Development Policy Review最新文献

Motivation

Improved seed adoption can increase yield, enhance food security, improve livelihoods, and reduce poverty. Although many governments in the global South use seed subsidies to achieve these outcomes, the success and efficiency of input subsidies is subject to debate.

Most smallholders in Nepal lack information and finance to access improved technologies, including improved seeds. To address this, Nepal's universal seed subsidy programme (SSP) began in 2012. SSP offers participants up to 50% off the price of rice seed from improved varieties.

Purpose

We evaluate the impact of SSP on farmer participants five years after its inception. Until now, the programme had not been evaluated.

Approach and Methods

We compare rice-growing households receiving subsidized seeds (treatment group) with those that do not (control group). We match the two groups using propensity scoring. We compare rice yield per hectare for the two groups, looking at aggregate and heterogeneous treatment effects. Primary data come from a 2019 survey of 157 treated and 173 control farm households in the Terai lowlands.

Findings

We find no evidence of SSP impact on rice yield in the aggregate. One potential explanation is that the programme tended to promote seed of a long-standing open-pollinated variety (OPV), rather than newer, higher-yielding OPVs and hybrids. Examination of heterogenous impacts, however, shows higher yields among treated households who were either on low incomes or remote from agro-dealers and agricultural extension offices.

Policy implications

Given the lack of impact on yields of SSP, sustaining the programme in the same form is neither advisable nor justified. We suggest targeting households on low incomes and in remote areas; subsidizing only the more recent high-yielding varieties; and considering cost-effective approaches to administer the programme, such as seed vouchers. To improve last-mile seed delivery, SSP needs to engage more with private seed providers and be more transparent in its operations. Results from this study may have broader implications for other long-standing agricultural subsidies in Nepal and other developing countries with universal subsidy programmes.

Motivation

Since 2017, more than a million forcibly displaced Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have been heavily reliant on humanitarian assistance in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. The donors and humanitarian stakeholders involved, often drawing on OECD recommendations, are calling for a triple nexus design linking humanitarian, development, and peace pillars to increase effectiveness.

Purpose

To further understanding of the issues involved and to provide recommendations for the implementation of a triple-nexus programme, the article explores the main challenges relating to triple-nexus implementation in Bangladesh.

Approach and Methods

Thematic analysis is conducted on 25 qualitative key informant interviews with selected government officials and international and national NGOs involved in the Rohingya humanitarian response in Cox's Bazar.

Findings

The study identifies five main challenges to triple-nexus implementation, foregrounding the OECD guiding principles: (1) the “peace” component remains unaddressed and undefined; (2) the capacity of local organizations is undermined in the Rohingya response due to the dominance of international organizations; (3) the shrinkage of overall funding leads to ambiguities in multi-year funding commitments and modalities; (4) there is a co-ordination gap between the three nexus pillars; and (5) the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) is reluctant to design long-term refugee policies for Rohingyas.

Policy Implications

The study suggests that adopting the triple nexus in the Rohingya response requires stronger political commitment on the part of the GoB and goal-oriented national policy in accordance with OECD principles. The inclusion of a “peace” element is indispensable to enable the balance between humanitarian and development components, but requires a clearly defined conflict context to be entwined with the nexus programming. The findings also contribute to reappraising the impediments to operationalizing the nexus programme and refurbishing policy discussions in other major cases in forced migration, IDP, or refugee crises globally.

Motivation

As a leading European funding programme aimed at enhancing the cohesion of cross-border regions and countries, Interreg plays a significant role in fostering regional development. Sustainability, as one of the programme's central themes, covers a large portion of the objective focus, aiming for sustainable development. Although the guidelines contain implications for social sustainability, the programme demonstrates that the concept is poorly understood, which can be seen in project implementation.

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to investigate the conceptual framework and development of the discourse on social sustainability in the context of tourism and cohesion strategy, specifically within the Interreg programme. Thus, this article examines the social sustainability discourse within Interreg Europe's implications for cross-border tourism development.

Approach and methods

The study is concerned with the construction of the social sustainability discourse within cohesion policy in the broader European region. In particular, this study seeks to answer the question “how does Interreg structure the discourse on social sustainability in relation to tourism?” Our research is based on a critical review of the literature, followed by a discourse analysis of the core documents of Interreg Europe 2021–2027: the Programme Manual and the Cooperation Programme document.

Findings

In conclusion, three key themes emerge from the discourse on social sustainability in tourism: (1) Interreg's recognition of tourism-dependent regions; (2) a dominant presence of the economic and environmental pillars of sustainability; and (3) an ambiguous characterization of the social pillar and its objectives. As a result, we confirm the significance of social sustainability and clear policy formulation for the development of sustainable tourism.

Policy implications

This article warns against imprecise project objectives and the use of overly simplified and ambiguous terminology, while emphasizing the importance of social sustainability in the context of sustainable tourism development.

Motivation

Men farmers typically achieve higher productivity than women farmers, a gender gap that reflects women's disadvantages in farming. Sri Lanka seems an exception, because women farmers achieve higher land productivity (gross value of output per hectare) than men farmers. That said, despite women's productivity advantage, men earn higher agricultural incomes.

Purpose

We investigate the factors contributing to the unconditional agricultural productivity advantage of women farmers and the gender gap in agricultural earnings in favour of men in Sri Lanka.

Approach and methods

Using data from the nationally representative 2016 Sri Lanka Household Income and Expenditure Survey, we employ Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition to analyse factors behind the gender disparities in agricultural productivity and earnings.

Findings

The leading factor contributing to higher female land productivity is the smaller plot size cultivated by women, reflecting an inverse relation between cultivated area and yield. The next most important factor is the gendered pattern of crop mix: women tend to cultivate high-value export crops such as tea, while men are more likely to grow paddy — a less productive crop. When plot size and crop mix are controlled, men farmers achieve a conditional productivity advantage over women farmers. For crop earnings, men have both unconditional and conditional advantages, mainly due to their greater access to land and other inputs. While women's small plots have high yields, their size limits women's farm incomes.

Policy implications

Policies to improve women's lagging access to land, inputs and other agricultural resources — often due to inherent gender bias — are needed to close the gender gap in agricultural income. Government policies favouring import-competing commodities such as paddy, mainly through fertilizer subsidies, tend to benefit disproportionately men who are more likely to engage in paddy farming. Reallocating public spending on agriculture could enhance both efficiency and gender equality.

Motivation

Despite efforts to reduce poverty, both income and multidimensional poverty continue to be high in Mexico, especially in rural areas. Most studies concerned with the effect of credit use on poverty analyse formal credit, but little is known about the impacts of different types of credit on poverty.

Purpose

We investigate the impacts of the use of formal credit and informal loans obtained (primarily) for productive and investment purposes on multidimensional and income poverty of rural households in Mexico.

Approach and methods

We use data from the 2013 and 2015 CONEVAL Surveys of Rural Households in Mexico, representative of rural communities with fewer than 2,500 inhabitants, to investigate the impact of credit on poverty. We apply inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) to account for differences between users of formal credit, users of informal loans, and non-users of credit.

Findings

Both formal and informal credit usage reduce poverty in rural Mexico, generally with clearer impacts on moderate rather than extreme poverty. Informal credit appears to have largely reached households that could most benefit from it. Broader access to formal credit would potentially further reduce poverty.

Policy implications

Public policies to reduce rural poverty should promote a greater access to the formal financial sector. Including vulnerable low-income rural households in formal finance should be accompanied by financial education.

Motivation

“Localization”—direct donor support for national organizations in aid recipient countries—has become a top priority for international development. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) pledged to raise the proportion of direct funding to national organizations to 25% and for 50% of funding to involve “locally led” input. Independently, USAID commits to proactive disclosure of project information. This study analyses sectoral priorities, access to project data, and localization trends to inform policy discussion about how USAID can reach its twin localization goals, with a focus on Colombia, the largest US aid recipient in Latin America.

Purpose

An open government perspective can shed light on whether and how development agencies are making progress towards localization. Moreover, user-centred information disclosure by donors is necessary to inform locally led development. The goals of this study are to document USAID's sectoral funding priorities, gaps in data disclosure, implementation actions, and direct local funding percentages to make patterns more visible to stakeholders. We ask: What are the strengths and limitations of public disclosure of data concerning US aid in Colombia?

Approach and methods

This analysis uses open-source data review methods to bring together different sources of publicly available data. These methods include triangulating government data disbursed across multiple sites, recoding government data to make trends visible, and identifying barriers to data access.

Findings

Public data indicate that US funding for peace-related projects increased in the years following Colombia's 2016 Peace Accord, though the security share of total US aid remains high. Funding trends demonstrate that USAID is far behind its localization goals in Colombia, though absolute funding totals to local organizations are increasing. Finally, publicly available project data are not user-centred, require technical acumen to access, and are fragmented across multiple sites.

Policy implications

User-centred disclosures are key to locally led development to ensure informed participation and accountability to stakeholders.

Motivation

Qatar's humanitarian role in Afghanistan, a less-explored example of a non-traditional actor, is crucial in understanding international responses to geopolitical crises. Examining Qatar's involvement provides insights into the complex dynamics of humanitarian assistance, diplomatic efforts, and post-crisis challenges.

Purpose

The study examines Qatar's multifaceted role in Afghanistan since 2021, highlighting its impact as a non-traditional actor in complex humanitarian operations and diplomacy.

Approach and methods

The research combines a desk review of online sources, academic literature, reports, non-governmental organization documents, and media articles with first-hand observations and informal stakeholder interviews. It also analyses international aid statistics from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' Financial Tracking Service and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Development Assistance Committee.

Findings

Qatar emerged as a key humanitarian player in Afghanistan, adopting a whole-of-society approach. Its efforts encompassed emergency relief, evacuations, educational support, and humanitarian diplomacy, effectively bridging the Taliban with international actors after the takeover.

Policy implications

This research highlights the impactful role of non-traditional donors, as seen with Qatar in Afghanistan, emphasizing their potential in complex humanitarian scenarios. The study advocates recognizing and leveraging the unique capabilities of smaller states and non-traditional actors in humanitarian responses, promoting capacity building to harness their institutional agility and societal resources effectively.

Motivation

Academicians and policy-makers grapple with monitoring the economic impact of crises such as COVID-19 when survey data are scarce.

Purpose

We show how a set of publicly available real-time indicators—nitrogen dioxide emissions, night-time lights, mobile phone mobility tracking, internet searches, and food prices—tracked changes in GDP across multiple countries in 2020.

Approach and methods

We first describe the extent to which real-time indicators captured the COVID-19 crisis. We employ linear models, selected using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), to examine the capacity of these indicators to track GDP growth during the crisis.

Findings

Google Mobility and staple food prices both sharply declined in March and April 2020, followed by a rapid recovery returning to baseline levels by July and August 2020. Mobility and staple food prices experienced a milder decrease in low-income countries.

Nitrogen dioxide and night-time lights showed a similar pattern, with the steepest fall followed by a swift recovery in lower middle-income countries.

In April and May, Google search terms reflecting economic distress and religiosity spiked in some regions but not in others.

Linear models explain about half of the variation in annual GDP growth in 68 countries. In a smaller subset of higher-income countries, real-time indicators explain about 65% of the variation in quarterly GDP growth.

Policy implications

Real-time indicators offer several advantages in crisis monitoring, being readily available, cost-effective, and not requiring face-to-face interactions, which are particularly valuable during a pandemic.

Motivation

Donors allocate huge sums for assistance intended for poverty reduction to countries that arguably do not need it. For example, the United States spends more in Jordan—with no extreme poverty—than it does in the six countries with the highest poverty rates in the world combined, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia. Prior studies have suggested that if global aid were allocated according to need, it could roughly double its impact on poverty reduction.

Purpose

Country need can be broken down into the magnitude of the development challenge and the domestic resources available. This study examines these two components of development need to determine which countries have the greatest need for foreign assistance.

Approach and methods

I produce a set of data-driven observations documenting the magnitude of the challenge and the resources available. I first explore which countries have the highest rates of absolute and multidimensional poverty. I then examine which countries have the ability to redistribute by comparing their poverty gaps with the potential domestic resources available. This produces the marginal tax rate (MTR) required for a country to finance its own poverty eradication.

Findings

There is a clear trend in the magnitude of the challenge: low-income countries (LICs) have the highest poverty rates by far; lower middle-income countries (LMICs) are more mixed; and upper middle-income countries (UMICs) have comparatively little extreme poverty, except in a small handful of countries. The implied MTRs required to close a country's extreme poverty gap are excessively high for LICs and most LMICs but easily manageable for most UMICs. This strongly suggests that both the magnitude of the challenge is much greater and the resources available much lower in LICs and LMICs.

Policy implications

The policy implication is that LICs and LMICs should be strongly favoured in terms of aid allocation. The two different components of country need point in the same direction and both suggest a strong focus on allocating assistance towards the poorest countries.