EU Development policy to focus on climate and democracy, says Mrs Carlsson

30 September 2009 in Crisis, Development, Environment, European Union, OECD

As president in office of the EU Council, the Minister for International Development Cooperation of Sweden, Gunilla Carlsson, presented to MEPs from the Committee on Development the presidency’s priorities for the second semester of 2009: development as part of the climate change agenda, democracy building as well as policy coherence and effectiveness. Helping to ensure [...]

EU Commission report on European competitiveness

30 September 2009 in Clusters, Crisis, Economy, Employment, European Union, Technology

The European Commission issued its Annual Report on Competition Policy for 2008. The report provides a summary of the most important developments with regards to EU competition policy and focuses on major enforcement actions. Furthermore, the ways in which tools of competition policy have been applied to combat the financial crisis are outlined and the [...]

World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development

3 July 2009 in Crisis, Development, Economy, Employment, European Union, Germany, OECD, Poverty
Tags: Crisis

The United Nations Conference on the world financial crisis adopted a wide-ranging Outcome Document (http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/CONF.214/3&Lang=E). The Outcome Document recognizes that the incoherence of the global economic system needs to be urgently addressed. It stresses the importance of the United Nations’ role in international economic issues,emphasizing that its universal membership and legitimacy makes it well positioned [...]

Helping developing countries during the financial crisis

2 May 2009 in Africa, Asia, Banking, Caribbean, Crisis, Development, Economy, European Union, OECD, Poverty, Publications

Developing countries are severely hit by the global economic crisis. The leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies, recognising that the global financial crisis has ‘a disproportionate impact’ on vulnerable people in poor countries, have promised to make hundreds of billions of United States dollars available to these countries as part of a $1.1 trillion [...]

Bleak outlook for developing Asia, but region can cope with crisis, says ADB

2 May 2009 in Asia, Crisis, Economy, Research

Developing Asia’s economic growth will slow in 2009 to its most sluggish pace since the 1997/1998 Asian financial crisis, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says in a new major report. The Asian Development Outlook 2009 forecasts economic growth in developing Asia will slide to just 3.4% in 2009, down from 6.3% last year and 9.5% [...]

Diaspora to Promote Job Creation and Youth Development in Africa

2 May 2009 in ACP, Africa, Crisis, Development, Employment, Migration, Remittances

More than 50 Washington D.C.-based members of the African Diaspora participated in the launch of the 2008/2009 Africa Development Indicators (ADI) report . As this year’s ADI focuses on ‘‘Youth and Employment in Africa – The Potential, The Problem, The Promise”, the launch targeted Diaspora with an interest in youth development and promoting job creation [...]

Websites you can use for poverty impact assessment

14 March 2009 in Crisis, Development, Economy, Employment, Links, Methods, Poverty, Research

BRIDGE – Gender and Poverty
http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports_gend_pov.htm
BRIDGE Gender and Poverty publications include summaries of key materials, good practice cases, lists of tools and checklists and key online resources.
British Library for Development Studies Subject Guide on Poverty
http://blds.ids.ac.uk/guides/pov.html
This Guide provides quick access to BLDS resources through pre-designed searches of the catalogue’s 150 000 plus records.
CROP Comparative Research Programme [...]

Unions to Davos: Jobs the Missing Link

3 February 2009 in Crisis, Economy, Employment, European Union, ILO

Employment and incomes key to pulling world economy out of tailspin, as ILO predicts up to 50 million jobs to go and 200 million more into absolute poverty, as new IMF figures herald global recession. The global financial crisis now threatens to become a social time bomb if the world’s governments don’t act together to [...]

OECD countries reaffirmed commitments to open trade and aid

3 February 2009 in Banking, Crisis, Development, European Union, OECD, WTO

OECD countries have pledged to abstain from trade protectionism as part of a concerted drive to shore up the world economy and combat recession. They also have reaffirmed their commitments on aid to developing countries. Already in November 2008, at a meeting of the OECD’s Executive Committee in Special Session, OECD countries agreed to sustain [...]

The Global Financial Crisis: What does it mean for microfinance?

3 February 2009 in Africa, Asia, Banking, Crisis, Economy, Microfinance

In most past financial crises – like those of the 1990s in Asia, Mexico, and Russia – financial services for poor people have been remarkably resilient. In fact, the quality of the loan portfolios of microfinance institutions (MFIs) during the Asian crisis and in Latin America during various banking crises barely quivered, while corporate portfolios [...]

World Social Forum: Globalization is destroying itself

3 February 2009 in Crisis, Development, Economy, Trade

The world economic crisis spells the death of globalization and action is needed to protect the poor, said organizers of the World Social Forum as it wrapped up in Belem, Brazil on Sunday. ”We have come out against neoliberal globalization, and now that this globalization is destroying itself we have to define the world we [...]

Financial Crisis Presents Opportunity for Asia, Jeffrey Sachs tells ADB audience

3 February 2009 in Asia, Crisis
Tags: Asia, Crisis, Research

The global economic crisis should be viewed by Asia’s policymakers as an opportunity to expand investment in ”desperately” needed public goods, economist Jeffrey Sachs told an ADB audience.
In a lecture titled ”Achieving Global Cooperation on Economic Recovery and Long-Term Sustainable Development”, Prof. Sachs said that with the drop in external demand for Asian exports, the [...]