World Development Perspectives最新文献

Research on how the COVID-19 lockdown affected gender-based violence (GBV) focused largely on the negative effects of the lockdown on GBV. Using a multinomial probit model, this paper assessed the effects of the lockdown on GBV and the determinants of these effects in Northern Uganda. The results show that the lockdown reduced and increased GBV in some cases, but it had negligible effects in other cases. These effects were determined by many factors depending on how they related to economic and food insecurity. Household heads with higher education levels experienced job losses and increased GBV, but those with savings had less food insecurity and GBV. Members of VSLA that were disrupted by the lockdown faced severe economic insecurity, but members of the undisrupted VSLA experienced less economic security and GBV. Households with many earning members suffered more job losses and increased GBV, but those having own houses faced no rent burden and less GBV. Farm households experienced less effects of the lockdown and no change in GBV. Rural households and those far from the main road experienced less stringent lockdowns and GBV, but those that faced financial constraints had more GBV cases. Farm households had less severe food insecurity and GBV. Household heads earning wages and salary had lower household sizes and GBV cases. The paper implies a need for pandemic mitigation measures to balance their health benefits with socio-economic costs, overcome economic insecurity, and consider socio-economic differences. GBV was viewed as a uniform entity, but future studies need to explore the effects of pandemics on different forms of GBV.

Many farmers in developing countries lack the knowledge to solve farming challenges, so improving their access to information is believed to address this issue. Prior research has primarily focused on analysing social networks but has overlooked the role of supply chain networks, which farmers depend on for production, marketing, and financial matters. This study aims at understanding the role of supply chain actors in the information networks of farmer organisations in developing countries. Multiple case studies were conducted in two farmer organisations in Indonesia, one small and the other large. This study included both quantitative data gathered through surveys and qualitative information obtained from FGD. This study found that the majority of farmer organisation members rely on their peers within social networks to acquire agricultural production-related information. Within supply chain networks, farmers depend on local traders for market and financial information, despite the asymmetric information in their relationships. In addition, local production input shops are the primary sources for agricultural production-related information. Agricultural extension agents mainly contribute to disseminating information regarding government programmes. This study also indicates that a small farmer organisation has a closer relationship with its farmer members in terms of information sharing. Meanwhile, a large farmer organisation provides its members with a wider range of information from external sources while still maintaining the closed relationships between members through sub-organisations. The findings suggest that the government should focus on enhancing the knowledge of local supply chain actors in order to efficiently disseminate information to farmers.

In the Amazon, invited multi-stakeholder forums (MSFs) have been organised by governments to engage civil society with policy and decision making. Given the unequal histories of access to resources in the region, in contexts where mainstream politics have failed to include local people and rights concerns in environmental decision-making, there is much optimism regarding the potential for collaboration in invited MSFs. Yet, questions remain on whether they are more than bureaucratic steps organised to legitimise pre-approved government decisions. The article presents comparative insight from interviews with 208 organisers, participants, and nonparticipant stakeholders to four invited MSFs that were legally required decision-making spaces for land and resource use planning in jurisdictions of the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon. Although the same type of forum was selected in each country, research revealed different processes and outcomes based on how organisers framed their challenges and solutions. This impacted who was invited to participate, and under what terms, including the knowledge they were able to bring to the process. Examining their processes, the article examines challenges in the conception and implementation of forums and the possibility of refocusing MSF activities to better support the inclusion of civil society perspectives in policy and decision making.

This study investigates the effects of microfinance on entrepreneurial activity and household welfare among women borrowers in rural Pakistan. Using survey data from 463 clients of multiple microfinance institutions and propensity score matching methods, we find that women who invest their loans in microenterprises experience significantly higher income, clothing expenditures, poverty scores, and income diversification compared to those who use loans for other purposes. However, we do not observe increases in health and education spending or reductions in child labour among entrepreneurial borrowers. The results highlight the potential for microfinance to stimulate women’s entrepreneurship and improve economic conditions in rural Pakistani households, but also underscore the limitations in promoting human capital investment. We discuss implications for enhancing microfinance interventions to support holistic welfare improvements for women entrepreneurs in Pakistan and beyond.

By 2035, the International Energy Agency predicts that $48 trillion will need invested to meet global energy needs, with at least half of these amounts needed to be funneled into renewable electricity sources and energy efficiency efforts. The energy transition is an important dimension of a global climate change mitigation strategy. Using open data on transnational mining deals from the Land Matrix Initiative, we display the current transnational mining network with patterns of concentration and new forms of dependencies between investing and target countries. Using different global development metrics, we also characterize the context within which the mining network is embedded in. Beyond geopolitical concerns and the reconfiguration of power relations in international arenas, the energy transition raises issues of environmental justice. In this study, we clearly display distributive injustices with inequitable distribution of costs, with target countries supporting most of the social and environmental costs of resource extraction in areas marked by land and food insecurity and instability in terms of governance.

Despite the numerous policies targeting women, little improvement has been realised in the value of women’s labour and time in Ghana. Though, access to electricity has improved significantly, its potential to improve women’s labour and time value has not been appreciatively considered in the Ghanaian literature. Thus, this paper seeks to analyse the effect of electricity access on women’s labour and time value as well as the time-saving transmission channels. The 2015 labour force survey was used and the Lewbel two-stage least-squares instrumental variable and special regressor estimators were employed. We find that electricity access has an insignificant effect on the labour value of farm women while the effect on their non-farm value is significant at the national and rural levels.We further find that electricity access reduces the number of unpaid hours expended by women and generates surplus hours. Finally, our findings reveal that electrified women are more likely to own time-saving electric technologies relative to those without electricity. We suggest policy makers expand electricity access, create more rural non-farm enterprises, and subsidise the cost of electrical appliances to improve Ghanaian women’s labour and time value.

Gender gaps in wages are a reflection of inequality and discrimination. This exists across regions, sectors, types of work and other divisions. Discrimination is the presence of inequalities between male and female workers with similar skills and in similar occupations. Therefore only understanding wage inequality may be looking at the problem partially. Using the Indian National Sample Survey 2011–12, this paper examines the facets of gender-based wage inequality and discrimination in regular and casual workers. First, the Theil index is calculated to interpret within and between groups inequalities. Then, a Three-fold Oaxaca decomposition method is utilised to divide the wage gaps between explained, unexplained and interaction components. We show that even though the returns on education are higher for women than men at each level of education, females continue to earn less. Results indicate a high raw wage differential of 51.5 per cent, which is divided into three portions of which the endowment is significantly low at 3.1 per cent and a much higher discrimination (coefficient) at 37.9 per cent. Discrimination is greater in regular employment as compared to casual employment; and higher in urban as compared to rural regions. We show that women workers are discriminated against based on age. Policies need to emphasise not just improving female participation but also to maintain it. The need is for sincere efforts in improving access to the labour market through training programs specially designed for women that incorporate dealing with complexities such as child care, maternity benefits, transportation and even safety. Putting awareness at the core of a long-grained thought process that discourages the distribution of unpaid or care work and sees it primarily as a ‘women’s job’ may create a less discriminating and unbiased labour market for Indian women.

Somalia is in post-conflict era and currently recovering from COVID-19, but severe droughts and enormous floods are disrupting the country’s economy and causing a virtually permanent humanitarian crisis. The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its overarching goal to “leave no one behind” protect vulnerable people, but Somalia’s climate-induced humanitarian catastrophe is inflicting substantial suffering and has a dismal prognosis for the country’s 2030 SDG Agenda. This study examines Somalia’s SDGs and climate change. The authors discuss how stakeholders can promote SDGs as a viable strategy during this difficult period. This project educates social and economic authorities on climate injustice in Somalia. Climate change impacts on the SDGs are examined first and the emerging data suggests collaborative solutions are required. Climate change in Somalia will lead to various outcomes but it is too early to assess them. The authors claim that Somalia’s climate disaster makes the 2030 agenda and SDGs very difficult to achieve. As well, Somalia needs SDG13—climate action—to enable all other SDGs to be realised. Somali climate refugees need money and livelihoods, and their problems are aggravated by the need to account for climate resilience, adaptation, and mitigation strategies. This study’s only limitation is that it is a qualitative analysis, so future studies should empirically analyse how often catastrophic events affect sustainable development. Global policymakers and stakeholders are informed of how recent extreme climatic occurrences like droughts and huge floods could destroy Somalia’s sustainable development goals and highlight the need for considerable additional efforts to fulfil the relevant SDGs. Subsequently, SDG13 (Climate Action) is vital here and is not solely an environmental necessity, but also a crucial factor in supporting stability, security, and lasting peace in the region.

After the landmark 2016 peace agreement in Colombia, significant strides were made to reduce inequalities in mental health. However, a development paradox arises when considering the contrasting dynamics introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores the balance of progress and setbacks in conflict-affected territories, with a specific focus on examining the exacerbation of mental health disparities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data from the Conflicto, Paz y Salud (CONPAS) survey, encompassing 865 households over 2019–2020, are utilized to explore and analyze the presence of inequalities in mental health. Through the integration of the Self-Report Questionnaire (SRQ-20), the Household Wealth Index (HWI), and the Oaxaca-Blinder change decomposition method, the research highlights the socioeconomic shifts impacting these trajectories.

The analysis reveals a stark development paradox. While Colombia was advancing in its recovery and general mental health was improving, the disruptions of the pandemic intensified mental health disparities. This contrast is evidenced by a notable shift in the mental health concentration index from −0.067 in 2019 to −0.130 in 2020 is observed, indicating that vulnerable groups, especially women, residents of territories highly affected by the armed conflict, and those with educational disadvantages, bore the brunt of these challenges.

In the context of the broader development discourse, this study contributes to the existing frame of research by providing a nuanced analysis between “post-conflict” recovery and the unforeseen impacts of global crises on mental health. This work complements previous studies on mental health and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by offering a detailed examination of the socioeconomic factors that exacerbate mental health disparities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It particularly focuses on areas affected by armed-conflicts in lower- and middle-income countries and provides an explanation of how this situation affects the scope of the SDGs.

This paper conducts a systematic review and comparative analysis of the institutional impacts of nonviolent versus violent revolutions. It examines sixty-six quantitative studies across disciplines on how revolutionary tactics affect post-conflict institutions. The analysis categorizes institutional outcome variables into five groups: democracy, military/police/courts, foreign relations, ethnicity/culture, and well-being. The comparative analysis finds a preponderance of evidence that nonviolent movements have more positive institutional effects than violent ones. Civil resistance is associated with democratization, reduced repression, loyalty shifts, human rights protections, inclusion of marginalized groups, and greater well-being compared to violent campaigns. The comparative analysis contributes strong cross-disciplinary evidence on the differential institutional impacts of revolutionary tactics.