Report
The State and Development Governance. The Least Developed Countries Report 2009. UNCTAD
Ole Therkildsen has written a background paper for this report
The title of Ole Therkildsen's background paper for the 2009 UNCTAD Least Developed Countries Report is Public Sector Reforms and the Development of Productive Capacities in LDCs.
Its main conclusions are that “reforms will progress if the outputs/outcomes of reform meet political demands for them; if implementing arrangements and the political power with which they are supported match the resource requirements of reforms; and if the technical competencies of the reform implementing agencies match requirements of the reform tasks. It is important to think strategically about how to achieve these fits.” This does not present the whole range of factors that need to be considered, but prompts thinking about underlying causes for (mis)fits and encourages strategic thinking about what may be done to progress public sector reforms.
These and other arguments from the background paper have been used in the 2009 report. Some of the main messages of this report are:
“The global crisis has undermined the factors that enabled strong GDP growth performance in LDCs in 2002-2008, exposing once again both the lingering structural weaknesses of their economies, and the myth of self-regulating markets.”
“The shortcomings of the current development paradigm need to be addressed. A rebalancing between the State and the market is necessary to create resilience to external shocks through greater diversification and structural change, and to promote a more inclusive and employment-intensive growth path. LDCs need to build new developmental States that seriously attempt to deploy their administrative and political resources to the task of economic development. LDCs need to find new forms of development governance that are appropriate for the twenty-first century.”
“LDCs are currently in a vicious circle of deficient food production, subsistence agriculture, low levels of productivity, declining investment, increasing scarcity of land and water, and rising rates of urbanization. LDCs should give much greater priority in government policy to agriculture. They should boost agricultural investment, fostering the uptake of new technology, developing infrastructure (e.g. roads, warehouses and wholesale facilities), and improving access to credit, particularly for small-scale and medium-scale farmers. Governments also need to take measures that favour access for small-scale farmers to improved inputs, that support agricultural research and development, and that spread knowledge about effective farming and farm management.“
“Despite their recent strong growth performance, few LDCs have managed to spur structural change and pursue a sustainable diversification of their economies, while many have actually experienced de-industrialization. Improvements in the economic performance of LDCs will require effective industrial policy that includes public investment and strategic coordination of private actors. Simultaneous efforts to raise investment levels, build new economic links, and upgrade technological capacity - which is at the heart of industrial growth - are the surest ways of promoting diversification and economic growth in LDCs. “
Link to UNCTAD's 2009 Least developed Countries Report: http://www.unctad.org/Templates/WebFlyer.asp?intItemID=4955&lang=1
Its main conclusions are that “reforms will progress if the outputs/outcomes of reform meet political demands for them; if implementing arrangements and the political power with which they are supported match the resource requirements of reforms; and if the technical competencies of the reform implementing agencies match requirements of the reform tasks. It is important to think strategically about how to achieve these fits.” This does not present the whole range of factors that need to be considered, but prompts thinking about underlying causes for (mis)fits and encourages strategic thinking about what may be done to progress public sector reforms.
These and other arguments from the background paper have been used in the 2009 report. Some of the main messages of this report are:
“The global crisis has undermined the factors that enabled strong GDP growth performance in LDCs in 2002-2008, exposing once again both the lingering structural weaknesses of their economies, and the myth of self-regulating markets.”
“The shortcomings of the current development paradigm need to be addressed. A rebalancing between the State and the market is necessary to create resilience to external shocks through greater diversification and structural change, and to promote a more inclusive and employment-intensive growth path. LDCs need to build new developmental States that seriously attempt to deploy their administrative and political resources to the task of economic development. LDCs need to find new forms of development governance that are appropriate for the twenty-first century.”
“LDCs are currently in a vicious circle of deficient food production, subsistence agriculture, low levels of productivity, declining investment, increasing scarcity of land and water, and rising rates of urbanization. LDCs should give much greater priority in government policy to agriculture. They should boost agricultural investment, fostering the uptake of new technology, developing infrastructure (e.g. roads, warehouses and wholesale facilities), and improving access to credit, particularly for small-scale and medium-scale farmers. Governments also need to take measures that favour access for small-scale farmers to improved inputs, that support agricultural research and development, and that spread knowledge about effective farming and farm management.“
“Despite their recent strong growth performance, few LDCs have managed to spur structural change and pursue a sustainable diversification of their economies, while many have actually experienced de-industrialization. Improvements in the economic performance of LDCs will require effective industrial policy that includes public investment and strategic coordination of private actors. Simultaneous efforts to raise investment levels, build new economic links, and upgrade technological capacity - which is at the heart of industrial growth - are the surest ways of promoting diversification and economic growth in LDCs. “
Link to UNCTAD's 2009 Least developed Countries Report: http://www.unctad.org/Templates/WebFlyer.asp?intItemID=4955&lang=1
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Public sector reforms and the development of productive capacities in LDCs
background paper no. 1