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Whatever you think about Brexit, it doesn’t make sense to secure Britain’s economic future by adding red tape. Theresa May’s government wants to tamp down net migration. That’s has opened space for some new self-defeating proposals.
Would you believe us if we told you approximately half of those granted asylum in the EU qualified for other reasons from the formal 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention definition of a “well-founded fear of persecution”? It turns out to be true. The details of refugee status determination are little noticed, but it turns out that international protection can also be granted through “subsidiary” and “humanitarian” designations.
There is much uncertainty now about how the UK will respond to Thursday’s referendum result calling for Britain to leave the European Union. The effects on developing countries—and development cooperation—will depend in part on what is agreed in the coming months and years. But here is some speculation about the possible threats that Brexit implies, and a (rather shorter) list of the possible opportunities.
Europe has been caught off guard by recent asylum-seeker arrivals, prompting what some have called a threat to the survival of the EU. However, we have shown that Europe has admitted and integrated much larger numbers of refugees in the past. So why have countries been so overwhelmed this time around? One major hurdle has been assessing the validity of such large numbers of asylum claims.
Innovative finance schemes are most likely to fail if the main aim is to bring in more money, and most likely to succeed if the aim is to create new ways of working.
One of the first things we all learn as development rookies is that you cannot simply transplant institutions, systems or ideas from elsewhere. We are told that solutions have to be organic, locally-developed, country-owned and relevant to the context. But why and when is this true?
Owen Barder is sceptical about a proposed new public-private partnership to tackle hunger.
Bob Geldof is the latest guest on Development Drums talking about about his work in development over three decades. Beware: the language is colourfully and characteristically explicit in places. You can listen to the 35 minute version here, or listen to the entire extended interview.
This is a joint post with Liza Reynolds.
This blog post announces the launch of the Europe Beyond Aid initiative and presents a summary of the research and preliminary analysis in its first working paper.
Europeans more than pull their weight in aid to developing countries. Last year Europeans provided more than €60 billion ($80bn) in aid, more than two and a half times as much as the United States. European members account for just 40% of the national income of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) but give more than 60% of the aid.
Why does Britain score consistently well in its approach to aid? At a recent Center for Global Development in Europe event, Sir Tim Lankester, a former British civil servant, shed some light on this. His new book, The Politics and Economics of Britain’s Foreign Aid: The Pergau Dam Affair, sets out the story of a decisive moment in British development policy.
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