Confidence Culture

In Confidence Culture, Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill argue that imperatives directed at women to “love your body” and “believe in yourself” imply that psychological blocks rather than entrenched social injustices hold women back. Interrogating the prominence of confidence in contemporary discourse about body image, workplace, relationships, motherhood, and international development, Orgad and Gill draw on Foucault’s notion of technologies of self to demonstrate how “confidence culture” demands of women near-constant introspection and vigilance in the service of self-improvement. They argue that while confidence messaging may feel good, it does not address structural and systemic oppression. Rather, confidence culture suggests that women—along with people of color, the disabled, and other marginalized groups—are responsible for their own conditions. Rejecting confidence culture’s remaking of feminism along individualistic and neoliberal lines, Orgad and Gill explore alternative articulations of feminism that go beyond the confidence imperative.

The System of Awarding Degrees in Higher Education of Iran and United Kingdom: A Descriptive-Comparative Study With Focusing on the Internationalization of Health Education

The main indicators of higher education (HE) internationalization in the field of awarding degrees are the international development of disciplines and interdisciplinary sciences, new educational and learning methods, new and updated curricula, and their correct ways of sharing. This study aimed to examine the system of awarding degrees in health HE of Iran and the United Kingdom. This descriptive-comparative study focused on the field of medical sciences and its related disciplines. The vital information about the variables was collected by visiting the official websites of the UK universities and related or joint organizations. The related information to the Kerman University of Medical Sciences as a sample of Iran medical universities was obtained from the university’s Farabar system. All data extraction steps were performed manually. There were differences in the mechanism of setting up a new discipline and the process of students’ admission, diversity of degrees’ titles and curriculums, stability of disciplines over the time, creativity in creating competition between different disciplines, the reason for establishing a discipline and the requirements for certification and awarding of degrees in health sciences disciplines in Iran and the United Kingdom were described. Propelling of medical education in the health sciences area towards standard awarding degree systems can be responsible for the requirements of internationalization of higher education.

The methodology of the Logical Framework with a Risk Management Approach to Improve the Sustainability in the International Development Projects

When working with international development projects (IDPs), the use of the logical framework approach (LFA) prevails as the most important tool to plan and manage these projects. This paper presents how the methodology has been enriched, including risk management (LFRMA logical framework with risk management approach), proposing an original contribution, tested with professionals that will improve the effectiveness of IDPs by increasing their success rate and their sustainability. The steps followed to design the methodology (problem statement (literature review, interview with experts, questionnaire for professionals. and statistical analysis), case study analysis (eight case studies in Colombia, interviews with IDPs managers, focus groups, questionnaire for participants, qualitative analysis, and fuzzy analysis) and design of LFRMA (focus group with experts)) and the methodology itself (how to introduce risk management during all the life cycle through the methodology steps) are presented. Conclusions answer the research questions: can the effectiveness and sustainability of IDPs be improved? Can risk management help to improve IDPs effectiveness? Would it be useful to introduce risk management into the LFA? The LFRMA methodology consists of two fields of application, the first at the organization level and the second at the project level.

KAZAKHSTAN’S NUCLEAR GOVERNANCE AS A FOREIGN POLICY ASSET

Kazakhstan’s nonproliferation initiatives are recognized worldwide. Kazakhstan is a party to almost all major nuclear treaties, a key driver in the creation of a Central Asian nuclear-weapon-free zone, initiated the Universal Declaration on Building a World Free of Nuclear Weapons, established a low-enriched uranium bank under the auspices of the IAEA in Ust-Kamenogorsk to be used for peaceful purposes in the event of a disruption in the supply of fuel for nuclear power plants.While the foreign policy acts of Kazakhstan in non-proliferation are well known and internationally appreciated, the transfer of Kazakh experience in the governance of the nuclear sector is lesser known asset. For example, the experience of the Committee for Atomic and Energy Supervision and Control and KAZATOMPROM in uranium mining and transport was shared with countries from the Southern African Development Community, under an EU project, implemented by the International Science and Technology Center. This example reveals the great potential this themes have for the further input of Kazakhstan in international development cooperation.

Estimating the impact of donor programs on child mortality in low- and middle-income countries: a synthetic control analysis of child health programs funded by the United States Agency for International Development

Background Significant levels of funding have been provided to low- and middle-income countries for development assistance for health, with most funds coming through direct bilateral investment led by the USA and the UK. Direct attribution of impact to large-scale programs funded by donors remains elusive due the difficulty of knowing what would have happened without those programs, and the lack of detailed contextual information to support causal interpretation of changes. Methods This study uses the synthetic control analysis method to estimate the impact of one donor’s funding (United States Agency for International Development, USAID) on under-five mortality across several low- and middle-income countries that received above average levels of USAID funding for maternal and child health programs between 2000 and 2016. Results In the study period (2000–16), countries with above average USAID funding had an under-five mortality rate lower than the synthetic control by an average of 29 deaths per 1000 live births (year-to-year range of − 2 to − 38). This finding was consistent with several sensitivity analyses. Conclusions The synthetic control method is a valuable addition to the range of approaches for quantifying the impact of large-scale health programs in low- and middle-income countries. The findings suggest that adequately funded donor programs (in this case USAID) help countries to reduce child mortality to significantly lower rates than would have occurred without those investments.

Institutional structure formation of the global green finance market

The article studies the strategic directions of the Eurasian Development Bank as an important element of the institutional structure of the global green finance market.The current differentiated global structure of green finance market institutions has been shown, and the substantive focus of organisations at two levels of the institutional structure of this market has been shown. A statistical overview of green finance institutions by country, region, type and financial instruments used has been made. The role of multilateral development banks in the structure of such institutions has been shown. The need for the formation of institutions in the green financial market segment as a necessary element of green finance has been substantiated.The structure of institutions on two levels has been given: 1) subjects – participants of the green bond market; 2) a set of institutions developing and shaping the methodology for green financial instruments assessment, standards, taxonomy, ratings. Using the global green bond market as an example, up-to-date statistics and analysis of the broader composition of issuers of green financial instruments by country, world region, sovereign and corporate participants, and development institutions have been presented. Emphasis has been placed on public issuers and the participation of multilateral development institutions in financing green economy projects in various countries. The experience of Eurasian Economic Union countries in developing green finance has been summarised and the prospects for Russia and Kazakhstan in the green finance movement have been noted.The institutions of the differentiated structure of the global green finance market identified in the study have been grouped into two levels depending on the profile of their participation in the green economy; the directions and tools for the prospective development of the Eurasian Development Bank’s green finance activities have been defined; recommendations for prospective aspects of the methodological and analytical activities of the bank in the context of the Eurasian Development Bank Strategy 2022–2026 have been proposed.The study applied an analysis of scientific literature in the field of institutional theory, green economy and green finance, statistical, comparative, factual analysis, review and analysis of information from official websites of international development institutions, government and corporate entities, international rating agencies included in the architecture of the global green finance market.

Teaching international comparative public management through a development lens

The article tackles the question, how to provide students with a comparative orientation to public administration. We eschew the older tradition of comparing major systems such British parliamentary system or French bureaucratic approaches to organizations’ structure. Rather, we seek to understand public administration in countries with different cultures, histories, and political regimes by focusing on international development. Our students are drawn from the Master of Public Administration degree program and the Master of International Affairs degree program. What unites them is an interest in international affairs and the desire to work internationally; international students take what they learn and apply it in their home countries. We ground the course on a model of international development with a strong focus on development in governance. We spend the first third of the class creating a development lens for understanding global practices in public management in which they use what they learned in the first part of the course to analyze a range of public management issues within governmental institutions and/or in working in the nongovernmental organizations and intergovernmental organization sectors. We use detailed case studies drawn from several case data banks to apply some of the core concepts of public administration such as leadership, stakeholder analysis, complexity, and implementation to development challenges such as fiscal issues, poverty alleviation, interorganizational collaboration, and human rights. We do this with a range of in-class exercises and assignments that students do out of class. One goal we have is to provide students with knowledge and skills to enhance their ability to work internationally since many have gone on to work for donor and various implementing organizations in international development. We believe that this is a reasonable measure of success of the approach we have taken to comparative public administration.

Inclusive Approach to Education for Children With Disabilities

BRAC, a leading international development organization, has been working to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities to education through its inclusive education program. This article discusses the BRAC approach in Bangladesh and aims to identify its strategies that are effective in facilitating inclusion. It employed a qualitative research approach where data were collected from students with disabilities, their parents, and BRAC's teachers and staffs using qualitative data collection techniques. The results show that the disability-inclusive policy and all other activities are strongly monitored by a separate unit under BRAC Education Program (BEP). It mainly focuses on sensitizing its teachers and staff to the issue through training, discussing the issue in all meetings and ensuring effective use of a working manual developed by the unit. Group-based learning and involving them in income generating activities were also effective. The findings of the study would be useful for policy makers and other national and international organizations that are working on the issue.