Blog
From the Editor's Desk (February 2013)

Tony Addison

As the snow continues to lie deep across Helsinki, UNU-WIDER is putting the last touches to the ReCom results meeting on ‘aid and the social sectors’, which takes place at Sida in Stockholm on 13 March. Do join us if you are in Stockholm or via the video cast. Further details and how to sign up can be found here.

This month’s Angle initiates a series on the post-2015 development agenda, which is in everyone’s mind. Finn Tarp, UNU-WIDER’s director, introduces the issues and sets the scene. Heidi Hautala, Finland’s Minister for International Development, then makes her contribution on the post-2015 agenda in our GuestAngle series. Minister Hautala emphasizes the role of human rights, and democracy. With this good start, we look forward to further contributions in the months ahead.

Our WIDER Working Paper series continues to be popular for authors and readers alike. There continues to be a good spread of topics and authors. The latest batch includes one for the randomistas among our readers—Rajeev Dehejia on experimental and non-experimental methods in development economics. Rajeev assesses their respective strengths and weaknesses. Also in the latest working papers are: Odd-Helge Fjeldstad on donor support to help strengthen tax systems (an issue that has come to the fore in recent years); Armando Barrientos and Juan Villa on anti-poverty transfer programmes in Africa and Latin America; Walter Bossert, and Conchita D'Ambrosio on measuring economic insecurity; Paul Collier on aid to promote private investment; Augustin Fosu on productivity and African economic growth; Marguerite Duponchel on South Africa after apartheid, and Muhammad Badiuzzaman, John Cameron, and Syed Mansoob Murshed on conflict and livelihoods decisions in Bangladesh.

With industrial policy now at the forefront of the debate again, UNU-WIDER is pleased to announce the publication of Pathways to Industrialization in the Twenty-First Century: New Challenges and Emerging Paradigms, edited by Adam Szirmai, Wim Naudé, and Ludovico Alcorta (Oxford University Press). Other books forthcoming include Achieving Development Success: Strategies and Lessons from the Developing World, edited by Augustin Kwasi Fosu (Oxford University Press).

Our VIDEOAngle for February is an interview with Andy McKay of the University of Sussex by Carl-Gustav Lindén of UNU-WIDER. Andy was over in Helsinki recently for a meeting of our Growth and African Poverty Project (GAPP). This aims to get a better fix on what has happened to poverty in the region in recent years. If you haven’t seen the interview with Martin Rama of the World Bank on employment issues in January’s VIDEOAngle yet you can still catch it.

RESEARCHAngle this month, features three research summaries. The first is on the WIDER Working Paper by Robert Cameron on decentralization in South Africa and the role of politics in urban service delivery. The second and third are on the WIDER Working Paper by David Bevan on the interconnections between aid, fiscal policy, climate change and growth in low-income countries. All of these papers arise out of the ReCom programme.

With 2013 still young there is a lot ahead of us, not least the 24-25 June conference 'Learning to Compete: Industrial Development and Policy in Africa', by which time the snow should have melted. Angle returns in March.

Tony Addison is Chief Economist-Deputy Director, UNU-WIDER.
 

WIDERAngle newsletter
February 2013
ISSN 1238-9544

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