How are inequality and conflict connected? What policies can prevent conflict? Just an economic perspective is clearly not enough.
Inequality hinders sustainable economic growth, allows the rich a disproportionate share of political power, and fosters violence and criminality.
Petra Stienen explores the role that youth, journalists and new technologies have played during the uprisings in Arab world in recent years.
Transparency and accountability initiatives aim to combat corruption and inefficiency, and improve how aid is channelled. How effective are these initiatives, and how can their impact be measured?
The Broker sees social change as a complex series of processes in which politics, economics and culture determine how events unfold. An interdisciplinary analysis of such processes contributes to smart strategies for citizens, social movements and NGOs to achieve just societies.
Welcome to The Broker Dossier on inequality. The core of the Dossier is formed by three articles by editors from The Broker te...
In recent decades, inequality has been increasing worldwide. Although the middle classes are growing, most of the world’s population continues to live close to the poverty lines. ‘Emerging giants’ India and China are witnessing soaring inequality rates, but Latin America is making improvemen...
Inequality hinders sustainable economic growth, allows the rich a disproportionate share of political power, and fosters violence and criminali...
Now economists more and more accept the idea that inequality is rising in most parts of the world and harms sustainable economic growth, the obvious next step is to change the policies that cause...
I recently chaired a forum that discussed whether a new paradigm has emerged in the field of development cooperation, and if so, what does it consist of? A great deal of time at these kinds of debates is spent exploring definitions and their usefulness. Is it really a new paradigm, or a new narrative or something less consequential? In the end, it does not really matter what we choose to call it. What does matter is that we are facing new circumstances that will fundamentally alter the way we design development policies, whether they be bilateral, multilateral or non-government...
The NGO community agrees that the foreign aid frame is no longer a viable option, even if that means that NGOs have to evolve into something else. The question is, should today’s NGO by retired, replaced or rejuvenat...
Should inequality become a central issue in the post-2015 agenda? And what would that mean in terms of policy chan...
Burkinabé writer and politician Joseph Ki-Zerbo said,‘On ne développe pas, on se développe’ (‘People aren’t developed; people develop themselves’). He argued for a development strategy ‘that gets its force from local realities and our own values, and which is open for all positive influences from outside’. There is a long tradition in development thinking that stresses the need for this kind of bottom-up approa...
In ‘Deep democracy’ (The Broker 10), a new approach to development – civic driven change (CDC) – was presented. The Broker asked people all over the world to participate in a debate on CDC. This article summarizes their respons...
China’s prominence in global development means it has a host of new, multilateral responsibilities. How will it respond to its new stat...
Contrary to what its critics think, Turkey is not 'adrift' but shaken by the pitch and roll resulting from a fundamental rethinking of Turkishne...
Brazil's new-found status as an economic power and conflict mediator has led some to question their motives. President Dilma Rousseff will have to find ways to deflect accusations of self-interest and regional hegemo...
We need to expand our knowledge and use it in more context-specific analyses. The question is at what scale: national, regional or glob...
We’ve heard a lot about ‘Web 2.0’ lately, and now we’re starting to hear about ‘Science 2.0’. But what does ‘2.0’ actually mean? To me, ‘2.0’ refers to any process that enables the transparent sharing of insights, ideas and arguments in order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding. I think Science 2.0 can have an equally exciting impact on the scientific communi...
read moreChanging realities are causing some think tanks to consider reshaping themselves as ‘think nets’, which may be cheaper to run and more conducive to open innovation. But do they have the same ability as think tanks to adapt and evol...