East Asian Miracles and Development Ideology

Book reviewed in this article: The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy. By the World Bank The Newly-Industrialising Economies of East Asia. By Anis Chowdhury and Iyanatul Islam     

Policy Autonomy and the History of British Aid to Africa

This article utilises historical information to throw light on the forces shaping British aid policies towards Africa. It outlines key long‐term policy developments, summarises the influences shaping these policies and comments on the present juncture of UK policies. It shows that, while there have been many influences, governments have enjoyed considerable policy autonomy, being largely unconstrained in pursuing their preferences in a top‐down manner. This autonomy has mainly been used for the pursuit of long‐term development, as against the promotion of the UK's national interest. The present thrust of UK policies to achieve massive increases in aid to Africa is a prime example of this policy autonomy.     

High-dimensional changepoint detection via a geometrically inspired mapping

Statistics and Computing - High-dimensional changepoint analysis is a growing area of research and has applications in a wide range of fields. The aim is to accurately and efficiently detect...     

Professional Decision Making on Elder Abuse: Systematic Narrative Review

Social work and health care professionals internationally are recognizing the need to understand and respond to the abuse of older people. Policy and guidance have identified processes but definitions of key concepts remain problematic, and the literature suggests that practitioners and agencies have little insight or guidance for decision making. Nine bibliographic databases were searched for studies on professional decision making regarding abuse of older people. Relevant studies retrieved were appraised for quality using explicit criteria. The findings of the 19 articles meeting the inclusion criteria were synthesised using a structured narrative approach. Common themes identified were abuse factors, situational factors, and broader contextual factors. Abuse factors relating to risk levels and client vulnerability were central; age, gender, and health status were considered as key indicators of vulnerability. The opinion of adult protection workers about the potential effectiveness of their intervention was a factor in deciding about responding to alleged or suspected abuse. Professionals struggled with complex ethical dilemmas created by elder abuse, particularly when the victim did not want an investigation. Making objective judgements was difficult when faced with complex family and contextual factors. A structured approach to narrative synthesis of a diverse range of studies retrieved through an explicit search and inclusion process provided a useful summary of key issues for practice and identified gaps in the research literature.     

Politics,Evidence and the New Aid Agenda

Based on study of (a) the HIPC debt relief initiative, (b) the linking of aid to policy conditionality and (c) transactions‐cost arguments in favour of programme aid, this article argues that major elements in the new aid agenda may not be well‐based empirically. This is partly because of inadequate knowledge, but particularly because the evidence often conflicts with political preferences. As a result, it is likely that large amounts of aid resources are being misdirected. Ways are suggested of narrowing the gap between evidence‐based and ‘political’ decision‐making. In the meantime, donors should avoid diverting more aid into debt relief, should roll back their reliance on policy conditionality, and should exercise pragmatic caution in the expansion of programme assistance.     

Globalisation and the Rural Poor

This article surveys how globalisation is affecting rural poverty. The forces of change may affect the welfare of the rural poor through their influence on productivity, growth, income distribution, technologies, the security of livelihoods, and policies. There are both credit and debit entries: large potential benefits, for example from accelerated growth, but also real dangers that the rural poor will be left behind, for example that they will not have access to the knowledge and other assets necessary for success in a commercialised world. The article also discusses some of the influences on the ways the forces of change work themselves out, stressing the importance of market access, positive government policy stances and the assets of the rural poor.     

Monitoring Partnership‐based Aid Relationships: A Note

Based on the premise that moves towards partnership‐based aid relationships require that the monitoring and evaluation of such relationships should be jointly conducted or sponsored, this note draws attention to an experiment conducted in Tanzania for monitoring by an independent group, drawn from the recipient country and from outside. It seeks to identify the key ingredients of successful use of such a model and urges its wider adoption.