The Millennium+5 Summit held on the occasion of the United Nations’ 60th anniversary did not live up to the great expectations placed in it. But it cannot be said either that the summit failed. Despite a polarization between North and South that grew in intensity in the course of the...

Even in the countries of the South life expectancy is rising and birth rates are falling. As a result, not only is population growth on the decline, but the proportion of minors in the population, too. Conversely, the proportion of inhabitants aged between 15 and 65 years who are gainfully...

Microinsurance has become a very popular concept in the international development debate. It is an arrangement whereby the members pool their risks, but at contribution levels that even people on low and fluctuating incomes can afford. This concept can be realised for life and disability...

2010 has been an important year for Africa. It marked the 50th anniversary of independence for 17 African countries and the 10th anniversary of the Millennium Declaration. It has also been around a decade since steps toward creating the AU und NEPAD were taken. In a series of DIE Briefing...

Global patterns of poverty do not look like they did twenty years ago. Many developing countries have been able to raise their average per-capita income over the last two decades; 18 have even trespassed the highly noticed – though arbitrary – ceiling differentiating between ‘low income’...

For the last 20 years, the international development debate has been dominated by two trends that seem at first to be heading in a similar direction. However, under closer scrutiny they differ with respect to their focus and underlying philosophies. These are on the one hand the agenda of...

Europe has been discussing how to deal with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East, Africa and other parts of the world for months now. However, one frequently overlooked aspect is the fact that just a small percentage of the world's approximately 60 million...

The social contract is a key concept in social science literature focusing on state-society relations. It refers to the "entirety of explicit or implicit agreements between all relevant societal groups and the sovereign (i.e. the government or any other actor in power), defining their rights and...

2021 is proving to be a key year for cooperation between Europe and its neighbours in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. As the European Union (EU) launches its new multiannual budget, the COVID-19 pandemic has demanded a rethink of the political, economic and social priorities that...

Le contrat social est un concept clé des sciences sociales portant sur les relations entre l'État et la société. Il renvoie à l'en-semble des accords explicites ou implicites intervenant entre tous les groupes sociaux concernés et le souverain (c.-à-d. le gouvernement ou tout autre acteur...