Distribution by Region

Distribution by Organisation Type, Document Type, Region and Year

Transition occurs mostly in documents published in Europe, followed by North America, Asia, Africa and Oceania with comparatively smaller contributions. Overall, the top five contributors in terms of occurrences are IGO, NGO, NGO_Fed, State and RC organisations.

IGO, NGO, NGO_Fed, State and RC documents provide the greatest number of occurrences, primarily from activity reports published in Europe.

Transition ...

• is defined only in reference to key types

• has many low frequency types

• includes periods, phases, stages

• has agents / populations experiencing transition

  • countries

  • organisations

  • individuals

• has norms / initial phases

  • humanitarian assistance, aid, relief

  • planned economies

• has objectives / subsequent phases

  • recovery & development

  • market economies

  • a universal development agenda

  • a low-carbon economy

• the process of which has characteristics

  • smooth

  • successful

  • peaceful

  • effective

• occurs on timescales

  • early

  • ongoing

  • rapid

  • gradual

• occurs in politics

  • e.g., democratic transition

  • including elections & negotiated power transfers

  • which suffers from violence & fragility

  • which can cause insecurity & stalled progress

  • which can lead to growth & progress

• occurs in demographics

  • i.e., shifts in mean population age

  • which can have demographic dividends

  • which can cause labour shortages

  • which is often not understood or planned for adequately

  • which can cause crises

  • which affects or will affect every country

• occurs in economies

  • usually from planned to market economies

  • also to low-carbon / green economies

  • which causes challenges for social protection

  • the impact of which can be measured (transition impact)

  • which has challenges, e.g.,

    • groups being excluded

    • managing countries’ needs that are shared / unique

    • negative results for services, employment, gender equality

    • the slow pace of change

• occurs in humanitarian response

  • usually from aid, assistance, relief, conflict & crisis (short-term)

  • usually to development, recovery & peace (long-term)

  • which may or may not be linear

  • in which organisations can shift to prioritise one or both phases

  • which has a recovery gap

  • which has systemic / operational challenges, e.g.,

    • relief & development being siloed

    • coordination within & across organisation types / levels

    • systematising transition & exit planning (far in advance)

  • which has funding challenges, e.g.,

    • mechanisms not being suitable for fragile countries

    • mechanisms being too inflexible

    • securing transition funding

    • lack of data on transition funding

• can include a transformational justice approach

• is sometimes grouped with or synonymous to recovery

  • e.g., transition and recovery programming

• agent

  • country's transition

• area

  • political transition *

  • demographic transition *

  • democratic transition *

  • economic transition

  • nutrition transition

  • low-carbon transition

  • post-conflict transition

  • energy transition

  • urban transition

  • leadership transition

  • epidemiological transition

  • school-to-work transition

  • market transition

  • security transition

  • social transition

  • legal transition

• norm (i.e., transition from X)

  • transition from humanitarian assistance

• objective (i.e., transition to Y)

  • transition to a universal development agenda

  • transition to a low-carbon economy

  • transition to secondary school

  • transition to an ecological age

  • transition to a green economy

  • transition to market economies

  • transition to sustainable development

• process

  • smooth transition *

  • successful transition

  • peaceful transition

  • effective transition

  • major transition

  • difficult transition

  • seamless transition

  • important transition

  • advanced transition

  • significant transition

  • critical transition

  • sustainable transition

  • key transition

• timescale

  • early transition *

  • ongoing transition

  • rapid transition

  • gradual transition

Political transitions can exacerbate resource scarcities and create inter-communal divisions which lead to more intense, prolonged and intractable conflict.

Significant challenges remain, including defining the sphere of humanitarian action during political transition .

Our project aimed to strengthen and protect the political transition process by bolstering the NDC's implementation and follow-up dialogue processes.

South Africa's political transition was a negotiated settlement with inherent compromises that left the socio-economic disparities of apartheid largely unresolved.

In Myanmar, continuing political transition since 2011 has provided scope for embedding gender equality in new democratic institutions and processes, including elections.

Political transitions , even towards democracy, can provoke violence, with competition over "who sits at the table" and "who gets what".

A demographic dividend is the potential for economic growth that can result from shifts in a population's age structure, when the share of the working-age population expands relative to the non-working-age population. A demographic dividend is linked to a demographic transition, which begins when child and infant death rates decrease in response to increased access to vaccines, antibiotics, safe water, sanitation and better nutrition.

The demographic transitions occurring in different populations, such as the ageing process in many high-income countries and the large youth populations in developing and emerging countries, in particular, in sub-Saharan Africa, have led to labour shortages in the North and high youth unemployment and underemployment rates in the South.

In East Asia, the rapid rate of the demographic transition is now common knowledge, but the social and economic implications of these changes are far less known.

Without planning for these demographic transitions and seizing their benefits, governments will be forced to operate in a permanent crisis mode, reacting to demographic challenges as they arise – which is typically more costly and less effective.

By 2050, the world as a whole and every continent except Africa are projected to have more elderly people (at least 60 years of age) than children (below 15). This is a natural consequence of the decline in death rates and the somewhat slower decline in birth rates that has occurred in most developing countries, a well-known phenomenon known as the 'demographic transition'.

It has become increasingly clear that every country in the world, regardless of its population size, has experienced or will experience a 'demographic transition '.

The economic transitions of the 1990s presented huge challenges for these social protection systems. The emergence of extensive labour-market informality and large irregular migration flows, often combined with demographic trends that have increased the numbers of pensioners relative to the workforce, have threatened the financial sustainability of contributory pension schemes and left growing numbers of workers uncovered (in part or in full) by social insurance systems.

As part of the cooperation to support Mongolia's transition to a market economy, JICA implemented the Establishment of Tax Education System Project from 2006 to 2008.

These measures need to be considered within an overall framework of a global transition to a low-carbon economy in order to minimize the risk of dangerous climate change taking place in the coming decades.

Principle 9 Provide humanitarian assistance in ways that are supportive of recovery and long-term development, striving to ensure support, where appropriate, to the maintenance and return of sustainable livelihoods and transitions from humanitarian relief to recovery and development activities.

In support of the transition process from relief to development, particularly in the Pool region, the 2006 CAP included transition as one of its main humanitarian strategies.

Transition in this context refers to the transition of countries out of conflict towards sustainable development, greater national ownership and an increased state capacity. Traditionally falling between “humanitarian” and “development” categories, transition activities includes recovery, reconstruction, security-related and peacebuilding activities.

Much of this support is based on the assumption of a linear transition out of conflict, involving a gradual increase in development assistance as humanitarian and peacekeeping expenditures decline. However, data shows that this scenario is the exception rather than the rule. About 50% of humanitarian aid is long-term (more than eight years) and goes to large countries experiencing patterns of cyclical violence: Sudan, Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Afghanistan.

From recovery to resilience In 2013, ACTED is to continue its efforts for a transition from humanitarian aid towards a development approach, while maintaining the capacity for an emergency humanitarian response if need be.

The transition from humanitarian response to long-term development is far from seamless. Once a conflict is over, the expectation is that the development sector will take the lead in addressing IDPs' needs. In reality, however, the gap between relief and development continues to be hard to bridge. Aggravating factors include different operational mandates and timeframes for engagement and results, a shortage of coordination mechanisms, diminishing investment, competition for funding and failure to incorporate IDPs' needs into recovery and development plans.

• transition country *

• transition process *

• transition impact *

• transition period *

• transition economy

• transition region

• transition impact rating

• transition phase

• transition challenge

• transition plan

• transition strategy

• transition year

• transition rate

• transition mandate

• transition date

• transition team

• transition situation

• transition assistance

• transition gap

• transition activity

• transition experience

• transition recession

• transition progress

• transition home

• transition context

• transition financing

• transition objective

• transition issue

• transition programme

• transition planning

The EBRD, owned by 61 countries and two intergovernmental institutions, aims to foster the transition from centrally planned to market economies in 29 countries from central Europe to central Asia.

In 2016 the EBRD Board of Directors approved a new way of conceptualising the transition to a market economy, the process that the EBRD seeks to promote through investment projects and policy dialogue. This change reflects the global evolution, since the Bank was established 26 years ago, in the definition of a successful market economy to include an emphasis on strong markets as well as state institutions. The modernised transition concept gives more weight to the desired outcome of the transition process. In other words: what does a sustainable market economy look like? As EBRD countries of operations each have diverse needs for reform, the answer to this question requires country- specific responses.

The chart below represents the distribution of transition between 2005 and 2019 in terms of the number of occurrences and relative frequency of occurrences. It also allows you to view the distribution across Regions, Organisations and Document types.

4. Transitional Financing A final whole-of-government issue is that of transitioning from humanitarian assistance to the use of longer-term development aid. The challenge is to ensure that life-saving activities are continued while the foundations for sustainable recovery, peace building and state capacity are built. The transition period often imposes difficult coordination and cooperation challenges between different operational and policy communities. It requires a mix of humanitarian and development instruments (without compromising humanitarian principles), and a flexible and pragmatic approach. Integrated approaches across the international system are needed where different actors (humanitarian, development, security) need to work simultaneously to address different but complementary objectives. The lack of conclusive definitions and data on the levels of transition financing is a major obstacle to progress. However, the UN estimates that on average less than 50 percent of development funds required for the early recovery financing period are pledged by donors, compared to a shortfall of 25 percent for humanitarian requests (see Table 0.1).

Challenges to the application of donor commitments are particularly apparent in transition and stabilisation activities. Donor policy frameworks emphasise the importance of links and smooth ‘transitions’ between humanitarian action and early recovery and stabilisation efforts. At the same time, a policy agenda around building resilience is gaining ground. In practice, the overlap between the phases of transition, and the fact that it is neither a linear nor predictable process, can make it difficult to safeguard principled humanitarian funding. Humanitarian funds are often ‘stretched’ to encompass both humanitarian and early recovery activities, and many international NGOs are engaged simultaneously in delivering humanitarian and recovery/development assistance. Adherence to humanitarian principles suggests the separation of humanitarian financing and action from other areas of policy. Yet ensuring a transition to recovery and supporting enhanced resilience requires greater coherence and sequencing between these processes and alignment with host government frameworks. Donors are increasingly colocating the management of humanitarian and transition or stabilisation policy and activities within the same department, and are integrating humanitarian and development planning at country level.

Transition from War to Peace and Linking Relief to Rehabilitation and Development (LRRD) In transition situations, Finland aims to effective linking of peace building, humanitarian assistance, reconstruction and development cooperation. Implementing this linkage is challenging as the international aid architecture and organisations are often divided into the separate sectors of humanitarian assistance and development cooperation, with different objectives, principles, legislation and timetables guiding their functioning and funding. In post-conflict situations, development cooperation often starts slowly in hazardous environments, leaving a gap between humanitarian assistance and development aid [....] Effective transition requires a common plan with commitment from the national administration of the partner country and the entire donor community. The plan should include clear priorities and its implementation has to involve flexible use of all aid instruments. Expediting the initiation of development cooperation requires a realistic understanding of the risks involved as well as effective collective risk management mechanisms. As during the transition phase the responsibility for development is increasingly shifted from international actors to the national administration, special attention should be given on strengthening the national capacity. Managing transition requires donors to adopt a flexible approach. In addition to post-conflict transition, it is important to ensure effective linking of relief to rehabilitation and development also when it comes to situation of post-natural disasters.

Approaches to transition: Development partners provide significant amounts of humani- tarian and development aid to transition financing in conflict-affected states. However, there is evidence that the transition between these instruments could be improved, and that development partners should focus less on the instruments and approaches available within particular managerial structures, and more on the actual objectives that they are trying to support. Pooling mechanisms, in particular, are useful tools to encourage more holistic and effective approaches to transition situations. Recognising these benefits, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of pools. However, more needs to be done to manage trade-offs between quick delivery and longer-term sustainability, to avoid fragmentation of instruments, and to better co-ordinate across humanitarian, development and defence budget lines.

By contrast, because employment facilitates inclusion, functional and accessible labour market institutions were found to be important. A major lesson from two decades of transition is that the state has a critical role in creating an environment for inclusive growth and societies. Abruptly abandoning areas of responsibility by the state or insisting on rapid privatization of all state-owned companies may prove very costly for societies in the long run.

One strand of the political economy literature of transition has argued that the major challenge and obstacle for successful completion of liberal economic reforms is the emergence of elite interest groups.40 These actors, including enterprise directors, some government officials, bankers and mafias, surfaced during the initial phase of political and economic 'partial' liberalization.

But the EBRD's countries of operations vary widely in their transition challenges, requiring in-depth country knowledge and targeted geographical initiatives to overcome the obstacles to recovery and growth.

Second, leaving no one behind entails managing the transition in a manner that supports stranded workers and communities, as economies shift away from fossil fuels, so as to make sure that everyone benefits from the transition to low-emission, climate-resilient economies.

There are no blueprints for identifying in advance the appropriate policies to create an enabling environment for low-carbon transition .

The fact that many war-affected societies experience conflict, transition (also referred to as early recovery or recovery) and development simultaneously rather than in consecutive phases, has underlined the need for a concerted and coherent response from relief and development actors from the onset of a conflict.

OCHA has recognized that it must work strategically with development partners to address the funding gap for early recovery and transition .

In 2015, IOM's crisis-related activities (from preparedness to emergency response, movement, transition and recovery, among others) directly reached some 22.7 million beneficiaries, and budgetary expenditures on emergency, post-crisis and movement activities reached almost USD 760 million.

Rather, it is the result of a continual process, from preparedness planning through to response, and on to transition / recovery programming.