scholarly journals From the Big Picture to Detailed Observation: The Case of the GEF IEO’s Strategic Country Cluster Evaluations

2022 ◽  
pp. 59-72
Author(s):  
Carlo Carugi ◽  
Anna Viggh
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Global Environment Facility ◽  
Evaluative Inquiry ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Inquiry Approach ◽  
Big Picture

AbstractThis chapter introduces strategic country cluster evaluations (SCCEs), a concrete example of how the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has dealt with the increasing complexity of GEF programming. This complexity reflects the interconnectedness—in terms of both synergies and trade-offs—between socioeconomic development priorities and environment conservation imperatives that is typical of many country settings in which GEF projects and programs are implemented, such as least developed countries and small island developing states. SCCEs address this complexity by applying a purposive evaluative inquiry approach that starts from aggregate analyses designed to provide trends and identify cases of positive, neutral, or negative change, and proceeds to in-depth data gathering aimed at identifying the specific factors underlying the observed change in those specific cases. By establishing the interconnectedness and sequencing of the various evaluation components, rather than conducting these in parallel, SCCEs provide an opportunity to focus on a limited set of purposively selected issues that are common in clusters of countries and/or portfolios. This enables a comprehensive understanding of the factors at play in complex national and local settings.

scholarly journals Reading Between the Red Lines: Loss and Damage and the Paris Outcome

Climate Law ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 118-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxine Burkett
Keyword(s):  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Island States ◽  
Loss And Damage ◽  
Small Island States ◽  
Developed World ◽  
Red Line

For the least-developed countries and small-island states, excluding a standalone provision for loss and damage in the Paris Agreement constituted a red line, one that the negotiating groups refused to cross. For the developed world—and the United States in particular—any possible pathway to liability and compensation that a loss-and-damage provision might introduce was an equally bright and impassable red line. In the end, negotiators remained steadfast. Both lines remained more or less unbreached, and compromise language emerged in the Paris Outcome.1 This article describes the process leading up to the Outcome, the language included in the loss-and-damage provision and its implications, and identifies questions that remain. In particular, the absence of a clear funding stream, the treatment of climate-related displacement, and questions regarding compensation for climate impacts are not completely resolved. These are, perhaps, the most compelling, confounding, and impactful elements of the loss-and-damage debate thus far. Based on the conclusion of the Paris cop, they are likely continue to animate the loss-and-damage discussion for the foreseeable future.

CLASSIFICATION OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES INTO THE WORLD ECONOMY

2017 ◽  
pp. 107-117
Author(s):  
Iu. Khvatov
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
The World ◽  
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Right

The basic principles that guide the United Nations to allocate specific groups of countries requiring special attention from the international community to the problems of their sustainable development are described. The difference in the scale and structure of aid to the least developed countries; landlocked developing countries; small island developing countries and heavily indebted poor countries is analyzed. The specificity of the approach of the World Trade Organization to the definition of countries with preferential access to the markets and the countries with differential treatment regime is revealed. The criteria that guided the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to identify those developing countries which have the right of access to preferential lending conditions are analyzed. It is proposed to divide all the developing countries on: high-income emerging economies; middle-income frontier economies and least developed countries.

scholarly journals Overcoming shortage of second-career academics in business schools

2021 ◽  
Vol 124 ◽  
pp. 11003
Author(s):  
Liap-Teck Ong
Keyword(s):  
Business Education ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Small Island ◽  
University Management ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Second Career ◽  
Business Units ◽  
Business Practitioners ◽  
Pedagogical Research

This study addresses the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) to “substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers[academics], including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and Small Island developing states” by 2030. Literature review reveals that there is a shortage of academics to teach business units globally due to the high demand for business education. Hence experienced and qualified business practitioners are recruited to assume the role of academics, collectively termed as second-career academics. This study was conducted to explore the challenges faced by these second-career academics in order to explore ways to sustain and retain them, as a measure to mitigate the shortage of academics in business education at tertiary level. The findings revealed that second-career academics experience a sense of discordance due to the fundamental contradiction between the ideals, pre-conceived perceptions of academic career and the everyday realities of academic task performance. The discordance is precipitated by differences in work culture between industry and academia, inconsonance with university management, and pedagogical/research challenges. The study suggests appropriate orientation and training opportunities to address the special needs of these second-career academics in order to sustain and retain their academic career, as a solution to the shortage of business academics.

scholarly journals Climate Change and Right to Development

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivek Mukherjee ◽  
Faizan Mustafa ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Climate Change Negotiations ◽  
Right To Development ◽  
Recent Climate ◽  
The Right

The Right to Development is a relatively new right in human rights law. Although its roots may be traced to pre-world war era, Right to Development took concrete shape with the passing of the UN Declaration on the Right to Development in 1986. Some renowned academic institutions in India are making recent efforts to make the “Right to Development” a Fundamental Human Right. Climate change poses a direct threat to human rights of people, especially in tropically situated countries of the south (including India), which are coincidentally home to a large number of vulnerable/marginalized people who are considerably poor to concern themselves with issues such as climate change. Due to mounting pressure from least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing countries (SIDSs), international community has lately shown greater interest in establishing a direct link between climate change and human rights. This interest may be a reaction to the recurrent failures in reaching a consensus in the climate change negotiations through mechanical Conference of Parties (COPs). Similar to a bottom-up approach that seems to have worked well for the Paris agreement, it was believed by experts that linking human rights to climate change would shake the conscience of the reluctant parties to act expeditiously. The importance of a human rights–based approach to climate change will be highlighted in the light of two recent developments in the climate change discourse: First, the recognition by scientists of several extreme disaster as climate change events directly violating the human rights of the vulnerable; second, the dilution of the differentiation created between developing and developed nations by the Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) principle in the recent climate change agreements. This paper seeks to establish the efficacy of the human Right to Development (through tools such as Greenhouse Development Rights) in effectuating the third world approaches to the issue of climate change in the global south.

scholarly journals Estimating Infrastructure Financing Needs in the Asia-Pacific Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and Small Island Developing States

Economies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candice Branchoux ◽  
Lin Fang ◽  
Yusuke Tateno
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Universal Access ◽  
Weighted Average ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Small Island Developing States

To assist with the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, this paper develops a framework to estimate infrastructure financing needs of the Asia-Pacific least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs), and small island developing States (SIDS) by 2030. The framework takes into account the financing required to close existing infrastructure gaps, keep up with growing demands for new infrastructure, maintain existing infrastructure, and mitigate the vulnerability of infrastructure to climate-related risks. Based on a panel of 71 developing economies from 1990 to 2015 and the application of unit costs to the level of physical infrastructure stock projected to 2030, the required resources are estimated to amount to 8.1% of GDP per annum on weighted average, which exceeds current levels of infrastructure funding of 5–7% of GDP. The paper finds that a large proportion of financing needs in LDCs and SIDS arises from the current infrastructure shortages, particularly in the transport and energy sector, implying that provision of universal access to basic infrastructure services would require large outlays of resources. The results also suggest that LLDCs and some SIDS require over one-third of their spending to be allocated to maintenance and replacement of existing assets, while those in low-lying coastal areas face substantial long-run costs in improving infrastructure to mitigate climate change and protect them against loss and damages caused by extreme weather events. Meeting future infrastructure financing needs will require greater engagement of the private sector and other global and regional initiatives to ensure that sufficient resources can be raised for investment in infrastructure.

scholarly journals Influencing Factors and Future Trends of Global Climate Governance Pattern and China’s Responsive Measures

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150008
Author(s):  
Hongbo CHEN ◽  
Ying ZHANG
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Climate Governance

Since the 1990s, the global climate governance pattern has kept evolving from the initial two camps of developed and developing countries to the current pattern of multi-polarity, featuring the withdrawal and return of Paris Agreement by the United States, the declining leadership of the EU, the coalition of BASIC countries, and the rise of the least developed countries and small island developing states as newly emerging forces. This evolution mainly results from the combined effects of three factors: (i) The changes in the carbon emission pattern driven by population, economic growth, and technological progress; (ii) the stronger influences and power of discourse of the least developed countries and small island developing states as derived from the impacts of and vulnerability to climate change; and (iii) the impacts brought about by uncertain factors such as the uncertainties in terms of science, politics, and technological progress. These factors will still affect the trend of global climate governance in the future. The carbon emissions of developed countries will continue to take a less share in the world’s total, while the proportion of India and the least developed countries in this respect will rise rapidly, which will make global climate governance face a dilemma. Technological progress and the positive actions of non-state entities indicate that the international climate system needs reform and innovation. The rapid development of China over the past three decades has been synchronized with the evolution of the global governance structure, and has naturally become one of the internal factors driving the evolution of climate governance pattern. In the face of various pressure and challenges, China has been pushed to the forefront of global climate governance. China should observe the general trends within and outside the country, and respond to them rationally: (i) Set the proper role of China in the new pattern of global climate governance, i.e. a cooperation leader who should make positive contributions and avoid premature advance; (ii) innovate the concept and institutional system of global climate governance, and study and put forward the Chinese approach that is positive, pragmatic, and operable; (iii) help low-income countries cope with climate change by virtue of renewable energy technology and industrial cooperation, and achieve a win–win situation by encouraging Chinese enterprises to “go out” and helping low-income countries effectively control carbon emissions; and (iv) strengthen the climate cooperation with non-state actors, give play to their special role, and promote China’s comprehensive reform and opening-up.

2021 State of Climate Services report: Risk Information and Early Warning Systems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica Grasso
Keyword(s):  
Early Warning ◽  
Early Warning Systems ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Risk Information ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Warning Systems ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Climate Services ◽  
The Right

<p>Between 1970 and 2019, 79% of disasters worldwide involved weather, water, and climate-related hazards. These disasters accounted for 56% of deaths and 75% of economic losses from disasters associated with natural hazards reported during that period. As climate change continues to threaten human lives, ecosystems and economies, risk information and early warning systems (EWS) are increasingly seen as key for reducing these impacts. The majority of countries, including 88% of least developed countries and small island states, that submitted their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to UNFCCC have identified EWS as a “top priority”.<br><br>This latest multi-agency report, coordinated by WMO, highlights progress made in EWS capacity – and identifies where and how governments can invest in effective EWS to strengthen countries’ resilience to multiple weather, water and climate-related hazards. Being prepared and able to react at the right time, in the right place, can save many lives and protect the livelihoods of communities everywhere.</p>

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