Weak supply capacity - that is, a limited ability to produce the quantity and quality of goods required to respond to global demand for those goods - is the main obstacle to improved export performance in Africa, and explains why the continent has lost market share from 6% of world exports in 1980 to about 3% in 2007, UNCTAD says in its new Economic Development in Africa report (see reference). WDEV summarises the study.
Subtitled "Export Performance following Trade Liberalization: Some Patterns and Policy Perspectives," the 2008 edition of UNCTAD´s annual report on Africa says two decades of trade liberalization have successfully removed many of the barriers that used to limit trade from the continent - and there has been a slight increase in exports as a result. But the progress has been less than expected and is far below the increases achieved by other developing regions ... ... this article comes up in Issue 5/Sep-Oct 2008 and is for subscribers only. For direct log in >>> click here.If you have no subscription >>> pick your option or >>>
The Superiority of the Financial Transaction Tax + Global Unemployment on Record Levels + New Beginning in European Development Policy? + Clean Development for the South
Global Economic Prospects for 2010 + Does Copenhagen Really Matter? + Quo Vadis, German Development Cooperation? + Mapping Social Protection in South Asia
"Natural disasters have invariably been transformed into man-made disasters, through the unpreparedness and dysfunction of government institutions, the incompetence of its politicians, the greed of its economic agents, the tenuous nature of support from civil society..."
The summit meeting of the Group of 20 most important industrialised and emerging countries (G20) in Toronto on 26-27 June 2010 reminded us that even extended informal management bodies in the global economy can only be as good as their member governments.
It was not long ago that we could say, "We are all Keynesians now." The financial sector and its free-market ideology had brought the world to the brink of ruin. Markets clearly were not self-correcting. Deregulation had proven to be a dismal failure.
Love for Africa was the motto at Tchibo-World, which took place in the third week of June in 2008. In addition to fair coffee and African furniture, 700,000 tops, skirts and table cloths bearing the Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) label have been sold in the 900 (app.) Tchibo retail stores.
The ITUC's Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights has documented a dramatic increase in the number of trade unionists murdered in 2009, with 101 killings - an increase of 30% over the previous year. The new Survey also reveals growing pressure on fundamental workers' rights around the world as the impact of the global economic crisis on employment deepened.