The world stands facing a worrying trend where dozens of countries decline on democracy and most measures of democracy show a worldwide gradual decline for the last decade.
While many donor countries have a strong focus on programs supporting democracy, academics and practitioners have been debating the evidence on whether inducing democracy in other countries works, or not. In other words, can development cooperation’s democracy aid programs contribute to a positive change for democracy at the country level? Following the presentation of the results of an encompassing analysis on the topic commissioned by the Swedish Commission for Aid Studies (EBA), we would like to discuss, which implications this evidence holds for German and International Development Cooperation.
Date: March 11th 2021, 4:00-5:15 p.m. (CET)
Moderation: Jelana Vajen (DEval)
4:00 p.m. Does Democracy Aid work? Evidence from the report “The effects of Swedish and international democracy Aid”
- Miguel Niño-Zarazúa (UNU-WIDER) and Rachel M. Gisselquist (UNU-WIDER)
4:25 p.m. Panel Discussion: What are the implications for German Development Cooperation?
- Jürgen Zattler (BMZ), Julia Leininger (DIE), Staffan I. Lindberg (V-Dem), Jörg Faust (DEval)
4:50 p.m. Open Discussion
Please register here: https://deval.webex.com/deval-en/j.php?RGID=rc2f79301f7bb1029a83d715c45244cf9
If you have questions regarding this event or need support with the registration, please contact Lara Tautz (lara.tautz@DEval.org).
Miguel Niño-Zarazúa is a development economist and Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow at the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER). Miguel’s research expertise is in the areas of foreign aid, poverty, inequality, tax policy, social protection, and the political economy of development policy. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of International Development and holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sheffield.
Rachel M. Gisselquist is a Senior Research Fellow with the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) and a member of the institute’s senior management team. She works on the politics of developing countries, with particular attention to inequality between individuals and groups, ethnic politics, state fragility and governance, democratization, and sub-Saharan Africa. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Jürgen Zattler is the Director-General for International development policy; 2030 Agenda; climate at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Mr. Zattler is a development and macroeconomist with more than 30 years of international experience. Mr. Zattler has been working in the BMZ in various positions since 1986 including Director General for Multilateral and European Policy, Head of the Division on World Bank, IMF, and debt related issues, and Deputy Head of the Division for WTO and trade policy. From 2017 to 2020, Mr. Zattler served as World Bank Group Executive Director representing Germany. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Giessen.
Julia Leininger is Head of the Research Programme “Transformation of political (dis-)order” at the German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE). Her areas of expertise are effectiveness and legitimacy of international democracy support and protection, drivers and efects of social cohesion as well as future scenarios. She holds a PhD in Political Sciences from the University of Heidelberg.
Staffan I. Lindberg is Professor of political science and Director of the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg, founding Principal Investigator of Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), Wallenberg Academy Fellow, author of Democracy and Elections in Africa as well as over 50 articles on issues such as democracy, elections and democratization, accountability, clientelism, sequence analysis methods, women’s representation, and voting behavior, and has extensive experience as consultant and advisor to international organizations.
Jörg Faust is director of the German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval) and Professor of Political Science at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Before joining DEval he was Head of Department at the German Development Institute (DIE). He is the Vice-Chair of the OECD/DAC Network on Development Evaluation (EvalNet) and a member of the scientific advisory board for the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI). He holds a doctoral degree in political science from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz.
Source: Deutsches Evaluierungsinstitut der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (DEval), 11 February 2021