Economics & Development

Urban restructuring efforts aimed at redeveloping inner-city neighborhoods are common across the US. They typically involve coalitions of public and private actors that play complementary roles in promoting investments in locales that have been sites of disinvestment, rendering these geographies ripe for economic development and profitmaking (ie, gentrification). Nonprofits are not generally regarded as central players in these initiatives, although they often serve community-development functions for low-income populations living in impoverished city spaces. In this paper we draw on the concept of the shadow state and Foucault's theory of governmentality to examine a city-building nonprofit created by a public–private growth coalition to execute the redevelopment of urban space and, as an integral part, manage neighborhood resident participation in these efforts. As residents began to see themselves as agents of neighborhood change, they came into conflict with the revitalization objectives of the nonprofit's funders. And, while many residents actively challenged the direction that the neighborhood initiative took in focusing on housing redevelopment for more affluent populations, a core group maintained their commitment to a community building approach toward neighborhood redevelopment. Between 1998 and 2014, during CIC's initiative, over half of the original residents were displaced or left as neighborhood housing values dramatically increased, rendering the area inaccessible for low-income populations.

This article discusses the economic issues of foreign relations on the example of Surkhandarya, the southern region of Uzbekistan, and the expansion of development ties with the impact of New Uzbekistan on the Surkhandarya oasis. During the years of independence, Surkhandarya has a special place in the economic relations of the country. The region has an abundance of raw materials and borders with Afghanistan.

In the wake of the failure of mining-led development to procure the development promise it carried, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been proposed as one major way to leverage CSR can make to poverty alleviation and other development goals. However, several scholars and practitioners of development have come to the conclusion that current CSR approaches do not warrant such claims. There is thus the need for a critical approach to the strengths and limitations of CSR, one that poses questions that hitherto have been unasked or neglected. There is further need for more critical perspectives to understand what CSR does, and what it could mean for the poor and marginalized in developing countries. Drawing on Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach, this is what this study seeks to understand: how, when and through what means business can help to reduce poverty, while recognizing the equally powerful potential of the business community to exacerbate poverty.

Impressive economic growth in the United Republic of Tanzania since 2000 propelled it into lower middle-income country (LMIC)1 status in 2020. The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is composed of near-equal shares of agriculture, industry (including construction), and services. More recently, the services sector remained the main driving force behind Tanzania’s overall economic growth, expanding by 7.3 percent in 2023, supported by growing economic activities in the financial and insurance, tourism, transportation, and accommodation subsectors (World Bank 2024b). Agriculture has been growing at a relatively steady 3 to 4 percent since 2018, while growth in industry has been at a more modest 2.5–4.3 percent between 2020 and 2023, compared to 8.3 percent between 2015 and 2020 (World Bank 2024c). At its current growth rate, Tanzania’s population of 62 million people is expected to double in 23 years (NBS Tanzania 2020b; World Bank 2024b), with the urban population reaching 49 percent by 2040 (UN-DESA 2018). But Tanzania’s economy remains vulnerable to risks, including climate risks. This exposure stems from its reliance on agriculture, which provides nearly 24 percent of its GDP, 20 percent of exports, and 90–95 percent of its food security, and made up 65.5 percent of total employment (Minister of Agriculture 2023, World Bank 202c). Growth over the last decade has been propelled largely by public investment and domestic markets, rather than private investment and export growth. This is unviable in the long term, as evidenced by the drop in foreign direct investment (FDI) from 5.6 to 2.1 percent of GDP between 2010 and 2023. Gains in labor productivity have also been set backs, and exports fell from 20.9 percent of GDP in 2012 to 14.3 percent in 2021. Growth has been driven by sectors that employ relatively few low-income (or poor) workers. Between 2014 and 2021, wage employment as share total jobs remained stagnant, at around 14 percent. The share of people working in agriculture fell from 76 to 67 percent between 2006 and 2014, to 65.5 percent in 2022, while wage employment is at 14.4 percent in 2022 (World Bank 2023d). The largely informal n nature of labor and microenterprises limits their contribution to growth, especially for women-led enterprises.

This report presents findings from a study into digital transformation in higher education across Latin America and the Caribbean and provides early insights into how institutions are considering their future in light of the impacts of COVID-19. The research, which involved almost 100 institutions across 14 countries, serves as a 'temperature check' for digital transformation in higher education in the region, including the key challenges, capabilities, approaches and needs. These insights contribute to a global picture of the strategic shifts in higher education and how institutions are planning for their future.