Suchergebnisse

Since 2007, the EU has been pushing for blended finance to mobilise private sector for development. This is a novel and controversial financial policy coinciding with the growing debate on "beyond aid" and the emergence of new financial tools and actors that are actively engaged with the global development agenda. Since the 1960s, grants and concessional loans (or more simply, aid) have been the dominant type of development finance provided by the EU, together with debt relief and the costs of technical assistance. But aid is no longer the main source of development finance for most developing countries, now replaced by private financial flows: foreign direct investment (FDI), remittances and philanthropy. Business-led economic growth is at the core of the 2030 global development agenda seen as the primary driver of investments, jobs creation and production of goods and services. In consequence, the EU is moving to combine aid with other public and private resources (blended finance) to catalyse and leverage additional funds from the private sector. This paper will critically analyse the emergence and evolution of EU blended finance to support the private sector to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) by 2030 and the potential implications for EU development cooperation. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The EU Agenda for Change adopted in 2011 is the basis of the current EU´s development policy and aims at responding to the changes undergoing in the international development arena. One of the key principles and policy priorities of this agenda is differentiation which manifests the EU intention to increasingly provide aid only to Low Income countries (LICs). This paper will critically analyse to what extent this shift to differentiation is shaping the relations between the EU and ASEAN. It will argue that EU relations with ASEAN have always been differentiated from other developing countries as they have been subordinated to trade interests rather than development goals. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The European Union (EU) is one of the world´s leading donors in official development assistance (ODA) to give it a strong weight in the relationship with recipient partner countries, in particular with those that are more dependent on it. Besides the material weight of its funding, the EU has retained historical ties and influence in diplomatic, political and economic terms in many of its ODA recipient partner countries (particular in Sub-Saharan Africa). Since the 2000s, the EU development policy has not only undergone major structural changes in its institutional framework but it has also started to face a new international aid scenario. The paper explores why a normative-based EU development policy is being challenged by reformed EU institutions and a new global order and how the EU is attempting to respond to this context in face of the EU deepest recession since the end of the Second World War. ; Apoio da FCT

Africa continues to show high economic growth and market potential in terms of access to natural resources and new consumers, Korea needs to start thinking about strengthening its engagement with Africa. Unlike Korea, Portugal has been a strong trade partner of Africa, particularly through its investments in two of the fastest growing economies in the continent, Angola and Mozambique. Historical, political, economic, educational, and cultural ties as well as language have played a crucial role in nurturing trade relations. The current economic and financial crisis in the European Union is pushing Portuguese companies to strengthen their presence in booming Portuguese- speaking African countries. Due to Korea's weak links with the continent, this paper will attempt to critically analyse the opportunities and challenges for Korean businesses in building partnerships with Portuguese companies to enhance their entry into fast-growing African markets. The paper will focus on Mozambique as a case study.

A recent series of studies have been dealing with the dynamics behind the building of developmental states in Africa. This working paper is a contribution for that debate by looking at the experience of the Korean developmental state and the lessons that Africa can learn from this Asian country's experience seen as an outstanding model of economic development. Despite poor resource endowment and a large population, a colonial legacy, the devastation following a civil war, persistent political instability, and the lingering military confrontation with her northern neighbour, Korea's role in the international economic system has rapidly increased in importance since the 1960s. For nearly five decades, Korea has achieved a remarkable economic performance that transformed the country from a typical case of a developing nation trapped in a "vicious circle of underdevelopment", into one of the largest economies in the late 1990s. Beneath the economic success lied a system of "socialisation of private risk", a particular mode of organising the market, as the "visible hand" of a strong, bureaucratic and developmental state were able to accelerate the pace of economic growth by identifying strategic industrial sectors, making discretionary allocation of resources to those sectors, and minimising the collective action dilemmas pervasive in most developing countries. But the Korean state, as any other state, is a political realm that encompasses distinct, contending and at times colliding actors. In fact, the Korean developmental state provides us clues about the role that leadership play and what stands at the "heart of a politics of economic growth". Policy choices and implementation rest on the strategies designed by the rulers to boost their political legitimacy, to strengthen their power, and to guarantee regime survival. Strategies are not only a product of institutional opportunities and constraints, but also of history, context, coalition politics and ideological templates involving the actors at the time of action. This paper will discuss the role played by President Park Chung-Hee (1961-1979) in building a bureaucratic-developmental state and what African countries can learn from these leadership experiences in terms of its own development path.

Explores the George W. Bush administration's policy toward Taiwan; argues that the stability of the Taiwan strait depends on the ability of the US, China, and Taiwan to balance domestic interests with external pressure. Summaries in English and French p. 331-4.

Africa has been the neglected continent in world politics. It has also been the subject of aid dependency and policy conditionality, leaving little autonomy of decision-making and ownership of its development policies. The recent economic turn-around and the global rush for resources and commodities have raised the importance of the African continent in the international economic scene. Many African countries are rich in resources and they have seen their development possibilities enhanced by intensified economic relations in particular with the emerging economies but also with their traditional main partners. However, as this is happening at the country level and African countries still have disperse voices in their exchanges with the rest of the world, the possibilities for leveraging this new potential are limited. Through the analysis of the dynamics of regional integration in Africa, this paper explores the hypothesis that increased integration would give a stronger voice, policy space and ultimately ownership of policies to African countries.

This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the changing dynamics in the relationship between the African continent and the EU, provided by leading experts in the field. Structured into five parts, the handbook provides an incisive look at the past, present and potential futures of EU-Africa relations. The cutting-edge chapters cover themes like multilateralism, development assistance, institutions, gender equality and science and technology, among others. Thoroughly researched, this book provides original reflections from a diversity of conceptual and theoretical perspectives, from experts in Africa, Europe and beyond. The handbook thus offers rich and comprehensive analyses of contemporary global politics as manifested in Africa and Europe.

This study stemmed from the need perceived by the Portuguese Platform of NGDOs (PPNGDO) to produce knowledge that will help its members carry out a more informed analysis of the changes in International development cooperation (hereafter, development cooperation). Understanding the transformation underway and the challenges it presents is fundamental for the PPNGDO and its members to jointly outline possible paths into the future, setting out the future direction of action, their priorities and their options. The study was conducted with three goals in mind: 1) tracing the progress of development cooperation over the past 20 years, while reflecting and discussing the ongoing changes in a multiplex world; 2) addressing the challenges faced by key public and private development cooperation actors view of the ongoing change; 3) contributing to the discussion on this new configuration of development cooperation by offering guidelines based on adaptation and innovation for thinking and acting in a complex, fragmented and fragile multiplex world. This study sought to review the available academic and grey literature (reports from development cooperation organisations, blog posts, online discussions and interviews), and where possible, interviews with professionals from international organisations – both governmental and non-governmental – were used. In the introduction of the study, we contextualise development cooperation in a changing world and describe the framework for discussion applied to each of the following sections: In Part I, changes in development cooperation and ODA are addressed, based on three issues that are crucial for the sectors: quantity, quality and legitimacy. Part II highlights the challenges faced by key public and private actors of development cooperation - either '"traditional'" or '"new'" ones. Finally, Part III outlines a few guidelines on complexity, fragmentation, and fragility, which can provide useful tools for analysis in the new context. To conclude, we offer civil society organisations some points for reflection. ; This report was co-financed by the European Union. Its content is the sole responsibility of the Portuguese NGDO Platform and does not necessarily reflect the position of the European Union ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion