By Robert D. Lamb ■ This policy brief describes a new framework for measuring absorptive capacity in international development, peacebuilding, and stabilization efforts. Absorptive capacity is the form and amount of foreign aid and attention that recipient communities, institutions, or societies can receive without suffering significant social, economic, or political disruptions. Conventional measures of absorptive […]
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MAC: Prototype of a Tool Linking Program Designs and Local Conditions
I spent a good part of last year on a UK-funded project on “absorptive capacity” — which I think too many people in the international development community still think of as “why can’t poor people spend our money better?” Our answer to that, though this research, was basically: “Because we keep asking them to do […]
Read more...In the new security environment, ‘capacity-building’ should give way to ‘legitimacy-building’
Working Paper ■ The first months of 2009 will find the United States with a new president facing a global financial crisis, a resurgent Russia, an ascendant China, questions about Iran’s intentions and Pakistan’s stability, major military commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the concomitant questions about how to allocate U.S. troops between the two. […]
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