Tag Archives: Africa

By Edvin Arnby Machata

The international development community has for almost two decades focused on improving governance as a strategic priority for aiding economic growth. This article points to the historical record and argues that 1) growth does not require good governance, 2) good governance and representative institutions are products of economic development – not the other way around, and that 3) the configuration of national institutions determine whether a political order will produce developmental outcomes or not.

‘Good governance’ has been a mainstay component in most donor-funded development programmes during the last two decades. What exactly constitutes good governance is empirically problematic, but while implementations vary, demands for good governance generally include provisions to minimize graft and increase respect for human rights.

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Since the 1995 United Nations Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women, the world of development has been obsessed with the idea of mainstreaming ‘gender’ throughout aid delivery programs and operations. Nowhere has this been more true than in Africa. So, almost two decades later, has gender mainstreaming succeeded? And if not, what has been the reality and how should the world move forward? The Development Roast sat down with the incredibly inspiring Khadija Bah-Wakefield to learn from her quarter century career as a senior gender and socioeconomic advisor to the World Bank, different factions of the United Nations, West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development, New Partnership for Africa’s Development and many other donor groups in over twenty African countries*. Read More »

What would you do if you were the mother of a young girl born into a social setting where her gender automatically affects her chances of independence, riches and success? Most of us live in such societies as gender imbalances are institutionalised and pervasive the world over. Take the recently exposed gender gap in US election coverage published by 4thEstate.net that showed that even on important issues specifically facing women (such as reproductive health, birth control, women’s rights), the US media consulted the voices of actual women only 12-31% of the time. Read More »

James Belgrave reports on the increase in violence experienced over the last six months and its implications for long term stability of Burundi. Photo Credits: Teddy Mazina.

Since the peace agreements of 2005 and since the former rebel FNL (Forces Nationales de Libération) forces laid down their weapons and joined the political process in 2009, relative peace has reigned over Burundi.

However, since the 2010 elections, which were characterized by sporadic political violence, the security situation has steadily deteriorated. Several recent armed attacks stand out amongst a list of worryingly violent incidents. The government has so far blamed ‘armed bandits’, but some point to the violence as bearing the marks of a potential conflict with the potential to destabilize a country which is already recovering from a civil war which left around 300,000 people dead and more than 500,000 displaced. Read More »