Institute of Development Studies

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2002: Volume 33

New Politics of Taxation and Accountability

Volume 33 Number 3 May 2002 Edited by: Mick Moore and Lise Rakner

Why the title ‘New politics of taxation’? What then were the ‘old’? This Bulletin discusses the increasing prominence of taxation issues on policy and political agendas in developing countries. Dismissing the premise that taxation is a dry and technical topic with no implications for development, the contributing authors reflect on the reasons for this rise, both in discussions about region-specific factors and on the underpinning global issue of the defeat of the neo-liberal aim to ‘roll back the state’.

With greater fiscal dependence of developing country governments on tax revenues should come, ideally, a greater accountability of the state to its citizens. Some articles discuss historic precedents for this but others reject that there is a connection, or that current reforms encourage such a connection. The final section of the Bulletin is a set of contributions that ask the question ‘How can developing country governments tax more effectively?’

The "New Famines"

Volume 33 Number 4 October 2002 Edited by: Stephen Devereux

At the start of the twenty-first century famine persists. Why? ‘New Famines’ are unexpected, unprecedented and highly politicised. It is a paradox that the increasing potential to eradicate famines goes hand-in-hand with an increasing potential to cause them. This Bulletin argues that recent famines could have been prevented but were not, because of bad policies. Previous Northern approaches externalise and isolate the famine process. Here the authors instead unravel another layer of analysis to understand the conditions that increase vulnerability to famine. Studying ‘hidden’ famines in Mongolia, Iraq and Madagascar they ask how these could have been overlooked – and why only some famines make headlines in our increasingly globalised world. The Bulletin also speculates on the future nature of famines. Will they continue to reflect the complexity of the contemporary world; will they be different from those that have gone before? Or, most unlikely of all, will they be eradicated altogether? 

2003: Volume 34

Special and Differential Treatment in Terms of Trade

Volume 34 Number 2 May 2003 Edited by: Christopher Stevens, Assisted by Jane Kennan

The World Trade Organization (WTO) declaration launching the current multilateral trade negotiations put developing country interests and the concept of special and differential treatment (SDT) at its core. With developing countries making up the majority of WTO members, the Declaration asserted that ‘all special and differential treatment provisions shall be reviewed with a view to strengthening them and making them more precise, effective and operational.’ But so much for the bold statements - discussions on SDT are at a standstill. The industrialised countries are willing to offer only token gestures, while developing nations are demanding the unobtainable: binding commitments on the industrialised countries to provide substantial positive support and to remove all barriers to developing country exemption, coupled with exemption for themselves from any commitment to do anything. This latest edition of the IDS Bulletin examines the state of play. How have things come to this impasse, what is the SDT framework within the WTO and what are the ways forward?

Livelihoods in Crisis? New Perspectives on Governance and Rural Development in Southern Africa

Volume 34 Number 3 July 2003 Edited by: William Wolmer and Ian Scoones

Southern Africa is in the midst of a major food crisis. Fourteen million people are reported to be at risk. Most commentators agree that since around 1990, livelihoods have collapsed in many areas, with an increasing number of people, particularly in rural areas, vulnerable. But this is 2003, following decades of post-independence development assistance and once-great hopes for the region as both the food basket and economic motor for the continent. What has gone wrong? Has “development” failed? Do we need to radically rethink the paradigms for development in the region? By focusing on Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, a complex story of livelihood change emerges.

Microfinance, Poverty and Social Performance

Volume 34 Number 4 October 2003 Edited by: Alyson Brody, James Copestake, Martin Greeley, Naila Kabeer and Anton Simanowitz

The nature and extent of the impact of microfinance, particularly on poverty, continues to promote debate. The articles presented in this Bulletin reflect the ideas and practice of the Imp-Act action-research programme. The work emphasises the necessity to judge the performance of microfinance organisations (MFOs) in both social as well as financial terms. One important aspect of the debate is the potential contribution of microfinance to the Millennium Development Goals. But the potential impact of microfinance goes beyond these definitions of poverty. For example, impacts on gender inequality may relate to women above as well as below the poverty line.

This Bulletin presents wide-ranging contributions from the three-year Imp-Act programme of action research, a partnership of 30 MFOs in 20 countries and three UK universities. Experiences are compared between rural India, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bangladesh, South Africa, and the Philippines. Covering methodological and organisational processes, as well as wider social impacts, this issue is a practical in-depth review of microfinance impact.