The Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA), major aid effectiveness agreements of the international community, were a first attempt to make aid work better for poverty eradication and sustainable development and to deliver on the Global Partnership for Development (MDG8), but little attention has so far been paid to how aid can enable poor people and countries to help themselves, to become independent from aid in the long run. By Bodo Ellmers
According to a new study (see reference), key to such success are smarter procurement practices by aid agencies and developing country governments. Development projects are administered by ministries and aid agencies but they rely on inputs from the private sector, for example to contract construction firms to deliver infrastructure works, buy drugs for health programmes, or purchase textbooks for education projects. The exact amount is not officially disclosed, but our calculations suggest that $69bn annually, more than 50% of total official development assistance, is spent on procuring goods and services for development projects from external providers...
Marking the 30th anniversary of one of the world's more influential economic annuals experts pointed out that themes long sounded in UNCTAD's Trade and Development Report retain current prominence - particularly those citing the questionable wisdom of unbridled free markets.
In an open letter a global coalition of development activists and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is calling on the World Bank's governors to ensure that the next president is chosen in an "open and merit-based process" that will give borrowing countries a major say in the selection.
After decades of isolation - imposed by major OECD countries out of concern for the country's human rights violations - Myanmar is emerging as a new darling of the "West" - judging by the accelerating succession of visits by senior officials and gurus. New groups of investors are waiting to enter the country as soon as possible.
Persistent high unemployment, the euro area debt crisis and premature fiscal austerity have already slowed global growth and factor into the possibility of a new recession. Now the United Nations have downgraded significantly its forecasts for the world economy in the next year.
Eastern European states are in for a new round of the crisis. The external control of the banking sector and high reliance on external credit has landed the countries of Eastern Europe in a vulnerable position. Now, credit flows from Western banks are drying up again. Hungary has been the first country in the region to ask for IMF support again.