Magister Legum - LLM

Magister Legum - LLM / This research acknowledges that although literature abounds on development assistance in general, not much has been published yet on Cameroon specifically. Therefore, this mini-thesis seeks to contribute to fill this gap. Moreover, it aims to examine both development assistance legislative frameworks in Cameroon and above all to compare them in order to find out which development assistance approach is the most aligned in terms of international obligations relative to human rights and economic development. The IMF-World Bank’s Comprehensive Approach to debt Reduction, (the HIPC Initiative), and China’s White Paper on Foreign Aid have been specifically chosen for this research for two main reasons: first, these two international instruments are significantly impacting upon and reshaping Cameroon’s political, social and economic development architecture since Cameroon economic crisis exists till today; and secondly, to enlighten the public, academicians, policy makers, on development assistance in Cameroon given that legal sources on the topic exist but mostly unpublished and inaccessible Therefore this research will be restricted to the period from Cameroon’s economic crisis in 1980 up to 2014. Given the limited availability of primary legal sources at both the international and domestic levels, this research will primarily look at HIPC Initiative Agreement and the Chinese White Paper on Foreign Aid. Moreover, this study will be conducted in form of the available HIPC documents and reports on Cameroon regularly published by the staff of IMF and the World Bank and specifically the HIPC Decision Point Document and the HIPC Completion Point Document of Cameroon. In addition, this study will rely on primary legal sources relative to states international obligations regarding human rights and economic cooperation such as, the UDHR (10 December 1948), the ICCPR (16 December 1966), the ICESCR (16 December 1966) and the Declaration on the Right to Development (4 December 1986). In the case of China’s development assistance approach, given that neither China nor Cameroon release specific bilateral treaties or agreements related to their development co-operation and the fact that documents and publications relative to Cameroon’s development assistance are mostly unpublished and inaccessible, this study will principally focus on the Chinese White Paper on Foreign Aid. It will also look, amongst others, at the Beijing Declaration of the FOCAC (2004), the White Paper on China-Africa Economic and Trade Co-operation (August 2013). Moreover this research will be complemented through secondary sources such as books, journals articles, report, working papers, press reviews, drafts, deliberation of international conferences and international summits, and internet sources

This dissertation examines the effect of environmental discourse and disaster risk reduction mapping in the favela Santa Marta, an urban informal settlement in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With the world’s largest urban forest within the metro area, Rio de Janeiro is unusual for a metropolis of more than ten million people in the rapidly urbanizing country of Brazil. The government of Rio de Janeiro has attempted to control favela settlements since the early 20th century, but beginning in the 1990s the prefecture began delimiting favela settlements with environmentally protected areas called ecolimits. According to the state’s calculations, in the 2000s favelas began to rapidly expand into the urban forest, which is protected by the ecolimits and national parks. In 2009, the state built a wall around Santa Marta, justified by concerns about expansion into the adjacent forest. The state then labeled Santa Marta the model favela after infrastructure improvements there and the installation of the first Pacification Police Unit, a new form of community policing begun in 2008 for favelas. The focus of my study is the particular ways that the government has framed its resettlement efforts in Santa Marta and how favela residents responded. I employ the concept of biopolitics assemblage to critically investigate the state’s and international institutions’ discursive and material practices of disaster risk management in Santa Marta. I collected data using a mixed methods approach during 15 months of fieldwork. Through archival research, I document the history of favela control tactics and trace the roots of disaster risk management in Rio de Janeiro to a World Bank financed disaster response project initiated in 1988. Using ethnographic methods, I documented residents’ responses to and understandings of the government’s resettlement project for Santa Marta. My results indicate that the state has discursively shifted the problem of favelas from a social question to an environmental one, while residents continue to frame favela conditions as a social justice issue and challenge the state’s assessment of environmental risk.

Multilateral trade negotiations are widely influenced by various forms of cooperation among countries and by international organizations. There is a wide spectrum of differences in cooperation between the Uruguay and the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations. Multilateral forums of developed countries are not able to provide sufficient impetus for negotiations, views of developing countries must be considered. There are differences in formation of coalition of countries, which are more wide-spread and more influential, though mainly by setting the negotiations agenda. There has been even a shift in policies of multilateral organizations; their direct and indirect influence is more noticeable. Though financial crisis led to diversion from multilateral trade issues, changed some positions, since 2009 there are signals, that there might be a shift in negotiations leading to successful conclusion of the Doha negotiations.

This thesis examines how regional-level factors combined with firm-level factors influence innovation in an emerging economy – India. Past literature has shown that differences in both country contexts and firm-level factors influence innovation. The bulk of this literature tended to focus on developed economies. The handful of studies that have considered contextual differences have studied these at the country-level or within regional blocks such as regions of Europe or Africa. There is a paucity of research, which investigates how differences in state-level factors within a single country combined with firm-level factors influence innovation within firms. Therefore, it is an open question whether the findings derived from developed economies and country-level studies apply equally to emerging economies, particularly at the state level within a single country. Thus, there is a gap in the literature regarding our understanding of the impact of combined state- and firm-level factors on innovation within a single country. This thesis aims to contribute to a better understanding of how state and firm-level factors drive innovation in India, an emerging economy. India is selected because it is a fast-growing emerging economy that is increasingly being integrated into the globalized world economy and thus understanding how these factors influence innovation in an emerging economy would complement the literature that focuses on developed countries. Moreover, India is a huge country with substantial varieties in resources, capabilities, institutions (both formal and informal institutions) as well as ethnic, religious, and cultural varieties. Contextually, these state-level differences are quite different from regions in the developed world where institutional differences tend to be relatively consistent (less varieties). Thus, the insights generated from this study of the Indian context complement prior research by identifying the state and firm factors that combine to drive firm-level innovation. This study also extends the innovation literature by focussing on state-level differences within a single emerging economy, for which there is limited research. The findings could also have practical managerial and policy implications. From a policy perspective, policymakers in India can get a deeper understanding of the relevant factors that influence firm-level innovation so that they can direct policy and resources to promote innovation in their respective states. From a managerial perspective, managers can also get a better understanding of strategies and investments they should take to enhance innovation within their firms. This study is based on data gathered from various sources including the World Bank Enterprise Survey and several sources from within India (Indiastat.com, NCAER State Investment Potential Index, India Innovation Index). The World Bank Enterprise Survey provides firm-level data while state-level data were obtained from the other reputable sources in India. The data were analyzed using logistic regression and multi-level modeling, given that firms are nested within states, thus, we can simultaneously model the micro and macro levels to assess the relevance of the regional context. The results of this study show that regional factors such as regulatory quality, corruption, and rule of law barriers negatively influence innovation in firms that invest in internal R&D to promote innovation. The results also show that regions that devote a higher proportion of their gross domestic product to innovation achieve higher levels of innovation. Further, regions that have higher levels of human capital stock (more skilled workers) and export technology tend to be more innovative. At the firm level, investments in both internal and external R&D and those that have highly experienced managers are more innovative than their peers. These results suggest that governments and policymakers can increase innovative activities of firms by providing a highly skilled labor force, invest heavily in R&D, reduce corruption, regulatory quality, and the rule of law barriers. For firm-level managers, this study indicates that higher levels of managerial capability and greater investments in both internal and external R&D can enhance the technical and innovative capabilities (absorptive capacity) of their firms. This may result in a competitive advantage through increased innovation.

yes / Stakeholder topics are one of the main ideas in development thinking that have been introduced in the last few years, certainly a concept of the 1990s. The use of stakeholder language and the application of analysis, planning and management methods directed towards different interest groups are increasingly becoming commonplace, especially amongst some anglophone donors, Three main general applications of stakeholder ideas have been developed in the literature: - the involvement of Stakeholders in Participatory methods of Development intended to achieve sustainable poverty relief; - the use of Stakeholder Analysis to assure the implementation soundness of development projects; and - its use as a means of understanding the many economic interests and processes that relate to "systems" for Natural Resource Management, this understanding to be applied in a number of developmentally beneficial uses.Naturally the three strands of applying stakeholder ideas draw from each other. This paper looks at the emergence of thinking and applications from them all, leading towards a more full consideration of the application of Stakeholder Analysis in the planning of projects of various kinds. / ID-7098D - Project Planning and Financial Analysis

The significance of capacity development programmes, as key driver for sustaining development goals, is anchored in all international fora. This research complements and extends our present understanding of the contribution of capacity development approaches to development and achievement of the SDGs. This is achieved by critically assessing the impact of capacity development initiatives sponsored by the World Bank. This thesis has focused on analysis of implementation strategies and critical assessment of the impact of the projects using multidisciplinary approach, utilising a range of quantitative and qualitative methods. It provides a sound empirical basis for assessing the complexities of these projects. This empirical investigation has identified a wide range of disparities of implementation strategies utilised for capacity development initiatives among the major international players (World Bank and UNDP). These findings clearly indicate that there is no single strategy for the implementation of capacity development initiatives. Thus, based on empirical evidence, as well as a critical review of the literature, the study proposes a model for achieving critical sustainable capacity development based on broad and long-term strategies; input, process, output, and outcome which defines the appropriateness of policies and practices that support sustainable development. It is concluded that capacity development initiatives are relevant and essential ensuring national development and sustainable results. The recommendations include the focus on individual, organisational, and societal factors when planning, developing and adopting strategies for implementing all government/national programmes.

Transboundary water treaties are established to prevent disputes over shared rivers between states. Nevertheless, empirical studies indicate that international organizations manage to bring cooperation between states in some cases and fail in others. This research explains why the efforts of international organizations to promote water cooperation sometimes succeed or sometimes fail and which factors contribute to their varying levels of success in different cases? International organizations are more likely to achieve cooperation between states with strong characters (less change in power dynamics) and share mutual benefits than weaker states (frequent shift in power dynamics) and have less shared benefits. I will examine how shared benefits and the character of the state can help international originations achieve cooperation or conflict that can be influenced by power asymmetry or by creating an imbalance/balance of power (causal mechanisms). Thus, weak riparian countries are less likely to achieve cooperation, increasing the probability of conflict. The hypothesis is tested on the Nile River Basin and the Indus River Basin, using a comparative analysis. The findings indicate an important relationship between the state’s characters, shared benefits, and the role of international organizations in bringing cooperation and preventing conflict between riparian states.

This dissertation, “Fictions of Development: Decolonization, Development Economics, and the African Novel,” maps the tensions as well as the surprising resonances and interdependencies between development institutions and African literary production. The arc of the dissertation begins in the early 1960s, as many postcolonial countries marked their independence by embarking on ambitious national development programs. It extends through the turbulent 1970s, during which the Global South agitated for a New International Economic Order that would deliver “trade, not aid,” and the reactionary 1980s, in which the World Bank and the IMF pressured governments across the Global South into adopting a series of macroeconomic reforms known as structural adjustment. The dissertation ends in the present moment, as pressing social and environmental concerns have given rise to a (supposedly) new era of “sustainable” development. Taken as a whole, “Fictions of Development” unsettles received notions about both development and African literature. Scholars working in and around postcolonial studies have long understood development as the contemporary counterpart to, and outgrowth of, the “civilizing mission” that once underwrote centuries of European conquest and colonization. Such close ties between colonialism and development have given rise to the widespread assumption that postcolonial writers, in rejecting colonialism, also rejected development. However, by turning to the historical interactions between writers from “developing” countries and the organizations charged with the task of “developing” those countries, this dissertation tells a more complex story. Applying the tools and methods of literary criticism to a wide range of materials—from novels, plays, and memoirs to national economic planning documents, World Bank mission reports, and tourist brochures—this dissertation traces some of the ways that western development institutions use narrative form to stake their claims to knowledge of (and therefore power over) the so-called “developing” world. It also shows how four African writers—Botswana’s Bessie Head, Ghana’s Ama Ata Aidoo, Kenya’s Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and Zimbabwe’s Tsitsi Dangarembga—use the narrative form of the novel to propose alternative visions of development grounded in the principles of social and economic wellbeing.

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