South African Free Trade Experiences with the EU
The 76 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries are under considerable pressure by the European Union to finalise Free Trade Agreements (under the heading of Economic Partnership Agreements or EPAs) by the end of 2007. This paper analyses the costs and benefits of EPAs in the light of the South African free trade experiences with the EU.
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The Current World-Economic Bonanza and its Risks
Current encouraging global economic progress must be carefully managed so that the benefits are more thoroughly extended to the world's poorest people and the poorest nations, urges a new UNCTAD report.
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The EU Presidency Outlook for Development
July marks the handover of the reins of the EU presidency from Germany to Portugal, providing a moment to pause and assess the German contributions to development as well as the agenda for the rest of 2007 for the Portuguese. The EU has the opportunity to show it is capable of re-forming the $10bn of annual Community aid.
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Development NGOs Prepare for Portuguese Presidency
Whereas European Heads of State and Government will meet in Brussels later this week to held their summit under the German Presidency, NGOs are already preparing for the Portuguese Presidency in the second half of 2007. Their central concern is the future of ACP-Europe trade relations.
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Latin American Governments and Foreign Investors
The relationships between governments and investors are changing rapidly, and this is especially true in Latin America today. Last month, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua announced that they would withdraw from the World Bank's international arbitration body, the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
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German G8 Politics on the Eve of Heiligendamm
The drafts for Heiligendamm are full of clichés: growth and responsibility, social and sustainable shaping of globalisation and – obviously – fair partnership with the rest of the world. That sounds good. But the gigantic expense just for security is entirely disproportional to the economic and development policy outcomes to be delivered by this summit.
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Rogue Aid Talk: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall ...
Under the heading "Rogue Aid" Moisés Naím, editor of the US magazine Foreign Policy, has published an article that has attracted considerable international interest. Articles of this kind, in which up-and-coming countries of the South are perceived primarily as a threat, have recently become very common in the OECD world.
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G8: Surprise Us ... and Remember Your Promises!
In a few weeks, eight of the world's most important leaders will meet in Heiligendamm. So as the G8 meets again, what can we expect? Well, for those working towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, I would say not much, writes Eveline Herfkens.
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High Time to Look Seriously at Commodities
In an effort to take commodities from a long period of virtual oblivion to the centre of poverty reduction strategies, a “Global Initiative on Commodities” is being taken that brings together governments, NGOs and private sector representatives at a conference in Brasilia from 7 to 11 May.
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The G8, Africa, and NEPAD: Self-proclaimed Success
Since the beginning of this century the G8 started to cultivate a special intimate relationship to representatives of a "new Africa" in response to their courting. Not by accident, Angela Merkel announced for Heiligendamm a further expansion of this link into "reform partnerships".
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The Wolfowitz Affair One Week After
The agenda for the high-level IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings a week ago was suitably ambitious. But then, the buzz in overall Meetings was just about Paul Wolfowitz, the two-year American President of the World Bank. Not about his achievements, mind you, of which – as even his staunchest supporters have to admit – there are so far precious few.
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Financing for Development: From Monterrey to Doha
Currently Doha, the capital of the Arab Emirate Qatar, stands for the latest WTO round. This may soon change: In 2008, the United Nations will hold their 2nd Global Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) in Doha.
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New Donors: Development Assistance à la Chávez
The oil boom made it possible. Venezuela, the fifth largest exporter of oil and petroleum products has developed into an important donor country in Latin America in the past three years.
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Shifting the Debate: A Double Majority for the IMF
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has initiated a series of reforms that some say will act to dampen existing power discrepancies. However, the proposed reforms, if implemented as currently being discussed, will actually prove regressive for developing country interests.
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New Patterns of Mobility for India Needed
India's state-sponsored car boom is inciting oil guzzling that the country cannot afford. India is consuming more oil than ever before, and the growing transport sector is guzzling a lot of this oil. The 2007-08 Union budget must address this linkage between vehicles and energy insecurity, according to a new study by the Centre for Science and Environment.
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North Falls Short of Development Aid Promises
According to the new Development Co-operation Report of OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC), aid donors will have to increase funding for aid programmes faster that any other public expenditure in order to fulfil their commitments to increase aid to $130bn and double aid to Africa by 2010.
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New Special Report: Democracy and Globalisation
How democracy must be reformed in order to meet the new requirements posed by globalisation? The main problem is not how to conceive a blueprint of a global democratically structured government, and define its tasks. The main problem is rather to find out how we could come from here to there.
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Stepping Up Pressure on G8 and German Presidency
Coinciding with the first meeting of G7 Finance Ministers under Germany's G8 presidency on 9-10 February in Essen, NGOs and civil society organisations stepped up significantly their pressure on the richest countries of the world to make good their promises on aid, debt cancellation and trade.
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Retreat or a New Wave of Globalisation?
Whereas the prominent globalisation critic Walden Bello already sees the “retreat of globalisation”, the World Bank in its most recent report believes that a new globalisation wave is about to hit and the decisive issue is how to manage the globalisation of the next 25 years. Yet the protagonists have more in common than generally assumed.
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Intellectual Property High on the G-8 Agenda
Intellectual property rights are supposed to play a crucial role at the coming G-8 summit in Heiligendamm. The subject itself is politically highly explosive. The German federal government’s G-8 agenda leans heavily toward the short-term interests of knowledge owners (= industrialised countries).
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The New Landscape of Lenders and the World Bank
The creditor landscape is rapidly changing. New donor countries such as China, India and Venezuela are stepping forward with offers of rapidly-disbursed and almost condition-fee cash to low-income African and Latin American nations. This has the "traditional" donor community seriously worried.
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