Diplomacy & Defense Think Tank News

Dieses Buch leistet einen Beitrag zur Untersuchung von Ozeanen, Meeren, Küstengewässern und Flüssen im Kontext der Blue Humanities, indem es sich dem Thema Wasser aus verschiedenen epistemologischen, narratologischen, geografischen, kulturellen und disziplinären Perspektiven nähert und diese miteinander vernetzt. Die Beiträger:innen aus Afrika, Asien, der Karibik, Europa, Nordamerika und dem Pazifik beschäftigen sich mit den Verflechtungen zwischen Ozeanen, Küstengebieten, Flüssen, Menschen, Tieren, Pflanzen, Organismen und Landschaften in den Bereichen Kulturgeschichte und Kulturwissenschaften, critical race theory und postkoloniale Studien, Meeres- und Umweltstudien, Linguistik, Literatur-, Film- und Medienwissenschaften.

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The 2023 UN Peacekeeping Ministerial will be held in Accra, Ghana on December 5-6, making it the first peacekeeping ministerial on the continent of Africa. Ahead of the ministerial, IPI, together with the Republic of Ghana, hosted a policy forum on November 16 to bring together member states and UN officials. The event supported the objective of the fifth UN Peacekeeping Ministerial to strengthen the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations and their impact on the communities they serve. Member states were able to convene outside of the official ministerial meetings and offer key takeaways and opportunities to galvanize member state pledges gathered from the preparatory conferences held in anticipation of the ministerial.

This year’s preparatory conferences represented priority thematic areas for the ministerial. These include the protection of civilians, strategic communications (including addressing mis- and disinformation and hate speech), safety and security, the mental health of peacekeepers, and women in peacekeeping.

Jenna Russo, Director of Research and Head of the Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations at IPI, considered these thematic areas in her remarks against the backdrop of an increasingly complex and evolving geopolitical landscape. Noting the mounting challenges that peacekeeping missions face today—namely, protracted conflict, climate change, pandemic, transnational organized crime, and the misuse of emerging technologies—she emphasized, “Effective response requires all of our collective efforts working together for the sake of peace.”

Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations of the UN delivered opening remarks. As he looked to the upcoming forum, he highlighted this unique opportunity to revitalize and enhance peace missions in a changing landscape of peacekeeping and security operations.

Harold Adlai Agyeman, as the Permanent Representative of Ghana to the UN, focused his remarks on the expectations that this year’s host holds for the upcoming ministerial. “The aim is to achieve concrete outcomes to improve peacekeeping.” He highlighted member state pledges as the most important element to ensure that peacekeeping remains relevant and responsive.

Other panelists briefed the audience on the individual preparatory conferences for the ministerial. Showeb Abdullah, Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh provided an overview of the UN Preparatory Conference on Women in Peacekeeping Operations, co-hosted by Bangladesh, Canada, and Uruguay in Dhaka, earlier this year. He identified as a priority for any consideration of women in peacekeeping the role of peacekeeping partnerships, enhancing accountability, and deploying gender-responsive capabilities.

Adarsh Tiwathia, Principal Medical Officer and Deputy Director, DHMOSH/DOS of the UN, delivered takeaways from the Preparatory Conference on mental health support for uniformed personnel. Detailing how little support is available in peacekeeping contexts for mental health services, she identified telemedicine, technological integration, and a focus on pre-deployment and post-deployment services for personnel members as potential ameliorative measures.

Usman Jadoon, Deputy Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN spoke about the discussions on ways to improve safety and prevent fatalities of peacekeeping personnel held at the Preparatory Conference on Safety and Security, co-hosted by Japan and Pakistan in Islamabad.

Ed Caelen, Military Advisor of the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UN provided a summary of the Preparatory Conference on Protection of Civilians and Strategic Communications, co-hosted by Indonesia, Netherlands, Rwanda, and the UK in Kigali.

Opening remarks:
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations

Speakers:
H.E. Harold Adlai Agyeman, Permanent Representative of Ghana to the UN
Md. Showeb Abdullah, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh to the UN
Adarsh Tiwathia, UN Principal Medical Officer and Deputy Director, DHMOSH/DOS
H.E. Muhammad Usman Iqbal Jadoon, Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN
Ed Caelen, Military Advisor, Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UN

Moderator:
Jenna Russo, Director of Research and Head of the Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations, International Peace Institute

For a long time, youth have been seen as a driving factor for conflicts or as victims of conflicts. While some literature and research on youth in conflict tend to be overly negative and focus on the danger posed by youth, we argue that these descriptions do not reflect reality: youth are crucial to sustainable peacebuilding and must, therefore, be included in conflict transformation processes. We demonstrate that while youth continue to experience difficulties in overtaking meaningful roles as actors of change in peacebuilding, there is an improvement in the acceptance of their agency. The article explores the case of Sierra Leone where the perception of youth can be seen as a massive change from immediately after the war to today. The article explores different roles that youth can have during and after a conflict, investigates positive impacts youth can have, describes what peace means for young people and how they would describe a desirable future, and finally speaks about how youth respond and interact with international ideas of peace and sustainability.

For a long time, youth have been seen as a driving factor for conflicts or as victims of conflicts. While some literature and research on youth in conflict tend to be overly negative and focus on the danger posed by youth, we argue that these descriptions do not reflect reality: youth are crucial to sustainable peacebuilding and must, therefore, be included in conflict transformation processes. We demonstrate that while youth continue to experience difficulties in overtaking meaningful roles as actors of change in peacebuilding, there is an improvement in the acceptance of their agency. The article explores the case of Sierra Leone where the perception of youth can be seen as a massive change from immediately after the war to today. The article explores different roles that youth can have during and after a conflict, investigates positive impacts youth can have, describes what peace means for young people and how they would describe a desirable future, and finally speaks about how youth respond and interact with international ideas of peace and sustainability.

For a long time, youth have been seen as a driving factor for conflicts or as victims of conflicts. While some literature and research on youth in conflict tend to be overly negative and focus on the danger posed by youth, we argue that these descriptions do not reflect reality: youth are crucial to sustainable peacebuilding and must, therefore, be included in conflict transformation processes. We demonstrate that while youth continue to experience difficulties in overtaking meaningful roles as actors of change in peacebuilding, there is an improvement in the acceptance of their agency. The article explores the case of Sierra Leone where the perception of youth can be seen as a massive change from immediately after the war to today. The article explores different roles that youth can have during and after a conflict, investigates positive impacts youth can have, describes what peace means for young people and how they would describe a desirable future, and finally speaks about how youth respond and interact with international ideas of peace and sustainability.

The Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), a research-driven infrastructure based at DIW Berlin, is one of the largest and longest running multidisciplinary panel studies worldwide, and currently surveys around 30,000 people in nearly 15,000 households. SOEP aims to capture social change and thus handles a constant stream of new and diverse topics and tasks. Its data collection and generation adhere to the concept of the survey or data life cycle.

 Starting as soon as possible, DIW Berlin is looking for a Post-doctoral researcher (f/m/div) (Full-time at 39 hours per week, part-time possible).

The position will be part of the multi-disciplinary research project “Groups put at Particular Risk by COVID 19 (GaPRisk),” funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), which brings together economists, epidemiologists, public health researcher, sociologists and psychologists from four institutions: DIW/SOEP, University of Bielefeld, Robert Koch Institute and Freie Universität Berlin: https://www.gap-risk.de

The aim of the project is to examine how the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic affects distinct social and at-risk groups in Germany, what the consequences of the pandemic are for societal inequalities, and what role welfare state measures play. The interdisciplinary project team will apply descriptive and causal statistical methods and use a unique integrated dataset, comprising the SOEP, SOEP-CoV (a survey of a subsample of the SOEP during the pandemic lockdowns), and blood and saliva tests from SOEP respondents (in collaboration with the Robert Koch Institute).

In recent years, many jurisdictions have developed sustainability taxonomies that aim to increase transparency of financial markets and redirect capital flows to sustainable investments. Such sustainable finance policies can be important levers because today’s investments shape economic production processes for decades. This case study on South Africa’s Green Finance Taxonomy (GFT) addresses the question of what factors influence the adoption of sustainability taxonomies by potential users. It finds that one year after its publication, the GFT has hardly been used in practice. Important factors hindering an effective implementation are a lack of regulatory embedding, the absence of a legal recognition of the GFT by the European Union (EU), a hesitancy among financial market participants to build capacities to collect the necessary data, and fossil-fuel path dependencies in South Africa’s economy. These findings have important policy implications (e.g. regarding accompanying governance measures) for implementation processes in many countries in the coming years.

In recent years, many jurisdictions have developed sustainability taxonomies that aim to increase transparency of financial markets and redirect capital flows to sustainable investments. Such sustainable finance policies can be important levers because today’s investments shape economic production processes for decades. This case study on South Africa’s Green Finance Taxonomy (GFT) addresses the question of what factors influence the adoption of sustainability taxonomies by potential users. It finds that one year after its publication, the GFT has hardly been used in practice. Important factors hindering an effective implementation are a lack of regulatory embedding, the absence of a legal recognition of the GFT by the European Union (EU), a hesitancy among financial market participants to build capacities to collect the necessary data, and fossil-fuel path dependencies in South Africa’s economy. These findings have important policy implications (e.g. regarding accompanying governance measures) for implementation processes in many countries in the coming years.

In recent years, many jurisdictions have developed sustainability taxonomies that aim to increase transparency of financial markets and redirect capital flows to sustainable investments. Such sustainable finance policies can be important levers because today’s investments shape economic production processes for decades. This case study on South Africa’s Green Finance Taxonomy (GFT) addresses the question of what factors influence the adoption of sustainability taxonomies by potential users. It finds that one year after its publication, the GFT has hardly been used in practice. Important factors hindering an effective implementation are a lack of regulatory embedding, the absence of a legal recognition of the GFT by the European Union (EU), a hesitancy among financial market participants to build capacities to collect the necessary data, and fossil-fuel path dependencies in South Africa’s economy. These findings have important policy implications (e.g. regarding accompanying governance measures) for implementation processes in many countries in the coming years.

Das Bundesverfassungsgericht hat einen Nachtragshaushalt der Bundesregierung für das Jahr 2021 für verfassungswidrig erklärt. Damals wurden ursprünglich für die Bekämpfung der Corona-Pandemie vorgesehene Mittel in Milliardenhöhe in einen Klima- und Transformationsfonds umgeschichtet. Anlässlich des soeben bekannt gewordenen Urteils äußert sich Marcel Fratzscher, Präsident des Deutschen Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW Berlin), wie folgt:

Die Entscheidung des Bundesverfassungsgerichts zum Klima- und Transformationsfonds ist gut und sollte eine dringend benötigte Reform der Schuldenbremse anstoßen. Die Versuche der Bundesregierungen in den vergangenen zwölf Jahren, die Schuldenbremse zu umgehen, haben immer absurdere Züge angenommen. Die Schuldenbremse ist nicht mehr zeitgemäß, weil sie der Politik notwendigen Spielraum nimmt, um Krisen zu bekämpfen und Zukunftsinvestitionen zu tätigen. Es ist heute dringender denn je, dass die Bundesregierung eine Investitionsoffensive für Zukunftsinvestitionen startet – in Bildung, Klimaschutz, Innovation und Infrastruktur.

Es sind noch genügend Gelder im Klima- und Transformationsfonds, sodass das Urteil des Bundesverfassungsgerichts nicht unmittelbar zu Problemen führen wird. Die Bundesregierung wird jedoch als Konsequenz des Urteils die Schuldenbremse mindestens für ein weiteres Jahr aussetzen müssen, um die für bereits versprochene Maßnahmen notwendigen Kredite aufnehmen zu können.

Die Bundesregierung bleibt ihr Versprechen eines Klimageldes weiterhin schuldig. Dies liegt nicht an fehlenden Einnahmen, denn das Klimageld soll durch die CO2-Abgabe finanziert werden. Allerdings gibt die Bundesregierung das versprochene Klimageld in Form massiver Subventionen für billigeren Strom nun lieber den Unternehmen. Angesichts der riesigen Hilfen für die Industrie sollte die Bundesregierung ihre Hilfen sozial ausgewogener gestalten und Menschen mit mittleren und geringen Einkommen nicht vergessen.

This article investigates whether public works / cash for work (CfW) programmes contribute to economic growth locally, beyond benefits paid to participants, especially in contexts of flight and migration. Based on quantitative and qualitative research conducted in Jordan, it affirms that CfW substantially promotes economic growth through multiplier effects since CfW participants spend most income locally. Some programmes in Jordan improve also the employability of their participants, which, however, does not transform into higher employment rates because the Jordanian labour market is extremely tight. Finally, the programmes empower women by easing labour-market access and – though not irrevocably – changing gender roles.

This article investigates whether public works / cash for work (CfW) programmes contribute to economic growth locally, beyond benefits paid to participants, especially in contexts of flight and migration. Based on quantitative and qualitative research conducted in Jordan, it affirms that CfW substantially promotes economic growth through multiplier effects since CfW participants spend most income locally. Some programmes in Jordan improve also the employability of their participants, which, however, does not transform into higher employment rates because the Jordanian labour market is extremely tight. Finally, the programmes empower women by easing labour-market access and – though not irrevocably – changing gender roles.

This article investigates whether public works / cash for work (CfW) programmes contribute to economic growth locally, beyond benefits paid to participants, especially in contexts of flight and migration. Based on quantitative and qualitative research conducted in Jordan, it affirms that CfW substantially promotes economic growth through multiplier effects since CfW participants spend most income locally. Some programmes in Jordan improve also the employability of their participants, which, however, does not transform into higher employment rates because the Jordanian labour market is extremely tight. Finally, the programmes empower women by easing labour-market access and – though not irrevocably – changing gender roles.

With the first Global Stocktake to be presented at the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Dubai, the question of inadequate levels of climate finance for developing countries will again take centre stage. Ongoing efforts to reform climate finance include the negotiation of a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) by the end of 2024; the structural reform of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to provide more climate finance and to lower the cost of capital; and the setting-up and integration of the new funding stream for loss and damage. Yet, there are other longstanding issues in international climate finance that likewise need to be addressed as part of these ongoing efforts, which are mainly related to the disentanglement of the development and climate finance regimes. Official Development Assistance (ODA), per definition, aims to promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries, and at the same time plays an increasing role in the global climate finance landscape. However, sourcing climate finance from ODA is already leading to a “crowding out” of limited ODA resources for its original purposes. Moreover, the current system of reporting on and accounting for climate finance provided through ODA has significant pitfalls and weaknesses. This paper discusses some of the key challenges caused by the blurring of the development assistance and climate finance regimes and argues that the NCQG process and the integration of loss and damage into the climate finance system must go hand in hand with a separation of climate and development finance accounting mechanisms whilst ensuring integrated policy responses. We address these issues in two parts: first we focus on the current system of reporting and accounting for international climate finance (as ODA); and second on the role of ODA to finance mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage. We argue that there is a political necessity for distinguishing between ODA and climate finance (for transparency and credibility), which contrasts with the operational reality where co-benefits of projects and development finance must be achieved by integrating climate and non-climate objectives. In this regard, the paper analyses the implications of on-going negotiations under the UNFCCC around the NCQG and loss and damage for a necessary ODA reform. In particular, we make the following recommendations:
(1) Align the accounting and reporting system of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) with the NCQG: one should separate climate and development finance; reduce over-reporting; and establish triangulation of climate finance data reported by donors.
(2) Introduce qualitative frameworks for monitoring and assessment of the impact of climate-related interventions; and define “fit-for-purpose” instru-ments and channels for the provision of climate finance.
Looking ahead, we expect discussions on a potential enlargement of the contributor base of climate finance to give new impetus to climate finance reform.