International Development - International Studies of Strategic and Geopolitics

Explainer: Why are migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in record numbers?

8Jan

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Explainer: Why are migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in record numbers?

By Mica Rosenberg Jan 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden is visiting the U.S.-Mexico border for the first time since he took office in January 2021 on Sunday, ahead of a visit to Mexico and after announcing new measures to reduce border crossings. What is happening at the U.S.-Mexico border now and why are there record numbers of crossings? WHO IS TRYING TO ENTER THE UNITED STATES AT THE BORDER? U.S. Border Patrol made more than 2.2 million arrests at the U.S.-Mexico in the 2022 fiscal year, which ended last September, the most ever recorded. But many of those were individual migrants who tried to cross multiple times after being caught and rapidly expelled back to Mexico under a COVID-era order known as Title 42. The policy was implemented in March 2020 under Republican fo...

29Dec

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Governance and Rule of Law

Rule of law is good governance

Corruption occurs as a consequence of bad governance. Corruption would vanish if we improved the rule of law and ensured transparency. Economic turnaround is still possible if prudent and proven measures are introduced adopting merit-based good governance practices as the current economic turmoil in the country is more due to mismanagement and corruption. It is imperative that the planners give priority to the economy over all other affairs. There is no harm in taking help from technocrats in a few critical ministries for strengthening the economy, but those at the helm of affairs must ensure that no rules would be bypassed and all appointments are merit based. The baggage of bad practices accumulated over years would take some time to go. What we are witnessing these ...

Reorganizing To Make America Make Again: The National Development Strategy and Coordination Act Of 2022

29Dec

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U.S. Development Policy

Reorganizing To Make America Make Again: The National Development Strategy and Coordination Act Of 2022

By Robert Hockett Modern economics and many policies informed by it have brought near miracles of wealth-generation to societies worldwide. They have done this by showing how societies that foster and reward individual creativity and initiative, and that provide these divine human attributes with efficient outlets through which to build and produce and disseminate what is at first only conceived or imagined, are societies whose members flourish and grow ever more prosperous together. Modern economics and the policies informed by it also have suffered one blind spot, however. They often have failed to clarify how they define those ‘economies’ and ‘societies’ of and to which they speak. Later economists, unfortunately, as their models grew ever more general and mathematical, abstracted aw...

Coming Together to Address the Global Food Crisis

29Dec

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Food and Agriculture

Coming Together to Address the Global Food Crisis

Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, food prices and global hunger were on the rise. Growing instances of climate shocks, loss of biodiversity and marine and coastal ecosystems, and the global water crisis were all contributing to an increasingly food-insecure world. The COVID-19 pandemic further disrupted global supply chains, driving food prices upward. All of these challenges show just how vulnerable how food systems are. The poor and vulnerable, particularly small farmers and families in low-income counties are more affected by increasing food prices the most, as they spend a larger share of their income on food. The crisis has been partially made worse by the growing number of food trade restrictions put in place by countries with a goal of increasing domestic supply and redu...

Global food crisis: Switzerland pledges an additional 14.5 million Swiss francs to United Nations World Food Programme

29Dec

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Food and Agriculture

Global food crisis: Switzerland pledges an additional 14.5 million Swiss francs to United Nations World Food Programme

Around 350 million people worldwide are currently affected by acute hunger and dependent on food aid. In response to the worsening food crisis, President of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis has approved additional funding of 14.5 million Swiss francs for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). This increases Switzerland’s 2022 contribution to the WFP to over 100 million. Switzerland has committed additional funds to the WFP. 13 million Swiss francs will go to the Immediate Response Account (IRA), the WFP’s emergency relief fund. The IRA can rapidly deliver needs-based assistance to the most vulnerable communities where it is most urgently needed in countries such as Afghanistan, Mozambique and Nigeria. A further 1.5 million is earmarked for the Ukrainian government’s “Grain f...

Spain scraps VAT on basic food to help with rising cost of living

29Dec

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Food and Agriculture

Spain scraps VAT on basic food to help with rising cost of living

Spain will scrap the value-added tax on basic food items for six months as part of a series of new measures to help people to cope with the rising cost of living. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that the VAT would be reduced from 4 per cent to 0 per cent on basic food items, such as bread, cheese and vegetables, while it will be reduced from 10 per cent to 5 per cent on oil and pasta. The government also approved a one-off aid of €200 for families with incomes of €27,000 or less to compensate for the increase in food prices. The new anti-crisis aid package is worth €10 billion, bringing the government's expenditures on aid measures to €45 billion. Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February, the Spanish government has announced multiple aid packages to help the poo...