Special Issue
Videos
Relocating more budget to subnational entities could be one of the means of bringing about fiscal decentralization to achieve better and efficient local services for the people of Myanmar. This can be ensured only through clear functional assignment, a transparent tax system and strong commitment from the central government to...
Pakistan is currently in the midst of its longest uninterrupted phase of democratic politics. The most recent return to democratic politics in Pakistan occurred in 2006, when parliamentary elections marked a transition of power from General Musharraf’s military government to popularly elected governments. The subsequent parliamentary elections of 2013,...
Scaremongering over cultural diversity is a leitmotif of today’s politics. It’s routine to see politicians sprinkling a battery of shocking policy solutions onto social networks and magazine. Migrants have blocked by high fences, walls and barbered wires. “Build that wall! Build that wall!” is a familiar refrain at Donald Trump’s...
The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) will soon translate into responsibilities that will be shared by local governments. Hence localisation of the SDGs must be fleshed out without delay. Three elements that will be pivotal to localisation are: developing local indicators, orienting local officials to the Goals and generating local...
Decentralisation has been in the development agenda for a couple of decades now. It is well placed in the clique of words like good governance, anti-corruption, transparency, accountability, participation and gender that throng the development lexicon. After gathering limelight in the discussions on Structural Adjustment Programmes sponsored by international banks...
On the morning of the 24th of June the British electorate woke up to a reality whose potential immediate consequences had been well predicted yet generally ignored. Within only 48 hours of the referendum results being published, the sterling dropped record lows, stock markets slided and investors began freezing investments....
Disputes about Brexit in the UK has mostly developed along two lines: economy and migration. It is now clear that concerns over migration flows have strongly affected the results. Right-wing parties have fully engaged with those discourses to channel disillusionment. Racism and an anti-immigrant rhetoric coupled with the...
In the wake of this referendum one thing is clear: class divisions have returned to politics with a vengeance. Leaving Scotland aside, let us observe that a younger, metropolitan, well-educated, worldly class led the Remain vote; while an older, poorer, less educated, and more parochial class led the Leave vote....
If you are living in Hudur, a town in the South Western Bakool region of Somalia, probably you don’t care that much about the Brexit drama unfolding. One does not need to bother learning who is playing for the Remain and who for the Leave. Being so hard to make...
On June 23rd Great Britain’s voters have decided to leave the European Union. The dust of this earthquake has not settled yet. The EU now faces its biggest challenges: where do we go from here? And, will the EU itself survive? Whether and when the UK will invoke Article...
