Local Dimensions of Development
by Lennart Reiners
Date of Examination:2023-08-25
Date of issue:2023-10-23
Advisor:Prof. Dr. Krisztina Kis-Katos
Referee:Prof. Dr. Andreas Fuchs
Referee:Prof. Dr. Jochen Kluve
Persistent Address:
http://dx.doi.org/10.53846/goediss-10131
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Abstract
English
Poverty remains one of the most pressing global challenges, affecting people’s livelihood in far more than the mere income dimension: The poor suffer from limited access to education, health care and nutrition, face discrimination, and lack societal participation. Tackling poverty in all its dimensions is therefore at the core of national governments’ and international institutions’ policy agenda, contributing towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1. While the underlying causes of poverty are as complex and multi-dimensional as their implications, it is generally agreed that the role of the government and its policies is decisive: It establishes a conducive environment for economic development and provides social protection systems for people in need. The right policies are therefore at the heart of successful poverty alleviation, yet often constrained by limited financial resources and technical capacity. Assessing the effectiveness of such policies is an essential prerequisite for their careful design. In the context of development cooperation, a long-standing scholarly debate has questioned its effectiveness. This comprises not only whether intended goals were accomplished, but also the less prominent debate on unintended - both positive and negative - consequences of development interventions. Only more recently, a growing body of research on the unintended and, in particular, adverse impacts of international donor-supported development interventions has emerged. This literature has been fueled by the growing use of rigorous evaluations, better data coverage and the realization that more scrutiny on unintended consequences is needed. Researchers can thus increasingly uncover policies’ side effects, crucially complementing assessments of what development interventions bring about. In this thesis titled Local Dimensions of Development, I aim to make a contribution towards understanding the unintended consequences of interventions aimed at promoting development. I discuss three policies in the context of three distinctive phenomena that developing countries often experience: (i) Governance reforms and environmental degradation; (ii) migration restrictions and natural disasters; and (iii) social protection systems and violence. As introductory analysis, I examine the success determinants of policy interventions supported by an international development institution.
Keywords: Development Economics
