Browsing by Author "Krupp, Corinne"

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Open Access
Advancing Peacebuilding Through Promoting Human Rights and Inclusive Governance. North and East Syria as a Case Study
(2024-05-01) Alhajj, Imad
Human rights violations, corruption, and weak rule of law are major conflict-driven factors threatening peace and the possibility of democratic governance in the North and East Syria (NES) region, mainly caused by the combined effects of weak political, legal, and technical institutions capacity and accountability mechanisms of the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in NES region, and exacerbated by instability and insecurity, economic woes, and a climate-conflict nexus impact. A big part of the problem is the knowledge gap between theory and practice. As a result, the international community is missing the opportunity to advance peace and democratic governance. This study seeks to address these problems in the post-conflict and fragile environment. The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in NES region as a case study. Particularly, this study asks what programming, lessons learned, and best practices are suggested by the experiences of local Syrian non-governmental organizations (LNGOs) and civil society to protect human rights and promote inclusive governance in the NES region. How can donors and major international NGOs better connect with and empower the work of the local Syrian NGOs and civil society efforts to advance peacebuilding in the NES region's fragile environment? The introduction provides a concise overview of the link between inclusive governance, human rights, and peacebuilding, as well as the research question and the client. The Problem section provides an overview of Autonomous Administration in the NES region, which faces multifaceted governance and human rights challenges due to political, legal, technical, environmental, and social problems that cause a fragile environment and relapse into violent conflict in the NES region. The methodology section is based on utilizing mixed methodology, literature review, and survey of local Syrian NGOs and civil society in the NES region, as well as conducting qualitative and quantitative methods analysis of primary data with heavy reliance on qualitative analysis. In the Search for Solution section, the study argues that human rights and inclusive governance are fundamental for peacebuilding, and international-led peacebuilding faces cultural and structural challenges and provides ‘alternative approaches’ to address the lack of ‘Political Will’ in peacebuilding and combating corruption. The survey results and discussion section provide a platform for the local Syrian voices on issues of human rights and inclusive governance priorities and strategies to address partnership challenges, lack of long-term perspective, and undemocratic practices of the International NGOs and donors that are problematic to advancing inclusive, context-sensitive approach to support peacebuilding in the NES region. The conclusion and recommendations section suggests an inclusive, holistic strategy that would bring all actors together to establish a clear path toward achieving an overarching strategic vision of preventing relapse of conflict, democratic governance, and building sustainable peace.
Open Access
Downscaling Financial Services to Latin American SMEs
(2011-04-22) Davis, Cameron
In this paper, the SME financial sectors of Brazil, Mexico and Chile are studied in order to understand some of the obstacles to Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) financing in Latin America and to offer solutions on how the Inter-American Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund can encourage growth of SME financing. This gap in financing found in Latin America is important because SMEs contribute to a dynamic growing economy. When we compare Brazil, Mexico, and Chile as a group to the non-regional counterparts of Korea and Spain, we find fewer funds available for investment, weaker legal protections, and less developed human capital. When we compare across countries, we find that Brazil’s heavy government involvement and bureaucracy imposes high costs that stifle SME growth and private sector efficiency, while Mexico lacks strong financial guidelines and protections necessary for a nascent SME sector. Chile represents a strong partnership with a proactive and involved government partnering with commercial banks and SMEs in order to grow a healthy SME financial sector. In order to tackle the risk aversion, human resource failings, and institutional barriers that hinder SME financial sector growth, the MIF should develop materials or provide technical advice to banks and governments on how to specifically focus on the SME segment through specialized marketing and information efforts, working capital credit options, prioritizing institutional challenges, training of staff to better serve and understand the SME client, and lastly, on developing government SME loan guarantees that share risk between government entities and private sector banks.
Open Access
Tackling Budget Rigidity in Brazil
(2020-04) Pereira, Poliana
With recurrent fiscal deficits since 2014, the government debt as a percentage of GDP reached a level much higher than expected for a developing country. Despite the government efforts to contain expenditures, the excessive rigidity of the Brazilian budget constrains the degree to which the government can promote fiscal adjustments. In this MP, I raise the question of whether the adoption of a Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) by the central government would reduce budget rigidity and, therefore, promote fiscal discipline. MTEFs are not specifically designed to tackle budgetary rigidities. Still, the implementation of these frameworks can create an ex-ante constraint, which limits decisions that may result in more mandatory and continuous expenditures. The establishment of a causal relationship between medium-term frameworks and fiscal discipline is beyond the scope of this project. Instead, I focus on the normative merits of using MTEFs and on drawing lessons from the experiences of Peru, Colombia, and South Africa. The level of budget rigidity might pose several challenges to the introduction of an MTEF in Brazil. However, a medium-term perspective to the budget can be the starting point for the government to scrutinize current fiscal policy, and to draw a path that aligns fiscal sustainability and national priorities. The moment to implement an MTEF seems to be ideal, as Brazil can no longer postpone the adoption of measures to restore the country’s fiscal sustainability.