Editorial

No. 55 — 2021
The Catalan law on cooperation: creation and objectives

On 17 December 2001, the Catalan Parliament unanimously passed Law 26/2001 on Development Cooperation. Looking beyond its content, the fact that it has a legally binding regulatory framework and that it involves the creation of new instruments and structures, as well as a clear commitment towards a substantial and sustained increase in resources, was a reflection of both social demand and political consensus. Through this article, I would like firstly to put the process through which the law was created into context and, secondly, highlight the most innovative and significant aspects of the legal text. As regards its implementation and…
No. 55 — 2021
Risks and opportunities of the digital transformation

According to Heeks , digital technologies have impacted international development in three particular ways: they now reach almost all low-income communities, both in urban and rural contexts (reach), they are relevant to almost all development issues and sectors (scope), and they play a vital role in all aspects of development processes (depth). Given the changing patterns in the field of international development these three impact dimensions can be associated with the major challenges: transformation (incremental developmental changes are no longer sufficient), inclusion (decision making beyond elite circles), and sustainability (development within the remits of planetary boundaries) . Digital technologies have…
No. 55 — 2021
Rethinking Decentralised Development Cooperation in light of the Covid-19 pandemic

Decentralised development co-operation (DDC) lacks a harmonised statistical definition and is often embodied in diverse legal frameworks and governance structures that vary according to levels of decentralisation across countries. Attempts to provide a unifying definition of DDC often fall short of capturing the diversity of actors involved and their value-added to deliver development co-operation and finance in support of sustainable and inclusive development and recovery. DDC can include activities beyond aid, or what is counted as Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows . In 2005, a first OECD report defined DDC as, “Aid extended by the public sector other than the…
No. 55 — 2021
The challenges of the 21st century call for a radically different approach to North-South relations

The development era reordered the world after the Second World War, drawing a geography divided between “developed” countries and “underdeveloped”, or poor, countries. Although the concept of “development” already existed, it became hegemonic when the Government of the United States, the new world power at the time, made it the core of its international policy in 1949. The United Nations was created not only to prevent future wars, but also to foster development in those two-thirds of the world, especially in the geopolitical South, which were classified as “underdeveloped” at the time. This was the time when the Declaration of…
No. 55 — 2021
Public-Private Partnerships and Sustainable Development Goals

In December 2021 I participated in a major Public-Private Partnership (PPP) conference in Istanbul, attended primarily by participants from emerging economies. There was considerable enthusiasm for PPPs as a mechanism to help developing countries achieve their sustainable development goals (SDGs). This continued enthusiasm was interesting in the light of reduced global keenness for PPPs over the last two years, due to the fact that unexpected COVID pandemic induced force majeure risks in the projects . It was noteworthy that one of the distinguished PPP conference speakers made the following comment during his speech – “PPPs need to be seen as…
No. 55 — 2021
The Challenges to Peace in Latin America: From Guerrilla Warfare to the Fight Against Organised Crime

The age of guerrilla movements has come to an end, but homicidal violence has not subsided The second half of the 20th century was marked by the emergence of guerrilla groups across the length and breadth of Latin America. Most of these groups followed the model of the Cuban Revolution and the “foco” theory used by Ché Guevara, in other words the creation of small groups (or focos in Spanish) throughout the region to obviate the need for the right social, political and economic conditions for revolution. Some of these groups used guerrilla tactics in rural areas, from where they…
No. 55 — 2021
Proposals for an ecofeminist model of development

Ecofeminism is a movement on the rise Ecofeminism experienced a rebirth in 2019, just before the emergence of the current pandemic. Among other factors, this was due to the strength of the feminist movement and the youth climate movement, as thinker Alicia Puleo explained. She also correctly pointed out that another of the reasons behind this increased strength is ecofeminism’s focus on indigenous women ho defend the land against extractivism, which sometimes even costs them their lives. Many young women identify with this movement, which began in the early 1970s. But it is now, after 50 years of ecofeminist history, that…
No. 55 — 2021
Have NGOs and their work lost their meaning?

For some time now, people have been asking me whether the work done by NGOs still has any meaning, or whether they are a vestige of our society that is now obsolete. And the next question is whether the NGOs themselves should continue to exist. It makes you seriously wonder whether they’re right. And if they’re not, we need to have a good explanation as to why. When cooperation started in the 1960s, it basically stood on three legs, generosity, transfer and assistance. Transfer because it was about transferring money, trained people and knowledge from us to the countries that…
No. 55 — 2021
Companies facing the climate crisis: sustainable commitment or greenwashing?

As the world emerges from the COVID pandemic and grapples with the impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on supplies of food and energy we need to be thinking about changing the way things work more than ever. COVID has wreaked havoc with economies. The World Bank estimates that COVID has pushed over 147 million people into absolute poverty, wiping out some of the gains of the last 10 years and the war in Ukraine has sent wheat and oil prices spiralling, threatening the chances of reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change…
No. 56 — 2021
Women in South African Politics

In transitions to democracy, especially third wave transitions in Africa, there has been the assumption that women’s participation in politics will increase and gender inequality will diminish. One of the main assumptions is that women will be represented by women in government who will champion women’s issues (called substantive representation). Of the mechanisms employed by African governments to increase women’s representation, in line with global developments, are the use of quotas and reserved seats. Globally where quotas have been used women’s descriptive representation (numbers of women) have increased. Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have more than doubled their women’s representation since…
No. 56 — 2021
Adebayo Olukoshi: «The process of democratic deceleration in Africa has been accompanied by a complex of discontents»

Adebayo Olukoshi is a Researcher and Distinguished Professor at the Wits School of Governance of the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. With a long career in the field of international relations, governance and human rights, he has served as Director of the United Nations African Institute for Economic Development and Planning in Dakar (Senegal) and, until recently, he was the Head of the Regional Office for Africa and West Asia of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). Interviewed by Oscar Mateos, Adebayo Olukoshi reflects on the several waves of political reforms and transitions towards…
No. 56 — 2021
A not so global war on terror?

Few jihadi fronts have had a more global moment of horrific glory than the jihadi insurgency in the northeast of Nigeria generally designated as Boko Haram. The kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, in 2014, created a truly global emotion, as #BringBackOurGirls reverberated through the social networks. The Sambisa forest, the haunt of Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau, came to be the theatre of the opening scene of the 2018 blockbuster Black Panther, with the heroes of Wakanda overpowering jihadi fighters to release a group of kidnapped girls. In real life however, despite this global emotion, international intervention…
No. 56 — 2021
Southern Africa: Between the “South African Land of Opportunity” and Survival

Many of the region’s unstable countries see South Africa, the country that dominates the south of the continent due to its size and economic importance, as a panacea. The socioeconomic reality of neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe, where future prospects are bleak, as well as the people of Lesotho —literally engulfed by the influential South Africa—; of countries where conflict and violence have forced many into exile, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), or Rwanda and Burundi before it; and of countries poised to see mass migration due to famine and climate change, such as Madagascar, has…
No. 56 — 2021
The Ethiopia of Abiy Ahmed and the Pending Transition

In April 2018, following Abiy Ahmed’s appointment as prime minister by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the political coalition in power since 1995, Ethiopia seemed on track for a possible transition. However, on the night of 3 to 4 November 2020, armed conflict erupted between the central government and the government of the Tigray region. The outbreak of civil war nipped the fledgling transition in the bud and marked a new chapter in the history of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE). The clash between the government of Abiy Ahmed and his new party, the Prosperity Party…
No. 56 — 2021
Idayat Hassan: «In Nigeria, disinformation is driving dissent and threatening national cohesion»

Idayat Hassan is a lawyer and Director of the Center for Democracy and Development (CDD), an African think tank based in Nigeria. For years, she has been doing research on social media and the use of ICTs for development in West Africa. She has also reflected on democracy, peace and security. In this interview with Oscar Mateos, Hassan discusses the Nigerian reality, including issues such as the phenomenon of misinformation and its impact on the upcoming 2023 elections, security threats, the fight against Boko Haram, the role of women and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigeria is one of…
No. 54 — 2021
Quarrel Between Citizen Lad and Rude Girl

A verbal dispute between a man and a woman on the subject of gender is a form of oral-based literature that, far from being a genre as such, is found—inserted or diluted—in various expressive manifestations. It can be spotted in dialogue novels such as Un peso en el mundo by José María Guelbenzu; it is a constant theme in the autobiographical comics created by Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky as a duo; it is also implicit in David Foster Wallace’s Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, throughout which the reading process involves imagining the interventions of one or more interlocutors. This…
No. 54 — 2021
The Study of Men and Masculinities

In recent years we have become familiar with reading and hearing references to “new masculinities” or “egalitarian masculinities”, in a context when part of what is called the fourth wave of feminism has addressed men directly, while some men have openly joined the feminist struggle. Meanwhile, there is a modest yet growing interest in the masculine question, both in the academic and social realms, and this is reflected in the mass media and on social networks. This in turn leads us to ask questions such as: Why is this taking place? What is the state of studies and knowledge on…
No. 54 — 2021
Men: subjects of power and subjects of desire

Faced with the expansion of feminism… what happens to men? “When contemporary feminism was at its most intense, many women insisted that they were weary of giving energy to men, that they wanted to place women at the center of all feminist discussions. Feminist thinkers, like myself, who wanted to include men in the discussion . . . were the feminists who could not be trusted because we cared about the fate of men.” hooks, b. (2004) The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love. New York: Atria The advance of feminism in recent years has been a political and…
No. 54 — 2021
Jack Halberstam: «There are many different ways of being masculine, but do we know how to bring the structure that we call ‘masculinity’ down?»

In October 2021, Jack Halberstam was invited to Barcelona to give the inaugural lecture for the opening of the City Council’s newly created Plural – Centre on Masculinities. Taking advantage of his visit, we to discuss the evolution of trans experiences, masculinity and public policies. Halberstam is a leading voice in trans studies as well as in the field of queer and gender theory and is currently a professor at Columbia University in New York. He has published multiple books on these issues, some of which have been translated into Spanish by the EGALES publishing house with the collaboration of…
“In spite of the digital divide, the continent is showing creative emerging technologies and countries are making progress in improving data penetration”

What does AFR-IX Telecom do? AFR-IX Telecom is a telecommunications and infrastructures operator founded in 2013 with headquarters in Barcelona. It owns the Barcelona Cable Landing Station, an open port that is scheduled to be commissioned during the first quarter of 2022, with the goal of becoming a landmark digital port in the Mediterranean, with capacity for up to eight submarine cables. AFR-IX also owns the new Medusa submarine cable, which will connect the North African countries with southern Europe, and will also make East-West connections from Egypt to Portugal on the Atlantic. On the African continent, AFR-IX is a…
“We are very optimistic about Africa’s potential: our company has based part of its organic growth in this continent”

What does AIS do? AIS Group is a Catalan company founded in 1987 that specialises in transforming data into useful knowledge for optimal decision-making. We are experts in analysing data and building models with this data to predict and/or optimise processes. We focus on artificial intelligence (AI) techniques such as machine learning for business areas such as marketing, production planning, logistics and human resources in sectors like retail, industry or health. Our strong growth and internationalisation arise mainly from applying AI to credit risk management for financial institutions. It is precisely this kind of solution that is fuelling our growth…
No. 56 — 2021
Assessing Africa-Europe relations in the post-Cotonou horizon

The Europe Africa needs in the 21st century Nicolás Berlanga Martínez It is difficult to identify the exact origin of the statement that says: “Agreements are made to be broken”. When referring to Africa and Europe, things seem much simpler: the major agreements between the European Union (EU) and African countries represent a declaration of core principles. Most of them represent a positive culture that promotes concerted responses to today’s main challenges in international relations (what we call “multilateralism”). But “the devil is in the details”, and the details are normally negotiated after the big principles are decided. They also…
“Electrification based on renewable solutions enables replacement of domestic use of fuels that cause health problems, among others”

What does AZIMUT 360 / AIGUASOL do? Azimut 360 is a non-profit cooperative specialised in engineering and implementation of solar photovoltaic installations, both in Spain and abroad. Azimut 360’s main activities include project execution, site management, installation and maintenance, training services for users and engineers, and energy consulting. We are highly specialised in rural electrification projects with micro-grids, and in health and energy projects (guaranteeing access to health by guaranteeing access to energy). For its part, Aiguasol is an energy consulting cooperative with an international reach, focused on creating outstanding systems, processes and indoor and outdoor spaces that are comfortable,…
No. 56 — 2021
Catalan companies in sub-Saharan Africa

Apart from the social and macroeconomic impact of COVID-19, in recent months the pandemic has changed how Catalan companies do business, both in the domestic market and abroad. The lockdowns have forced factories to shut down, created imbalances between supply and demand, changed consumption habits, triggered a supply crisis, broken value chains and driven increases in the prices of international goods transport, among other impacts. Added to these factors is the acceleration of digitisation and sustainability processes, two transformation vectors that were already necessary and which the pandemic has now made urgent. From a global viewpoint, the impact of these…
No. 55 — 2021
Operation Mycelium: global challenges and transnational Salvadoran youth

I never imagined living through a global emergency, nor the repercussions involved for our ways of life. But since the quarantine began in our country, I have seen my life from another land. At the beginning I didn’t perceive any major changes, only the fact of being ordered to stay at home. I didn’t think it would last very long, that the pandemic would soon be over; it seemed to be a virus like any other. However, the media replaced my confidence with fear and confusion, and soon it was no longer just about health, but about politics and cultural…
No. 55 — 2021
Global Public Investment: how a radical vision became reality

It is 3am in the morning of Saturday 28 September 2030. I am writing this article in a meeting room somewhere in that tall UN building in New York. The heads of state have long since retired to comfortable hotel suites, but their representatives slog on into the early hours, tired but upbeat. Half empty coffee cups vie for space on tables covered with reams of draft documents. Tensions are high, as details and formulas are battled over, but there is a palpable sentiment in the night air that something momentous is happening. The content of the new global objectives,…
No. 55 — 2021
Big data, health and university development cooperation

The threat of new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has reminded us that Africa exists. It is very likely that there the pandemic has been and still is as devastating as anywhere else in the world; however, the official incidence levels – and also the vaccination rates – reported are very low. Everyone talks about the lack of vaccines, but the real problem in many African countries is the lack of an effective health service (with human resources, cold chain, etc.) close to the population (Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability, Quality). In development cooperation, one of the priorities must be to bolster…
No. 55 — 2021
Adam, the migration process of a Moroccan child

Adam is the fifth child of seven siblings. Born in Tangier, his parents are originally from Taza, a city in the Fes region of north-eastern Morocco. At the age of 12, Adam lives between the street and a small room that his mother, Fatima, rents in the medina of Tangier with the money she makes from selling flowers every night on the shiny new promenade of this port city. Abandoned by a violent and irresponsible father, they have survived by making the street their primary provider of resources. Worn out from so many births and repeated violence, Fatima never misses…
No. 55 — 2021
The narrative of decolonization of development aid

It must be said at the outset, that I have serious disagreements with the application of the term decolonization to the development aid sector. An earlier article I have published in Open Democracy titled “Decolonization is a comfortable buzzword for the aid sector” explains my reasoning for this disagreement in detail. The issue, I feel, is not about whether the decolonization of aid narrative —which is being widely discussed in both Western and non-Western contexts— needs an alternative. Rather, it is whether the concept of decolonization is an appropriate approach to challenge the western dominated perceptions of development aid to…
No. 56 — 2021
Climate emergency in the Sahel: desertification and more migration?

The Sahel is the transitional strip between the Sahara desert and the African savannah, a semi-arid region among the poorest in the world, unfortunately known today for political instability, communal conflicts and jihadist violence. In recent years, it has become crucial for European interests in containing migratory flows and fighting terrorism, which has essentially made it the EU’s outpost in Africa. The area is already suffering, and will continue suffering in the future, under the effects of the climate crisis , given its weather-dependent economy and its vulnerability within the global order. The most usual discourse establishes a more or…