The 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...

A social contract may offer a sound basis for responsible development. Power relations are crucial.

The rise of the middle classes in emerging and developing countries has implications on different levels. Their role in democratization processes is not unambiguous and, as the first plenary session of the conference made clear, depends partly on...

Social protection is an important element of responsible development, but establishing adequate programmes is complex, as discussions at the EADI conference in Bonn, Germany, once more highlighted.

In 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...

On 15 May, The Broker and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs co-organized an expert meeting with the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The 25 participants – a mix of researchers from knowledge institutes, civil servants and representativ...

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...

Over 200 million people worldwide are officially unemployed and looking for work. A much larger number of people, however, has a job, but one that is uncertain, unstable and precarious and does not help them out of poverty. Rising economic growth...

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...

This dossier on ‘Power dynamics and natural resources’ contains five case-study articles and a synthesis summary on the power dynamics underlying both ‘open’ and ‘hidden’ conflicts over natural resources. The dossier also comprises a debate with t...