Monthly Highlights from ECDPM's Weekly Compass Update, GREAT Insights, Volume 3, Issue 1 (December 2013 - January 2014)
Development Co-operation Report 2013: Ending Poverty. Weekly Compass, No. 171, 6 December 2013
The Development Co-operation Report (DCR) from OECD is the key annual reference document for analysis and statistics on trends in international development co-operation. This year, the DCR explores what needs to be done to achieve rapid and sustainable progress in the global fight to end poverty. The OECD launched the report with a meeting with experts discussing the key issues that the report raises.
European Development Days: first look. Weekly Compass, No. 170, 29 November 2013
The EDDs 2013 brought 5,000 people to Brussels to discuss big global development issues and the post-2015 development agenda this week. ECDPM participated in a number of panels, including on Corporate Social Responsibility, private sector for development and on blending finance. Read this short blog which outlines some of the outcomes from the event, and displays a gallery of selected images from across the two days. ECDPM interviewed a number of people including the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Chair Eric Solheim, Owen Barder from the Centre for Global Development, and seventeen others that gave their take on the issues and challenges. These will be released over the next few weeks.
EU support for conflict prevention. Weekly Compass, No.169, 22 November 2013
Approximately 1.5 billion people live in countries affected by repeated cycles of political and criminal violence. The European Union has released two notes on how the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the European Commission can better work on peacebuilding and security issues using a comprehensive approach. The first note explores how all the external cooperation instruments of the EU are relevant to conflict prevention, peacebuilding and security issues and how these can be addressed in a cross-cutting manner. Among the typical areas of specific peacebuilding support that more often require external assistance is continuous support to mediation and dialogue processes and to the long-term implementation of peace agreements. The second note looks at how conflict analysis can assist EEAS and Commission staff working in fragile and/or conflict-affected countries. The note concludes that the EU needs to be driven by goals and objectives rather than instruments and identifies complementary measures needed to reinforce/support key elements of the chosen response, such as supporting civil society or diplomacy.
Ideas trump interests in political economy. Weekly Compass, No.168,15 November 2013
Recognising ideas rather than interests is crucial to understanding political economy, according to Dani Rodrik in his report. He says that hidden assumptions play a role in all economic models, but the failure to see the role of ideas in shaping interests has especially serious implications in political economy. He argues there are three components of the problem in political economy – preferences, constraints, and choice variables. Once ideas enter these frameworks, a much richer and more convincing set of results can be obtained, he adds. New ideas about policy—or policy entrepreneurship—can exert an independent effect on equilibrium outcomes even in the absence of changes in the configuration of political power.
