The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are controversial among governments and civil society organisations for many reasons: their unfair governance structures, their harmful loan conditionality, and last not least the fossil-based project policies of the Bank. Barbara Unmüßig explores some alternatives.
This article will highlight the following key points: how the financial and climate crises created by the West is devastating innocent countries; how the International Financial Institutions have contributed to these crises, including through imposing policies in developing countries that are rarely implemented by industrialized countries; and how these problems must be addressed through new governance arrangements and more vital civil society movements that insist on a Green New Deal for all countries ... ... this article 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
EU Presidency outlook for development + Luxembourg: Tax haven or financial centre? + Moyos book as an opportunity + Crisis in South Asia + New LDC report
The G20's unfinished business: The potential of SDRs + Compensating poor food importers + EU strategy on aquaculture + World Bank suspends labour indicator
In December 2010 the Lisbon Treaty came into force. What difference will this make for European Union development co-operation and humanitarian assistance? Mirjam van Reisen identifies the changes in the legal framework and interprets what difference this will make for the policy in practice.
"Ideas matter, people matter" - and powerful ideas "become embedded in institutions" said two authors of the United Nations Intellectual History Project series, Sir Richard Jolly and Thomas G. Weiss, at a meeting at UNCTAD's headquarter this month arguing that the UN, despite its shortcomings, has had a massive positive influence on the world.
The 2009 State of Food and Agriculture report was delayed for several months. After the disaster of Copenhagen, one could have expected it to provide the necessary guidance to policy changes for saving the Planet from further increases of greenhouse gases emitted from livestock. But FAO's suggestions are comparable to rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic.
There is an extraordinary strong support of civil society in Europe for the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). This reflects a general trend in public opinion. Not only many politicians - Merkel, Sarkozy, Brown, Barroso - have supported the FTT, there is - like all opinion polls show - an overwhelming majority of people in favour of stricter regulation and taxation.
The number of jobless worldwide reached nearly 212 million in 2009 following an unprecedented increase of 34 million compared to 2007, on the eve of the global crisis, the International Labour Office (ILO) says in its recent annual "Global Employment Trends" report.