Alternative Governance

Values and demographic makeup are changing, technology is transforming the world at breakneck speed, and unforeseeable events are shaking familiar old certainties. For many social and socioeconomic problems, there are only context-specific or dynamic answers. What was perfectly appropriate yesterday may well be obsolete tomorrow. The following three subject areas are examples and can, of course, be supplemented with others.

International Development Aid

 

In the globalized world of today, the effects of natural or manmade disasters, of economic or financial crisis, and of demographic shifts often do not come to a halt in front of national boundaries. In recognizing the mutual dependency and interconnectedness, solidarity receives a new dimension: it becomes the global survival strategy with solutions based on international agreements and alliances. (The MAGA movement may see things differently, but even the loudest denial of reality cannot stop the tide of time.)

International development aid, with its many skilled experts, hundreds of government organisations, dozens of major international organisations, and thousands of dedicated non-governmental organisations has failed to live up to the (high) expectations that have been placed on it over the last 60 years. However, from a counterfactual perspective, it is difficult to assess what situation developing countries – particularly in Africa – would find themselves in today if there had been no development cooperation, or if there had been a completely different form of North-South cooperation. According to estimates that are rather difficult to verify in detail, around three trillion dollars have flowed into international development cooperation during this period – mainly from the highly industrialized West to the so-called South. There is no doubt that at the same time much more value in the form of capital and questionably cheap commodities has flowed in the opposite direction.

The reasons for the apparent discrepancy between expectations and the de facto impact and global relevance of Official Development Aid (ODA) can only be understood in retrospect. Erroneous initial assumptions have certainly contributed to this gap – but in hindsight one is always wiser. Root-cause analyses are important, but they are always coloured by the analysts’ experiences, conceptual frameworks and schools of thought to which they are committed. Certainly, protectionist measures by industrialized nations, economic and technological supremacy, and capital flight have contributed massively to the stagnation of economies in developing countries. Interlinked chronic problems and deeper-lying causes of undesirable developments can be found in the developing countries themselves: poor governance, cyclical flare-ups of civil wars and population explosion are added to natural challenges such as landlocked location and – paradoxically – abundance of raw materials (→ Dutch disease). This bouquet of problems is often common in sub-Saharan countries.

Black Box Aid

According to OECD estimates, Official Development Assistance (ODA) has fallen sharply from US$214 billion in 2024 to US$174 billion in 2025. Nevertheless, the sector remains a huge job market and is openly promoted as such by, for example, Devex, an international specialist job-matching platform. Official development funds are not necessarily allocated strictly according to cost-benefit criteria. One reason for this is that there is no direct point of contact between the actors at either end of the official international aid system – taxpayers and voters in the highly developed donor countries on the one hand, and the final beneficiaries in the underdeveloped recipient countries on the other. Instead, the interests of development experts, local aid workers and lobby groups, as well as institutional considerations and political constraints at various levels, inevitably influence all decisions and processes, from setting priorities and allocating funds, through project planning and implementation, to the final evaluations and so-called impact reports. The economic independence of government development agencies, or the fact that they do not have to raise or generate themselves the funds they disburse, and that they are generally not directly affected if their programmes produce poor results, is essential in a humanitarian emergency context; however, it can also mean that there are no incentives for structural improvements. However, this does not change the fact that there is a lack of neutral, critical and multi-perspective evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness of development cooperation: Today, development organisations mainly evaluate each other. There are hardly any truly independent evaluations, and criticism can be quite easily ignored, as suboptimal results have no immediate or visible impact in the donor countries and are discussed in the media only sporadically.

An exposé is proposed in which the influence of the self-interests of both international (“expats”) and local project staff on the various phases of a project is analysed – from their influence on the selection of the target countries, to preliminary clarifications, to the planning, management, evaluations and the follow-up phases of programmes. The interests of employees of internationally financed development organisations and agencies may include job security, financial and other privileges, and a wide range of personal development opportunities. Furthermore, after long-term commitments, these employees often find that they have little chance of re-employment in their home or donor country or in the economy of the recipient country. These personal interests are perfectly legitimate as long as they are not predominantly self-serving and do not lead to bad projects being continued and financially supported forever, so to speak.

Budget for exposé (depending on the desired scope of data, analytical depth and travel requirements): €5,000 to € 25’000 [expenses / modest flat-rate fee]

The explosive growth of the world’s population is concentrated almost exclusively in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and poses a major challenge there – but also for a Europe that is becoming increasingly politically polarised due to increased migration pressure. Reproductive health and voluntary family planning through easy access to contraceptives and essential medicines as well as the abolition of female genital mutilation (FGM) should be a top priority for any society that is even remotely progressive. But the obstacles in the concerned countries are manifold: traditions, patriarchal thought patterns, anti-colonialist resentment, political agendas, bureaucracy, competing budget priorities. Medihelp was a relatively small aid organisation in Switzerland that took an unconventional approach to overcoming some of the obstacles by distributing medicines – classified as essential by the WHO and produced by certified manufacturers in India – to crisis-hit areas in the countries most in need. The idea behind this was that prices would fall if these medicines were either provided free of charge to those directly affected (particularly refugees) or sold to intermediaries at rock-bottom prices. However, after the non-profit association – which was funded entirely by philanthropists – came under scrutiny from the Swiss regulatory authorities, it had to be dissolved because it was impossible to meet Swiss regulatory requirements (e.g. individual identification of beneficiaries) in the recipient countries. Has a regulatory overhang turned into a self-perpetuating problem, resulting in the impossibility of implementing a highly efficient, countless lives saving but unconventional project or was it perhaps the other way round, namely that a life-threatening and extensive case of abuse was prevented? If the former was the case: how should things be done differently in future? And how should Medihelp’s free provision of reproductive health medicines and anti-malarial drugs be viewed in the context of the measures recommended by the Copenhagen Consensus as ‘best buys for Africa’?

Budget for case study: € 8’000 [expenses only]

Migration

Migration is a constant feature of human history. For centuries, Europeans have emigrated; since the 1960s, Europe has become a destination for immigrants from the South. These migrants often take enormous risks and incur huge costs in order to reach affluent Western countries, whether out of sheer desperation or for economic reasons. Refugee crises at the EU’s external borders, the southern border of the United States and other regions of the world are causing controversy and polarisation in the destination countries. Narratives surrounding migration are fluid, shaped by myths, perceptions, facts – or the denial of these – and political agendas. If the integration of generations with a migrant background fails, or if sections of the native population fear they will be left behind in the long term, even liberal and cosmopolitan societies face the threat of disintegration. Often, the root of the problem is not cultural differences per se, but rather the incompatibility of value systems or the fear that social welfare systems will be overburdened by poorly educated migrants who are difficult to integrate into the labour market. ELEPH-ANTS will take a critical look at both the opportunities and the risks associated with global migration and proactively develop concrete solutions.

Pinoy Swan Reloaded?

It is about the proposal elaborated by ELEPH-ANTS’ predecessor ANTHILLS in 2011 for the institutionalized recruitment, training and employment of Filipino nursing staff for the benefit of Swiss hospitals, nursing homes, day-care centers and private individuals (e.g. working parents) suffering from staff shortages. ANTHILLS’ circular labor migration model, with the claim of avoiding a drain-brain, was taken up in 2012 by the recruitment agency Care-Pers with a group of twenty Filipino care professionals in the framework of an internship and finally very successfully implemented. However, given the short residency period (6 months instead of 36 months as proposed by ANTHILLS), the training effort for Care-Pers was disproportionally high and costly, so there was no repeat. However, another, similar trial carried out between 2024 and 2026 at a hospital in Basel involving seven Filipino skilled workers who had already arrived with B2-level German language skills apparently failed once again due to everyday communication, difficulty understanding dialects, lengthy induction periods and the poor cost-benefit ratio, even though the individuals were apparently highly competent in their field. It is clear that countries like Switzerland are facing a dilemma: as the proportion of people requiring care rises – particularly due to an ageing population – the demand for care staff is increasing; at the same time, attempts to address this through labour migration are failing due to the administrative and organisational burdens involved (because these attempts do not benefit from potential economies of scale) and due to language barriers that could undoubtedly be overcome in the medium term. Does the problem ultimately lie in the expectations of the Swiss system and its staff? The concept is now to be revised so that an induction period (including dialect courses) is organized for pre-selected nursing staff in the Philippines itself in order to save corresponding but much higher costs in Switzerland.

Budget for Assessment of a situation: € 8’000 (travel and other expenses)

The White Paper on African Coastal Lease Cities, already mentioned in the subject area of housing, outlines a migration-related program in the chapter on potential business models. These extraterritorial, so-called ‘free cities’ could offer to provide vocational training and support for the culturally and linguistically integration of Africans who wish to work in Europe on a temporary or long-term and, of course, legalized basis.

Socio-utilitarian Detabooisation

Drug and other addictions, prostitution out of necessity, life-threatening eating disorders, depression and suicide are not only individual tragedies, but also cause immense economic costs and losses. Often these phenomena are ignored or tabooed, often not responded to out of excessive demands or with moral tunnel vision. Despite great urgency, these challenges are lost in everyday political life – only to resurface and disturb in acute events. Exclusions, lack of understanding and legal constraints often hinder promising solutions. Religious taboos and many dogmas contradict scientific knowledge and contribute significantly to global problems. Nevertheless, it can be counterproductive to try to put a frontal stop to unnatural, anti-life commandments, because additional irrational defensive reflexes could arise. The dismantling of burdensome taboos (mind you: there are also reasonable ones!) must be preceded by a broad sensitization process. This can be promoted through information, discussions and initiatives at the political and cultural level. Examples of what could be called ambivalent social behavior are the stigmatization or even criminalization of prostitution or homosexuality with the corresponding negative implications on the one hand and sexualized commercial advertising in public on the other.

Sex Sells - Women in Public Advertising

Young attractive women play an enormously important role in commercial advertising – for the most diverse products. This is often referred to as sexualized advertising in a sexualized society. Human beings are, by nature (or, in other words, as a product of evolution), hypersexual creatures. There are very plausible game-theoretical explanations that say that the life of a young female was more important for the survival of our savannah-dwelling ancestors than life of a male and that this is reflected in an instinctive appreciation for young women – by men and women alike. The omnipresence of advertising depicting women and the clash of different moral dispositions raises the question of how to deal with this advertising in the public sphere: Does public advertising turn women into perfect virtual seductresses or potential victims, both at the same time or neither? Young people, who are often insured and struggling to find their own identity, are subjected to a sophisticated bombardment of unrealistic beauty ideals on social media and in public advertising. So shouldn’t we at least restrict advertising where nobody can avoid it, namely in certain public spaces?

Budget estimate for survey and essay: € 10’000

Prostitution is an ancient phenomenon (“world’s oldest profession”) and societies have always had an ambivalent relationship to it. Currently, even in liberal countries, there are controversial efforts to criminalize prostitution (Nordic model) in the hope of abolishing prostitution altogether. There is no doubt that prostitution can lead to psychological trauma for prostitutes and have negative implications for society. On the other hand, there are realistic reasons to assume that a rigorous ban on prostitution can cause collateral damage in society, comparable to the rise of organized crime after alcohol prohibition in the US in the years 1920-33. Does the Nordic model make sense, and if so, does it work without rebound effects, such as clients (punters) moving to countries with much less regulation? What would it be like if the state had a monopoly on pimping, outsourced and controlled discreetly (while preserving the anonymity of the clients, of course) and possibly also received taxes that could be earmarked for the protection of prostitutes and the prevention of possible collateral damage caused by prostitution to society?  Is it only mainstream morality that speaks against such a concept, or are there other weighty reasons?

Budget estimate for essay incl. survey: € 20’000

Drug use is as old as mankind and has shaped societies; this is a verifiable prehistoric fact. Depending on their nature and when used correctly, psychotropic drugs can be beneficial (e.g. in alleviating severe depression). However, they can also cause devastating damage to individuals and society. In 1933, alcohol prohibition was abolished in the USA because after 14 years it was realised that the «experiment» had been a colossal failure – alcoholism could not really be combated and only the mafia had benefited massively and sustainably. Nevertheless, the USA declared another war of a similar nature in 1971: the «War on Drugs». This war continues to this day. In Mexico alone, it is estimated that more than 300,000 people were killed in connection with drugs between 2006 and 2023. Is controlled liberalisation the magic formula? The situation in Oregon, where new synthetic, extremely potent drugs are claiming many victims, suggests otherwise. Worldwide empirical surveys show that both overly repressive and overly lax drug policies are bad; there seems to be no alternative to the happy medium. Should national drug policy be largely removed from day-to-day politics and left solely to proven, sober-minded specialists (limited only by peer reviews) in order to find the best possible solutions for everyone — drug users, our communities and the state budget?

Budget estimate for concept of science based drug policy: € 30’000

There are no reliable global statistics on the causes of suicide, whether these were committed due to incurable illnesses or age-related ailments, mental health issues or other reasons. Surprisingly, very wealthy, socially well-functioning countries such as Finland, New Zealand or Switzerland seem to have high suicide rates that can be attributed to depression or social causes (loneliness, addiction, bullying, etc.). Susceptibility to depression can be associated with genetic predisposition and epigenetic influences. Very severe depression can usually only be overcome with medication within a reasonable period of time. However, the same antidepressants work differently or not at all in different people, and blind trials with placebos often produce surprisingly good results. In the last 25 years, there have been no fundamental pharmacological innovations in favour of the treatment of depressive disorders. However, it is slowly being recognised that a breakthrough could be achieved with LSD or psilocybin from magic mushrooms, which have probably been known to humans for 10,000s of years. The drug authorities are still reluctant to grant authorisation. There are some good reasons for this, but it can also be assumed that the decision-makers (especially psychiatrists) are simply unable to properly assess the risk-benefit ratio of such treatments, as the vast majority of them have never been confronted with the horror of long-term severe depression themselves and do not want to take any professional risks. People with a tendency towards recurrent severe depression occasionally form self-help groups, but not political lobbies whose aim it would be to push the use of psilocybin. What needs to be done?

Budget estimate for review of current research and recommendations: € 15’000