Official launch of the ACP Migration Facility

http://www.acp.int/en/sg/migration09/acpmigration09_workshop.html
The ACP Migration Facility aiming to support the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to better understand and manage the flow of migration within their borders, was officially launched on the 27th and 28th October in Brussels. This took place during a workshop organised by the ACP Secretariat in collaboration with the European Commission’s EuropeAid Cooperation Office (AIDCO). Source: ACP Secretariat.

Filed under: ACP, Africa, Caribbean, Development, European Union, Migration, Remittances

Diaspora to Promote Job Creation and Youth Development in Africa

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 in Africa. ‘‘The ADI launch in D.C. targets people who can really make a difference to Africa – the Diaspora,” said Shantayanan Devarajan, Chief Economist of the World Bank’s Africa Region, in his opening remarks. He further explained that data can be a good tool for accountability to help citizens hold leadership responsible for measurable results. http://tinyurl.com/d4s24k

Filed under: ACP, Africa, Crisis, Development, Employment, Migration, Remittances

New Publications

Responsible enterprise, foreign direct investment, and investment promotion
http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=15511IIED
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is widely considered to be a key factor in economic development in middle and low income countries. Positively, it can be associated with the introduction of new technologies, job creation, access to new markets and improvements in the competitiveness of host countries. But too often, FDI has been associated with environmental degradation, increased inequality, and lack of integration with the local economy. A number of host country government departments have a role in influencing the overall investment climate. Among them, Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) are often players because they are in the front line of targeting investors and marketing the country as a whole. This book brings together a series of papers identifying opportunities for IPAs to attract FDI that is associated with positive contributions to sustainable development and good corporate social responsibility practices. The papers are written by IIED researchers and other sectoral experts, multilateral organizations working closely with IPAs in attracting FDI, and representatives of IPAs themselves. The book points to a number of opportunities for IPAs in attracting FDI with good CSR practices and highlights key leverage points and practical tools to achieve this. It is intended to provide a primer for investment promotion agencies and pointers for approaches that could be deployed in the future. By Annie Dufey and Maryanne Grieg-Gran. International Institute for Environment and Development, 2008.

Commodity Dependence, Resource Curse and Export Diversification in Africa
http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/africa/africanyearbook.htm

The 12th edition of the African Development Perspectives Yearbook published in April 2007 by the Institute for World Economics and International Management (IWIM), University of Bremen is entitled ”Africa – Commodity Dependence, Resource Curse and Export Diversification”. It contains detailed analyses and development theory perspectives on the challenges at the policy and economic level in managing the high dependence on natural resources in numerous African states. The high resource dependence of these countries coupled with poor handling of resource wealth, especially with regard to resources of high geostrategic significance like oil, are primarily responsible for the above problems.

Stepping up the ladder: how business can help achieve the MDGs
http://tinyurl.com/59asvl
Business and development is the topic to watch and work on in 2008, as businesses
respond to sustained pressure to contribute to the MDGs. Maintain the pressure, manage the engagement, and the prize is a new contribution by business to poverty reduction and sustainable livelihoods: social welfare contributions and links to social enterprises, yes, but also new procurement practices and new kinds of partnership with local communities and local government. To understand the potential, think of business engagement as a (short) ladder with three – possibly four – steps.

How to Design, Negotiate, and Implement a Free Trade Agreement in Asia
http://www.aric.adb.org/pdf/FTA_Manual.pdf
This ADB reference book is intended to be used mainly in present and planned FTA training courses of the Asian Development Bank, to increase the knowledge and capacity of officials who are active in designing, negotiating, and implementing FTAs. Building on theories of international trade economics and the good?practiceFTA experiences accumulated by both front-runners and late beginners in this area, the book explains important facts and benchmarks to be considered when preparing, negotiating, and enforcing FTAs. Rather than going into the details of specific topics, this reference book covers the overall FTA process and its main features.

OECD-DAC Glossary of Key Terms in Evaluation. Arabic, English and French

http://tinyurl.com/6djkvf
Evaluation is a field where development partners work closely together and need to use a common technical vocabulary, despite widely differing linguistic backgrounds. Accordingly, the OECD-DAC Network on Development Evaluation has developed a glossary of key terms in evaluation and results-based management to help to clarify concepts and to promote consistent use of common terms in these areas. The glossary was originally published in 2002 in English, French and Spanish and has since been made available in Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Kiswahili, Turkish and Swedish. It has been very widely used and is now a standard reference. The present publication now offers the glossary in Arabic, in a trilingual format with English and French.

The 2008 Reader on Private Sector Development – Measuring and Reporting Results
http://www.mmw4p.org/dyn/bds/docs/detail/649/4
Paper by Jim Tanburn, ITC, SDC
There is little information available about the impacts of programmes for private sector development (PSD), mainly because programme goals are often very ambitious, and impacts costly to quantify, relative to the resources available. Indeed, the cost of measuring impacts is often classified as an ‘overhead’, to be kept to a minimum. Those aiming to stimulate systemic change also point out that their work does not lend itself to the mechanistic model of inputs-outputs-outcomes-impacts in conventional thinking. Besides, practitioners would need to accept the methodology, and to be rewarded for good performance, for results measurement to be adopted on a large scale. However, current indicators in common usage, such as leverage (to be maximised) and overhead (to be minimised), encourage perverse incentives and distract from the core task of achieving developmental goals. The many self-published ‘success stories’ leave most observers confused.

GTZ’s experience in value chain development in Asia: an external perspective
http://www2.gtz.de/wbf/doc/GTZ_experience_in_VC_development_Asia.pdf

Value chain development has become an increasingly common focus for development agencies over the last few years. GTZ’s experience in this sphere has also been growing, both practically and conceptually. Practically, projects have been implemented following best practices and approaches available. Conceptionally, the ”ValueLinks” methodology, which is now accepted as the typical ”GTZ approach”, was developed based on networking between GTZ supported programs in 3 continents and GTZ headquarters. In order to gain more insight from the practical point of view, this discussion paper was commissioned to examine and compare experiences made in the last few years with differing approaches across a region. Focussing on five countries in Asia – Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam – it aims to outline the main characteristics of GTZ’s value chain work and identify the key challenges emerging from this. In doing so, it seeks to contribute to learning within GTZ and in the wider donor community.The paper is built on one key premise: that in working in value chains GTZ’s interest is to achieve impacts that are large-scale and sustainable, requiring systemic change beyond individual firms. It is structured around a framework of issues and criteria for describing and assessing work in value chains and the four key stages in value chain development work: initial selection and analysis, strategies, detailed interventions and monitoring and evaluation.

Public-Private Partnership Models in TVET and their Impact on the Role of Government
http://www2.gtz.de/wbf/doc/2.2_06_GTZ_ENG.pdf
This paper by Edda Grunwald looks at how public private partnerships (PPP) in Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) have been used in developing countries such as Egypt and Chile with support from the German Development Cooperation. The emphasis is on the gains that can be made from such partnerships and the governance frameworks that need to be in place in order for them to work optimally. The processes through which each of these countries went in order to implement such systems are described in some detail. The PPPs build on the experience of the German dual system of vocational education and encompass the changing focus of donor support as articulated, for example, in the Paris Declaration, to emphasise the need to support the policies of partner countries. The most interesting aspect of the approach is the way in which it combines an educational paradigm and an economic or pro-poor paradigm with the intention of ensuring that traditionally marginalized groupings are able to earn a reasonable income, contribute to economic growth and social cohesion.

Creating an enabling environment for for private sector development in Sub-Saharan Africa
http://www2.gtz.de/wbf/doc/07-89144_Ebook1.pdf
This report discusses how the business environment in Sub-Saharan African can be improved in order to foster enterprise development. Past efforts to boost private sector development have shown disappointing results. This holds especially for the orthodox structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s and 90s. But also the wide array of support schemes by governments and donors aimed to strengthen specific industries, groups of enterprises, or supporting institutions have rarely had a significant impact. Although a few remarkable project successes exist, these mostly remain isolated events with no country-wide outreach and no measurable effect on aggregate economic growth.

This study provides an analytical framework to compare the different approaches, making their underlying assumptions explicit and proposing a terminology to distinguish different notions of the ‘business enabling environment’. It shows that the Doing Business agenda is embedded in a neoclassical framework assuming that markets work reasonably well if property rights and competition are guaranteed. The agenda thus advocates minimal regulatory government intervention and a very limited role for supporting particular economic actors. Especially important for Sub-Saharan Africa, it presupposes a significant growth potential even for informal micro enterprises if unfair regulations are abolished. This is in marked contrast to neo-structuralist positions that emphasize market failure and the need for corrective policies, especially to enhance competitive advantages and to support disadvantaged groups.

Field Manual: Supporting Microfinance through Grants in Post-Crisis Settings
http://www.microfinancegateway.com/files/44668_file_Field_Guide_FINAL.pdf
This DAI field manual offers guidance to small grant program managers on supporting microfinance institutions (MFIs1) in countries recovering from conflict or natural disaster through small, shortterm grants.2 These guidelines will help practitioners – particularly those with limited experience in financial services – (i) determine if investment in microfinance is appropriate given a number of environmental and institutional factors, and (ii) outline options for supporting MFIs in postcrisis environments through grants and other forms of technical assistance.

Regulating Transformational Branchless Banking: Mobile Phones and Other
http://www.microfinancegateway.com/files/46734_file_FocusNote_43.pdf
This CGAP paper recommends a regulation to help in the advancement of branchless banking. The note is based on research in seven countries from Asia, Africa, Central Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Protecting the poor: A microinsurance compendium
http://tinyurl.com/6djkvf

This authoritative IKO compendium brings together the latest thinking of leading academics, actuaries, and insurance and development professionals in the microinsurance field. The result is a practical, wide-ranging resource which provides the most thorough overview of the subject to date. The book allows readers to benefit from the valuable lessons learned from a project launched by the CGAP Working Group on Microinsurance analysing operations around the world. It also discusses the various institutional arrangements available for delivery such as the community-based approach, insurance companies owned by networks of savings and credit cooperatives and microfinance institutions. The roles of key stakeholders are also explored and the book offers insightful strategies for achieving the right balance between coverage, costs and price.

Microfinance and Disaster Management
Stuart Mathison / The Foundation for Development Cooperation (FDC)
2007 / Global, –
”This paper enunciates policies and strategies to help MFIs prepare for the impact of natural disasters. MFIs will be better placed to respond effectively when a disaster strikes if they has worked through the issues, designed policies and products, and negotiated collaboration with Disaster Management Agencies (DMAs), before disaster strikes rather than in the midst of it.”
http://tinyurl.com/5c9563

Microfinance in post-disaster and post-conflict situations: Turning victims into shareholders
Marek Hudon, Hans Dieter Seibel / Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
ttp://tinyurl.com/5c9563

The goal of this article is to study the role of member-owned institutions (MOIs) in the provisions of the reparations for victims of human rights abuses or reconstruction in post-conflict and post-disaster situations.

Data Download: 2007 CGAP Regional Funder Survey – Sub-Saharan Africa
http://cgap.org/portal/site/Portfolio/Apr2008Data/
In 2005, CGAP began surveying funders working in Africa to increase access to finance. In 2007, despite an expected slight decline in global official development assistance, CGAP’s survey found that sub-Saharan Africa still draws attention from funders and aid to increase access to finance continues to rise.

Doing Business: Women in Africa
http://www.doingbusiness.org/gender/womenentrepreneurs.aspx
This report from the World Bank profiles seven women entrepreneurs, describing reasons for their success, as well as some of the legal, regulatory, and practical obstacles they faced in expanding their business efforts. It also highlights reforms that can level the playing field for women and create better business environments that benefit both women and men. The report, the first in a series of regional studies, casts a spotlight on seven women entre- preneurs in Cameroon, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Market Development in Crisis-Affected Environments.

Emerging Lessons for Achieving Pro-Poor Economic Reconstruction
http://www.seepnetwork.org/files/5659_file_001_Market_Development_4.
This SEEP paper presents the background to market development and then the background to crisis environments. These chapters are included to ensure that market-development and relief practitioners have a common understanding of frameworks, terminology, and strategies. Chapter 3 presents the cases themselves in summary form, along with the methodology used for gathering information. Chapter 4 presents a proposed framework for carrying out market development in post-crisis settings. Chapter 5 identifies and discusses the key challenges and issues raised by the practitioners submitting the cases, and then presents lessons learned and recommendations emerging from the cases. The latter are summarized in chapter 6. More detail of the cases is presented in the annexes.

Aid to Fragile States: Do Donors Help or Hinder?
http://tinyurl.com/6jo7zu
The record of aid to fragile and poorly-performing states is the real test of aid effectiveness. Rich countries can justify aid to fragile states both through altruism and self-interest. But, with some exceptions, donors have appeared at the wrong times and with the wrong attitudes, even sometimes undermining development progress. State failure has dimensions of both will and capacity. Failure demands constructive engagement by donors, in some cases to save people in weak states from their leaders, and in all cases to save the states from circumstances which they cannot control. This UNU-Wider paper examines the aid relationship with respect to three weak countries: Burma, Rwanda, Zambia.

Women, gender and the informal economy: An assessment of ILO research and suggested ways forward
http://tinyurl.com/5crzkm

This ILO discussion paper provides a review and analysis of the International Labour Office’s (ILO) research on women, gender and the informal economy. In particular, it compares and contrasts analytical and methodological frameworks used in various studies; identifies research gaps and directions for future research; and pulls out key findings that may assist concerned ILO units in taking action and formulating policy directions.

Financial Arrangements in Informal Apprenticeships: Determinants and Effects
Findings from Urban Ghana
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/finance/download/wp49.pdf
This ILO paper uses quantitative and qualitative data collected through a survey among entrepreneurs and apprentices in micro and small enterprises in Accra, Ghana, to analyse the financial arrangements in informal apprenticeships. It discusses the relationship between the financing of apprenticeships and the financing of enterprises in which the training takes place. It also examines the way apprentices finance apprenticeship training. The findings suggest that masters commonly charge fees for the training, either at the beginning (commitment fees) and or at the end (graduation fee) of the training. The payment of an allowance to the apprentices (chop money) is a widespread practice. Even if the amount of this allowance in the majority of cases exceeds the amount of fees paid for the training, it would appear that the financing costs of the apprenticeship (fees and living expenses) restrict poor youth from entering and completing an apprenticeship. Finally, the paper presents potential entry points for microfinance institutions to support and improve the quantity and quality of apprenticeship training and ensure its positive contribution to youth employment.

Trade in the WAEMU: Developments and Reform Opportunities
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2008/wp0868.
This IMF paper provides an overview of trade reform in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) since 1996 and a quantitative assessment of potential effects on trade patterns and tariff revenue of the current reform agenda. Despite evidence of significant trade complementarities within WAEMU, implementation of the union’s current trade regime still suffers from persistent non-tariff barriers and administrative weaknesses. Based on an assessment of prospects for further trade integration, the paper also recommends strengthening the implementation of the present tariff union and supports the plan to extend it to all ECOWAS members. Finally, the paper stresses that an Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU could bring to the region the political momentum needed to address the weaknesses of the current trade regime, while also underlining the corresponding challenges in terms of trade diversion and tariff revenue losses.

Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/reo/2008/AFR/eng/sreo0408.pdf
The region’s prospects continue to be promising, but global developments pose increased risks to the outlook. Growth in sub-Saharan Africa should again average about 6½ percent in 2008 with oil exporters leading the way; meanwhile, growth in oil importers is expected to taper off, though only modestly. With food and energy prices still rising, inflation is projected to average about 8½ percent this year for countries in the region, setting aside Zimbabwe. Risks in 2008 are tilted to the downside, but the region is better placed today to withstand a worsening of the global environment.

Value Chain Activities for Conflict-affected Populations in Guinea
http://www.microlinks.org/ev01.php?ID=22554_201&ID2=DO_
This report is part of a USAID-funded research project using guided case studies to explore whether and under what conditions the application of a value chain approach can help accelerate growth in conflict-affected environments. This study uses the value chain framework to look at an integrated community development initiative called ”Social and Economic Recovery through Community Development Initiatives” (SER-CD).

The Role of Mass Media in Local and Regional Economic Development
http://www2.gtz.de/wbf/doc/Mass_Media_in_LRED.pdf

This paper has been prepared by GTZ’s Employment-oriented Private Sector Development Programme (EoPSD) in Abuja Nigeria as a result of work that it has embarked on in media development and local economic development. This work has built on similar work in other parts of Africa and focuses on developing radio programmes on business and local economic issues. EoPSD has supported the launch of two local programmes focused on the local economic issues of two northern states in Nigeria (Nasarawa and Niger States) and is in the process of supporting a third station to develop business programming. This has provided EoPSD with a working insight into the potential role of mass media in supporting local economic development initiatives.

Local Economic Development Strategic Planning and Practice Casebook
http://tinyurl.com/6n25wc
As a practical product of the World Bank program, this LED Strategic Planning and Practice Casebook seeks to help the reader understand municipal approaches to LED strategic planning by identifying good practice in strategic planning methodology. The Casebook serves as a collection of six local economic development strategies that provide examples of good practice from across Europe and from the Cities of Change network. The Casebook also contains good practice notes and comments.

Social and Ecological Market Economy Principles in German Development Policy
http://www.bmz.de/en/service/infothek/fach/konzepte/konzept158.pdf
The guiding principles for the design of German Development cooperation are as follows:

1. Supporting the rule of law
2. Striving for broad-based growth
3. Strengthening the private sector
4. Improving conditions for the market economy
5. Making an economy viable for the future
6. Creating a social partnership
7. Shaping the economy based on ecological concerns
8. Ensuring equal opportunities

Are Estimates of Poverty in Latin America Reliable?

http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCOnePager52.pdf
This One Pager questions the validity of the ‘one-dollar-a-day’ and ‘two-dollars-a-day’ measurements of poverty in Latin America. Alternatively, the author argues, there are other methods that better capture the state of poverty.

The Vast Majority Income (VMI): A New Measure of Global Inequality
http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCPolicyResearchBrief7.pdf
The UNDP authors Anwar Shaikh and Amr Ragab introduce a new worldwide measure of welfare, which they call the Vast Majority Income (VMI). The VMI directly calculates the per capita income of the first 80 per cent of the population. It combines information on income levels and their distribution into a single measure.

Migration restrictions and the ‘brain drain’: The wrong response to an ill-defined problem.
http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/opinions/98_migration_apr08.pdf
Is restricting migration an effective response to personnel shortages in the developing world? And is the fear of a brain drain really justified? ODI Paper.

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Filed under: Economy, Publications, Remittances

Websites of the Month June 2008

Africa Progress Panel
http://www.africaprogresspanel.org
The aim of the Africa Progress Panel is to focus world leaders’ attention on making the most of the growing number of opportunities for progress in Africa. It will also comment on the challenges African governments, the G8 and other international partners face in meeting the commitments made towards Africa’s development.

AGEG Consultants eG
http://www.ageg.de
AGEG is a consulting company operating worldwide with over 20 years of experience in international development cooperation. AGEG Consultants eG is a registered cooperative since 1989 and relies on the experience and expertise of its shareholders. AGEG shareholders not only fulfil important corporate functions within the cooperative but are also active as consultants in the field. Their Website was redesigned completely. Individual consultants are invited to register.

Business for the Environment B4E
http://www.b4esummit.com
B4E, the Global Business Summit for the Environment, is the leading international conference focusing on business and the environment. B4E 2008 will highlight the most urgent environmental challenges facing the world today and discuss business-driven solutions for mitigating and adapting to climate change. Important topics addressed will include resource efficiencies, renewable energies, new business models and climate strategies. Delegates will learn best practices for identifying and managing the risks posed by climate change and uncover opportunities for developing competitive advantages.

Centre for technology, innovation and culture TIK – University of Oslo
http://www.tik.uio.no/english/
The Centre studies production and dissemination of knowledge – broadly defined as the development of and interaction between science and technology, innovation and entrepreneurship – through inter-disciplinary linkages between the social sciences and the humanities.

Changemakers – open sourcing social solutions™
http://www.changemakers.net
Changemakers is an initiative of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public that focuses on the rapidly growing world of social innovation. It provides solutions and resources needed to help everyone become a changemaker and presents compelling stories that explore the fundamental principles of successful social innovation around the world.

CLIMATE-L.ORG
http://www.climate-l.org
This is a knowledge management project for international negotiations and related activities on climate change run by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).

Countdown 2010
http://www.countdown2010.net
A powerful network of active partners working together towards the 2010 biodiversity target. As a partner, AGEG Consultants support projects and programmes towards biodiversity conservation and improvement of local livelihoods world-wide in collaboration with other partners (e.g. GTZ, KfW, WWF). AGEG also provides expertise and collaborates with local NGOs in voluntary conservation initiatives in Germany with specific attention to forest biological diversity.

Creating Sustainable Enterprise
http://www.impact-dtg.com
Impact are global leaders in sustainable business transformation and people development. Our learning journeys and training solutions inspire new thinking and generate the meaningful dialogue needed to create and develop sustainable enterprise. Impact help people work more effectively together. As experts in behavioural change and leadership development, we work with organisations on their journey to becoming a sustainable enterprise.

Development: Making it happen
http://www.dfid.gov.uk/achievements/2008/index.html
As DFID publishes the Annual Report for 2008, here are some examples of the ways in which the Department for International Development is working to help eliminate world poverty.

Find a Job in Africa
http://www.findajobinafrica.com
Africa’s employment zone connecting employers, recruitment agencies and jobseekers. The website was founded in 1999 by Africans on the conviction that African’s problems must be owned by Africans with the solution driven by African’s. One of the challenges was poor/lack of job opportunities to Africans as a result many the vast array of job opportunities were not readily available to African’s based inside and outside Africa.

Foreign Information by Country
http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/govpubs/for/foreigngovt.htm
Resource Guide by the University Libraries of Colorado at Boulder Wordmark, USA

Forum Finances et Développement
http://esf.asso.fr/portail/
Un portail francophone dédié au financement du développement.

Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System
http://www.gdacs.org
The GDACS provides near real-time alerts about natural disasters around the world and tools to facilitate response coordination, including media monitoring, map catalogues and Virtual On-Site Operations Coordination Centre.

IRIS
http://www.iris.umd.edu
IRIS is a research and advisory center located in the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. It works understand and facilitate economic growth and democratic development in poor and transition countries, focusing on the role of institutions — the formal and informal rules by which individuals organize economic, political, and social activity.

The EC Magazine of Enterprise Policy
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/e_i/index_en.htm
The new Enterprise & Industry on-line magazine will provide regular updates on policy development, on legislative proposals and their passage to adoption, and on the implementation and review of regulation affecting enterprises. Articles will cover issues related to SMEs, innovation, entrepreneurship, the single market for goods, competitiveness and environmental protection, better regulation, industrial policies across a wide range of sectors, and more.

SEPT: Small enterprise promotion + training
http://www.sept.uni-leipzig.de
The Small Enterprise Promotion Network (SEPneT) is an alumni network of more than 200 experts from over 70 countries specialized in SME issues. All members have studied in Germany.

The Imp-Act Consortium
http://www2.ids.ac.uk/impact/
The Imp-Act Consortium is global group of organisations working to promote and support the management of social performance by MFIs. ”We are a catalyst for change in microfinance understanding and practice. By connecting practitioners around the world we demonstrate practical action and support each other in managing towards our social goals.”

The MicroInsurance Centre
http://www.microinsurancecentre.org
This site is intended to provide practical tools to assist in the success of these relationships between regulated insurers, and MFOs and banks. It is focused on a partnership model of microinsurance provision.

The Virtual Library on Microcredit
http://www.gdrc.org/icm/
Repository of information on alternative, non-conventional financial systems and microfinance/microcredit issues.

Virtual communities & fair tourism against poverty
http://conectafrica.wordpress.com
This Online PhD investigation on Fair Tourism really goes for tourism development in Africa, using Web 2.0 technology. It is in Spanish language.

Visit our Sponsor: Rucksackshop
http://tinyurl.com/5qx8an
Bags, Rucksacks, travel & outdoor stuff. High quality – low prices – since 1991. Delivered world-wide by Lothar Erdmann from Doebeln, Germany.

Weitzenegger’s Currency Cheat Sheet
http://www.oanda.com/convert/cheatsheet?user=Weitzenegger
Keep your travel budget under control by knowing exact values in your home currency. This Traveller CheatSheet displays a handy list of conversion units from one currency to another and is designed to be printed out and carried while travelling. Choose daily Interbank rate or typical rates for credit card or cash.

Filed under: Development, Economy, European Union, Links, Migration, Remittances

Conditional cash transfer programmes: a useful step in the fight against poverty

Conditional cash transfer programmes constitute an important tool for reducing poverty and promoting social inclusion – two key objectives of the International Labour Organization. Mexico has one of the most successful programmes of this type, which was recently the focus of a seminar at the ILO headquarters in Geneva. But as it was clear from the discussion that followed, these programmes are not exempt from risks. http://tinyurl.com/5g7egm

Filed under: Banking, Migration, Remittances, Banking

IDB/MIF: 2008 Call for proposals: Financing facility for remittances

The Financing Facility for Remittances is opening its 2008 call for proposals on ”Promoting innovative remittance systems and investment channels for migrants”. http://www.iadb.org/mif/newsDetail.cfm?language=English&ID=48

Filed under: Caribbean, Economy, Migration, Remittances, Latin America

The Role of Remittances in Leveraging Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean

This Accion Internacional paper deliberates on the type of financial services which can help leverage the economic impact of remittances. http://www.microfinancegateway.org/files/46093_file_46.pdf

Filed under: Development, Migration, Publications, Remittances

Remittances from Germany and their Routes to Migrants’ Origin Countries

Germany is one of the most important countries of origin for remittances— money transfers from migrants. In 2006 they amounted to approximately ten billion euros. However, as this study shows, migrants face considerable difficulties with the transfer process. Despite its large volume, the market for money transfers is extremely intransparent. Intensive research is needed to discover which financial institutions offer what kind of services, and at what cost. In some cases the cost of these services is extremely high. The result is that transfers are frequently made through informal channels. http://www2.gtz.de/dokumente/bib/07-1374.pdf

Filed under: Development, Germany, Migration, Remittances, Research