors, but citizens with rights. Collective theatre creation, as adapted by the authors within the context of their research in the field of social work, provides insights into how art has the power to become a strategy for helping those living on the fringes of mainstream society reclaim their place in it politically and culturally. This research has been made possible thanks to the commitment of the members of Teatro de la Inclusión, a theatre group and socio‐artistic project that ran for twelve years and allowed homeless individuals, tired of being passive subjects, dependent on external assistance and subject to endless bureaucracy, to become amateur actors. In doing so, they created for themselves dignified forums in which to express themselves within their city and put their communicative and artistic skills into practice.

Alternative Approaches to Development: Social Entrepreneurship in the Philippines

<p>Post-development writers contend that development has failed because it created a worldview in which certain places are deemed ‘underdeveloped’ and in need of external assistance based on Western ideals of modernity. They argue that development should be abandoned and ‘alternatives to development’ must now be brought to the fore. However, this proposition is considered to be challenging at best since discussions on ‘alternatives to development’ have been vague and concrete practical examples are rarely given. Nevertheless, the arguments found within post-development thought are significant to current and future development practice and several researchers have attempted to apply post-development ideas into practice. This thesis looks into Social Entrepreneurship, an emerging development approach that seems to build on some of the ideas from post-development thought. It examines how social entrepreneurship has evolved and is defined within the context of the Philippines. The thesis attempts to understand how social entrepreneurship differs from mainstream development approaches and contributes to alternative pathways, through a case study of an NGO engaged in social entrepreneurship — A Single Drop for Safe Water, Philippines. Qualitative methods of observation, secondary data collection, and semi-structured interviews were utilized. The study reveals that social entrepreneurship practices have elements that reflect postdevelopment ideas such as highlighting community strengths, being mindful of local culture and practices, and strengthening the autonomy of community groups. However, social entrepreneurship also features activities that are based on market and business principles including having a profit motive and transferring business skills and knowledge to communities. Thus, social entrepreneurship is neither alternative nor mainstream but has the potential to be both. Development practitioners should be careful in utilizing social entrepreneurship practices, as not to expand neo-liberal ideals.</p>

Alternative Approaches to Development: Social Entrepreneurship in the Philippines

<p>Post-development writers contend that development has failed because it created a worldview in which certain places are deemed ‘underdeveloped’ and in need of external assistance based on Western ideals of modernity. They argue that development should be abandoned and ‘alternatives to development’ must now be brought to the fore. However, this proposition is considered to be challenging at best since discussions on ‘alternatives to development’ have been vague and concrete practical examples are rarely given. Nevertheless, the arguments found within post-development thought are significant to current and future development practice and several researchers have attempted to apply post-development ideas into practice. This thesis looks into Social Entrepreneurship, an emerging development approach that seems to build on some of the ideas from post-development thought. It examines how social entrepreneurship has evolved and is defined within the context of the Philippines. The thesis attempts to understand how social entrepreneurship differs from mainstream development approaches and contributes to alternative pathways, through a case study of an NGO engaged in social entrepreneurship — A Single Drop for Safe Water, Philippines. Qualitative methods of observation, secondary data collection, and semi-structured interviews were utilized. The study reveals that social entrepreneurship practices have elements that reflect postdevelopment ideas such as highlighting community strengths, being mindful of local culture and practices, and strengthening the autonomy of community groups. However, social entrepreneurship also features activities that are based on market and business principles including having a profit motive and transferring business skills and knowledge to communities. Thus, social entrepreneurship is neither alternative nor mainstream but has the potential to be both. Development practitioners should be careful in utilizing social entrepreneurship practices, as not to expand neo-liberal ideals.</p>

Issues related to the assistance provided by the World Bank as a modernization partner of the Republic of Moldova

This paper addresses the main issues of World Bank fifi nancing and development assistance in the modernization process of the Republic of Moldova. Investigations show that the country’s political decision-makers are dependent on the World Bank’s advice and sources of technical assistance. At the same time, the allocation of external assistance can work, depending on the country’s policies. This article illustrates how political instability, inconsistency and political support in the implementation of initiated reforms, the interruption of technical assistance from the Government had detrimental consequences on the development objectives proposed by the World Bank during the implementation of the Country Partnership Framework.

A Comparative Study on the Efficiency of Stakeholder Involvement in Community-Based Tourism (CBT) Development

Community-based tourism (CBT) is a development strategy for the community to manage its resources through the use of tourism as a medium. For CBT to operate, communities may rely on the external assistance in their development project. These stakeholders are academia, local government, and international organizations. This paper compares the work efficiency of these stakeholders’ and their involvement in operating CBT strategies. A total of 535 online respondents with work experience as different stakeholders are gathered and compared. The results shows that local government involvement is ranked the most attentive by the community, followed by the assistance of academia, the community itself, and international organizations (where appropriate). This outcome supports the idea in the literature where government is the most crucial external stakeholder to reach out to during the planning stage of CBT development, but it also suggests that the involvement of academics is more efficient than that of international organizations, possibly due to the fact that academics are from a smaller set of individuals or group with theories and consultancy expertise in the field of CBT rather than the international organizations that are more general with the power and resources they could offer. In future study, in-depth interviews with different stakeholder members would allow further explanation and observation of these relationships.

Needs or Symbols? The Logic of United Nations Counterterrorism Treaty Ratification

Why do states commit to UN counterterrorism treaties? This article posits that state accession to UN counterterrorism treaties is likely informed by the nature of the terrorist threats a state faces, and consequently, the pressures that such threats generate from domestic and international audiences on the state to address (or appear to address) them. As such, we hypothesize that states ratify UN CT treaties for either material, needs-based reasons—to gain external assistance for counterterror capacity building—or for symbolic reasons—to visibly signal their commitment to fight terrorism in order maintain legitimacy, and mitigate reputational costs to both domestic and international audiences. To test these hypotheses, we use a newly compiled dataset of state accessions to the 19 UN counterterrorism treaties from 1970–2016, testing both our needs-based versus symbolic hypotheses, as well as more “traditional” explanations for state treaty accession. Across the universe of 19 UN counterterrorism treaties, our study implies that states may be more likely to ratify treaties as mechanisms to signal intent to address terror threats rather than to build threat-specific counterterrorism capacity. This research thus broadens both academic and policy-related understandings of state counterterror treaty ratification.

Foreign aid and judicial autonomy

Foreign aid donors increasingly embrace judicial autonomy as an important component of advancing democracy and promoting investment abroad. Recipient governments also recognize the importance of judicial reform for improving the investment climate at home. However, developing countries often lack the necessary state capacity that would enable them to implement these reforms. We argue that recipient countries that lack the state capacity to undertake reforms on their own turn to donors, who readily assist in judicial reforms via targeted democracy and governance interventions. At the same time, we suggest that the external assistance matters less for recipients that are able to implement judicial reforms by themselves. We employ an instrumental variable model to test this argument in a global sample of aid-eligible countries.

Earthquake complicates Haiti's long-term challenges

Significance The 7.2-magnitude earthquake caused widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure. The disaster comes amid political turmoil, following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise last month, and threatens to compound pre-existing socioeconomic challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, surging crime rates, and fuel shortages in some areas. Impacts The Dominican Republic is sending aid, but will also increase security along its border to prevent increased migration. Gangs will seek to extort humanitarian groups or siphon off relief supplies to sell on the black market. Henry’s increased reliance on external assistance could affect trust in his administration, especially if elections are delayed too long.