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Is France still ‘at home’ in Francophone Africa? The G5 Sahel may well indicate so.

Three-quarters of global poverty could be eliminated by addressing inequality and redistributing existing resources within developing countries.

Broadening the debt-led accumulation system means that claims on future income and production are used to solve today’s problems while lessons learnt from past crises are wilfully ignored.

If the only reason to stay in the Eurozone is that it is difficult to get out, the case for the single currency is weak. Staying in may well be the smart thing to do, but it is still politically toxic to put this decision beyond popular control.

The introduction of a single European currency was for many member states of the European Union a logical next step in a single market. With assumed improvements for trade, employment and wealth distribution, the euro was expected to bring all the...

Despite its economic discourse regional integration is profoundly a political idea, with all the complications this suggests

Four years after the wave of upheavals that shook the Middle East and North African (MENA) region, the Algerian regime has been able to maintain itself and ensure relative stability in its territory. After a long isolation because of the ‘black de...

The hard knocks being suffered by the European middle class are leading to shifts in the political landscape of Europe. The causes date back to long before the financial crisis of 2008. It is therefore an illusion to hope that this dip is temporar...

Occupational change in itself cannot explain the decline of the European middle class. But it could be a threat to its sociopolitical foundations

Political economy analysis lays bare the flaws in technocratic, aid centric approaches to development that have long characterised mainstream practice.

In response to Seth Kaplan: Elites that are in the position to use the tools presented effectively, will advance their own agenda.

The end of the civil wars in the Northern Triangle countries have made way for stable democracies. Despite this development, however, the governments of Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador remain infiltrated with corruption and malpract...

The field of Development Studies needs to revitalize its identity and set clear boundaries for what it should and should not do.

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...

The following proposal is aimed at employment creation in the light of the alarming indices of labour market exclusion from which different parts of the world suffer.

Recognizing employment as a fundamental human right is the most important policy to promote full employment.

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

To solve the structural problems related to unemployment, a radical policy shift is needed. Innovation policies must focus on job-intensive sectors. Governments must curb free capital flows with more regulation and stimulate financial institutions...

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...

The international discussion on the changing nature of jobs and employment is taking place on many levels. The table here contains a number of institutional reports, research papers and other sources that The Broker’s editors have found useful in...

An old yet surprisingly relevant political idea – the social contract -- is today making the running in the competitive world of aid and development paradigms. 

Geopolitical action is required to cope with the enormous resource challenges that lie ahead.

The suffering of the Palestinians forced off their land is not due to climate change or drought; it is the result of unchecked political forces.

Latin American societies and states formed around the disputes about control over natural resources, as Bolivian intellectual Rene Zavaleta highlighted. In Bolivia, from the 16th to the 19th century, the exploitation of silver in Potosí and the ex...

In 2007, Ecuador launched the Yasuní-ITT initiative, a proposal to leave oil in the soil of the Yasuní National Park in exchange for financial compensation from the international community.

Land grabbing is an expression of the dominant development model based on production and consumption patterns in which financial capital reigns.

In natural resource management, the issue is not bringing politics back in or taking it out, but the conditions under which issues are politicized.

There is no easy answer to the question of the fate of Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT region, but a few key steps can maximize the areas of agreement of the many vested interests.

African governments must implement a series of policies to make sure that natural resource wealth brings more inclusive and equitable growth.

The reality behind the game of who gets what, when and how when it comes to natural resources, reveals a power play in which deprived groups in society get the short end of the stick. It also portrays an inherent tension between environmental prot...

Sri Lankan and Indian fishermen are embroiled in an enduring dispute over the use of fishing grounds in the Palk Bay. The dispute is not only a matter of big India versus small Sri Lanka, or big boats versus small boats. Rather, Sri Lankan Tamil f...

Donors are estimated to receive a return from development aid of 50–80%. To understand the financial effects of aid on donor countries, we need a new economic model.

The protest movement in Brazil has been likened to an awakening giant, that is now suddenly out of control. 

The debate on development policy, between ‘traditional’ aid and ‘modern’ cooperation centred around trade and economic activity, is a false one. The latter is advocated in a new white paper by Dutch minister Lilianne Ploumen, but is in fact a...

How can we create a more inclusive economy and what obstacles lie in the way? This debate seeks answers.

In recent years, the World Bank, IMF and the OECD have changed their position on inequality. But to what extent has their recent focus on inequality been directly translated into policy recommendations and measures? And what might the underlying m...

Now economists more and more accept the idea that inequality is rising in most parts of the world and harms sustainable economic growth, the obvious next step is to change the policies that cause it. Is redistribution enough or do we have to go fu...

This morning I took part in a very interesting session that reignited my enthusiasm for the Bellagio Initiative. People, power, politics was the title of our get-together.

Interview with David Boys (Public Services International and appointed to the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation - UNSG...

In the framework of the Bellagio Initiative, The Broker hosted a lively online debate on human wellbeing and inclusive economics in the 21st century. Our contributors agree that economic growth as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) generally...