Céline Kauffmann

DECENTRALISATION AND POVERTY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: EXPLORING THE IMPACT

Decentralisation has been advocated by donors and development agencies as an important factor broadening citizen participation and improving local governance, thereby promoting poverty reduction from the bottom up. On the basis of a comprehensive review of 19 country case studies documented in the literature, this paper questions this assumption. La decentralisation a ete recommandee par les pays donateurs et les agences de developpement comme un facteur important d’incitation a une plus large participation des citoyens et a une meilleure gouvernance locale, facilitant ainsi la reduction de la pauvrete en partant de la base. Ce document de travail reconsidere cette hypothese, en passant en revue 19 etudes de cas par pays disponibles dans la documentation.

Financing SMEs in Africa

Limited access to finance is a major obstacle to development of SMEs in Africa as their inherent higher perceived risk makes financial institutions reluctant to lend to them and adequate financial instruments lack.

Decentralisation and Poverty in Developing Countries

Decentralisation has been advocated by donors and development agencies as an important factor broadening citizen participation and improving local governance, thereby promoting poverty reduction from the bottom up. On the basis of a comprehensive review of 19 country case studies documented in the literature, this paper questions this assumption.

Energy and Poverty in Africa

Access to energy is essential for economic, social and political development. Despite its enormous potential in fossil and renewable energy sources, Africa suffers from major energy deficits. The continent’s resources are underexploited or exported in raw form or wasted in the course of extraction or transport. As a result, supplies available for local populations are largely insufficient and energy consumption is essentially reliant on biomass.

Is More Money Enough to Fix Africa's Transport Infrastructure?

Transport infrastructure has been dangerously neglected in recent times. Lack of transport infrastructure impedes economic integration and poverty reduction. Involving the private sector in financing the transport infrastructure is proving harder than anticipated.

Access to Drinking Water and Sanitation in Africa

Africa is unlikely to reach the drinking water and sanitation Millennium Development Goals. Disparities among countries are large, and the deficit in sanitation is greater than that for drinking water. Serious reforms in institutions, legal frameworks, and policies are needed.

Le financement des PME en Afrique

L’acces limite au financement est un obstacle majeur au developpement des petites et moyennes entreprises en Afrique dans la mesure ou les institutions de financement sont frileuses lorsqu’il s’agit de preter a des entreprises percues comme tres risquee.

Privatisation in the Meda Region

This paper builds on a new database (PRIVMEDA) in order to assess the progress of the privatisation process in the MEDA countries of Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. The first part of the paper offers an overview of the privatisation record from 1990 to 2006. It shows that, as in other parts of the world, the first wave of privatisations in the 1990s, which focused almost exclusively on profit-making enterprises in the tourism, transport, food and construction material sectors, slowed down towards the early 2000s and rebounded in 2005 when larger utilities where earmarked for sale. The second part of the paper assesses the outcome of the privatisation process in light of three key objectives: fiscal proceeds, economic efficiency and the development of the local private sector. It concludes that privatisation in the MEDA region can successfully promote efficiency and private sector development only when embedded in a package of measures, including the setting up of a proper regulatory framework, the improvement of the business climate and the liberalisation of financial markets.

Facing Pro-poor Design of Subsidies for Drinking Water and Sanitation Services in Africa

Limited capacity to pay, large infrastructure needs and a huge backlog in the construction of sanitation facilities make recourse to cross-subsidies and government-funded subsidies a necessity in Africa. * This Policy Insights introduces the African Economic Outlook 2007.

L'accès à l'eau potable et à l'assainissement en Afrique

L’Afrique a peu de chances d’atteindre les objectifs du Millenaire pour le developpement (OMD) relatifs a l’eau potable et a l’assainissement. Les ecarts entre pays restent importants et l’assainissement a pris beaucoup de retard par rapport a l’eau potable. De profondes reformes des institutions, des cadres juridiques et des politiques sont indispensables pour garantir un elargissement durable de l’acces a l’eau potable et a l’assainissement tout en preservant l’environnement.