Voice and Human Rights
« Previous EntriesHaiti: Rescue, Recovery, and Effective Development Aid
Monday, January 18th, 2010We are pained about the death toll and human suffering in Haiti and we share their sorrow. With the exception of the tsunami in Asia, this tragedy is unprecedented in recent memory in a country not at war. Current technology makes the devastation and death instantly clear around the globe. Such technology also enables [...]
Will Profiling Make our Skies Safer?: A Governance Perspective on New TSA Guidelines
Thursday, January 7th, 2010Since profiling impinges on civil liberties, it bears a negative connotation particularly when narrowly based on nationality, race or religion. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has just instituted a nationality-based criterion, under which travelers from a list of 14 countries are subject to special airport screening procedures. Controversy has naturally ensued.
According to a TSA [...]
Marian Anderson in Opera, Civil Liberties, and the end of another Decade
Thursday, December 31st, 2009Seventy years ago, the famous American singer Marian Anderson was barred from performing at the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Constitution Hall in Washignton, DC, because of her race. As a result, Eleanor Roosevelt, then the US First Lady, resigned as a Board member from the DAR…
International Anti-Corruption Day 2009: An Hour of Silence to Reflect and Reboot
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 As Wednesday, December 9th dawns, there is a dim reminder that one is supposed to ‘celebrate’ International Anti-Corruption. ‘Dim reminder’ to ‘celebrate’ in quotation marks indeed, because unfortunately anti-corruption continues to be largely in the back-burner for most world powers, for most international institutions, and for many of their leaders.
Or worse…
Corruption Index today, Development Aid Reform tomorrow?
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009Transparency International (TI), the international anti-corruption NGO, just released its annual corruption perceptions index (CPI). No big surprises. This is no surprise. Corruption does not tend to change dramatically from one year to the next. Yet it is certainly worth reviewing the new data…
G-20 Global Governance: better than their National Governance?
Sunday, October 11th, 2009 Thanks for bearing with me during my recent blogging absence. I am now back, and posted this entry after the Pittsburgh G-20 Summit in the newly unveiled blog at Brookings, where I work.
The G-20 had just finished their third meeting, and there was a lot of buzz surrounding the demise of the G8 [...]
Arab Human Development Report 2009: Will improvement in Voice and Rights come from within?
Friday, July 31st, 2009A few weeks ago Obama went to Ghana and delivered a major speech to Africa. He spoke candidly about the dire governance challenges faced by many countries in the continent. I also noted that Obama was not explicit about the implications of his message for rethinking donor aid strategies to the continent. Hopefully such [...]
Fighting Corruption when the World is Flat: from Namibia to China
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009Namibia is one of the countries in Africa that has been serious about governance. We see this in the latest Governance Indicators. Such commitment to good governance includes anti-corruption efforts.
Yet often it is hard to figure out where fighting corruption may lead to, in today’s globalized world. A large bribery case is being investigated in [...]
Indicadores Mundiales de Gobernabilidad 2009
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009Acabamos de salir a la luz con los Indicadores Mundiales de Gobernabilidad 2009, y con el nuevo reporte ‘Governance Matters’. El resumen en español, el reporte, y los datos estan aqui.
In French, here.
In Arabic, here.
In Japanese, here.
In Chinese (last year), here.
In Russian (last year), here.
In Português (last year), here.
For access to the most current Worldwide Governance [...]
Governance Matters 2009: Learning From Over a Decade of the Worldwide Governance Indicators
Monday, June 29th, 2009Today we are releasing the report Governance Matters VIII, which includes the new update of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI). Now collaborating from the Brookings Institution, I continue to take part in this research project with my former World Bank colleagues Aart Kraay and Massimo Mastruzzi.
In the WGI we construct and measure six dimensions [...]
Back to the Future in the Middle East: Governance Stagnation
Saturday, June 27th, 2009I am at the Hanoi airport right now, blogging for a few minutes while CNN alternates between Michael Jackson and Iran. I just gave a set of presentations on governance in Hanoi and Seoul. There was interest about what does the governance data which we have collected and analyzed over the years tell us. Among other findings, I happen to [...]
Grand Donor Illusion and Larceny in Africa?
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009Last week’s piece in the New York Times (NYT, and in IHT) on ill-fated Anti-Corruption commissions and campaigns in a number of prominent countries in Africa elicited comment, both in this blog space and elsewhere. I also got separate communications and feedback, including on the role of donors and aid, which was not the [...]
Financial Crisis and the Media: Capture, Culture and Incentives, or Lack of Training?
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009There has been increasing attention paid to whether regulatory capture, as well as other forms of state capture, played a role in the financial crisis. Less attention has been paid to whether capture of the media, and of the financial media in particular, also took place, and what role, if any it had in [...]
Obama and the Summit of the Americas: One Eye Wide Open, Another Shut
Thursday, April 16th, 2009 President Obama has just written an op-ed for over a dozen newspapers throughout the Americas, in the eve of the Fifth Summit of the Americas that is about to take place in Trinidad & Tobago.
This is significant. I care deeply about the Latin America and the rest of hemisphere, and wanted to write about the [...]
G20Voice and addressing the Voice Deficit in the London Summit
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009I have been asked to go and participate as a blogger in the G-20* Summit in London taking place this week, one of fifty bloggers invited through the G20 Voice. This blogging project is sponsored by prominent NGOs like Oxfam, Save the Children, ONE, Global Voices, and supported by the Summit host, the UK government.
The [...]