Finance & Development

In, “The pros and cons of public-private partnerships (PPPs) as a means to achieve food security, expanded infrastructure investment and green growth?" Nancy Alexander provides a background paper on PPPs (part I) and conclusions of a discussion of the paper with the Mexican Foreign Service (part II).

On the eve of Rio+20, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung North America has asked several of its partners from civil society to reflect in short commentaries about some of the linkages and synergies between gender equity and key issue areas of sustainable development.

This fifth annual report offers a detailed look at the U.S. administration's approach to funding and providing assistance to support democracy and governance in the Middle East and North Africa. As some countries in the region embark on political transitions and others continue to protest authoritarian rule, it is important to examine changes in U.S. funding for the Middle East and the impact on Washington’s relations with the region.

The Green Deal Nigeria study commissioned by the Heinrich Böll Foundation focuses on the potential for a greener Nigeria and is being launched as the country prepares for the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit. The study provides an overview and practical examples of how to green Nigeria before 2020 and explains the long-term measures that Nigeria needs to take today to make the economy grow beyond oil.

The World Bank's May 2012 volume on "Inclusive Green Growth" has some positive solutions to offer, but falls short in several crucial ways: the lack of emphasis on poverty reduction, equality and human rights; an uncritical regard for market mechanisms to govern asset markets, and a view of infrastructure as the “heart of green growth,” among other things.

Susan Ariel Aaronson, Associate Research Professor of the Elliott School, George Washington University, underscores how firms often operate in states where human rights may not be respected. For these and other firms, the Guiding Principles (GP) on Business and Human Rights, adopted by the UN in 2011, delineate their human rights responsibilities. This paper identifies how policy-makers can help firms meet these responsibilities.

Do development institutions have a choice between safeguards and "country ownership”? The World Bank’s new lending instrument – the Program-for-Results – abandons binding safeguards in the name of “country ownership.” This paper asserts that both country ownership and safeguards are necessary to achieve development results.

The European crisis is not only a Euro or financial crisis, it also has far reaching political implications. In his article Rainer Emschermann analyses the political dynamics while Europe is struggling for ways to solve its deepest crisis since the foundation of the European Union.

In the European Union, the Euro, the common currency of 17 EU countries, has been under speculative attack in global currency markets for some time. This is due largely to the debt crisis sweeping several of its member countries, but also a signal of larger global imbalances and power shifts in global financial markets.

The links between climate change and industrial agriculture create a nexus of crises—food insecurity, natural resource depletion and degradation, as well as human rights violations and inequities. This report unravels the interrelated causes of and effects on these issues.