Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the relative inertia of development agencies to act on evidence-based diagnostics demonstrating that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires spatially targeting development investments in marginalized borderlands.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the relative inertia of development agencies to act on evidence-based diagnostics demonstrating that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires spatially targeting development investments in marginalized borderlands. Borderlands may have distinct rural-urban characteristics and are understood to be made up of marginal urban agglomerations and peripheral rural regions straddling international borders. It is widely recognized that in official development assistance (ODA) in these spaces needs multi-sectoral approaches to social and economic development. ODA, whether delivered through bilateral of multilateral channels, stands accused of 'borderland blindness' - an inability to act on a growing body of evidence that converging risks are spatially determining concentration of vulnerable and poor populations in marginal spaces. While the diagnostics of development agencies may not be blind, their agency and ability to target social and economic development interventions to marginal spaces may be bound by the political economy of country-based ODA architectures with ingrained hegemonic center-periphery reflexes. Examples will be drawn from ongoing work in the Horn of Africa