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The Broker, together with knowledge platform Include, has completed a successful consultation asking more than a hundred experts how economic growth can be stimulated in sub-Saharan Africa

Communicating the SDGs is now key, not only for their survival during the negotiations in the General Assembly next year, but also for their effective implementation.

High levels of economic growth are not sufficient to reach the bottom 40%. Despite this being an increasingly accepted view, policies to promote inclusiveness often remain empty shells as existing power structures are unchallenged. If we want to r...

Economic growth in the newly emerging economies is accompanied by obscene disparities between rich and poor.

There’s a new kid in town. Mexico is more than ever opening itself up to the world and ready to play an important role in the post-2015 development agenda. Desiring to once again be the bridge between the West and Latin America, Mexico has been ve...

In July 2014, the UN Open Working Group on Sustainable Development proposed a universal set of post-2015 goals and targets to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The draft consists of 17 ambitious goals for social, economic and enviro...

Last week the UN Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals (OWG) adopted their final report to standing ovations after 13 formal sessions and a final marathon meeting. From a European perspective, the outcome is considered a sat...

The long wait is over. During the 13th and final session of the Open Working Group (OWG) on sustainable development goals (SDGs), held from 14 to 19 July, the 69 member countries agreed on a set of 17 SDGs and 169 associated targets. These should...

Developing a stable and decent labour market is a matter of willingness and making choices.

The EADI General Conference started its first full day on 24 June with a plenary panel on the middle classes. It emerged that perspectives on the middle classes are very different in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe.

The African Studies Centre (ASC), the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS/EUR) and globalization think tank The Broker are excited to announce that they will be hosting the Secretariat fo...

The first meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) failed to meet the expectation of starting a new era of equality between traditional and new donors. 

The central theme of The Broker Day 2014 on 14 April was employment and inequality, and the structural macroeconomic problems underlying them. The main speaker was Minister of Social Affairs and Employment and deputy prime minister Lodewijk Assche...

Elements of the decent work agenda can improve employment conditions worldwide, but current neo-liberalist policies are counterproductive.

Welcome to The Broker’s dossier on employment. Global employment trends can be confusing. For example, they show an increase in the numbers of unemployed people while at the same time an increase in the amount of jobs. Population growth alone cann...

Who benefits or loses from globalization is no longer based on the sector in which one works or the skill group one belongs to. Ongoing technological innovations have enabled greater global competition for a number of jobs. The key challenge for i...

If we want the new global development agenda to be manageable, it is perhaps better to design a small set of end goals similar to the original MDGs, instead of a new wish list.

If there is one thing that must be done, then that is to cancel the public debts of developing countries.

In the last week of September, world leaders gathered in New York for the general debate marking the opening of the 68th UN General Assembly (GA). This was an important moment for the post-2015 process, as several events were organized on the glob...

Guestblogger Seth Kaplan on the rise of the g7+ group of 18 fragile and conlfict-affected states 

If we want to increase jobs and reduce poverty, we must emphasize the private sector's role in development.

In any situation, there is a chance you might lose and a chance you might win. We start a new blog on management of risks, within and beyond development cooperation.

Criticism of East Asia’s alleged self-interest-led development aid can also be applied to Western donors.

Will the BRICS Development Bank’s constructive capacities overcome its destructive ones? The world is watching.

The HLP report does not address the underlying power dynamics that might undermine the effectiveness and outcomes of the proposed new global partnership.

The HLP report does not seem far-reaching enough to put its idealistic image-sketching into practice  

As a result of increasing complexity and absence of strong leadership it has become difficult for policy makers to ensure accountability in the aid chain. This has resulted in the popularization of Results Based Management (RBM). Instigated by the...

Inequality of opportunity provides a helpful way of framing the debate, particularly so as it shows the agreement that circumstances should not prohibit the fulfillment of talent. For children, early inequalities in learning or nutrition have seri...

The Broker has created an infographic on the post-2015 agenda. This visual shows which actors play a role in the process and provides links for further information. See also the infographic on the post-2015 process and the infographic on the ...

In its post-2015 dossier, The Broker guides you through the many discussions about development after the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expire in 2015. The aim of the post-2015 dossier is to provide an overview of the debate, t...

Halving extreme poverty and hunger is the aim of Millennium Development Goal one. Although this goal is in reach, feeding a growing world population with good quality food remains a major challenge. Especially if you take into account climate chan...

The 2015 deadline for the first global campaign against poverty, the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), is approaching. Global consultations on its successor are underway. Views on the post-2015 development agenda fall roughly into three cate...

The discussions about a new global development agenda to supersede the MDGs will reach a climax in the coming months. The Broker invites you to join in the conversation.

The global development framework for the coming years cannot ignore global inequality if it should constitute a relevant and legitimate set of development goals in a globalised world.

Given the over-sensitivity of the Gini to the middle of the distribution, and the insensitivity of the Palma, policymakers could consider a choice between the two: which aspect of the distribution are you more concerned with?

On why the post-2015 agenda should include a goal to limit the negative characteristics of inequality and how indicators of income concentration are better suited for this. One proposal that could be used is the Palma index.

The last few months have been a busy time for inequality. And over the last few days the poor thing got busier still. Inequality is now dancing on two stages. It must be really quite dizzy.

It is a big mistake to separate analyses of growth and income distribution. A rising tide is critical to lifting all boats. 

The EU biofuels policy has missed it change to mitigate global inequality. Instead, it has negative impacts on food security, poverty eradication and the climate.

Defining the SDGs and the associated indicators will not be easy but the global community should make an extensive effort to put sustainability high on the post-2015 water agenda.

In the global water agenda two issues call for urgent global action: the mechanism of carbon taxing and the shortage of phosphate fertilizer.

Interview with Ted Schrecker: 'There is widespread recognition that the dynamics of the global economy work in the direction of increased inequality. And there is very little reason to expect that to change over the short term.'

Food security is about making the right choices for food insecure people. Many interventions have had an impact on these people’s lives, but with significant differences in costs and benefits.

Like all contributors to the debate so far, I am convinced that inequality should be an important theme on anyone’s development agenda. But the label ‘post-2015 development agenda’ has a very specific referent, and opinions differ if inequality sh...

Contributors to The Broker’s blog ‘Future Calling’.

Deelnemers aan het kennisdebat op de website van The Broker willen meer samenhang in het nieuwe kennisbeleid om de grote mondiale uitdagingen het hoofd te kunnen bieden. Ze zien een kennisplatform als de brug tussen kennis, beleid en praktijk. Er...

In this guest blog Sir Richard Jolly emphasizes that it is time to bring the reduction of inequality into the fight against poverty ánd the promotion of economic growth.

Worldbank development research director Martin Ravallion suggests an 'Ex-ante Survey of Knowledge on Impact' as a condition for funding a project or policy proposal. This should enhance the 'demand for knowledge', the actual use of research by pol...

Dit is de blog over het voorgenomen kennisbeleid van BuZa. Laat je mening horen!

The European Union has the opportunity to establish itself as a leader in the new, global development landscape. But to do so, its member states must agree on a distinct policy framework that addresses the need to provide global public goods.

Budget support is a relatively new, yet already widely criticized, phenomenon. However, despite a lack of evidence of its impact on poverty reduction, it is too early to write it off. Budget support is likely to have a significant long-term impact...

China’s explosive economic growth has made it a more prominent player in global development. This brings with it a host of new, multilateral responsibilities. The question is still open as to how China will respond to its new status.

The AIV’s advisory report on the ‘post-2015’ agenda for global development sets a different tone than other influential reports from the WRR. In doing so, it lays the basis for an interesting debate on a number of different paradigms on developmen...

Globalization has blurred the distinction between internal and external affairs. This is equally true for both developing countries and richer countries. Moreover, it could result in a profound reshuffling of administrative power relations within...

The two articles in this special report explore the shift that is needed from the national to the global, not just in outlook but especially in policy agendas, institutional set-up, cooperation between sector ministries, governance and funding. Ho...

I am in New York for the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). On Monday morning, the delegates from the UN member states will officially finalize the talks about how the targets set for 2015 can be met, despite the lack of progres...

I am in New York for the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). On Monday morning, the delegates from the UN member states will officially finalize the talks about how the targets set for 2015 can be met, despite the lack of progres...

This UN summit is extremely important, even for the billion and a half extremely poor people in the world. Since I am known for being very critical of the poverty reduction policies, this statement may surprise. Let me explain what I mean.Poverty...

A new institutional architecture for global development is sorely needed. How can this be done without shifting the focus away from those who need it most, namely the poor and the marginalized?

Is aid in crisis? Probably it is, but only in its current form. Because there will always be people who want to care for others in our interconnected world, whether for reasons of solidarity or ‘enlightened self-interest’. But, for the sake of arg...

The retail revolution is threatening the livelihoods of millions of farmers in many developing countries. But recent research in India demonstrates that it is possible for small farmers and artisans to be included in modern, integrated value chains.

Although trade has evolved in the last two decades, shifting from complete goods to intermediary inputs, our understanding of its dynamics has failed to keep pace. As a result, the policy options conferred to developing countries to industrialize...

Frans Bieckmann is the Editor in Chief of The BrokerLooking back on, and having briefly chewed over a long day of interesting talks and debates at the High Level Policy Forum in Brussels, I will share with you some of the threads and trends t...

The MDGs are remarkable events in this 21 century in the sense that the goals have led to increased awareness, coherence and global mobilisation of resources for poverty reduction. The MDGs have also shown that poverty is not a national or regiona...

In this contribution we directly address the four queries posed for the debate. To do so we need to note at the outset that from a development perspective it can easily be argued that the adoption of the MDGs by the world community in September 20...

As Andy Sumner has stated in his article of 26th May, 2009 “Rethinking Development Policy 2015”, the MDGs are viewed as a set of indicators for guiding poverty reduction and for holding international agencies and governments accountable to citizen...

The business of working up successive development agendas and policy formulas has beset the aid system from its beginnings more than sixty years ago. The MDGs are the latest in a long parade of earnest exhortations. As the “After 2015” exercise cl...

The Broker asked Björn Hettne to reflect on the following three questions concerning Europe's role in international development.

Europe is the most important provider of aid at a global scale with more than half of all official development assistance coming from the European Union and its member states. Roughly €14 billion a year goes to Africa. Even though other countries...

Simon Maxwell is the director of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London. He was one of the initiators of the ERD.

Europe is the world’s leading provider of official development assistance (ODA). The EU and its member states account for 60% of all development moneys. Africa alone receives roughly US $14 billion a year from its northern neighbours. But is Europ...

In China, illegal evictions disenfranchise farmers and threaten agricultural development. The government claims to have introduced the world’s strictest measures to protect farmland and improve farmers’ lives, but with minimal results. As rural la...