Past Highlights

Barriers to Access Social Assistance and Special Social Services in Kazakhstan

27 Feb 2018

2018/01 – Overseas Development Institute (ODI); research paper; Author(s): Lucy Scott et al. - Details

This study analyses the barriers to accessing social assistance in Kazakhstan, with a focus on vulnerable children, including children with disabilities. We worked with UNICEF Kazakhstan to assess the barriers faced by low-income and vulnerable families with children in accessing poverty-targeted social assistance (Targeted Social Assistance (TSA) and the State Child Allowance (SCA)). The study focuses on children living in households (rather than those residing in institutions), and, with respect to access to special services, on children with disabilities. The study is based on a large household survey and semi-structured interviews in three of the country’s regions. The study offers recommendations to overcome barriers to accessing social assistance and feeds into the social policy reforms scheduled for 2018.

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Political and Institutional Drivers of Social Security Policy in South Africa

27 Feb 2018

2017/12 – United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD); Working Paper 2017-12; Author(s): Marianne S. Ulriksen, Sophie Plagerson - Details

This paper explores the contrasting developments within social security policy and focus its analysis on two case studies with varying policy outcomes: 1) the social cash transfer system, which is well established; and 2) the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, a recent policy, which has suffered several delays. Building on the power resource and historical institutionalism approaches, the paper explores how different actors seek to assert their policy preferences, and how current institutional arrangements shape actors’ interests and their ability to influence policy reforms. The two cases reveal interesting differences that can explain the success of social cash transfer expansion and the sluggish progress (to date) to introduce national health insurance.

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World Social Protection Report 2017-19: Universal Social Protection to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

27 Feb 2018

2017/11 – International Labour Organization (ILO); Flagship Report - Details

This ILO flagship report provides a global overview of recent trends in social protection systems, including social protection floors. Based on new data, it offers a broad range of global, regional and country data on social protection coverage, benefits and public expenditures on social protection.

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Tax Games - The Race to the Bottom: Europe's Role in Supporting an Unjust Global Tax System 2017

14 Feb 2018

2017/12 – Vienna Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation (VIDC); Report; Editor(s): Stephanie Ross, Vicky Annin - Details

The world’s governments have committed to ambitious Sustainable Development Goals and a new global climate agreement, but the funding necessary to reach these goalsis lacking. This gap is felt most strongly in developing countries, where funding sources are in short supply and the development challenges are most severe. In this context, corporate tax income is an absolutely indispensable source of government revenue.

continue: Tax Games - The Race to the Bottom: Europe's Role in Supporting an Unjust Global Tax System 2017 (external link)

Lifting the Veil of Secrecy: Perspectives on International Taxation and Capital Flight From Africa

14 Feb 2018

2017/11 – Chr.Michelsen Institute (CMI); research paper; Author(s): Odd-Helge Fjeldsta, et al. - Details

Several African countries are among the fastest growing economies in the world. However, capital flows to tax havens are one factor limiting the benefits of economic growth for ordinary Africans. It is estimated that African countries, relative to the size of their economies, lose more in corporate tax evasion than countries anywhere else in the world. Until recently, there has been little firm evidence on how the use of tax havens affects tax compliance, how it influences lobbying activities towards the domestic tax system, and how tax havens shape state-citizen relations. In this book, leading international scholars and experts explore the problem, the actors, the effects and policy measures that can address the challenges.

continue: Lifting the Veil of Secrecy: Perspectives on International Taxation and Capital Flight From Africa (external link)

Toward Closer Cohesion of International Tax Statistics

14 Feb 2018

2017/11 – United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER); WIDER Working Paper; Author(s): Kyle McNabb - Details

The Government Revenue Dataset (GRD) was launched in September 2014 and, in the few years since, has gone on to be recognized as the go-to source for researchers and policymakers seeking cross-country data on government revenues and taxes. However, as with any such project, successive rounds of updates have led to new challenges. This paper describes in depth some of the changes compared to older versions of the GRD, which are the result of learning during the update process, user feedback and changes to the underlying source data. It is not the intention to repeat the original motivations behind the dataset; these are covered in depth in Prichard et al. (2014).

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Local-International Relations and the Recalibration of Peacebuilding Interventions Insights From the ‘Laboratory‘ of Bougainville and Beyond

07 Dec 2017

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2017/10 – Institute for Development and Peace (INEF); INEF-Report 112; Author(s): Volker Boege et al. - Details

The report addresses the micro-level as a key dimension of post-conflict peacebuilding interventions, with a particular focus on the relationships and interactions of international and local actors. What changes do occur with regard to their perceptions, expectations, attitudes and activities in the course of interactions? Can we identify experiences and mechanisms that lead to a re-articulation of relationships and interactions and, consequently, a recalibration of the overall peacebuilding exercise, e.g. with regard to more (or less) cooperation, more (or less) mutual trust, more (or less) animosities and misunderstandings, and more (or less) legitimacy?

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Does Peace Trickle Down? Micro-Level Evidence from Africa

07 Dec 2017

2017/10 – Arnold Bergsträsser Institut (ABI); ABI Working Paper No.4; Author(s): Martin Ottmann, Felix Haass - Details

Do peace agreements generate socio-economic peace dividends for citizens in post-war countries? While much research has focused on the elite level implications of peace agreements for the survival of peace, little is known about the micro-level, redistributive effects of peace agreements. We investigate the impact of peace agreement provisions and their implementation—specifically power-sharing arrangements—on individually reported measures of well-being. Building on a political economy theory of post-war politics, we conceptualize rebel organizations as political organizations that engage in distributive politics after conflict.

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Beyond Panglong: Myanmar’s National Peace and Reform Dilemma

07 Dec 2017

2017/09 – Transnational Institute (TNI); briefing paper - Details

This Myanmar Policy Briefing analyses the country’s ethnic peace and reform dilemmas, charting past initiatives and political consequences since independence until the present. From the time of the Panglong Conference in 1947, there have been attempts to achieve peace and national reconciliation during every era of government, but all have proven unsuccessful.

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Why Do Development Finance Institutions Use Offshore Financial Centres?

21 Nov 2017

2017/10 – Overseas Development Institute (ODI); research paper; Author(s): Paddy Carter - Details

Taxation is at the centre of global development policy. It is widely recognised that a major improvement in the ability of developing countries to raise tax revenues will be necessary, if not sufficient, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, the tide of public opinion in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries continues to turn against tax evaders, and governments are introducing new legislation to crack down on tax evasion and avoidance, and increase transparency. The role that offshore financial centres (OFCs) can play in enabling tax evasion and avoidance is widely recognised, and it is easy to see why they attract such condemnation.

This report is concerned with the pragmatic consequences of the use of OFCs by Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) from a development perspective.

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