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A declared commitment in international development assistance is to promote donor co-ordination. Yet, how this objective plays out in practice, or how feasible and realistic it is, have rarely been evaluated. Using the fisheries sector as a critical case, this article explores whether two major international actors, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization ( FAO) and the World Bank, meet the demands of policy harmonization as spelled out in the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness. Through a systematic qualitative analysis, the article investigates whether the policies of these actors are complementary or contradictory. It also assesses how the potential challenges to harmonization can be understood and what the broader implications for aid and development policies in general might be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is democracy favorable or adverse for the management of marine resources? While some studies find democracy to increase the likelihood of achieving sustainable development, others propose that democracy rather has negative effects on the environment. This paper contributes explicitly to this debate, but also adds insights from research arguing that the effects of democracy are conditioned by surrounding institutions. Building on this literature, we argue that the way democracy works – whether it is an instrument for collective action beneficial to the environment or an instrument for patronage and clientelism – depends on levels of economic development. The overall objective of the article is to test this proposition empirically. Employing time-series cross-section analysis and using Marine Trophic Index as a proxy for the health of marine ecosystems, we investigate the impact of democracy on the marine environment in a global sample from 1972 to 2006. The analysis provides interesting insights regarding the conditional role of economic development. We report negative effects of democracy in low income settings, but find that this pattern is reversed when economic development has reached a certain threshold. Finally, we discuss how democracy affects the prospects for sustainable development and based on our conclusions offer suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is an impressive amount of research - theoretical propositions as well as empirical results - focusing on how ecosystem services can contribute to poverty reduction and resilience, it is less clear how this knowledge is operationalized and applied among development agencies and development practitioners. This article investigates this by using the Swedish International Development Agency, Sida, as an illustrative case study comparing how the link between ecosystem services and poverty reduction is conceptualized at different levels within the organization, and also the extent to which those conceptualizations correspond to an 'ideal' conceptualization, that is, using the global Millennium Ecosystem Assessment as a baseline. The results indicate that ecosystem services first and foremost are perceived as a crucial input for economic development, but linkages between ecosystems and issues of security, health and empowerment are to some extent also recognised.Bien qu'une quantité impressionnante de recherches - apportant des propositions théoriques ainsi que des résultats empiriques - aient été menées sur la manière dont les services écosystémiques peuvent contribuer à réduire la pauvreté et renforcer la résilience des populations, la manière dont ces connaissances sont rendues opérationnelles et sont appliquées par les agences et praticiens du développement est moins claire. Nous examinons cette question sur la base du cas de l′Agence Suédoise du Développement International (SIDA) qui illustre comment est conceptualisé, aux différents niveaux de l′organisation, le lien entre les services écosystémiques et la réduction de la pauvreté. Nous évaluons dans quelle mesure ces conceptualisations correspondent à une conceptualisation 'idéale', en référence au programme mondial d′ Évaluation des Écosystèmes pour le Millénaire. Les résultats indiquent que les services écosystémiques sont d′abord et avant tout perçus comme un facteur essentiel au développement économique, mais les liens entre les écosystèmes et la sécurité, la santé, et l′autonomisation sont dans une certaine mesure également reconnus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a research project which explores the relationship between the perceived threat of losing power without compensation, institutional quality and economic development. The project uses a process-tracing method to compare independent variables involve in the relationship. It analyzes the threats to leaders in Botswana, Ghana, Chile, Bolivia, South Korea and Cambodia. It covers the strength of civil society, the degree of inter-group inequality and the political role of the middle class.