New Issue: The Privatization of Development Assistance

We are pleased to announce that the Summer 2010 issue of the Journal of International Politics is now available online.  The issue contains the contents of our 2009 symposium on the Privatization of Development Assistance, which included the following papers:

• An introduction by Kevin E. Davis and Sarah Dadush.
• Heidi Metcalf Little, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, outlines the scope of private financial flows, and argues such funding is “creating a new paradigm that threatens entrenched development bureaucracy.”
• Raj M. Desai and Homi Kharas of the Brookings Institute’s Wolfensohn Center focus on the role of internet-based private aid, and suggest some policy implications of this growing mode of giving.
• Professor Devesh Kapur and Dennis Whittle, the founder of GlobalGiving, discuss the various accountability-enhancing effects of private aid.
• Christian Barry and Gerhard Overland outline the moral arguments for exempting remittances from taxation.
• Kevin E. Davis and Anna Gelpern address the problems of regulating peer-to-peer development financing, offering recommendations for reform.
• Sarah Dadush turns her focus to Product (RED), explaining the problems of transparency in cause-related marketing, and suggesting that charities’ regulation be used to shine a light on this innovative marketing strategy.

After Sarah Dadush presented her paper at the Rubin Symposium last year in New York, the topic of Product (RED) stirred a discussion on William Easterly’s blog AidWatch.  (Read Easterly and Laura Freschi’s original post here, and Sarah Dadush’s response here.)  The published version is updated to reflect this discussion.

Issue 42:4 also contains two staff-written notes related to development assistance.  Michelle Scholastica Paul suggests a hybrid form for microfinance institutions, combining the strengths of for-profit firms and of nonprofit institutions.  Matthew Baca proposes a mechanism for adaptation funding that will help developing countries combat climate change.

The issue also contains our usual roundup of book annotations, many of which will be posted on this blog in the coming weeks.