Comments

Hi Terence, I am aware that there is quite a lot of evidence to suggest that high levels of inequality can lead to conflict over resources. In many countries this is a major factor impacting on development. It's therefore strange to be arguing that development practitioners should not be concerned about inequality. The work of David Halpern et al (see: The Spirit Level) also shows that societies that are 'more equal' are generally 'better off' in terms of well-being. So I am surprised to see your line of argument. Roy

Very nice article. Collecting data in remote locations in PNG is not easy and it's very expensive.

Thank you Jules, I think your last point is a good one. And I'd say that even where there is a relationship (almost always a complicated one) between economic inequality and other development issues we care about we need to think carefully about how we go about tackling the issue in question. It may be the case that it has to be tackled by addressing economic inequality, but quite possibly the best point of entry is though one of the other related variables. Terence

Dr Woods, First off, I appreciate your breaking away from what seems obvious by questioning certain narratives, no wonder Alisa and Kate are questioning your angle. I agree with them especially as I have experienced economic inequality both as an aid worker of sorts and LDCs resident. In agreeing with your doc, economic inequality should not be a priority earmarked for fixing as its explanation is more correlational than rooted in causality reasons such access to education or unbiased distribution of public goods. Thanks

Thanks Anne. In her innovationXchange launch address, Bishop was pretty frank about the need for DFAT to learn to take calculated risks: “though it is difficult for government to navigate the area of risk, if we are working in collaboration with the private sector – who understand and can build contingencies in for risk – then we certainly have room to move when we are accommodating the risks that we will inevitably come up against in the innovationXchange”.

Thanks Kate, To be clear, I'm not saying that aid practitioners should never worry about economic inequality, but rather that other issues, including other forms of inequality, are usually more important for aid work. And therefore aid practitioners focusing too much on economic inequality is a mistake even though we live in an age where economic inequality is definitely an issue more generally. Terence

I think Alisa has a point - perhaps the question should not be 'Should aid practitioners worry about economic inequality?' but rather 'How much should aid practitioners worry about economic inequality?'. These are everyday issues for all of us living and working in developing countries that are recipients of aid, regardless of which particular field we work in.

Michael, I am glad to read about the positive input that you and others are putting into the economic division of UPNG. I can recall during my time as a fourth year student (in 2008) it was a very challenging with lack of focus on quantitative economic analysis. Although we had lecturers who took us for econometrics and cost benefit analysis, many of us students found that the lectures lacked a lot of depth. Subsequently, most of us ended up graduating without much satisfaction, doubting our ability to perform rigorous CBA and regression analysis. Seeing the deterioration in the quality of teaching within the division in 2007, some of us students undertook the effort to revive the dormant "Economics Student Society" as our attempt to rectify the problems plaguing the division. Frankly, we lacked the numbers when it came to staff so we decided to use the numbers offered by the students to negotiate for reforms. So when I was elected the President of the Society (in 2007) my executives and I set out to strengthen the student body to lobby for changes to purposely improve student-lecturer welfare. One of our biggest accomplishments was the successful attempt to reinstate the Bachelor of Economics degree program which was due to be shelved as part of UPNG's administration reforms. Our argument was that if the degree was shelved it could have a severe impact on the "marketability" of economics students on the job market, given that the degree program was one of the pioneering programs in UPNG. We were also able to publish the first newsletter (ESS NEWSLETTER) and we worked with the incoming executives of 2008 to introduce an "Economics Day" which was supposed to have coincided with the "UPNG Economic Update". We were also planning to introduce an intern program within the division to allow 3rd year economic students to be attached with relevant government departments, research institutions and private sector entities to provide a practical environment for the students to apply their theoretical economic knowledge. However, we ran out of time and could not do this. I am sure that these sorts of initiatives will one way or another contribute to reviving and strengthening the economics division and the profession in PNG that you and others are already making a valuable contribution toward.

Thanks for your comment, Salma -- of course you're absolutely right that child marriage exists as an 'everyday' problem, that is, outside of conflict/war zones. But one of the main points that I took away from this publication is that the rates of child marriage appear to have escalated significantly since the outbreak of the conflict in Syria, but in general humanitarian relief agencies don't think about addressing child marriage during conflicts. One of the figures cited in the report (p. 11) illustrates this lack of programming quite starkly: "• There were 0 projects, out of 67, funded by the pooled funding available for inside Syria 2014 which addressed child marriage. • There was 1 project, out of 67, funded by the pooled funding available for inside Syria which specifically addressed GBV."

Thanks Phil - maybe this speaks to a general challenge in organising an academic conference on development practice. Academic work is typically of the realm of ideas, and tends to involve only imperfect interactions with the messy realities of life lived in practice (which is fair enough, good theorising is hard as it is). Meanwhile, the average aid worker just has to get stuff done, as well as possible under the circumstances (which is also fair enough). Given the disjunct here, coming up with a theme for a conference to allow for productive interaction is always going to be a challenge. That said, one thing I should have made clear in my original post was that I really enjoyed the ACFID conference, in practice. Some very interesting presentations, and many good conversations. Terence

Hi Alsia, Thanks for your comment. Out of interest, how would you define an aid practitioner? My definition would be someone who works for an aid NGO, an aid contracting firm, or a government aid agency. As well as academics whose work focuses foremost on issues of improving human welfare in poorer countries. For the people in my list, I would argue (as I've done in the blog post above) that economic inequality should be of lesser importance to their day jobs than other elements of development (economic growth, reducing infant mortality to give two examples). And I would also argue that economic inequality is not as central to the issues that aid workers confront than other forms of inequality (particularly inequalities of power). Note the comment: 'to their day jobs'. In NZ (where I'm allowed to vote) I vote for a political party that strongly favours progressive taxation and is good on issues such as the minimum wage. I do this in part because I think inequality is important as a general issue particularly in OECD countries (as I noted early on in the blog). But for aid work, not so much. Although having said that I think you're right to note that aid work is diverse and that for aid workers involved in certain campaigns, such as Oxfam UK staff working on their inequality indices, or people campaigning for a Tobin tax, economic inequality might quite sensibly be central to their work. (This would also be the case for academics specialising in areas such as economic inequality in Latin America). But are these people the majority of aid workers? Should they be? I don't think so. Thanks for a thought-provoking comment. Terence

This is a common incident in developing countries; therefore, not necessarily related to conflict and/or war. In general, poor households get rid of their young daughters due to higher demand for them in the marriage market. Of course, I agree that gender and power inequality within households aggravate poor conditions of young girls.