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Call for papers
Conference jointly organized by UNU-WIDER and the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation
United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), on behalf of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co- operation (GPEDC) and with the support of the European Union, is organizing an international research conference on the effectiveness of development co-operation.
The two-day conference will provide a forum to discuss innovative, theoretical, and empirical research and its policy take-aways. We welcome submissions of individual papers, as well as of panels. Panels will include 3–4 papers and may include a discussant. We welcome qualitative and quantitative analyses; analysis drawing on new primary sources or existing data; single or multiple case studies; as well as high-quality reviews of the literature and research findings. We are particularly interested in submissions that speak to questions such as the following:
- What is the relationship between the implementation of development effectiveness principles and development outcomes, including progress on Sustainable Development Goals targets and Leave No One Behind? What factors influence this relationship?
- What is the relationship between the implementation of development effectiveness principles and access to and use of development finance (bilateral, multilateral, global funds, climate finance)?
- What factors and conditions facilitate or hamper the practical implementation of aid effectiveness principles (whether collectively or in terms of particular principles such as local ownership)?
- How do the politics and policies of aid-recipient countries matter to aid effectiveness? What are the implications of this for aid policy?
- What works or does not work in development aid and development co-operation in fragile and conflict-affected contexts? How is this different or similar to other contexts, such as countries for whom external aid is less important?
- What is the relationship between development co-operation, governance, and democracy? What does ‘ownership’ mean and how can ownership be fostered in non-democratic contexts?
We welcome proposals addressing these questions both at the general level and within specific sectors. Given that development outcomes are likely to be substantially influenced by policies, regulations, resource allocation, targeting, and the delivery of services and infrastructure investments at the sectoral level, we encourage in particular the submission of papers that shed light on these questions within specific sectors.
Papers selected under this Call will be presented at the joint UNU-WIDER-GPEDC conference to be held in November 2022 (dates TBC) in Brussels. Some of the papers may be published in the WIDER Working Paper Series. An edited book with a top academic publisher is also planned by the conference’s academic leads, Dr Rachel Gisselquist, Professor Patricia Justino, and Dr Andrea Vaccaro; some selected conference papers will be invited for inclusion.
