Archive for the 'Economy' Category

AGEG Consultants eG has two new Managing Directors, who share general management tasks. Both are experienced Consultants and are named Harald, but are not relatives. Harald Himsel will lead the business development, while Harald Speidel looks more on the administration and financial management. Martina Jacobson joined the team as Project Manager for Training, E-Learning, and [...]

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 [...]

The European Commission published the results of the new ”Flash Eurobarometer: SMEs’ access to finance”. The survey, conducted with 9071 firms in 27 EU Member States, Croatia, Iceland and Norway, was set up to assess EU companies’ use of various sources of finance, to get a picture of the magnitude of companies’ difficulties in getting [...]

The fourth phase of AL-INVEST, financed by the European Commission, aims at supporting the internationalisation of Latin American SMEs in collaboration with their European partners in order to contribute to reinforce social cohesion in the region. Unlike the previous phases, the fourth phase of the AL-INVEST (2009-2012) is implemented through three groups of business organisations [...]

Creating the conditions for good jobs and, more importantly, social protection programs for those unable to find decent work is an urgent priority for governments in Asia and the Pacific, Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice President Ursula Schaefer-Preuss told a conference in Ha Noi, Viet Nam. Speaking at the conclusion of a three-day conference titled [...]

Asia and Pacific countries continue to make broad progress in reducing extreme poverty but hunger still remains widespread and many economies are struggling to meet other Millennium Development Goals, including reductions in maternal mortality rates and access to sanitation, latest available data show. Source: ADB http://www.adb.org/article.asp?id=12968

GTZ has contracted CEFE International to develop a Tool Box for the Promotion of Private Sector Development Commitment of Migrants. 15 innovative and well described ideas are needed. Approved contributions (4 pages) will be honoured with up to 375,00 USD. But you can gain even more. http://www.cefe.net/en/makemoney/call-contributions-migration-and-development

Looking for a job in development cooperation? This Website gives you a list of professional opportunities around the world. Updated as you arrive. I am still working on updates, so come back soon.
http://www.weitzenegger.de/new/jobmarket.php

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 [...]

The African Diaspora Marketplace (ADM) is a business plan competition designed to support the entrepreneurial spirit and resources of the U.S.-based African diaspora community to promote economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa by facilitating diaspora direct investment in viable small and medium enterprises. Sponsored by USAID and the Western Union Company, the ADM is currently seeking [...]

The European Commission has adopted a communication on the role of Fair Trade and non-governmental trade-related sustainability assurance schemes. The communication recognises the significant development of the Fair Trade movement and the significance of a European market now worth EUR 1.5 billion per year. The communication also lays out new policy areas where Fair Trade [...]

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 [...]

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% [...]

Based on new developments in the labour market and depending on the timeliness and effectiveness of recovery efforts, the ILO report says global unemployment in 2009 could increase over 2007 by a range of 18 million to 30 million workers, and more than 50 million if the situation continues to deteriorate. The ILO report also [...]

The European Commission has published a new document on Aid for Trade. This publication provides a clearer picture of this development assistance strategy. It examines the broad scope of Aid for Trade, explains the key types of Aid for Trade under the themes of ‘‘narrow” Aid for Trade (Trade Related Assistance) and ‘‘Wider” Aid for [...]

African Parliamentary Poverty Reduction Network – (APRN)
http://www.parlcent.ca/africa/prnetwork/pr_network_e.php
The APRN was created in 2003 in response to demands by African parliamentarians for a network that would bring together Members of Parliament from all over Africa interested in central issues such as poverty reduction to discuss and share best practices, lessons learned and experiences in that area; as [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The SEED Initiative (Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development) has recently launched its call for proposals for the 4th edition of the ”2009 SEED Awards for entrepreneurship in sustainable development”. This award welcomes innovative ideas from any group in a developing country or country in transition worldwide, which is working in partnership with others to [...]

The Doha Conference of the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development adopted, by consensus, a draft outcome document (http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=A/CONF.212/L.1/REV.1). It calls for a reform of international financial institutions and for including leading emerging countries in decision-making.
In a final statement, delegates noted that the financial crisis plaguing the world ”makes imperative a more fundamental [...]

A new report from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) looks at the impact of the global financial crisis on the developing world. Results show that developing countries cannot be treated as a homogenous block. Concerns vary significantly across countries, depending on their current economic situation, exposure to specific impacts and capacity to respond. Isolation [...]

The European Commission presented a Recovery Plan based on short-term measures to boost demand, save jobs and help restore confidence, and also on ‘’smart investment” to yield higher growth and sustainable prosperity in the longer-term. The Plan calls for a timely, targeted and temporary fiscal stimulus in 2009-2010 of EUR 200bn, or 1.5% of EU [...]

The objective of this year’s report is to examine Africa’s export performance after trade liberalization in order to draw relevant lessons that could be used to craft future trade and development strategies. The main message is that the efforts made by African countries in terms of trade liberalization over the last twenty-five years have removed [...]