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41. Exploring social policy trajectories in Mainland Tanzania: Driving for gender-inclusive development?

Author:
Roosa Lambin and Milla Nyyssölä
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
In July 2020, the United Republic of Tanzania gained the status of a lower-middleincome country. This came after two decades of significant social policy reforms and transformations in the country’s economic structures. This paper explores social policy trajectories in Mainland Tanzania with a gender lens, to better understand the contributions of these developments to inclusive development. More precisely, we examine past and current policy developments across the areas of health policy, social protection, and employment policy, and the level, reach, and quality of government social policy delivery to working-age women. The paper draws on a scoping review of diverse secondary materials, including academic publications, government policy documents, relevant statistics, and other types of literature. The findings indicate that despite significant advancements in the legal frameworks and increasingly gender-responsive government policy plans, Tanzanian social policy delivery remains two-tiered, with differences in provisions for women in the formal and informal sectors. Additionally, women continue to be largely overlooked in the broader industrialization and development strategy, which hinders the achievement of inclusive development in Tanzania.
Topic:
Development, Social Policy, Inclusion, and Gender
Political Geography:
Africa and Tanzania

42. MIT X TAU Series: Africa's Information Technologies

Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
The second webinar in a seven-part series focused on various aspects of sustainable development in Africa.
Topic:
Development, Infrastructure, Governance, and Sustainability
Political Geography:
Africa

43. MIT X TAU Series: Africa’s Innovation in Education

Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
The first webinar in a seven-part series focused on various aspects of sustainable development in Africa.
Topic:
Development, Education, Governance, Innovation, and Sustainability
Political Geography:
Africa

44. The Economic Complexity of Namibia: A Roadmap for Productive Diversification

Author:
Ricardo Hausmann, Miguel Angel Santos, Douglas Barrios, Nikita Taniparti, Jorge Tudela Pye, and Jessie Lu
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
After a large growth acceleration within the context of the commodity super cycle (2000- 2015), Namibia has been grappling with three interrelated challenges: economic growth, fiscal sustainability, and inclusion. Accelerating technological progress and enhancing Namibia’s knowhow agglomeration is crucial to the process of fostering new engines of growth that will deliver progress across the three targets. Using net exports data at the four-digit level, we estimate the economic complexity of Namibia – a measure of knowhow agglomeration – vis-à-vis its peers. Our results suggest that Namibia’s economy is relatively less complex and attractive opportunities to diversify tend to be more distant. Based on economic complexity metrics, we define a place-specific path for productive diversification, identifying industries with high potential and providing inputs – related to their feasibility and attractiveness in Namibia – for further prioritization. Namibia’s path to structural transformation will likely be steeper than for most peers, calling for a more active policy stance geared towards progressive accumulation of productive capacities, well-targeted “long jumps”, and strengthening state capacity to sort out market failures associated with the process of self-discovery.
Topic:
Development, Economy, Economic Complexity, and Industry
Political Geography:
Africa and Namibia

45. A Growth Diagnostic of Namibia

Author:
Ricardo Hausmann, Miguel Angel Santos, Douglas Barrios, Nikita Taniparti, Jorge Tudela Pye, Jose Francisco Muci, and Jessie Lu
Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
In the thirty years that have passed since independence, Namibia has been characterized by its over-reliance on its mineral resource wealth, procyclicality of macroeconomic policy, and large income disparities. After an initial decade marked by nation building and slow growth (1990-2000), the Namibian economy embarked on a rapid growth acceleration that lasted 15 years, within the context of the global commodity super cycle. Favorable terms of trade translated into an investment and export boom in the mining sector, which was amplified to the non-tradable sector of the economy through a significant public expenditure spree from 2008 onwards. Between 2000 and 2015 income and consumption per capita expanded at an average annual rate of 3.1%, poverty rates halved, and access to essential public goods expanded rapidly. As the commodity super cycle came to an end and the fiscal space was exhausted, Namibia experienced a significant reversal. Investment and exports plummeted, bringing GDP per capita to contract by 2.1% between 2015-2019. With debt-to-GDP ratios 3.5 times higher than those in 2008, the country embarked on a fiscal consolidation effort which brought the primary fiscal deficit from 6.8% of GDP in 2016 to 0.6% by March 2020. Along all these years, inequality has been endemic and is reflected across demographic characteristics and employment status. At present, a large majority of Namibians are unable to access well-paying formal sector jobs, as these tend to be particularly scarce outside of the public sector. Looking forward, the road to sustained inclusive growth and broad prosperity entails expanding the formal private labor market by diversifying the Namibian economy, while at the same time removing the barriers preventing Namibians from accessing these opportunities inherited from the apartheid.
Topic:
Development, Economy, Economic Growth, Inclusion, and Skills
Political Geography:
Africa and Namibia

46. Harnessing Informal Social Safety Nets for Resilience and Development

Author:
Merry Fitzpatrick, Hassan Alattar Satti, Sarra Beheiry, and Elizabeth Stites
Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Feinstein International Center, Tufts University
Abstract:
People turn to each other to get through difficult times, to celebrate life events, or simply to ease daily living. Humanitarian assistance usually provides support only when there are large-scale crises that affect whole populations. What do people do when humanitarian assistance is not provided, when only one or a few households are affected? And when humanitarian assistance is provided, how does it affect these systems of mutual support? Established systems of mutual support (informal social safety nets) evolve to organize reciprocal support and make that support more predictable. This report examines the nature of these mutual support systems in selected communities in North and South Darfur, Sudan. Through research conducted in these communities, we explore how a full menu of these social safety nets operate, the functions they serve, who benefits, and the obligations on community members. The informal social safety nets (SSNs) identified in this study varied somewhat from one community to another, but were largely the same across all communities, regardless of state or livelihood specialization. These SSNs operate as coherent webs that support social connections and norms, providing social and practical benefits as well as immediate emergency assistance when needed. SSNs depend on relationships and trust to function and are governed by shared norms. We have seen that SSNs can also restore broken trust and violated norms. The conflict in Darfur violated norms and disrupted many relationships, and therefore undermined the SSNs that depended on them. However, some SSNs have played important roles in reconciliation.
Topic:
Development, Governance, Resilience, and Safety Net
Political Geography:
Africa and Sudan

47. Measuring the Resilience of Livelihoods in Darfur: The Income Streams Index

Author:
Merry Fitzpatrick and Hassan Alattar Satti
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Feinstein International Center, Tufts University
Abstract:
Resilience is the recognition that people are active agents in their own survival in the face of crises. Understanding the dynamics of how households in crisis-prone contexts plan for and respond to crises can help structure policy, development, and humanitarian activities to support their strategies, reducing the impact of crises, speeding recovery, and reducing the amount of humanitarian assistance required. A resilience indicator that is both quantitative and descriptive is needed to see how crises affect households and the livelihoods through which they meet their needs. Previously proposed measures either use proxies of outcomes or combinations of economic and wealth measurements, but none measure livelihoods themselves in real-time. This report uses an innovative real-time index, the Income Streams Index (ISI), to teach us how households in South, West, and North Darfur states in Sudan managed and adapted their livelihood activities in the face of multiple shocks of various types and sizes over a three-year period (2018 to 2021).
Topic:
Development, Resilience, Livelihoods, and Structuralism
Political Geography:
Africa and Sudan

48. Market Access and Quality Critical for Food Security in Periods of Stress

Author:
Anastasia Marshak
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Feinstein International Center, Tufts University
Abstract:
This briefing paper describes how market access is associated with household food security and dietary diversity in the Karamoja region of Uganda in 2018 and 2019. In 2018, according to both the study’s primary data and secondary data, households experienced significantly worse conflict, climate, and economic shocks compared with 2019. These shocks in 2018 led to a decline in livestock production, increase in food prices, and declines in terms of trade. While the experience of shocks was worse according to many indicators in 2018, household food security and , dietary diversity data remained relatively similar across the two years. The data indicate that greater use of markets during the more stressful 2018 year might have mitigated the expected, but not observed reduction in food security. Better market quality and access was associated with using fewer short-term coping strategies and better food security and dietary diversity, but only in 2018, when households experienced more shocks. Thus, households are likely to be more reliant on markets during periods of greater stress. This analysis is part of the United States Agency for International Development/Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID/BHA)-funded Apolou Activity, a consortium led by Mercy Corps. It was designed to help Mercy Corps and other national and international actors to address youth’s vulnerability and opportunities in the Karamoja sub-region. The findings are part of a four-year study carried out in four districts of the Karamoja sub-region. The analysis and findings in this report focus on the first and second round of quantitative data from November/December 2018 and 2019. The data come from a longitudinal two-stage randomized cluster sample of approximately 500 households across 52 villages. The same respondents were interviewed across both years.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Food, Children, Resilience, and Household
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

49. Egypt transport policies 2014-2021

Author:
Mohamed Hegazy
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
The Egyptian Ministry of Transport’s1 YouTube channel provides an excellent documentation of the far-reaching changes taking place in the transport sector in Egypt: new highways connecting cities and new bridges; new train carriages for the national railways; new public transport systems such as the Metro, Monorail and Electric train. Between 2014 and 2021 the Egyptian state has invested 1 trillion EGP (~63.6 billion USD) in the transport sector2 in its bid to achieve sustainable development3 . This paper seeks to examine policies and state investments in the transport sector from a sustainable development perspective, focusing on the environmental and social dimensions.
Topic:
Development, Infrastructure, Transportation, and Sustainability
Political Geography:
Africa, Egypt, and MENA

50. Egypt’s water policy after the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Author:
Sherif Mohy El Deen
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
Egypt is one of the driest countries in the world. It is also the country that is most dependent on a single source of water: The Nile. The Nile River provides over 93% of Egypt’s water needs, according to Egyptian government documents. However, the water crisis discussion mainly focuses on the extent to which previous water agreements with other Nile Basin countries are binding, or on the truthfulness of the current news on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Hence, this discussion is not addressing the main issue, which is the extent to which operating the Dam would affect the annual water use per capita in Egypt at present, as well as in the near and distant future. The Renaissance Dam crisis is recent, as it began when Ethiopia unilaterally decided to build the Dam in a border region between Ethiopia and Sudan. However, it is a main factor that could exacerbate and deepen the problem of water scarcity in Egypt. Other factors affecting water use per capita in Egypt include exponential population growth and increasing climate change. This policy brief aims to shed light on the main causes and background of the water crisis in Egypt. It will briefly discuss some examples of recent or upcoming projects by the Egyptian government under the new Water Resources Management Strategy (2016-2050). Finally, the paper will highlight the importance of conducting comprehensive and constant feasibility and impact assessments of these projects. These assessments should focus not only on the water dimension, but also on the economic, social, environmental, cultural, and political dimensions. This paper also provides some recommendations and lessons learned from the “Jonglei Canal,” an Egyptian-Sudanese water megaproject that launched nearly five decades ago.
Topic:
Development, Water, Infrastructure, and Dams
Political Geography:
Africa and Egypt