World Economic Perspectives in 2007
Stepping back from an all-time high growth the world economy is expected to moderate in 2007, according to a new UN report, titled "World Economic Situation and Prospects 2007". While growth in the US slows, it remains robust in the South.
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Special Report: Climate Change and Human Rights
Climate change is far from being just an ecological issue; it is also an issue of equity. Equity has at least two dimensions. First, the fair distribution of burdens and benefits of fossil fuel use among nations. Secondly, the universal protection of the fundamental rights of every human person to water, food, housing, and health. A new report focuses on the latter.
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Action Plan: The New 'Smarties' of the World Bank
"Forget China, India and the internet: economic growth is driven by women". Under this quote from "The Economist", the World Bank presents its new gender action plan for the fiscal year 2007-10 and thereby anticipates the key objective of its women and gender policy: growth.
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China: Reversing the Brain Drain
Brain drains rob developing countries of valuable human talent, as their best and brightest people go abroad to study and opt to stay in the developed world. For many years, the People's Republic of China has been no exception to this phenomenon.
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The EU Presidency Outlook for Development
As the Finns enter the final stretch of their EU Presidency, a review is in order of the achievements for development during the past six months as well as a look ahead with Germany in the starting blocks for its Presidency beginning in January.
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The Coherence Panel's Mixed Bag of Proposals
After less than nine months, the High-Level Panel on system-wide coherence commissioned by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has just delivered an attention-grabbing report. To what extent the panel's efforts will lead to genuine change, entirely depends on the political will of member states.
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Towards Heiligendamm: The German G-8 Agenda
At the G-8 summit, to be held from 6-8 June 2007 in Heiligendamm, the German government intends to focus on "shaping globalisation and helping Africa to develop". One can only agree. Yet the question is: How? On that point the agenda proves to be deeply flawed. It does not even mention the long overdue reform of the summit architecture itself.
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HDR: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis
Focusing on the global water crisis, the Human Development Report 2006 takes up a subject which for several years has been widely and hotly debated. Thus, it is difficult to say something really new - but with its focus on equity issues the HDR is markedly different from comparable reports.
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EU: The New Financial Instrument for Development
After more than two years of negotiations, the European Union (EU) agreed on a Budgetary framework for 2007-2013. This framework, known as Financial Perspectives, is made up of a series of instruments. The instrument that covers EC financial assistance to developing countries is the Development Co-operation Instrument (DCI).
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Counterrevolution or Reform at the United Nations?
Although the American media generally depicted Kofi Annan’s end-of-term reform package for the United Nations as a failure, its achievements are by no means negligible. The cup is certainly more than half full.
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Around the World, Millions Stand Up for MDGs
In churches and schools, in slums and outside posh hotels, on Indian cricket fields and in Mexican football stadiums, close to 24 million people participated in the United Nations-led “Stand Up Against Poverty” initiative to remind world leaders of their promises to eliminate extreme poverty by 2015.
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Helsinki Meeting on EU Policy Coherence
Development experts discussed policy coherence for development at a meeting on 2 and 3 October in Helsinki. They concluded: Aid alone is not enough; also other policies must support the fight against poverty. However to find practical solutions to ensure policy coherence for development in the EU and Member State policies is no easy walk.
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The EU's Good Governance Agenda in Development
The European Commission's August 2006 communication on governance and development co-operation is a flawed approach, set in motion too quickly for reasons of the internal EC aid programming calendar and lacking thorough debate with stakeholders in developing countries.
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The World Bank Before Singapore: Continuing Crisis
The change from Wolfensohn to Wolfowitz put a great sense of urgency into the question of what course the world’s most influential financial adviser and financing institution would take. However, Wolfowitz’s first year brought no great surprises.
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Between Geneva, Singapore and Heiligendamm
With the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) in Geneva suspended, with the G8 summit in St Petersburg deeply flawed, with an irritating outlook for next year's Heiligendamm summit, and - last but not least - with the Bretton Woods twins IMF and World Bank in acute crisis, these days seem to form a perfect scenario for an anti-globaliser's summer festival. But ...
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'War on Terror' Will be Won at Home
Five years after the twin towers crumbled in a horrifying spectacle, our government’s foreign policy has done more to recruit terrorists and sympathizers than anything that Osama Bin Laden could have imagined. A comment from the US.
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A Development Agenda for Internet Governance
'Development agendas' in WTO and WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) mark a new era in global policy spaces, whereby the rights of the South are being asserted. However, the governance of new information and communication technologies ICTs, chiefly the Internet, remains a nebulous zone, with practically no global policy frameworks.
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Coke/Pepsi and the 'Investment Climate' in India
The Bush administration is facing fierce criticism across India for backing the Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola companies in their fight with local authorities and consumer groups.
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