The limits of global authority: World Bank benchmarks in Ethiopia and Malawi
Global benchmarks (re)shape political conversations and institutionalise authoritative languages. It does not necessarily follow, however, that benchmarks can exert a lasting or significant influence over policies and behaviour of benchmarked actors. We analyse how the World Bank uses benchmarks to manage its relations with both donors and recipient governments. We analyse the role of the World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA), both at headquarters and in relation to the recent history of two countries in Africa: Ethiopia and Malawi. We find that the CPIA is not – and contrary to what one would expect from the CPIA’s nominal function and the literature on benchmarks – a very important tool for signalling incentives and allocating funds, or shaping the policy dialogue or the World Bank’s strategy in these two countries. Rather, the CPIA is used highly selectively as one factor among many in the negotiations between World Bank staff and governments. We conclude that the CPIA helps establish the World Bank as an actor that embodies global authority on development issues, including with donors, but that there is a tension between such global authority on the one hand, and concrete authority to shape policy in domestic contexts, on the other.
The Expert-Executive Nexus in the European Administrative System: Expert Groups and the European Commission
Drawing on research from the administrative sciences and using organizational, institutional and decision-making theories, this volume examines the emerging bureaucratic framework of the EU and highlights that analyzing the patterns and dynamics of the EU's administrative capacities is essential to understand how it shapes European public policy.
Boko Haram – penger og logistikk
Korleis har forkjemparane for Boko Harams opprør i Nigeria fått høvet til å overliste nigerianske styresmakter når det gjeld å skaffe økonomiske og logistiske ressursar for å oppnå målet om destabilisering i landet?
Møtet mellom lokale og fredsbevarere
Fredsbevaring er vanskelig, og å være en fredsbevarer er heller ikke lett. Men for lokalbefolkningen som bor i midt i en storstilt fredsbevarende operasjon er livet enda vanskeligere.
FN 70 år: Fred og sikkerhet
Dette seminaret fokuserer på fred og tryggleik, og utforskar dei tre nylege evalueringsprosessane på feltet: evalueringa av fredsoperasjonar, fredbyggingsarkitektur og implementaringen av FNs tryggingsrådsresolusjon 1325.