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Articles related to: economic development
Low wages and job insecurity as a destructive global standard
Evert-jan Quak, Annemarie van de Vijsel | November 26, 2024It is a political choice to allow the spread of insecure employment conditions, for example by deregulating the relationship between employers and employees. It is also a political choice to reverse this trend, but one that requires a broader unde...
read moreLooking beyond success stories
Klaartje Jaspers | November 13, 2024To give local and international businesses a new role in assuring inclusive growth in Africa, the African Studies Centre and the Netherlands African Business Council organized the two-day Africa Works! 2014 conference. They invited 740 representat...
read moreDoing business in Africa: do the poor profit?
Annemarie van de Vijsel | November 12, 2024When the Dutch private sector is involved in development in Africa, a dilemma may arise. The Dutch government claims that businesses could have a positive impact on local economic development on the continent in the longer term. But do their activ...
read moreThe challenges of economic development in conflict-affected areas
Ruud van Soelen | 20 October 2024In post-conflict Mali individuals with an increased sense of security are exploring new opportunities to venture into economic activity.
read moreEbola’s international impact
Karlijn Muiderman | September 19, 2024Liberia has been hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak. It makes sense to focus much attention to this country, as well as its neighbours Sierra Leone and Guinea. But Ebola is not just a crisis for Liberia Sierra Leone, or Guinea. The devastation it c...
read moreRaising management standards in Africa
Micheline Goedhuys | 11 September 2024The inability of African firms to implement management practices that conform to basic international standards is a barrier to enter global markets, depressing their productivity and employment creation potential. An agenda to raise manageme...
read morePreventing crime and violence is better than fighting it
Bastiaan Engelhard | 10 August 2025In response to the Northern Triangle trilogy: Regional donor programmes focus on prevention to reduce crime and violence on the streets of the ‘Northern Triangle’ countries.
read moreVolatile international capital flows in emerging economies
Annina Kaltenbrunner | 18 August 2025Volatile capital flows have maintained, if not exacerbated, the vulnerability of developing and emerging countries and affected domestic productivity and employment.
read moreInternational trade as a promoter of employment
David Cheong | 12 August 2025International trade is a force of structural change and productive transformation and can therefore promote employment.
read moreThe diffusion of Africa’s ‘productivity islands’
Alan Gelb , Christian J. Meyer , Vijaya Ramachandran | 11 August 2025Although Sub-Saharan Africa is increasingly attractive to investors, structural transformation and formal job growth remain slow. Industrial surveys in many countries show that some highly productive firms co-exist with many low-productivity busin...
read moreBuilding inclusive societies in fragile states
Seth Kaplan | August 08, 2025A major reason why less developed countries fail to develop is the structural exclusion of large segments of their population from their economic, social and political development. In my estimation, roughly three billion people—one out of eve...
read moreDeliberate starvation: impact on peace and reconstruction in Syria
David Connolly , Agnese Macaluso | 02 July 2025After three years of civil war in Syria, there is clear evidence that both the government and rebel groups have deliberately starved civilian populations
read moreInequality, employment and economic growth in Africa
Annemarie van de Vijsel | 26 June 2025The bright picture of Africa’s economy is that it is growing and that inequality is declining. However, as Stefano Prato of the Society for International Development (SID) said at the beginning of a panel session at the EADI conference, not all Af...
read moreThe ‘NIMBY’ middle classes
Saskia Hollander | 26 June 2025It is questionable whether the middle classes in Southern Africa can be perceived as drivers of economic and societal change.
read moreA discipline in search of boundaries
Saskia Hollander | 26 June 2025The field of Development Studies needs to revitalize its identity and set clear boundaries for what it should and should not do.
read moreInequality and the post-2015 agenda
Sara Murawski | 25 June 2025Apart from being a media partner at the EADI conference The Broker also took part, presenting a panel on inequality and the post-2015 agenda. During a session of almost two hours the panel provided an update on global inequality trends, based on t...
read moreHow to use the potential of innovative development financing
Saskia Hollander | 25 June 2025Now that Official Development Assistance (ODA) has been declining for the past few years, academic discussions on how to attract additional public and private sources of funding for sustainable development are heating up.
read moreIt’s about capabilities, not products
Annemarie van de Vijsel | 23 June 2025In the opening lecture of the 14th General Conference of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), Professor of International Development at the UK’s Open University Raphael Kaplinsky addressed the challenges...
read moreThe flipside of Piketty’s analysis
Paul de Beer | 20 May 2025Piketty largely ignores what the concentration of wealth means for decision-making on economic development. We should focus on distributing wealth, for example by making employees shareholders of their own companies.
read moreSecretariat for the Knowledge Platform on Development Policies
07 May 2025The 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...
read moreAfrica: an increasingly powerful post-2015 player?
Saskia Hollander | April 23, 2025In the past few years, Africa’s economic self-confidence on the global stage has grown. A number of African countries are experiencing remarkable levels of economic growth and – due to newly established partnerships with emerging economies like Ch...
read moreEliminating ‘job hunger’
Herman Knudsen | 13 March 2025Elements of the decent work agenda can improve employment conditions worldwide, but current neo-liberalist policies are counterproductive.
read moreEmployment
March 13, 2025The Broker has started an online debate and a live discussion on how to tackle employment issues and further addressing the policies needed for an employment-generated economic growth. Can solutions be found within the current economic model, or&n...;
read moreAfrican Economic Development: Summary of the Past and Suggestions for the Future
Andrea Pierce | 25 February 2025With the outbreak of a new set of crises rippling throughout the African continent, it is necessary to recognize the cyclical pattern that the region continues to be plagued by in terms of economic growth, development and stability.
read morePull, don’t push! Servicing the motor of a fragile economy
Rens Twijnstra | February 11, 2025Western governments are increasingly reframing their rhetoric of engagement in fragile and conflict-affected areas around the development of a vibrant private sector. But how does this ‘new’ approach work in practice? Who are the ‘new’ beneficiari...
read moreNGOs need clearer legal and political frameworks
Michelle Djekić | 18 December 2024Seizing space for civil society: An Overview of Six Countries - EADI Policy Paper Series - July 2013
read moreInequality is politics
Sara Murawski | December 06, 2024Inequality is the result of political choices. It is now a growing worldwide problem that causes social problems, financial instability and hinders economic growth. These were some of the key messages from The Broker’s panel at the recent Developm...
read moreDon't put natural resources aside
Jan Rieländer | 20 November 2024While overcoming dependence is key, abundance of natural resources is not a bad thing in itself.
read moreTackling inequality to combat poverty
Caroline Kende-Robb | 12 November 2024African governments must implement a series of policies to make sure that natural resource wealth brings more inclusive and equitable growth.
read moreEditorial: Enabling genuine social entrepreneurship
Frans Bieckmann | October 28, 2024Editor in Chief Frans Bieckmann argues in this editorial article that social enterprises will only really succeed if they can operate in a global economic system that rewards them for being competitive on fair, social, and environmentally sustaina...
read moreRethinking migrant rights
Ruhs Martin | October 01, 20243 and 4 October, the UN General Assembly in New York discusses the global governance of international migration and development. A key theme will be the “mainstreaming of human rights into all aspects of the migration debate”. With so few countrie...
read moreDebt: nothing but an obstacle
Eric Toussaint , Daniel Munevar | 01 October 2024If there is one thing that must be done, then that is to cancel the public debts of developing countries.
read moreUnlocking Africa’s economic potential
Donald Kaberuka | 23 July 2025Africa is gaining increasing global economic importance, but it has to address logistical and policy impediments to fully benefit from it.
read morePecuniary aspects of self-interest in bilateral aid
Milad Zarin-Nejadan | 15 July 2025Donors 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.
read moreSelf-interest vs altruism in East Asia’s development aid
Anders Riel Müller | 03 July 2025Criticism of East Asia’s alleged self-interest-led development aid can also be applied to Western donors.
read moreBe careful, BRICS Development Bank
Yu Chen | 02 July 2025Will the BRICS Development Bank’s constructive capacities overcome its destructive ones? The world is watching.
read moreComplementary currency: barter 2.0 or crisis escape?
Annemarie van de Vijsel | 27 June 2025Complementary currencies can increase local economic inclusion. Is this the way forward?
read morePPPs: listen to the farmers
Karlijn Muiderman | April 17, 2025Assuming a joint approach would unleash agricultural potential and strengthen the market, Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) have dominated global food security strategies. The debate highlights several strategies, for example, focusing on the loc...
read moreRecommendations for Dutch agribusinesses
Pascal Murasira | 03 April 2025Sharing Dutch agricultural expertise in lcoal partnerships can positively contribute to the eradication of rural poverty.
read moreUnderstanding successful inclusion in value chains
Jos Bijman | 02 April 2025Improving market access, linking farmers to markets, developing inclusive value chains; these are popular but challenging activities among development practitioners. The challenges results from the limited capabilities of (small) farmers to produc...
read moreGNP and GNI are outdated
Sjoerd Nienhuys | 08 January 2025There is a need for new values for wealth and national economic growth figures. GNP and GNI are outdated.
read moreGiving a real meaning to globalisation
Francine Mestrum | 26 December 2024We tend to forget it, but the development cooperation agenda started, more than fifty years ago, with the aim of reducing the income gap between what is now called rich and poor countries. In the 1970s, when too many people started to believe in t...
read moreTime to bite the bullet
Ellen Lammers | 08 December 2024Was the welcome smell of oven-fresh apple pie meant to soften the controversial question on the table: is it time for INGOs to retire?
read moreBellagio Summit happening now!
November 09, 2024The Bellagio Summit kicked off on 8 November. Have a look and read.
read moreRio+20’s unsexy governance agenda
Evert-jan Quak | 26 October 2024The latest Policy Brief of the Earth System Governance Project - a ten years research initiative, which is sponsored by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC) and the United Nations University...
read moreBuilding quality of life together
Steffie Verstappen | October 20, 2024In 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...
read moreBellagio Initiative
August 31, 2025The Broker is proud to have contributed to the Bellagio Initiative by hosting a lively online debate about human wellbeing and inclusive economics.
read moreMaking cents, not dollars
Erwin Bulte | February 10, 2025It is tempting, as the 2015 target date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) creeps relentlessly closer, to take stock of our chances of actually meeting them. Most experts paint a mixed picture. The consensus is that while there has been a...
read moreLearning the ropes
Gerd Junne, Vidya Marapin | February 09, 2025What are the best ways of creating sustainable economic development in post-conflict states? Gerd Junne and Vidya Marapin review five books in search of viable strategies.
read moreThe MDGs: Addressing the enabling environment through the ethical framework of human rights
Natalia Cardona | 21 September 2024The Millennium Development Goals have provided a forum for discussion on poverty and development at the international level. They have contributed to bringing the devastation of poverty and inequality to the forefront of the international arena. Y...
read moreGoal Posts - What next for the MDGs?
September 15, 2024The Millenium Development Goal (MDG) summit in New York this week promises to look at what can be done to meet the approaching deadline of 2015
read more"Improving the environment destroying the economy? It is simply not true", Ekins says
Bas de Leeuw | 10 June 2025Paul Ekins said an environmental tax reform is necessary to achieve the goals of eco efficiency. He stressed that this would be a tax shift, not a tax increase.His research has shown that six EU countries (Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, S...
read moreThe Good Life for 8 billion people in 2050? It's possible!
Bas de Leeuw | 08 June 2025Participants of the Third International Conference on Eco-Efficiency, held in Egmond aan de Zee, The Netherlands, June 9-11, 2010, discussed how to ensure that 8 billion people in developed and (former) developing countries can have a good life by...
read moreKnowledge infrastructure
April 21, 2025Policy making in an increasingly complex world requires more knowledge and strategic analysis.
read moreGlobal green economics
March 25, 2025The Green Economy is one of the key themes to be addressed by the UNCSD summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. But what is exactly the concept of a green economy?
read moreLess pretension, more ambition
February 15, 2025On 18 January 2010, the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) presented its report ‘Less pretension, more ambition: development aid that makes a difference’ to the Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation, Mr Bert Koenders
read moreMinder pretentie, meer ambitie
January 11, 2025On 18 January 2025 the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) presented its report long-awaiting report that promotes substantial changes in the organisation of Dutch aid as well as more structural attention for global public goods.
read moreDavid Grimshaw: Beyond 2015: a values based approach
David J. Grimshaw | 21 June 2025The MDGs provide a set of indicators of development. They adopt an approach to development that has been influenced by management thinking. Setting targets that are measurable was fashionable throughout the 1990’s but is perhaps getting rather tar...
read moreCharles Gore: Not ‘MDGs or a New Paradigm’ but ‘MDGs in a New Paradigm’
Charles Gore | 20 June 2025In his famous 1955 article in which he hypothesized that national income inequality would increase in the early stages of economic development and subsequently decline as average per capita incomes rose, Simon Kuznets warned that poli...
read moreExpensive food
Erwin Bulte | June 16, 2025Recently, I was asked to say a few words on Dutch national radio about the global skyrocketing of food prices. Expecting that it would be an ego-boosting experience, I eagerly accepted. However, things did not quite work out as planned. I shocked...
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