Pub Date : 2025-12-16DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107285
Roxanne Kovacs
Many assume that user-fees deter healthcare-seeking in low- and middle-income countries and are therefore partially responsible for high mortality rates. This paper estimates the causal effect of a national user-fee removal programme in Kenya on healthcare seeking and mortality, using a difference-in-differences design exploiting variation in treatment intensity across local communities. Results indicate a small increase in the uptake of antenatal care but no average effects on facility delivery, mortality or the quality of healthcare. Several potential mechanisms are examined and findings suggest heterogeneous treatment effects based on the physical accessibility of care as well as community-level preferences regarding household decision-making.
{"title":"Does free maternity care improve uptake and save lives? Quasi-experimental evidence from Kenya","authors":"Roxanne Kovacs","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107285","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107285","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many assume that user-fees deter healthcare-seeking in low- and middle-income countries and are therefore partially responsible for high mortality rates. This paper estimates the causal effect of a national user-fee removal programme in Kenya on healthcare seeking and mortality, using a difference-in-differences design exploiting variation in treatment intensity across local communities. Results indicate a small increase in the uptake of antenatal care but no average effects on facility delivery, mortality or the quality of healthcare. Several potential mechanisms are examined and findings suggest heterogeneous treatment effects based on the physical accessibility of care as well as community-level preferences regarding household decision-making.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 107285"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145790904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-15DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107281
Diane Zovighian
Clientelism is a defining feature of electoral politics in Nigeria, where political parties prioritize clientelist transfers to core supporters over transfers to swing voters or public goods appeals. What sustains these clientelist partisan pacts? Why are core voters more intensively targeted by clientelist transfers? Drawing on original survey data and key informant interviews, this article shows that core voters possess attributes that make them especially attractive to clientelist parties seeking to reduce defection risks. First, they are more deeply embedded in social networks on which parties can rely to gather information on their preferences and electoral behavior. Second, they are more likely to rely on their networks for voting advice or information. Third, they are more likely to perceive that the party can monitor their votes. And finally, they are more likely to comply with the clientelist bargain. This makes them in effect a safer bet for clientelist investments. In that context, clientelist targeting leads parties to sustain a core-support group of reliable votes delivery, rather than expand distributive promises to non-core voters. The findings highlight the impotance of voter-level attributes – particularly social network embeddedness – in shaping clientelist targeting and sustaining clientelist partisan pacts.
{"title":"Clientelist politics in Nigeria: Core voters, control and compliance","authors":"Diane Zovighian","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107281","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107281","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Clientelism<!--> <!-->is a defining feature of electoral politics in Nigeria, where political parties prioritize clientelist transfers to core supporters over transfers to swing voters or public goods appeals.<!--> <!-->What sustains these clientelist partisan pacts?<!--> <!-->Why are core voters more intensively targeted by clientelist transfers? Drawing on original survey data and key informant interviews, this article shows that core voters possess attributes that make them especially attractive to clientelist parties seeking to reduce defection risks. First, they are more deeply embedded in social networks on which parties can rely to gather information on their preferences and electoral behavior. Second, they are more likely to rely on their networks for voting advice or information. Third, they are more likely to<!--> <em>perceive</em> <!-->that the party can monitor their votes. And finally, they are more likely to comply with the clientelist bargain. This makes them in effect a safer bet for clientelist investments. In that context, clientelist targeting leads parties to sustain a core-support group of reliable votes delivery, rather than expand distributive promises to non-core voters. The findings highlight the impotance of voter-level attributes – particularly social network embeddedness – in shaping clientelist targeting and sustaining clientelist partisan pacts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 107281"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145790998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
International migration offers significant economic opportunities for developing countries, but it can also separate parents from their children, potentially harming child development. This paper examines the effects of restricting mothers’ international migration on left-behind children, leveraging a unique Sri Lankan policy that restricted mothers with children under age five from migrating abroad for employment. Using a difference-in-differences approach, the results reveal the following: First, the policy reduces international migration, increasing mothers’ presence at home. Second, policy exposure leads to better healthcare outcomes, including a significant reduction in inpatient stays, particularly treatment for illnesses. This improvement appears to result from increased childcare and monitoring by mothers. Although the policy decreases remittances from abroad, this reduction is offset by an increase in domestic remittances. Furthermore, we find evidence of positive spillovers on non-targeted children with younger, policy-targeted siblings, as indicated by reduced grade retention. These findings highlight the trade-offs between a mother’s presence and the economic opportunities associated with international migration in shaping human capital development.
{"title":"Restricting mothers’ international migration and human capital investment","authors":"Takuya Hasebe , Yuma Noritomo , Bilesha Weeraratne","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107284","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107284","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>International migration offers significant economic opportunities for developing countries, but it can also separate parents from their children, potentially harming child development. This paper examines the effects of restricting mothers’ international migration on left-behind children, leveraging a unique Sri Lankan policy that restricted mothers with children under age five from migrating abroad for employment. Using a difference-in-differences approach, the results reveal the following: First, the policy reduces international migration, increasing mothers’ presence at home. Second, policy exposure leads to better healthcare outcomes, including a significant reduction in inpatient stays, particularly treatment for illnesses. This improvement appears to result from increased childcare and monitoring by mothers. Although the policy decreases remittances from abroad, this reduction is offset by an increase in domestic remittances. Furthermore, we find evidence of positive spillovers on non-targeted children with younger, policy-targeted siblings, as indicated by reduced grade retention. These findings highlight the trade-offs between a mother’s presence and the economic opportunities associated with international migration in shaping human capital development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 107284"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145738731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study examines the impact of trade agreements and their specific provisions on the sustainability of marine fisheries resources. Using global data on the Mean Trophic Level (MTL) between 1950 and 2018 and a comprehensive dataset of environmental provisions from trade agreements signed between 1947 and 2018, we estimate the impact on the MTL of signing (i) a free trade agreement and (ii) a free trade agreement including fishery-related provisions. To address potential endogeneity problems associated with fisheries-related provisions, we use a difference-in-differences (DID) propensity score matching method. Our results show that while trade agreements tend to negatively impact the MTL, including fisheries-related provisions offsets this negative impact among signatory countries. By examining the potential mechanisms underlying this result, we are able to temper the optimistic findings in the existing literature on the beneficial environmental outcomes of environmental provisions. Our findings suggest that these provisions do not foster the adoption of more effective resource management practices. Instead, they appear to reduce trade opportunities, which is contrary to the objective of trade creation in trade agreements.
{"title":"Trade agreements and sustainable fisheries","authors":"Basak Bayramoglu , Estelle Gozlan , Clément Nedoncelle , Thibaut Tarabbia","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107236","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107236","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the impact of trade agreements and their specific provisions on the sustainability of marine fisheries resources. Using global data on the Mean Trophic Level (MTL) between 1950 and 2018 and a comprehensive dataset of environmental provisions from trade agreements signed between 1947 and 2018, we estimate the impact on the MTL of signing (i) a free trade agreement and (ii) a free trade agreement including fishery-related provisions. To address potential endogeneity problems associated with fisheries-related provisions, we use a difference-in-differences (DID) propensity score matching method. Our results show that while trade agreements tend to negatively impact the MTL, including fisheries-related provisions offsets this negative impact among signatory countries. By examining the potential mechanisms underlying this result, we are able to temper the optimistic findings in the existing literature on the beneficial environmental outcomes of environmental provisions. Our findings suggest that these provisions do not foster the adoption of more effective resource management practices. Instead, they appear to reduce trade opportunities, which is contrary to the objective of trade creation in trade agreements.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 107236"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145738730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107278
Afrizal , Eka Vydia Putra , Linda Elida
Expanding palm oil cultivation in Indonesia has led to significant conflicts between local communities and palm oil companies. Research indicates that these communities often rely on local governments to resolve the disputes. However, there is currently a lack of studies exploring the effectiveness of local governments in this context. This research gap highlights the importance of the present study, which aims to investigate this pressing issue by employing conflict analysis, procedural justice frameworks, and mixed methods. This article addresses how effectively local governments resolve conflicts between local communities and palm oil companies, focusing on district governments in West Sumatera, Indonesia. The findings suggest that the performance of local governments in resolving these conflicts is inadequate due to their relative inaccessibility and weak process. To achieve sustainable outcomes, there is a pressing need for fair and equitable approaches that prioritize community rights.
{"title":"Poor performance of west Sumatran governments in resolving palm oil conflicts: a procedural justice perspective","authors":"Afrizal , Eka Vydia Putra , Linda Elida","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107278","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107278","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Expanding palm oil cultivation in Indonesia has led to significant conflicts between local communities and palm oil companies. Research indicates that these communities often rely on local governments to resolve the disputes. However, there is currently a lack of studies exploring the effectiveness of local governments in this context. This research gap highlights the importance of the present study, which aims to investigate this pressing issue by employing conflict analysis, procedural justice frameworks, and mixed methods. This article addresses how effectively local governments resolve conflicts between local communities and palm oil companies, focusing on district governments in West Sumatera, Indonesia. The findings suggest that the performance of local governments in resolving these conflicts is inadequate due to their relative inaccessibility and weak process. To achieve sustainable outcomes, there is a pressing need for fair and equitable approaches that prioritize community rights.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 107278"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145738729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107286
Chowdhury Abdullah-Al-Baki , Ali Ahmed
Using the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh as a natural experiment, this paper examines the long-term educational impacts of early-life disaster exposure. We employ a differences-in-differences approach with data from the 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey to compare educational outcomes between disaster-affected and unaffected districts across birth cohorts with varying exposure timing. The results reveal substantial and persistent negative effects of early-life cyclone exposure on educational attainment. Children exposed during critical early developmental periods (ages 0–3) experience approximately one year reduction in completed schooling, with secondary completion falling by 12–19 percentage points and higher secondary completion by 10–17 percentage points. Mechanism analysis reveals economic hardship as the primary transmission channel, operating through household budget constraints that force reductions in educational investment. Infrastructure damage creates additional barriers through reduced access, while maternal psychological stress extends impacts to post-disaster birth cohorts. Disaster impacts exacerbate existing inequalities: girls experience roughly double the educational losses of boys, while rural populations face consistently larger impacts. The concentration of effects at secondary and higher secondary education levels suggests that disasters may perpetuate intergenerational poverty by blocking access to the formal labor market, where secondary education is often the minimum requirement. Robustness checks, including threats to identification and placebo tests, confirmed that these results reflected a genuine impact of the cyclone rather than coincidental patterns. These findings are urgent given projected increases in extreme weather frequency under climate change, providing strong justification for integrating disaster resilience into human capital development strategies in vulnerable developing countries.
{"title":"The long shadow of natural disasters: educational impacts of the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh","authors":"Chowdhury Abdullah-Al-Baki , Ali Ahmed","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107286","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107286","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh as a natural experiment, this paper examines the long-term educational impacts of early-life disaster exposure. We employ a differences-in-differences approach with data from the 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey to compare educational outcomes between disaster-affected and unaffected districts across birth cohorts with varying exposure timing. The results reveal substantial and persistent negative effects of early-life cyclone exposure on educational attainment. Children exposed during critical early developmental periods (ages 0–3) experience approximately one year reduction in completed schooling, with secondary completion falling by 12–19 percentage points and higher secondary completion by 10–17 percentage points. Mechanism analysis reveals economic hardship as the primary transmission channel, operating through household budget constraints that force reductions in educational investment. Infrastructure damage creates additional barriers through reduced access, while maternal psychological stress extends impacts to post-disaster birth cohorts. Disaster impacts exacerbate existing inequalities: girls experience roughly double the educational losses of boys, while rural populations face consistently larger impacts. The concentration of effects at secondary and higher secondary education levels suggests that disasters may perpetuate intergenerational poverty by blocking access to the formal labor market, where secondary education is often the minimum requirement. Robustness checks, including threats to identification and placebo tests, confirmed that these results reflected a genuine impact of the cyclone rather than coincidental patterns. These findings are urgent given projected increases in extreme weather frequency under climate change, providing strong justification for integrating disaster resilience into human capital development strategies in vulnerable developing countries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 107286"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145738172","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107283
Desheng Wu , Yu Xie
Data monopolies erode a firm’s competitive vitality and threaten the sustainable growth of developing economies. Open government data (OGD) provides a crucial supplementary channel for firms to fairly access data resources. However, past work knows little about how OGD reshapes firm dynamics (firm entry and firm exit). To investigate this, we employ a difference-in-differences model on a comprehensive dataset of high-precision firm registry and OGD launch data. This method leverages the staggered adoption of OGD platforms across Chinese cities, allowing us to isolate the causal effect on firm dynamics. Our findings evidence that while OGD accelerates firm entry, it also triggers risks of firm exit and declining survival rates. Improving the public data support level, especially the quantity and scope of datasets, will effectively mitigate the adverse effects. In terms of data utilization, we emphasize that insufficient algorithmic reserve capacity will accelerate firm exit, while, conversely, entrepreneurship benefits from high reserves in algorithms and computing power. Moreover, we evidence that OGD’s impact on firm dynamics is related to firm scale, industry, and operational models. Grounded in dynamic capability theory, we reveal that digital talent reserves, productivity, and information friction costs are the underlying mechanisms of OGD’s impact on firm dynamics. Nevertheless, we demonstrate that OGD has promoted the allocation of digital talent in non-digital sectors, increased average wages, but at the cost of greater labor displacement. Our findings provide new insights for emerging economies to enhance market competitive vitality through developing public data, while also highlighting the risks of OGD in accelerating the exit of vulnerable firms and unemployment.
{"title":"Government data accessibility and firm dynamics: Encouraging entrepreneurship or accelerating exit?","authors":"Desheng Wu , Yu Xie","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107283","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107283","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Data monopolies erode a firm’s competitive vitality and threaten the sustainable growth of developing economies. Open government data (OGD) provides a crucial supplementary channel for firms to fairly access data resources. However, past work knows little about how OGD reshapes firm dynamics (firm entry and firm exit). To investigate this, we employ a difference-in-differences model on a comprehensive dataset of high-precision firm registry and OGD launch data. This method leverages the staggered adoption of OGD platforms across Chinese cities, allowing us to isolate the causal effect on firm dynamics. Our findings evidence that while OGD accelerates firm entry, it also triggers risks of firm exit and declining survival rates. Improving the public data support level, especially the quantity and scope of datasets, will effectively mitigate the adverse effects. In terms of data utilization, we emphasize that insufficient algorithmic reserve capacity will accelerate firm exit, while, conversely, entrepreneurship benefits from high reserves in algorithms and computing power. Moreover, we evidence that OGD’s impact on firm dynamics is related to firm scale, industry, and operational models. Grounded in dynamic capability theory, we reveal that digital talent reserves, productivity, and information friction costs are the underlying mechanisms of OGD’s impact on firm dynamics. Nevertheless, we demonstrate that OGD has promoted the allocation of digital talent in non-digital sectors, increased average wages, but at the cost of greater labor displacement. Our findings provide new insights for emerging economies to enhance market competitive vitality through developing public data, while also highlighting the risks of OGD in accelerating the exit of vulnerable firms and unemployment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 107283"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145738728","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-10DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107263
Melanie Gräser , Christine Grimm , Roman Hoffmann
Hospitalization can be a highly stressful experience for children, potentially affecting their well-being and recovery. This study evaluates the impact of hospital clown visits on pediatric patients in Palestine. The health system of the country is severely challenged by the ongoing conflict and sociopolitical tensions which have major implications for the physical and mental health of children and obstruct patients’ access to healthcare services. We conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to estimate the effects of clown visits on caregiver-rated health outcomes: children’s well-being during hospitalization, subjective recovery, and perceptions of hospital quality. We find that clown visits had a statistically significant positive effect on children’s well-being with levels of well-being in the treatment group being 0.25 standard deviations higher than in the control group. The effect was stronger among children from higher socio-economic backgrounds and those with a favorable predisposition towards clowns. We found no significant effects on caregiver-rated subjective recovery or perceptions of hospital quality. Our findings suggest that low-cost, non-medical interventions can play a meaningful role in improving the hospital experience for children, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected settings.
{"title":"Humor for health: a randomized controlled trial of clown visits in Palestinian hospitals","authors":"Melanie Gräser , Christine Grimm , Roman Hoffmann","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107263","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107263","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Hospitalization can be a highly stressful experience for children, potentially affecting their well-being and recovery. This study evaluates the impact of hospital clown visits on pediatric patients in Palestine. The health system of the country is severely challenged by the ongoing conflict and sociopolitical tensions which have major implications for the physical and mental health of children and obstruct patients’ access to healthcare services. We conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to estimate the effects of clown visits on caregiver-rated health outcomes: children’s well-being during hospitalization, subjective recovery, and perceptions of hospital quality. We find that clown visits had a statistically significant positive effect on children’s well-being with levels of well-being in the treatment group being 0.25 standard deviations higher than in the control group. The effect was stronger among children from higher socio-economic backgrounds and those with a favorable predisposition towards clowns. We found no significant effects on caregiver-rated subjective recovery or perceptions of hospital quality. Our findings suggest that low-cost, non-medical interventions can play a meaningful role in improving the hospital experience for children, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected settings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 107263"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145738171","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-08DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107280
Bina Agarwal
Progress towards gender equality − economically, socially and politically − is a key measure of development, as well as a means of achieving it. This essay traces both the advances made (theoretical, empirical and in policy) in reducing gender inequality since the mid-1970s, when it was recognised internationally in development discourse, and the limits to that progress, given the persistence of gender inequality in most forms today. It is argued here that underlying visible measures of inequality, such as in women’s property ownership, labour market outcomes, and the governance of public institutions are hidden inequalities, embedded in biased social norms, social perceptions, and the social legitimacy of claims. Tackling these hidden barriers and their visible outcomes will require charting unconventional pathways, in particular shifting away from the dominant individualistic approaches to development to group approaches and collective action as necessary components for change.
{"title":"DEVELOPMENT AS EQUALITY: A gender lens on progress and its hidden barriers","authors":"Bina Agarwal","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107280","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107280","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Progress towards gender equality − economically, socially and politically − is a key measure of development, as well as a means of achieving it. This essay traces both the advances made (theoretical, empirical and in policy) in reducing gender inequality since the mid-1970s, when it was recognised internationally in development discourse, and the limits to that progress, given the persistence of gender inequality in most forms today. It is argued here that underlying visible measures of inequality, such as in women’s property ownership, labour market outcomes, and the governance of public institutions are hidden inequalities, embedded in biased social norms, social perceptions, and the social legitimacy of claims. Tackling these hidden barriers and their visible outcomes will require charting unconventional pathways, in particular shifting away from the dominant individualistic approaches to development to group approaches and collective action as necessary components for change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 107280"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145738169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-08DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107259
Nicola Banks , Badru Bukenya , Willem Elbers , Innocent Kamya , Emmanuel Kumi , Lau Schulpen , Gijs van Selm , Margit van Wessel , Thomas Yeboah
Power inequalities between Northern and Southern NGOs have historically plagued development cooperation. A growing momentum towards localisation, locally-led development, and shift the power is indicative of widespread efforts to respond to these inequalities. Drawing upon new survey data, we explore the nature of specific actions taken by a sample of NNGOs and SNGOs to address these power inequalities and analyse the extent to which these equalize power. We find that organisations in our sample are taking important steps toward reconfiguring traditional power dynamics and fostering more collaborative and accountable relationships between Northern and Southern actors. Yet a deeper analysis of these raises questions around whether actions are deep enough to rebalance or upturn unequal relationships and contribute to broader systems change. We find that innovations within the aid system are making incremental improvements without fundamentally shifting where decision-making power and financial power lie. Significant to scholars and practitioners alike, these findings underscore the need for more substantive and systemic changes to achieve genuine equity in development cooperation.
{"title":"Power and its discontents: The long road to systemic change in the aid sector","authors":"Nicola Banks , Badru Bukenya , Willem Elbers , Innocent Kamya , Emmanuel Kumi , Lau Schulpen , Gijs van Selm , Margit van Wessel , Thomas Yeboah","doi":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107259","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107259","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Power inequalities between Northern and Southern NGOs have historically plagued development cooperation. A growing momentum towards localisation, locally-led development, and shift the power is indicative of widespread efforts to respond to these inequalities. Drawing upon new survey data, we explore the nature of specific actions taken by a sample of NNGOs and SNGOs to address these power inequalities and analyse the extent to which these equalize power. We find that organisations in our sample are taking important steps toward reconfiguring traditional power dynamics and fostering more collaborative and accountable relationships between Northern and Southern actors. Yet a deeper analysis of these raises questions around whether actions are deep enough to rebalance or upturn unequal relationships and contribute to broader systems change. We find that innovations within the aid system are making incremental improvements without fundamentally shifting where decision-making power and financial power lie. Significant to scholars and practitioners alike, these findings underscore the need for more substantive and systemic changes to achieve genuine equity in development cooperation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48463,"journal":{"name":"World Development","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 107259"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145738170","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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