International economics and development studies

Path out of poverty – a study of human behaviour

LIFE’s emerging elite research area: international economics and development studies

 

Have you been pondering how we can get more children to attend school in Africa at the lowest possible cost? Do we need to build more schools and educate more teachers, do we give money to the parents or is there something completely different that we can do? In Kenya, for example, the solution is deworming children as diseases caused by worms often keep children away from school. This is just one example of the knowledge gained by researchers within the field through field studies characterised by methodical thoroughness and openness towards the unexpected.

 

In LIFE’s new, emerging elite research area within international economics and development studies, openness to new angles is the driving force in a number of research projects aimed at improving living conditions for poor people in developing countries.

 

 

We have asked anchorperson and professor Henrik Hansen eight penetrating questions about how they plan to accomplish this:

• Where are the international economics and development studies currently heading as a field?
• How does LIFE contribute worldwide to the research within international economics and development studies?
• Which other promising research projects would you like to mention?
• If the elite research area becomes the projected success in the coming years, what do you hope to achieve?
• How will LIFE students benefit from this emerging elite research area?
• What are your considerations in relation to collaborating with companies, authorities or others that may have a particular interest in this specific elite research area?
• Where can you follow the elite research area’s results?

Where are the international economics and development studies currently heading as a field?

 

Henrik Hansen answers:

One of things that characterises developing country research today is the general realisation that we know very little about how to lift people out of poverty.

We know which technical solutions are required to make farming more well-functioning and profitable. But we do not know how to get local farmers to change their production methods.

 

Difficult to make people change their behaviour

How do you, for instance, get people to start using fertiliser or to convert their production to more profitable crops? How do you get people with a good idea to start their own business?

 

We quite simply need a greater insight into how current patterns and rules can be changed with a view to reducing poverty.

 

The resource curse – poor areas with enormous natural resources

There is also focus on the so-called resource curse – poor areas with enormous natural resources and governments that are not interested in the distribution of wealth.

Because of the huge value of the resources, they are often the cause of strife and conflict. We are seeing examples of that with blood diamonds, precious types of wood, oil etc. There is a global wish to learn more about the correlation between resources and conflicts: how conflicts arise, which factors impact their scope and duration, and generally how they can be prevented in the first place.

 

How does LIFE contribute worldwide to the research within international economics and development studies?

HH: We are doing this through a wide variety of research projects, which are regularly published in international journals. One of our core competences is within development aid research. We have contributed to demonstrating where and how development aid is beneficial for the development in the poorest countries. Industrial policy in Africa is another area. Most people are aware that a large share of the industrial production takes place in Asia, whereas it is at a very low level in Africa. But why is that?

 

Africa needs to learn from Asia

If we are to reduce poverty worldwide, African countries need to learn to compete with Asia. But how? Is the answer education, foreign investments, more roads, trade agreements and export subsidies, or possibly a better collaboration between public and private authorities?

 

We have seen all these elements in Asia, but we need to identify the most important elements, because there are not enough resources to focus on all the factors mentioned in Africa.

 

A well-functioning value chain increases earnings for all parties

We are, of course, also working to learn what makes farmers innovate and improve their production, and under which circumstances it is possible to develop a so-called value chain.

Weak links become visible

A value chain illustrates the process from a product being produced in the agricultural sector until it ends up at the consumer. From sugar cane to refined sugar. We study the value chains to help us identify the weak links.

 

Most value chains in developing countries are incomplete

A well-functioning, complete value chain may well increase earnings for all parties many times over. But most value chains in the developing countries are weak or outright incomplete.

 

This may be due to poor communication between farmers and companies, which means that the farmers do not deliver the agreed products on time, or it may be due to lack of infrastructure, which hampers a stable production.

 

Better utilisation of forest resources as a means to combat poverty

One of our other core competences at LIFE lies within the importance of forests for the living conditions of poor people. In a major research project collecting data in 26 developing countries, we are studying how poverty can be reduced through better utilisation of all forest resources – not just timber. The forests also provide important global resources by binding CO₂.

 

Investigating how we in the rich countries can help protect the enormous forest areas in the poorer countries therefore constitutes an important project within our elite research area.

Projects such as these will be strengthened by the interdisciplinary environment at LIFE, as they involve the natural sciences and the social science areas such as administration, political science and economics.

 

Which other promising research projects would you like to mention?

HH: There are many exciting initiatives in the pipeline in the elite research area at the moment. Let me mention a few.

 

Better understanding of the correlation between natural resources and conflicts

In one project, we are studying the interaction between natural resources and conflicts. Natural resources like diamonds, gold, oil and precious wood mixed with weak governments and local insurgents make a lethal cocktail.

 

We need to acquire a much better understanding of this correlation if we are to alleviate poverty in countries with a weak government leadership and in countries which are either in or have been in violent conflict.

 

Female African entrepreneurs in need of start-up capital

In another project, we are studying whether poor African women are discriminated against when they try to take out a loan to start up their own business.

 

Fortunately, a growing number of Africans want to be entrepreneurs, but they lack start-up capital. Moreover, a more well-functioning financial sector can contribute to identifying the best projects/ideas.

 

So this research project is relevant in relation to both entrepreneurs and banks. We also have researchers investigating whether poor farmers benefit from entering into contracts with international companies.

 

Western medicine versus traditional medicine

Finally, a group of researchers is focusing on medical plants and health – which factors determine whether people choose to use traditional or western medicine? Should traditional medicine be integrated to a greater extent in public health systems?

 

If the elite research area becomes the projected success in the coming years, what do you hope to achieve?

Well, then we will have contributed to improving the use of Danish and international development aid.

 

With more knowledge about what works locally, we will hopefully be able to contribute to ensuring that development aid and national resources are put to optimum use in the local community.

 

This means, among other things, increasing awareness among Danish, local and African decision-makers about the conditions which prevail when laying down efficient policies to combat poverty. For the benefit of both the poor and the general social development in developing countries.

 

And we would, of course, really like to continue publishing our research in the best scientific journals.

 

How will LIFE students benefit from this emerging elite research area?

We are already offering a wide range of exciting study programmes! Students will receive more inspiring teaching in future and a variety of new courses within international economics and development studies will be available ... more about this later!

 

What are your considerations in relation to collaborating with companies, authorities or others that may have a particular interest in this specific elite research area?

We would like to continue the excellent collaboration with the other Danish universities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and our many partner countries in the south. This is to take place by creating new knowledge as well as by qualifying existing methods and practice.

 

More interdisciplinary research collaborations at LIFE

We would also like to collaborate more with other relevant research areas at LIFE, such as food science, human nutrition, agriculture and ecology and plant biotechnology with a view to increasing and improving agricultural production in Africa.

 

We would, for example, like to provide qualified input on how to get people to change their behaviour and act in a way which improves their standard of living.

And we will, of course, continue and expand our collaboration with leading international research institutions.

 

Where can you follow the elite research area’s results?

We are establishing a website, www.sosder.life.ku.dk, dedicated to international economics and development studies (expected to go online at the end of March 2011), and we deliver news for LIFE’s English-language development collaboration website www.development.life.ku.dk on a regular basis.

 

Facts on LIFE’s elite research areas

LIFE – the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen – is one of the world’s leading university environments within life sciences. Across departments and research groups and LIFE’s seven core competences, there are eight elite research areas and six emerging elite research areas.