This article was first posted in the ODI Blog

 

I’ve been talking about the importance of inequality to everyone in Peru who cares to listen for quite some time now. When I left Peru over six years ago, this ‘inequality’ concept was a term used by a few social and economic researchers with poor communication skills. We had not yet figured out how to explain why it mattered that not everyone benefited from growth in the same way (and at the time we were still in a recession) and resorted to pointing at the persistence of extreme absolute poverty. ...   more »

Comercio y Pobreza en Latinoamérica (COPLA) aims to use research based evidence to strengthen and promote an improved dialogue between policymakers, researchers and those institutions that represent the poor to incorporate new issues into the policy debate.

 

 A couple of years ago, when the Free Trade Agreement between the US and Peru was still being negotiated, a friend who had worked in the Peruvian Ministry of Trade and had been involved in the negotiations told me that studies about the effects of the agreement on poverty had been commissioned but not been made public. Why? Because they ...   more »

When DFID withdrew their bilateral programmes in Honduras, Peru and Bolivia, civil society was fast to point out that, among other things, there were many poor Latin Americans who needed urgent assistance. DFID should have stayed to look after them. There are other reasons too for supporting DFID’s direct involvement in Latin American countries. DFID left a space in policy debate that was not filled by other donors (or by the government) and many of the progressive ideas it had supported have suffered to remain in the policy and research agendas.

 

ODI’s mid-term evaluation of DFID’s RAP...   more »

Working at the regional level poses a series of challenges for donors. DFID’s Regional Assistance Plan (RAP) in Latin America aims to influence regional policy by working with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, two of the main IFI’s in the region. Without a bilateral programme (except in Nicaragua) DFID faces organisational and contextual challenges which pose a series of fundamental questions -addressed in an ODI evaluation of the RAP. Their answers could potentially inform a process of regional strategy design; but also of global thinking about donors as part of a network of partners and ...   more »

Enrique Mendizabal is a Research Officer in the Research and Policy in Development Programme (RAPID). He works on networks; social technologies for development; bridging research and policy; capacity development; vulnerable groups; Latin America.

Email:  e.mendizabal@odi.org.uk

La Media Luna is burning. Santa Cruz is at the brink of civil war, is what I have heard more than once in Bolivia, this week. There is a Cabildo Today in the main cities of the area that makes up the Media Luna –with Santa Cruz taking the lion’s share of the media’s attention. Today, the Cristo Redentor Avenue will host hundreds of thousands of cruzenos who will call for Autonomia in defiance of Evo Morales’ government and his authoritarian aspirations. There is no way around it, I am afraid. (I honestly hope Evo’s government is a successful ...   more »

Between August and September of 2005, ODI carried out consultations for the Civil Society Partnerships Programme (CSPP) in Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. This process helped identify key collaborators in the region: CIES in Peru, ILDIS in Bolivia and CIPPEC in Argentina. The consultations suggested that Latin America is home to a rich and credible academic and research community. Latin American researchers, unlike those in other regions, do not lack research resources and skills and understand the complexities of the policy processes of their countries –probably because, unlike many other developing regions, Latin America has been independent for close ...   more »

In the spring 2000, I turned on the TV to see Vladimiro Montesinos hand over US$15,000 in cash to Alberto Kouri. They were sitting in Montesinos’ office and he was being paid to jump sides and join Fujimori’s party in an attempt to gain majority in Congress. The videos kept appearing one after the other. Soon, everyone was on TV: Politicians, business leaders and bankers, unionists, TV celebrities, footballers, generals, mayors, members of congress, news readers and journalists, media moguls, judges, ministers.  It was better than any reality TV show. It was more captivating. It was more unbelievable than ...   more »

The latest polls (and first)

APOYO: Alan Garcia 52.8% and Ollanta Humala 47.2%

DATUM: Alan García 54.9% and Ollanta Humala 45.1%

There is talk about a possible gain from Humala, in particular as the votes from the more marginal areas come in; and as it is expected that many people have been rather embarrassed to declare their choice. APRA is already celebrating but the expectation remains until the National Electoral Authority finished with the process of counting the votes.

The latest commentaries from experts suggest that Peru will see Alan (unless there is a significant change in the polls) 'crowned' ...   more »

From the IADB' Ethics and Development Newsletter: "Inequality in Latin America: a synthesis of recent research on the levels, trends, effects and determinants of inequality in its different dimensions" by Patricia Medrano, Claudia Sanhueza, and Dante Contreras for the Inter-Regional Inequality Facility The Inter-Regional Inequality Facility exists to promote inter-regional dialogue and knowledge sharing on the issue of inequality...   more »