The WDEV highlights of 2011

Prognosis 2012: On the brink of a global recession
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.
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G20: The wrong forum for development policy
While the G20 efforts to manage global aggregate demand, exchange rate management and stronger regulation of the international financial sector have not worked out quite as planned, in Cannes the Group was further solidifying its role in directing the system of multilateral institutions.
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How speculators are driving food prices
Financial institutions like Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs are speculating with food at the expense of the poorest. According to a new report titled "Die Hunger-Macher" ("The Hunger Makers"), there is a close connection between speculation and rising food prices.
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Thanks to Germany it's 2008 all over again
The greatest swindle of modern times is the massive 'bait and switch' perpetrated on the publics of Europe by their governments on behalf of their banks. What we refer to today as the 'European Sovereign Debt Crisis' began largely as a private sector financial crisis.
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The euro zone and its periphery: Bail-out 2.0
The EU summit on 21 July 2011 got much publicity, but produced quite limited results. It brought some short-term relief for Greece and other euro zone states in the periphery, but did hardly anything to deal with underlying problems. Its main result was buying time.
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Portugal on its way to the slaughter house
After some hesitations, the Portuguese government announced that it would seek support from the EU and the IMF. It did so in the face of systematic downgrading of Portugal's creditworthiness by US rating agencies and rapidly mounting interest rates.
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Global environmental governance at Rio+20
There is little faith in the reform of the UN system; nonetheless, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, to be held in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 - also known as Rio +20 - is not only to set the stage for a green economy, but also to provide an impetus for the institutional reform of the UN environmental sector.
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The IMF and reforming the global monetary system
Since Dominique Strauss-Kahn - the self-anointed "reform director" - became the head of the International Monetary Fund, the IMF has made enormous gains in power but reform of its policies and governance model are far behind. This discrepancy will not be remedied by the French G20 presidency either.
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The shifting global poverty reduction agenda
2010 has been a remarkable year. There is triumphalism around the perception of a quick recovery from the 2008/9 financial and economic crisis - a triumphalism which focuses blindly on GDP growth and is oblivious to the catastrophic levels of old and new unemployment. At the same time, however, there is a notable countermovement.
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WBGU Report: A social contract for sustainability
The German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) has just published its latest flagship report, World in Transition: A Social Contract for Sustainability. In this report, the WBGU explains the reasons for the urgent need for a 'post fossil-nuclear metabolism'. It also concludes that the transition to sustainability is achievable, and presents ten concrete packages of measures to accelerate the necessary restructuring.
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LDCs set to jump start to a green economy
With their low-carbon profile, rich natural assets and promising policy initiatives, the world's 48 least developed countries are well-positioned to jump start the transition to a green economy, according to a new UN report.
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Hunger: The true growth story in India
Multidimensional Hunger + Food Prices + Food Security in a Rights-based perspective + Household, National, and Global Aspects
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