DevDispatch Recommends: Five Global Development Publications Released this November
It’s the last day of November 2020. We are still in a pandemic we thought would be over by now. A vaccine is in the horizon, but issues of procurement and fair distribution are on the table. Families are separated and this could very well continue through the holidays. Governments are stretched and the global development world is confronting all its targets and priorities repositioning itself to do better.
Knowledge and information sharing and discourse have been the hallmark of this year, and the global development sector has been front and centre in providing the data and evidence needed to tackle a whole host of challenges.
We are spotlighting five of those publications released this November.
Facts & Figures of Africa Youth Agency, Challenges and Recovery Roadmap on COVID-19
By the African Union Office of the Youth Envoy
This paper draws on several months of national, regional and continental youth consultations hosted by the African Union Office of the Youth Envoy (OYE) in collaboration with Africa CDC. The aim of these consultations was to collect opinions and recommendations from youth leaders, with a view to inform policy briefs that were shared with Africa CDC.
International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Policy
By International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO)
The International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Policy provide a comprehensive set of international legal standards for placing human dignity and sustainable development at the centre of Member State responses to illicit drug economies. The guidelines cover a diverse set of substantive issues ranging from development to criminal justice to public health.
International Debt Statistics
By the World Bank Group
Now in its forty-seventh year, International Debt Statistics supports policymakers and analysts by monitoring aggregate and country-specific trends in external debt in low- and middle-income countries. It provides a comprehensive picture of external borrowing and sources of lending by type of borrower and creditor with information on data availability and comparability. To bolster data transparency, this year’s report features, for the first time, detailed data on the creditor composition of lending from official sources, a critical element in assessing the support many low- and middle-income countries will need to manage their external debt through the current crisis.
African Trade Statistics 2020 Yearbook
By the African Union
With the adoption of Agenda 2063 in 2013 and its first ten-year implementation Plan, a number of aspirations, objectives and targets are related to trade. Thus, for a successful implementation of Agenda 2063, various trade policies need to be enacted upstream. Significant efforts were allocated to compile trade aggregates for each of the 8 RECs and for the African Union as an all. Compilation of trade aggregates for African Union is a first step towards harmonisation of practices and methodologies for preparation of trade statistics across AU Member States.
For quick reads, check out these blog posts
Transit Oriented Development in practice.
A powerful example of impact on the ground in the area of Housing by our Brazil Cities team – and a story of how interventions in one city led to an approach that was scaled up and adopted as part of a Brazilian national law that set the standards for better quality social housing.
Three Challenges to Safe and Affordable Urban Housing
The blog raises three critical challenges: (i) importance of core services in informal settlements and slums, (ii) need to support housing rental markets, and (iii) making better use of underutilized land in city centers.
Can Housing Be Affordable Without Being Efficient?
The blog highlights the importance of giving due attention to building efficiency in affordable housing projects, both location efficiency and on-site energy and water efficiency. The key message: over their lifetimes, efficient homes are more affordable, healthier and provide better opportunities for residents than conventional buildings.
Stop the war on children - Killed and maimed: A generation of violations against children in conflict
By Save the Children
A total of 93,236 children have been killed or maimed in conflicts in the last 10 years, and many were victims of airstrikes, shelling, landmines and other explosive weapons used in populated areas where families have been ripped apart and tens of thousands of children left dead or scarred for life. Save the Children calls for states to endorse declaration on avoiding use of explosive weapons in populated areas.