Member Profile for DIE, Bonn

Wie wir die Ocean Resilience in und mit Südostasien stärken können
Der Ozean ist ein existenzieller Teil der kulturellen Identitäten und des kulturellen Erbes Südostasiens. Gleichzeitig ist die Region den Folgen des globalen Meeresspiegelanstiegs und weiteren komplexen Risiken in höchstem Maße ausgesetzt.

Weather index insurance: promises and challenges of promoting social and ecological resilience to climate change
This Briefing Paper stresses the importance of enhancing knowledge on social and ecological effects of weather index microinsurance, and the need to develop a diverse set of climate risk management strategies for the poor including social protection mechanisms.

The external dimensions of the European green deal: the case for an integrated approach
The EU needs to define the European Green Deal through its external policies in an integrated approach, through (1) bilateral cooperation relationships, (2) promoting coherence and addressing negative spillovers and (3) the EU’s global leadership in multilateral fora.

Horizontal accountability for SDG implementation: a comparative cross-national analysis of emerging national accountability regimes
Achieving the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda requires strong and accountable institutions. However, the focus on sustainability outcomes set forth in the Agenda’s 17 SDGs has side-lined the debate on accountability mechanisms to ensure effective policy implementation. Six years into the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, it is time to assess progress made in this regard. Drawing on theories of public interest and rational choice, this paper argues that horizontal accountability between different state organs will be key to the emergence of national SDG accountability regimes. We provide evidence on monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for SDG progress based on an original database (AccountSDG) built through a document analysis of 136 Voluntary National Reviews (VNR) submitted between 2016 and 2019. Our analysis provides the first systematic cross-national empirical analysis of the role assigned to parliaments, Supreme Auditing Agencies (SAI), and National Human Rights Institutions (NHRI) in national processes of SDG implementation. We conclude that horizontal accountability, especially the role of SAI and NHRI, remains under-institutionalized in most countries. We conclude by discussing best practices and addressing the most important lacunae, as well as by pointing out limitations of our study and avenues for future research.

"Die Klimaflüchtlinge kommen" – Über die Problematik einer Begrifflichkeit
Wichtige Forschungserkenntnisse lassen Bedrohungsszenarien eher unrealistisch erscheinen, die davon ausgehen, dass die Erderwärmung schon bald viele Millionen von »Klimaflüchtlingen« nach Europa treibt. Nach Ansicht des Autors muss die Wissenschaft noch stärker dazu beitragen, alarmistische Szenarien zu überwinden und politische Lösungen für Betroffene des Klimawandels voranzubringen.

Mythen mindern keine Fluchtursachen
Der diesjährige Weltflüchtlingstag gibt wenig Anlass, optimistisch auf das Thema Flucht und Vertreibung zu blicken. Was aber können wir anders machen, um Fluchtursachen zu mindern?

The trade effects of the economic partnership agreements between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States: Early Empirical insights from panel data
This study provides early ex-post empirical evidence on the effects of provisionally applied Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) on trade flows between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP). Employing the gravity model of trade, we do not find a general EPA effect on trade between ACP countries and the EU, but identify heterogeneous effects across specific agreements and economic sectors. While the CARIFORUM-EU EPA rather reduced imports from the EU overall, other EPAs seem to have partly increased EU imports, particularly for the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) EPA partner countries. On the sectoral level, by comparison, we find increases in the EU's agricultural exports to SADC, Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) and the Pacific. In the area of manufactures trade, we find decreases of exports of the ESA and SADC countries to the EU, but increases in EU imports for SADC countries.