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- Convenors:
-
David Hulme
(University of Manchester)
Admos Chimhowu (University of Manchester)
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- Location:
- F34 (Richmond building)
- Start time:
- 8 September, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
The papers look at how countries in the Global South craft national development plans to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. They focus on the rationalities underpinning this ‘New National Development Planning’ and the sets of processes, policies and practices that come with it.
Long Abstract:
On 25 September 2015, all 193 UN member states committed themselves to a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unlike the largely ‘top-down’ Millennium Development Goals, the SDGs are to be implemented through locally driven plans that reflect the priorities and contexts of individual UN member states. However, many DAC-list countries will struggle to achieve the SDGs unless they come up with ambitious, credible and fundable plans for growing their economies in ways that are inclusive and environmentally responsible. Following the (often) formalistic national planning approaches of the early development decades, the 1980s and 1990s saw the very idea of producing national development plans become unfashionable. In many countries planning units were down-sized or eliminated. While the 2000s saw the return of something approaching a comprehensive policy framework for development in the form of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), there is evidence that in the last five years, national development planning has firmly come back into vogue. This panel invites papers looking at how countries in the Global South have begun to craft plans to achieve the SDGs. Papers will look at the rationalities that underpin this ‘New’ National Development Planning and the sets of processes, policies and practices that come with it. We would like papers that address the challenges faced by developing country governments as they craft and implement plans.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
Based on an analysis of national development plans from over 100 countries produced over the last 10 years this paper distils key characteristics and produces a typology of national development plans. The paper draws out some lessons for planning for sustainable development goals in the Global South
Paper long abstract:
On 25 September 2015, all 193 UN member states committed themselves to a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unlike the largely 'top-down' Millennium Development Goals, the SDGs are to be implemented through locally driven plans that reflect the priorities and contexts of individual UN member states.Many countries in the global south have begun to produce 'national development plans' again after a period in which national development plan making had begun to be seen as an anachronism.
This paper looks is a chacaterisation of a new generation of development plans based on an analysis of plans from over 100 countries. The paper presents results of this analysis starting with an understanding of the type of rationality that underpins the plan making process. This is related to a typology of plans and the meaning and uses of plans as well as some of the emerging outcomes of 'plan making' . In conclusion the paper draws some lessons for the on going process of planning for sustainable development goals.
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyses and compares the different ways in which national governments of selected countries implemented the MDGs to observe and analyses existing patterns of implementation in order to provide one guideline for how practitioners working on the SDGs can implement the new agenda.
Paper long abstract:
The eight goals set by the MDGs expired in September 2015 and were replaced by 17 goals proposed under the SDGs.
As countries think about implementing the newly formulated goals, it is timely to examine the relationship between reported progress on MDGs and political and administrative mechanisms of implementation, to see what lessons can be learned for SDG implementation.
Monitoring reports and indices on the progress on MDGs have shown that countries have had varying success both at the aggregate level and across goals.
A compelling question arising from this analysis is one of ownership of goals by public agencies within countries. Scholarly work on the role of global targets has been wary of instituting duplicate service delivery processes - through alternate financing and implementation units - that often emerge in the implementation of international agreements.
This report focuses on the implementation of MDGs: Did countries with a dedicated MDG ministry or organization differ substantially in the progress they made towards the goals compared to countries where existing planning/individual ministries adopted relevant MDG goals in their ongoing development plans? Which implementation model for planning ministries proved to be most effective? How did planning ministries approach the question of prioritization? How are countries that are already starting to implement the SDGs approaching them from the perspective of the planning ministers? Did planning ministries take on the perspective of civil society and other groups?
Paper short abstract:
The paper addresses the need to achieve poverty eradication in the global South within global environmental limits. It empirically shows that the current development path is unsustainable, underlining the need for structural transformations and targeted policies in National Development Plans.
Paper long abstract:
Poverty eradication and environmental issues are at the core of the Sustainable Development Goals. This paper suggests that countries in the Global South should focus on structural changes and inequality reduction to achieve poverty eradication within environmental boundaries. In recent decades, economic growth has been accompanied by rising inequality in many developing countries. In such contexts, not only has poverty not decreased fast enough, but emissions have grown significantly. This is especially true in some of the more populous middle-income countries, which now represent the largest contributors to both global poverty and global emissions. A different development path is therefore needed. Moreover many counties have made commitments both in terms of emissions levels and poverty reduction, which are integral parts of their development plans.
The paper explores these issues through an empirical analysis of the national trade-offs between poverty and emissions levels, and the role of economic growth and inequality in shaping them. The econometric analysis identifies turning points in income levels after which further economic growth has a negative effect on the trade-offs considered. By contrast, inequality reduction is shown to unambiguously reduce both poverty and emission levels. Given that climate change is a global public good, the paper also indicates possible solutions to achieve global poverty eradication within environmental limits. One solution is a stronger focus on inequality reduction. By decreasing both poverty and emission levels, inequality reduction has a double positive effect. This might be achieved in middle-income countries through redistributive and progressive policies. A second solution is structural transformation in the form of green growth. However the effects of green growth on poverty are uncertain. Finally, this paper underlines the potential importance of welfare and environmental states in addressing poverty and sustainable development.
Paper short abstract:
We analyse the effect of ICT policies on growth of local digital content in Sub-Saharan Africa. We situate our findings into the context of ongoing policy development, as the lack of local web content has been identified to limit the region's opportunities to benefit from ICTs and the Internet.
Paper long abstract:
The Sustainable Development Goal 9.c aims to increase access to ICTs and the Internet in least developed countries, while technology is framed as essential for achieving all of the SDGs. Over the past decade, the majority of Sub-Saharan African countries have laid the groundwork for these goals through the development of national ICT policies and will base the blueprint for integrating 'the digital' into the 'New' National Development Plans upon these policies. Data on ICT infrastructure and adoption is relatively readily available for the region, but there is only scant empirical evidence measuring the effect of the national ICT policies on fostering digital participation or content creation from the region. Recent research highlights the lack of local web content as a key factor limiting the region's opportunities to benefit from ICTs and the Internet. Using a unique dataset covering the counts of domain registrations in Sub-Saharan African countries over two decades, we estimate how the introduction of an ICT policy is related to growth of local digital content in the region. Using fixed effects modelling, we test whether having published an ICT policy has an effect on the growth of local digital content and whether having published an ICT policy recently seems to be a more important determinant of growth in local web content. We situate our findings into the context of ongoing policy development, as the effectiveness of ICT policies driving digital content creation is of great interest to those concerned with the sustainable development of the region.