Suchergebnisse

AbstractUnpacking the 'crisis of democracy' and what is means and does to policy processes is a new and ever-growing agenda. This paper uses the case of Brazil to examine bureaucratic responses, and attempted resistance, to democratic backsliding and policy dismantling in times of autocratisation, notably under Jair Bolsonaro (2019–2022). It does so by focusing on a less explored transnational lenses. It argues that the growing international embeddedness of Brazilian policies, including through policy transfer and technical cooperation initiatives mostly with other developing countries, has provided domestic sectoral bureaucracies and policy communities with additional strategic discursive and argumentative resources to mobilise, respond and try to resist policy dismantling at home.

AbstractThis paper examines whether and how the imperatives of measuring Official Development Assistance (ODA; or development aid) are being translated to the policy world of South–South cooperation (SSC). Through a historical and political ethnographic account of a decade of global policy debates on Southern‐led development cooperation between 2009 and 2019, the paper argues that growing conversations on 'SSC effectiveness', and how to measure it, reflect both prevalent 'measurementalities' in the field as well as 'traditional/Northern donor countries' continuous will to socialise and integrate '(re)‐emerging Southern providers' into existing aid norms and practices. The paper also demonstrates Southern powerhouses'—such as Brazil, China, and India—agency in these accountability‐related debates and their will to integrate differently into the 'aid system' by proposing alternative tools to measure SSC flows and initiatives in their own terms. Finally, the paper argues that unfolding negotiations over quantifying, reporting, and evaluating Southern‐led development cooperation reflect the politicised consolidation of SSC in the second decade of the 21st century. Current impasses at the multilateral level, moreover, reveal unsolved North–South disputes over power, status, and responsibility in international development and international affairs, more broadly.

Having transformed its hinterland to become a major exporter of agricultural commodities, Brazil has, since the mid-2000s, set up a range of South–South cooperation (SSC) initiatives to export its agri-food policies and technologies to othe countries, mainly in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. Both the domestic agricultural policies and SSC have been scrutinised and shaped by interactions with civil society actors, from peasant associations and trade unions to rights-based non-governmental organisations. This article explores modes of interaction and interdependence between different civil society and state actors in the context of SSC relating to food security and agricultural development. It analyses changes and continuities in civil society engagement, and mobilisation and de-mobilisation dynamics. Recently, the government's de-prioritisation of the South–South agenda has been accompanied by very limited civil society activism. The article discusses why this needs attention and the challenges that need to be considered to reinstate productive state–civil society dynamics.

Inequality is a key political issue of our times. It has political consequences, fuelling conflict and raising legitimacy challenges for regimes around the world, in democratic and non‑demo‑ cratic settings alike. At the centre of these challenges is the question of accountability: who can be held accountable, on what basis, how and by whom for tackling or failing to tackle which inequalities. In the field of global health, inequality has long been a key issue. A significant body of work — in global health and health systems research — has approached the issue of health inequalities and in‑ equities by highlighting the role of social determinants. A more recent and less developed stream of work frames them in terms of political determinants: in other words, seeing them as issues that may be addressed through politics as well as policy. As a contribution to this literature, and building on the decade-old consensus around the importance of political will in the expansion of access to health services, this Novos Estudos dossier focuses on the politics of ensuring accountability for health equity - or for reducing health inequalities.