Innovation and technology have played a major role in the fight against Covid-19. Localised efforts have proven more robust, low-tech responses more equitable and process innovations more necessary. But there are still long strides to be made in these areas. As development actors pursue these...

After years of placing faith in the markets, we are seeing a revival of interest in statist economic policy across the world, particularly with regards to finance. How much policy autonomy do previously liberalised developing counties still have to conduct activist financial policies, where the...

Can foreign aid be used to enhance good governance in recipient countries? This paper looks at the history of donor efforts to strengthen public institutions in developing countries, and how these have evolved in response to accumulated learning, changing fashions and donor interests. Systematic...

The world faces a multitude of global problems, on top of the need for poverty eradication. Climate change, natural disasters, state collapse, illicit capital flows, refugees and increasing inequality present new challenges to the international community. They require joint action for the...

In 2004, developing countries and civil society groups called for a new Development Agenda at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). After three years of debate, they secured the adoption by WIPO Member States of the 2007 WIPO Development Agenda, comprising 45 recommendations for...

The Millennium Development Goals adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2000 have established global targets for development cooperation until 2015. They are being regularly monitored, and one may already now conclude that they will be achieved unevenly across the globe. In that light, it is...

A growing political science literature studies the significance of emerging powers as key players in development. However, these studies have almost all considered the phenomenon from the perspective of donors. This paper assesses how recipient governments respond to the rise of new donors,...