Items tagged:
World Bank (WB)
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Who can we trust to measure urban poverty?
International definitions of the poverty line don't take into the account the additional costs of living in cities. Sarah Colenbrander says the urban poor can help institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank develop accurate, local, definitions of urban poverty
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Making World Bank aid sustainable
Clare Shakya sets out seven ways the World Bank can make its development aid sustainable and inclusive.
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Accounting for the value of natural resources
IIED worked with the World Bank as part of the WAVES partnership to support the inclusion of sustainable use of natural resources in development planning, and make clear the contribution they make to the economy in national accounts
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Global land rush: Contract transparency is crucial, but not enough
Greater transparency was a key theme at the World Bank land conference last week. Transparency is critical, but without greater accountability to local communities it is not enough.
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Invest in farmers, not in farmland
"Land grabs" are now one of the biggest issues in Africa.
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How can air travel contribute to the costs of adapting to climate change?
Climate change negotiators are still meeting this week in Bonn to try and find a way forward on, amongst many other subjects, climate change mitigation, adaptation and finance. Sources of ‘innovative’ finance, such as taxes on international transport, have been proposed. Might these provide a way to break the deadlock on finance and prove to be sources of significant and stable financing to address the impacts of climate change?
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Poor Economics and ‘Just Giving Money to the Poor’
Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo's book, Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, is making waves in development circles. Beyond the strong focus on randomised control trials, the book distinguishes itself by wading into issues on which the development community has often ignored or made uninformed guesses. These include the rationale behind the decisions made by the poor, whether they make the "best" decisions available, and how policymakers should respond.
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Local voice, global forest, local forest, global voice
Who had heard of G3 eighteen months ago? Nobody, because it didn’t exist.Yet an alliance known as The Three Rights Holders Group has had a strong presence at COP 16 in Cancun, manning an information booth and participating in various panels.The group’s message was a simple one, advocating for sustainable forest management and locally controlled forestry as a vital component in any realistic strategy going forward to address climate change mitigation and adaptation.So who is this group and where has it come from?
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Adaptation finance: Why not just give it to the poor?
A new book argues that the best approach to reducing poverty is the simplest: giving money to the poor. In Just Give Money to the Poor, Hanlon, Barrientos and Hulme argue that cash transfers put money directly in the hands of those that need it, and that the poor are both willing and capable of using the money to benefit themselves and their families. Given the uncertainties and pitfalls of spending money on climate change adaptation, could we do worse than simply giving money to the poor themselves?
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The recession and the changing face of aid
Traditional donors from the G8 have failed to achieve their commitments to give 0.7% of their gross national incomes, due in part to “severe constraints of public debt”. But despite the recession, new donors have emerged, and with them a shift to new patterns and ways of giving aid. Indeed the recession has demonstrated the durability of aid during hard times but has also added to its complexity. We now need to work even harder to make sense of that complexity and ensure that aid is considered as one small part of a more joined-up and transparent development agenda.
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