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 to participate in various reform processes aimed at improving and strengthening the effective functioning of the international financial system and architecture. It makes references to issues and recommendations of the Stiglitz Commission which presented an advanced report to the Conference, including on resources and policy space for developing countries to mitigate the crisis, debt restructuring and standstills, reform of the global reserve system and an independent panel of experts on the world economic and financial crisis that would inform international action, political decision-makin and foster constructive dialogues and exchanges among policy makers, academics, institutions and civil society. The precise role of the UN in global economic governance reform will likely be hotly debated in the coming months. Source: UN-NGLS

The European Commission stressed that the crisis shows how deeply the prosperity and the future of advanced economies, the emerging economies and the developing countries are linked. The cooperation and contribution of all developed, emerging and developing countries is needed. Source: European Commission, http://www.eu-un.europa.eu

As developing countries face the full impact of the economic crisis, European governments are falling short by nearly €40bn on their aid promises, a new report from CONCORD, the European confederation of Relief and Development NGOs, reveals. Source: Concord, http://tinyurl.com/numbm8

A groundbreaking study coordinated by ODI finds that developing countries are being hit harder than expected by the global financial and economic crisis, and that, sooner or later, they will need to respond. Research in ten developing countries, carried out by 40 researchers, provides a vivid picture of how these countries are faring in the crisis. The research examines the transmission belts — such as remittances, private capital flows and trade — that have been affected and are now carrying the crisis from the rich industrialised countries of the north to the poor developing countries of the south. Source: ODI, http://tinyurl.com/nc5yoy

The African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group called for urgent solutions to financial crisis. ACP states are amongst those hard hit by the crisis and want solutions to focus on countering the effects of the crisis. Since the crisis started, ACP states have experienced major falls in their export earnings; foreign direct investment has slowed down, official development aid declined and remittance flows have shrunken. The ACP Group believes that the crisis poses a severe threat to its members, compromising not only the efforts and economic gains achieved over the past years, but also the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The ACP Group underscores that the impact of the crisis would undoubtedly exert strong pressure on the macro-economic balance of the ACP countries. ACP cited sub-Saharan Africa as an example, where growth outlook has dropped to 1.5% for 2009, against 5.4% in 2008 and 6.8 percent in 2007. Source: ACP Secretariat, http://www.acp.int/en/press_releases/financialcriisis/pressrelease_financialcrisis09.html

A Joint Statement by the African Development Bank, European Commission, and World Bank calls to align support to mitigate the impact of the economic crisis. The crisis calls for more coordination of infrastructure development in Africa. This statement outlines the concerns shared by the three institutions and highlights the priority interventions required at this time. Responding to urgent needs, the three organisations have announced their willingness to increase their aid volumes to provide much needed counter-cyclical spending in support of rapid recovery, job creation and to promote long-term growth. In this context, the three institutions call on development partners to support harmonized spending and interventions around the following strategic areas of alignment with proven high impact: development of regional infrastructure: transport corridors, power networks and ICT; maintenance of existing assets; and enhancement of policy, regulatory and administrative frameworks. Source: European Commission, http://tinyurl.com/mjz86l

The recent second Global Review of Aid for Trade demonstrates that despite the crisis, there is good news for developing countries: in 2007, total aid for trade reached USD 25.4 billion, USD 4.3 billion (21%) more than the 2005 baseline. Even so, World Bank estimates show that 53 million more people are expected to be living on less than USD 1.25 a day. And while a few countries have slightly reduced the targets they set in 2005 for 2010, the bulk of the commitments remain in force. DACnews describes the action being taken on many fronts. A survey recently concluded by OECD and the WTO – the second of its kind – demonstrates that the Aid-for-Trade Initiative is a success. Since its inception in 2005, developing countries have given higher priority to trade in their development strategies. Donors have responded by offering more funds to help them overcome their supply-side constraints. Source: OECD, http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/43/52/43150493.htm

Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation released the publication Re-Defining the Global Economy (http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/global/06293.pdf) after forum in April 2009. The current global economic crisis presents an opportunity to to engage the political governance of the global economy. Leading economist and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz introduces this publication for which FES invited expert authors to discuss three approaches to Re-Defining the Global Economy namely, necessary institutional arrangements for a just well-governed and well-functioning financial system, the question of national or regional versus global regulation of such a system and the necessary political and economic arrangements for securing social protections.

Canadian IDRC suggested solutions for Global Economic Governance based on their project findings: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-139286-201-1-DO_TOPIC

Sustainable management of natural resources and adaptation to climate change, as well as energy saving and promotion of renewable energy, are fundamental to ensure sustainable urban and rural development and progress in poverty eradication, in particular the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). External assistance should tackle these issues in a more rigorous and systematic way. The Council invited the Commission to set up an appropriate framework, consisting of the Commission and Member States, to prepare and monitor the implementation of the EU approach to environment integration. During 2009, a work programme listing deliverables and responsibilities should be prepared. It should also allow sharing experiences and good practices with a view to helping inform the development of EU positions for relevant international fora when and where appropriate. Throughout this process, consultations with civil society actors should be ensured. The Council invited the Commission to prepare an ambitious EU wide environment integration strategy, to be presented to the Council by late 2011. Source: EU Council, http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/envir/108745.pdf

The European Union has historically attracted millions of immigrants. Most of them come legally, but there are some who do not. Immigration is both an opportunity and a challenge for Europe. Legal immigrants are needed to fill gaps in the EU labour force, as the EU’s own population grows older and its birth rate declines. However, the EU needs to curb illegal immigration and cooperate with other countries to arrange the return of irregular immigrants on a voluntary basis. The EU also has a duty to protect genuine asylum-seekers fleeing persecution or serious harm. The aim of European leaders is to devise a common strategy, to help each country cope with the challenges and benefit from the opportunities. This is why they have agreed on a European Pact on Migration and Asylum. Source: CTA, European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/publications/booklets/move/81/en.doc
CTA Briefing on migration: http://brusselsbriefings.net/past-briefings/december-11-2008/
CTA Reader on migration: http://brusselsbriefings.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/reader_migration_eng-v-2.pdf

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 proposals for start-up and established businesses operating (or to be operated) through partnerships between U.S.-based members of the African diaspora and local Sub-Saharan African entrepreneurs. Through this program, USAID anticipates awarding matching grants between $50,000 and $100,000 each to 10 to 20 businesses. Proposals are due by July 21, 2009. See http://www.diasporamarketplace.org.

Capacity WORKS is GTZ’s new management model for sustainable development. It supports the steering of international cooperation projects and programmes. Using five success factors, the cooperating partners structure the projects, evaluate each step along the way and identify necessary interventions. This makes the measures more transparent and increases the scope for action by the partners involved. Capacity WORKS facilitates the management of complex projects and boosts their sustainable results. Capacity WORKS also provides the basis for knowledge and quality management in cooperation activities. Capacity WORKS is now being systematically introduced in GTZ’s international cooperation projects and programmes, and integrated into all the company’s relevant standard instruments. Not least, GTZ will also be making expertise in Capacity WORKS a requirement in its future job openings. GTZ has concluded a framework agreement with AGEG Consultants eG to act as ‘Capacity WORKS multipliers’ by training both individual consultants and consulting companies in Capacity WORKS, and keeping them updated on a regular basis. GTZ will accept certificates of participation issued by AGEG. See our German Website for courses: http://www.ageg.de/capacity_works_training

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 and other schemes can contribute to European sustainable development objectives. It also sets out main principles and definitions and the fundamentals for public procurement of sustainable goods and services. Source: European Commission, http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2009/may/tradoc_143089.pdf

Karsten Weitzenegger took over the moderation of the Aid & Development Professionals group on XING (https://www.xing.com/net/aiddevprofs/) and invited all subscribers of this Newsletter. This Group a forum for international development professionals working with different organisations to end poverty world-wide. XING is an online networking tool you can use to manage all of your contacts and to find interesting new business contacts. The group has 194 members today, there is a good chance you know someone. Here is an invitation to join the group: http://www.xing.com/group-17892.250b88/4466179

The joint fight against fraud affecting development aid is at the centre of a co-operation agreement signed today in Brussels between the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and the World Bank’s Integrity Vice-Presidency. The World Bank is the trustee of significant funds from the EU. The agreement will allow investigators from both institutions’ anti-fraud and anti-corruption bodies to join forces more effectively in the defence of monies dedicated to help the poorest and in other fields of their work. From the perspective of the European Union, the co-operation arrangement between OLAF and INT is of particular importance in the field of development aid. In addition to being involved in many projects together, the World Bank is also the trustee of significant funds from the EU. Closer co-operation between the investigative arms of both institutions will help maximise the protection of those funds. Source: EC, http://tinyurl.com/md9fb8
World Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency (INT) http://tinyurl.com/nqlaq4
European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) http://ec.europa.eu/olaf

Capacity WORKS for the Consulting Business

Germany, different locations, starting July 2009
http://www.ageg.de/capacity_works_training/
Capacity WORKS is GTZ’s new management model for sustainable development.
AGEG Consultants eG is offering a series of certificate seminars on behalf of GTZ. GTZ will also be making expertise in Capacity WORKS a requirement in its future job openings. See our German Website for courses or contact Ms. Bettina Nasgowitz, b.nasgowitz @ ageg.de, on tel. +49 7021-970 87-17.

Join The SEEP Network Online Conference
http://communities.seepnetwork.org/edexchange/node/2128
From July 6-10, The SEEP Network’s Enterprise Development Exchange will host an online conference, Understanding and Accessing Social Investment, to discuss the emerging world of ‘‘social investment”, a range of capital targeted to entrepreneurial approaches to social and environmental problems.

Fourth Annual African Microfinance Conference

http://www.apim-burkina.bf/spip.php?article74
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 7 – 10 July 2009
The conference will focus on the issue of access to financial services for small and medium sized African entrepreneurs, operating both in the rural and the urban areas. The Organizing Committee views this issue as the biggest challenge in microfinance for the African continent.

New Developments in Reporting Standards for the Microfinance Industry
http://www.microlinks.org/afterhours
Live Event + Webinar (July 15) and Online Discussion (July 21 – 23)
Two events addressing key issues: Update on the Microfinance Reporting Standards Initiative; Financial transparency and reporting by MFIs; Reporting ratios for savings and capital adequacy. Hosted by Financial Services WG and microLINKS.

Conference on Global Financial Crisis: Regional Cooperation and Architecture Policy Issues
http://tinyurl.com/ksxf78

Tokyo, Japan, 16 July 2009

Fortbildungsprogramm Evaluation in der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (FEEZ)
http://www.feez.org
Germany, 3 Sessions, 16 Jul – 17 Oct 2009
FEEZ is offering a package of 3 modules on Evaluation in German language.

Advocacy and Policy Influencing
http://www.intrac.org/training.php?id=121
Oxford, UK, 20-24 July
This INTRAC course gives participants a thorough understanding of how to influence the policy making process in their own context. Enhance your ability to lobby decision makers, and gain confidence in the ways in which you relate to them – give new life to your advocacy work!

Frankfurt School of Finance and Management: Housing Finance Summer Academy 2009. Frankfurt, Germany, 26-31 July 2009
http://tinyurl.com/n2qd68
Housing finance in developing and emerging countries is growing rapidly even in a challenging business environment. Issues related to origination, underwriting, monitoring and funding alternatives of mortgage loans require specialised knowledge in the area.

Value Chain Concept
http://tinyurl.com/mxumkg
Ede, Netherlands, 24-28 August 2009, MFG Training and Consultancy
Again, this course is designed and conducted in association with Hans Posthumus Consultancy.

2nd Bonn Conference on International Development Policy – New Impulses for Development Cooperation between Federal States, Regions and Local Authorities
http://www.bonn-conference.nrw.de

Bonn, Germany, 27 -28 August 2009
Tying in with the resolution of the Minister-Presidents’ conference on the development policy of German federal states (October 2008), the theme of the conference will be the role of sub-national players in development policy: What position do Europe’s federal states, regions and local authorities assume within the new development cooperation structure? How can their policy be reconciled with the objectives of the Paris Declaration?

Value Chain Program Design: Promoting Market-Based Solutions for MSMEs
http://www.actionforenterprise.org/training.htm
Chiang Mai, Thailand, 7-11 Sep 2009, Action for Enterprise

Urban-rural linkages and migration – a potential for poverty alleviation in developing countries?
http://www.raumplanung.uni-dortmund.de/rel/typo3/index.php?id=260
Dortmund, Germany, 16-17 September 2009, Techische Universität
Researchers, policy makers and practitioners will jointly discuss the relevance of rural-urban migration for poverty alleviation, and implications for governance and development co-operation. The conference is organised by the Department of Spatial Planning in Developing Countries (REL/SPRING) of the Faculty of Spatial Planning , TU Dortmund, the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the Working Group Regional and Local Development (ReKomEnt) with participation of AGEG Consultants eG. Contact: eva.gehrmann @ tu-dortmund.de.

Sustainable Livelihoods and Pro-Poor Market Development
http://communities.seepnetwork.org/edexchange
Open now until 16 July at Enterprise Development Exchange (EDX)!
Online discussion invited by the Market Facilitation Initiative (MaFI). To register for the EDX and the discussion, please go to http://communities.seepnetwork.org/edexchange/node/362 and join.

Ex-ante Poverty Impact Assessment (PIA)
http://www.ageg.de
Bonn, Germany, 7-9 October 2009, AGEG Consultants eG, GTZ

GTZ and AGEG cordially invite participants from donor organizations, implementing organisations as well as consultants either from head offices or abroad, and from partner countries. At the end of this training course, you will be able to conduct a PIA based on the methodology and different modules proposed by POVNET. This course is offered by AGEG Consultants eG in cooperation with GTZ and the team of trainers Mohan Dhamotharan and Andrea Warner. It was developed by the GTZ project Mainstreaming Poverty Reduction. Apply until 15 July 2009: Ms. Bettina Nasgowitz, b.nasgowitz @ ageg.de, on tel. +49 7021-970 87-17. More on PIA: http://www.weitzenegger.de/en/pia.html

The Economics of Corruption
http://www.icgg.org/corruption.lecture_2009.html
Passau, Germany, 10 – 17 October 2009
A University Training in Good Governance and Reform – The University of Passau and Transparency International.

2009 International Forum on Remittances
http://www.ifad.org/events/remittances/index.htm

Tunis, Tunisia, 22-23 Oct 2009, IFAD
Remittances, business models and technology fair will run parallel to the Forum to allow private-sector entities and other stakeholders to exhibit their products and services.

European Development Days 2009
http://www.eudevdays.eu
Stockholm, Sweden, 22-24 October 2009
Yearly event hosted jointly by the European Commission and the EU Presidency. The European Development Days bring some 4000 people and 1500 organisations from the development community together on an equal footing. Delegates from 125 countries are represented, including heads of state and leading world figures, Nobel prizewinners among them. The event aims to make development aid more effective, to build a global coalition against poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Through frank and sometimes controversial debates on pressing issues, such as governance, poverty and environmental sustainability, the European Development Days provide unprecedented opportunities for sharing ideas and launching innovative partnerships. Source: European Commission.

5th International Microinsurance Conference
http://tinyurl.com/mtgzfq
Dakar, Senegal- 3-5 Nov 2009

Microinsurance Network, the Munich Re Foundation.

International CEFE Conference 2009
http://www.cefe.net
Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 24-27 Nov 2009, Instituto Centro CAPE
Conference language shall be Spanisch and Portuguese. Contact: ccape @ centrocape.org.br .

Promoting Global Value Chains: The Role of Governance
http://www.eadi.org/index.php?id=1120

Maastricht, Netherlands, 26-27 Nov 2009, EADI
The workshop will explore the role of external and internal governance in promoting sustainable global value chains and other related topics.

Fragmentation in a Globalised World
http://www.eudnet.net
Paris, France, 9 December 2009
7th AFD/EUDN Conference

Online Training-of-Trainers: Using USAID Poverty Assessment Tools
http://povertytools.org/moodle/
Free online version of the PAT training-of-trainers. It is a self-paced course that can be completed in ~20 hours. IRIS Trainers monitor the course daily and provide feedback on certain activities, including participants’ PAT implementation plans, the guided creation of which is a significant component of the training. Info: Margaret Richards, mrichards @ iris.econ.umd.edu

Course on agribusiness management for producers’ associations
http://tinyurl.com/l38ca8
The manual is aimed at improving the agribusiness management capabilities of leaders and managers of producers’ associations as well as those of technicians from government, NGOs and the private sector, who provide technical assistance to agro-enterprises. It is addressed to small and medium size producers’ associations with experience in production and marketing of agricultural products.

Music against poverty contest
http://www.ifightpoverty.eu
Young EU citizens are invited to share their message on fighting poverty and development through a music contest organised by the European Commission’s cooperation office EuropeAid.

CIPE Guide to Governance Reform: Strategic Planning for Emerging Markets

http://tinyurl.com/lmljz9
In order for democracy to deliver value to citizens, it must be founded on good governance. Accountability, transparency, and citizen input in decision-making create the foundation for prosperous, entrepreneurial societies. Good governance is the means by which citizens of emerging markets countries devise local solutions to local problems.

David Roodman’s Microfinance Open Book Blog
http://blogs.cgdev.org/open_book/
This Open Book Blog is a way to share the writing of a book about the history and impacts of microfinance. CGD research fellow David Roodman posts and seeks feedback on draft chapters, burning questions, and useful sources.

EC’s report on EU development finance
http://www.eurodad.org/whatsnew/articles.aspx?id=3583
On the 8th of April 2009 the European Commission released its annual development finance Communication: ‘‘Supporting Developing Countries in Coping with the Crisis”. Eurodad has summarized and analysed the main elements on four issues central to aid effectiveness, debt, reform of international financial institutions, and taxation. For Eurodad, the EC’s annual Communication, based on questionnaires sent to Member States, is a useful, if limited, accountability exercise. It shows that much more needs to be done to implement existing European commitments on development finance, and to go further now that the financial and economic crises are severely affecting developing countries and may push a further 100 million people into poverty in 2009. Source: Eurodad

Entrepreneurship in post-conflict transition : the role of informality and access to finance
http://tinyurl.com/nczugr
The World Bank authors examine the factors affecting the transition to self-employment in Bosnia and Herzegovina, using the World Bank Living Standard Measurement Survey panel household survey for the years 2001-2004. In the beginning of the sample, the country changed its legal framework, with the primary aim to promote labor market flexibility and to encourage entrepreneurial activity. The analysis identifies individuals that switched to self-employment (employers and own account) during the sample period and the viability of this transition, in terms of business survival for more than one year. The results suggest an important role for financing constraints. Specifically, wealthier households are more likely to become entrepreneurs and survive in self-employment. After controlling for household wealth, having an existing bank relationship increases the likelihood of starting a business with hired employees and increases the chances of survival for the new entrepreneur. By contrast, overseas – and in some cases domestic – remittances decrease the likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur. Source: GTZ Online – Library Sustainable Economic Development.

European Development Cooperation to 2020
http://www.edc2020.eu/fileadmin/Textdateien/EDC2020_WP4_Webversion.pdf
This paper has been produced as part of a programme of work on the prospects for European Union development co-operation in the period up to 2020. It focuses specifically on the challenges Europe faces by the emergence of new actors in international development co-operation. In the past 10-15 years, the established development donors in the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) have forged a consensus about what aid is for, where it should be best directed and how it should be managed. With the increasing salience of a variety of new actors in international development, both governmental and nongovernmental, this consensus is being challenged at a time when aid budgets are under threat and when there are other new challenges for development cooperation, not least climate change. Source: EDC2020.

Finance in the Value Chain Framework
http://collab2.cgap.org//gm/document-1.9.34593/09.pdf

Value chain finance’ is defined and applied in many ways, referenced in countless articles and discussed at numerous conferences. This USAID brief paper is designed to clarify the term for practitioners, implementers and donors. Source: GTZ Online – Library Sustainable Economic Development.

Guide to responsible sourcing
http://tinyurl.com/dfqfjf
To help companies develop their own approaches to responsible sourcing, this guide provides a series of practical steps from a global and multisectoral perspective. These steps are based on real-life experiences from around the world, and can be used by companies of all sizes, sectors and regions.

How green is EU’s development aid?
http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2009/05/envi_tools.html
BirdLife International, FERN and WWF presented a new study analysing how useful are the EU tools designed to integrate environmental concerns into its development aid. To do so the report looks at 21 geographically diverse Country and Regional Environment Profiles (CEP& REP)”, and assesses them on the quality and information they provide using a standardised checklist. Source: BirdLife International

How to Ensure Development Friendly Economic Partnership Agreements –

Lessons Across Regions. Services – Investment – Other Trade Dimensions
http://www2.gtz.de/wbf/doc/How_to_ensure_development_friendly_EPAs.pdf
Negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) of the European Commission and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries have been ongoing since 2002, and they have attracted much attention from the development community. BMZ and GTZ have commissioned a series of analyses into issues covered by the CARIFORUM EPA which go beyond the trade in goods debate. By Dr. Regine Qualmann, GTZ Trade Programme. Source: GTZ NEDANews.

Impact assessments in finance and private sector development:
What have we learned and what should we learn ?
http://tinyurl.com/n7ntnl
Until recently rigorous impact evaluations have been rare in the area of finance and private sector development. One reason for this is the perception that many policies and projects in this area lend themselves less to formal evaluations. However, a vanguard of new impact evaluations on areas as diverse as fostering microenterprise growth, microfinance, rainfall insurance, and regulatory reform demonstrates that in many circumstances serious evaluation is possible. The purpose of this World Bank paper is to synthesize and distil the policy and implementation lessons emerging from these studies, use them to demonstrate the feasibility of impact evaluations in a broader array of topics, and thereby help prompt new impact evaluations for projects going forward. Source: GTZ Online – Library Sustainable Economic Development.

Improving impact evaluation production and use
http://tinyurl.com/cqrq3t

The past five years have seen a proliferation of impact evaluations (IEs) by development agencies across the globe. This report was commissioned by the UK Department for International Development’s (DFID’s) Evaluation Department to inform discussions on impact evaluation production and use within the Network of Networks Impact Evaluation Initiative (NONIE). It builds on an initial scoping study prepared for DFID which made recommendations on improving IE production and use, focusing on clustering, coordination, knowledge management, capacity strengthening and communication and uptake. This ODI report goes further by expanding both the literature review and the annotated database of IEs, as well as honing in on specific dynamics of IE production across sectors. Source: GTZ Online – Library Sustainable Economic Development.

Innovative firms or innovative owners ?
Determinants of innovation in micro, small, and medium enterprises
http://tinyurl.com/kq9jos
The authors develop a model of innovation that incorporates the role of both owner and firm characteristics, and use this to determine how product, process, marketing, and organizational innovations should vary with firm size and competition. The analysis finds that more than one-quarter of the microenterprises are engaging in innovation, with marketing innovations the most common. As predicted by the model, firm size has a stronger positive effect, and competition a stronger negative effect, on process and organizational innovations than on product innovations. Owner ability, personality traits, and ethnicity have a significant and substantial impact on the likelihood of a firm innovating, confirming the importance of the entrepreneur in the innovation process. Source: GTZ Online – Library Sustainable Economic Development.

Integrated Financing for Value Chains
http://www.woccu.org/functions/view_document.php?id=value_chain_techguide
WOCCU’s recent technical guide details the methodologies and lessons learned from WOCCU’s experience developing value chain finance initiatives for credit unions in Peru (USAID, 2006-09) and Kenya (USDA, 2006-10). The methodologies in these two countries are relatively new and still evolving, but they have proven successful in providing the missing financial link to help increase agricultural productivity.

Inventory of innovative farmer advisory services using ICTs

http://tinyurl.com/9tktpg
This paper documents all known innovative farmer advisory services or systems, currently in design, in existence or recently completed in Africa. The report notes that currently most farmers’ information is provided either by extension workers, through libraries or via websites. The authors assert that as the number of extension workers has been going down while that of farmers has been growing, there is a need for innovative information systems to address this gap.

Is Informal Normal? Towards More and Better Jobs in Developing Countries
http://tinyurl.com/mr6xov
Two billion people, or two- thirds of the global labour force, work in the informal sector. These workers receive low wages and have no formal contracts or benefits. In the context of the current economic crisis, likely to result in job losses in the formal sector, the study Is Informal Normal? by the OECD Development Centre provides evidence for policy makers on how to respond to the challenge of promoting more and better jobs for all.

Learning from Evaluation
http://tinyurl.com/kqloor
Evaluation serves two main purposes: accountability and learning. Development agencies have tended to prioritize the first, and given responsibility for that to centralized units. But evaluation for learning is the area where observers find the greatest need today and tomorrow. Asian Development Bank Knowledge Solutions by Olivier Serrat.

Open Access Guide for researchers based in Africa: Cheap or free Access to Databases and E-Journals

http://www.ilissafrica.de/en/howto/OpenAccessGuide.html
The internet library sub-Saharan Africa (ilissAfrica) is a portal that offers an integrated access to relevant scientific conventional and digital information resources on the sub-Saharan Africa region.

Participatory Approaches to Value Chain Development
http://collab2.cgap.org//gm/document-1.9.34596/13.pdf
Significant stakeholder involvement in a value chain development initiative increases the likelihood of success and sustainability. With broad participation, solutions to value chain constraints are generally more appropriate to the local setting, and when stakeholders understand and take ownership of the value chain development process they are more likely to remain actively engaged beyond the life of the project. USAID study. Source: GTZ Online – Library Sustainable Economic Development.

Participatory methods in the analysis of poverty: a critical review
http://tinyurl.com/nebw8m
This paper reviews and analyses the literature on on participatory methods in poverty analysis. The popularity of participatory poverty assessments has greatly increased in the last decade, and a growing number of development agents is adopting some forms of participatory methodology. this spread however seems to be possible even without a shared understanding of what participation stands for. This paper starts by introducing the broad lines of the debate on participation, before focusing more specifically on participatory methods in poverty analysis.

Private Sector Development in Post-Conflict Countries: A Review of current Literature and Practice
http://www.enterprise-development.org/download.aspx?id=1294
This Review by Naoise Mac Sweeney and Jim Tanburn discusses the characteristics of the post-conflict private sector, and the ways in which the development community can engage with it. It gives an overview of current approaches and experiences across most agencies active in the field. Edited by the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED). Source: GTZ NEDANews.

Promoting Economic Innovations in Sub-Sahara Africa
http://www2.gtz.de/wbf/doc/Promoting_Economic_Innovations.pdf
Based on a desktop enquiry, this GTZ paper by Nicole Rippin seeks to describe how innovations in the specific context of SSA emerge and how they can be promoted. Source: GTZ NEDANews.

Quantifying Achievements in Private Sector Development. Implementation Guidelines
http://www.enterprise-development.org/page/library-item?id=1309

These Guidelines have been developed by the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) as a companion to the DCED Proposed Methodology for Control Points and Compliance Criteria.

SmartAid for Microfinance Index 2009: Submission Guide. A Technical Guide
http://www.cgap.org/gm/document-1.9.9604/SmartAid_TechnicalGuide.pdf
This SmartAid Technical Guide distills learning from many years of CGAP’s work in aid effectiveness to measure what funders need to support microfinance effectively. The Guide draws from CGAP’s interactions with a broad range of donors and investors – through peer reviews and our ongoing microfinance work together.

Special Economic Zones: Performance, Lessons Learned, and Implications
http://tinyurl.com/mhqcct
This paper examines 30 years of experience in zones, reviewing development patterns and economic impacts of zones worldwide. The experience shows that while zones have been effective in addressing economic growth and development objectives, they have not been uniformly successful; successes in East Asia and Latin America have been difficult to replicate, particularly in Africa, and many zones have failed. Source: GTZ NEDANews.

Striving toward a Competitive Industry: The Importance of Dynamic Value Chain Facilitation
http://www.microlinks.org/ev_en.php?ID=33548_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC

This paper will highlights the importance of dynamic facilitation within the value chain approach. Specifically, it examines approaches for embedding active read-and-respond mechanisms within the management systems of a facilitator, while providing practical examples of how a program actively applies a follow-on facilitation strategy. By David Knopp, USAID. Source: GTZ Online – Library Sustainable Economic Development.

Tasks of the new European Commission
http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/id/ipa/06388.pdf
This publication of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung covers the financial and economic crisis which represents a window of opportunity for an active European Commission. The Barroso Commission has largely confined itself to managing the EU rather than acting as a driver of reform. The new European Commission will have to be measured by whether it will go beyond the necessary crisis management. What the EU needs is a long-term paradigm shift towards a social EU with a sustainable approach to the economy and a global presence.

The A-Z of German Media Development Cooperation
http://tinyurl.com/kvbrwl
This directory, an initiative by Forum Medien und Entwicklung (FoME), gives you an overview of the institutions and programmes currently involved in German media development cooperation.

The business of product innovation : international empirical evidence

http://tinyurl.com/mzx563 World Bank paper by Daniel Lederman.
It is so widely recognized that innovation is a key driver of economic growth that it is cliché to say so. This article studies product innovation by firms with data from 68 countries, covering more than 25,000 firms in eight manufacturing sectors. The author assesses the predictions of inter-disciplinary research on innovation by firms. The econometric evidence suggests that globalization and local knowledge increase the likelihood that firms will introduce new products. By contrast, domestic regulatory impediments to competition are not robustly correlated with product innovation.

The Debate on the Developmental State: Evidence from the Indian Software Industry
http://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/publications/dv/file51754.pdf
The author, , draws on a well documented case study of the successful Indian software industry in staking out a new position on the continuing debate on the preconditions for an effective developmental state. One of his major points is that supporters of such a state often assume, unrealistically, that state autonomy – namely, complete independence from vested political and economic interests- is a prerequisite for successful state interventions, such as in industrial policy. By Jyoti Saraswati, Department of Politics, Queen Mary, University of London, The Centre for Development Policy and Research Development Viewpoint #31.

The Impact of the Business Environment on the Business Creation Process,
http://tinyurl.com/mjncf7
New data from the 2008 World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey indicates a very strong and statistically significant relationship between entrepreneurship and a better business environment. Data for 100 countries on the number of total and newly registered corporations over an eight-year period (2000– 2007) were collected directly from registrars of companies around the world. This paper—a product of the World Bank’s Finance and Private Sector Team, Development Research Group, and Investment Climate Advisory Services Group—is part of a larger effort in the departments to study entrepreneurship.

USAID Poverty Assessment Tools Update
http://www.povertytools.org/tools.html
USAID and the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland want to make sure you are aware of the currently available Poverty Assessment Tools (PATs), the tools in development, and the resources available to implementers. There are 26 current USAID PATs, and new tools are expected to be available in late 2009 for Bolivia, Liberia, Nepal, Nigeria, West Bank, and Senegal.

USAID Value Chain Resources available in French and Spanish
View French resources at http://www.microlinks.org/francais
View Spanish resources at http://www.microlinks.org/espanol
Value Chain Finance, Integrating ICT into Value Chain Development, and Participatory Approaches to Value Chain Development are part of a briefing papers series emphasizing action-oriented recommendations for improved practice. In addition to these briefing papers, microLINKS contains a number of other resources available in French and Spanish.

Value Chain End-Market Research Toolkit Available

http://www.microlinks.org/ev_en.php?ID=39116_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC
The End-Market Toolkit: Upgrading Value Chain Competitiveness with Informed Choice informs implementers on the process and value of end-market research efforts for value chain development, provides a portfolio of tools, and grounds these tools through case studies of their practical application. The toolkit is divided into two broad sections in line with common practices in market research: Phase I: Secondary End-market Research, and Phase II: Primary End-market Research.

What future for the Cotonou Agreement?
http://www.cncd.be/spip.php?article610
The Cotonou Agreement is the jewel in the crown of EU development cooperation with the countries of the South and lays claim to a large proportion of development spending. However, nine years after its conclusion civil society organisations both in Europe and in the 77 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific are asking questions. Does it really promote sustainable development, human rights and development cooperation in a spirit of mutual respect? The various authors who have contributed to this publication show that there are grounds for scepticism and that commercial and political interests tend get in the way. The book raises some serious questions by suggesting that although next year should only mark the half-way stage, the Cotonou Agreement has actually already run its course and invites the reader to think about why, despite the agreement’s imperfections, that conclusion is worrying. Source: CNCD

Working in Teams
http://tinyurl.com/m6t5e2
Cooperative work by a team can produce remarkable results. The challenge is to move from the realm of the possible to the realm of practice. Asian Development Bank Knowledge Solutions by Olivier Serrat.

ACP Business Climate
http://bizclim.ning.com
The Private Sector Enabling Environment Facility (PSEEF) is an EU funded initiative under the Cotonou Agreement. From now on, the Facility will be promoted under the ACP Business Climate facility (BizClim).On this newly established Professional Network , you can have your own page. On the main page, you find videos, pictures, blogs, links to published documents, BizClim-TV, events (e.g. workshop, conferences), publications (BizNews, e-zine), etc. Join in on NING!

AfricaAdapt – Knowledge sharing for climate change adaptation
http://www.africa-adapt.net
AfricaAdapt provides a means for researchers, policymakers, and all Africans affected by climate change to test new ways of sharing their experiences and challenges across barriers of distance, culture and language.

African Economic Outlook

http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/
This is the only place where African countries are examined through a common analytical framework, allowing you to compare economic prospects at the regional, sub-regional and country levels. Beyond numbers and stats you will find news, events, resources and in-depth analyses of sectors critical to the continent’s advancement. Whether you are interested in macroeconomic developments, structural issues, governance, human development or just the raw figures, it is all here.

Barefootjobs.org – Job portal for social sector
http://www.barefootjobs.org
This portal is been developed after lot of research and understanding of the social sector. It will endeavor to reduce the recruitment costs of the non-profits by providing a high-class technology based job portal.

Capacity Building Forum by WBI and InWEnt
http://capacitydevelopment.ning.com
The World Bank Institute and InWEnt Capacity Building International started this professional network for international partners in the development training and learning community with a shared agenda to improve the practice and metrics of capacity development programs. The online community originated from a High-Level Retreat on the Effectiveness of International Development Training. Here you can watch videos and listen to podcasts of the event and discuss the issues with experts and practitioners. Join in on NING!

CorpWatch: Holding Corporations Accountable

http://www.corpwatch.org
Information on some of the global companies participating in the Global Compact, which have caused or contributed to violations of human rights and/or environmental catastrophes (BASF, Nike, Shell, BP Amoco, Novartis, Rio Tinto Inc.).

CTA’s Knowledge for development
http://knowledge.cta.int
This website supports the policy dialogue on S&T for agricultural and rural development in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. It enables the ACP scientific community – primarily agricultural research and development scientists and technologists, policy makers, farmers and other stakeholders and actors – to share and review results of national and regional efforts and collaborate to harness science and technology for the development of agriculture in their countries.

DevWire.eu – the media portal to EU development cooperation
http://www.devwire.eu
The idea behind this site is to support journalists in their EU development coverage. This single entry point provides you with a comprehensive source of news and background – relevant, up to date and reliable.

Evidence-Based Policy in Development Network
http://ebpdn.org
This website is a key outcome of ODI’s Civil Society Partnership Programme (CSPP), and aims to establish a worldwide community of practice for think tanks, policy research institutes and similar organisations working in international development, to promote more evidence-based, pro-poor development policies.

ExportHelp – Promoting and supporting access to the European market
http://exporthelp.europa.eu
The European Commission runs a database for the explicit support of market players in developing countries who want to bring their products on the EU market. The database gives an overview on the EU´s preferential trade regimes established for developing countries as well as lists all tariffs, taxes and other requirements for goods destined for import.

GIGA Journals available free-of-charge on the Internet
http://www.giga-journal-family.org
The four renowned academic journals of the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies are now available online and free-of-charge. Every Internet user can now access the full content of the GIGA Journal Family at no cost, which means that the reach of the journals is now significantly greater.

ilissAfrica – Africa Virtual Library on the Internet
http://www.ilissafrica.de
Finding relevant literature on a specific African topic or country – this is possible with the Internet Library Sub-Saharan Africa, which is now online and accessible to everyone. Users can search for books, anthologies, journal articles and Internet resources. They are then led directly to the corresponding website or shown at which library the book or journal article can be found. The portal is a joint project of the University Library in Frankfurt and the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg.

ILO’s Synergies project
http://www.itcilo.org/synergies
The Synergies project site is intended as a platform on current applied research and practical implementation of linking financial services to business services that contribute to pro poor enterprise development, income and job creation.

Knowledge Sharing Toolkit
http://www.kstoolkit.org
The Institutional Knowledge Sharing (KS) Project together with CGIAR Center partners has been experimenting with a range of KS tools and methods over the past five years and has recently been assembling these and many others into this toolkit. It is an evolving resource, continually updated, edited, expanded, and critiqued and it’s aimed at scientists, research support teams, and administrators working in international development agencies, with a special emphasis on those engaged in agriculture and agricultural research.

Microfinance Gateway launches new and improved website
http://www.microfinancegateway.org/
In response to user feedback, the Microfinance Gateway now offers interactive features, a new look and feel, and updated information on hot topics in microfinance. Microfinance Voices, a series of feature articles, focuses on current issues, trends and debates in the industry. Readers can now build conversations around these articles using the new Comments feature to voice their opinions and create dialogue around current topics. The latest in this series, Microfinance and the Environmental Bottom Line, explores the growing field of green microfinance.

Political Finance Database
http://www.idea.int/parties/finance/db/index.cfm
The International IDEA database on Political Finance Laws and Regulations contains information on the laws on funding of political parties for more than 100 countries in the world. That makes it the largest collection of such information available. The database provides information on different themes like regulation and enforcement; public funding provisions; bans on sources of funding; and on disclosure rules and ceilings for income and expenditure.

Remittance Prices Worldwide
http://remittanceprices.worldbank.org
The Remittances Prices Worldwide Website provides data on the cost of sending and receiving small amounts of money from one country to another. For the first time since the site was launched in September 2008, new data has been published. Plus, new features have been added to the site, including 14 new country-to-country corridors, categories that describe the extent of network coverage in recipient countries, and a new set of standardized measures of transfer speed.

SPM Network – Making microfinance work for the poor and excluded
http://www.spmnetwork.net/group/communitymanagedsavingsloangroups
The SPM Network connects individuals and organisations who are committed to managing and achieving social performance in microfinance. This is also a space for practitioners to share experiences, common challenges and key lessons learnt around social performance management (SPM). Join in on NING!

The African Good Governance Network (AGGN)
http://www.aggn.org
The AGGN comprises a group of highly educated African academics who have either studied in Germany or are still studying in Germany. AGGN members consider it their duty to actively promote the values of Good Governance and thus accompany the economic and political transformation process in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Global University Network for Innovation
http://www.guni-rmies.net/

The Global University Network for Innovation – GUNI is composed of UNESCO Chairs in Higher Education, research centers, universities, networks and other institutions highly committed to innovation in higher education. More than 100 institutions from around the world are GUNI members. There are a number of reports on higher education available on the GUNI website.

World Press
http://www.theworldpress.com
Want to be informed? Have a look at this website. World Press offers headlines and links to more than 5,000 news publications in more than 190 countries. Source: FITA.

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 plan to rescue the world economy. In a communiqué released by the Group of 20’s London Summit, the leaders announced what they called ‘a global plan for recovery on an unprecedented scale’. They said the rescue package would include resources totalling $850 billion, to be channelled through global financial institutions, ‘to support growth in emerging market and developing countries by helping to finance counter-cyclical spending, bank recapitalisation, infrastructure, trade finance, balance of payments support, debt rollover, and social support.’ http://www.pambazuka.org/aumonitor/comments/2296/

The EU Commission helps with a support package. The EU has recognized that the current recession is affecting the global system at all levels – overturning the old notion that globalisation could only be good. The hardest hit are those who were already the world’s poorest – particularly those who had begun to climb out of poverty. To give EU action a coherent framework, the Commission has issued a policy paper – Supporting developing countries in coping with the crisis. The paper reaffirms the two guiding principles for EU relations with developing countries – partnership and solidarity. http://ec.europa.eu/development/icenter/repository/COM_2009_0160_4_EN.pdf

Related Publications:

UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development
http://www.un-ngls.org/IMG/pdf_ngls_bulletin_1.pdf
In an effort to help keep interested stakeholders informed on the latest developments and events leading to the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development taking place in New York from 1-3 June 2009, NGLS has launched a dedicated weekly ’bulletin’ up to the Conference. This first issue reviews the mandate and background of the Conference. It also contains information on related meetings and reports from the UN system.

DCED has launched a new web page providing links to a selection of the many materials now being produced on the global financial crisis and its impact in developing countries. http://www.enterprise-development.org/page/the-global-financial-crisis

The Centre for Development Policy and Research is pleased to announce the publication of Development Viewpoint #24, ‘‘How the Global Crisis Is Transmitted to Developing Countries”. The author, Jan Toporowski, Department of Economics, SOAS, expose how developing countries are extraordinarily vulnerable to the financial crisis that is unfolding in the U.S. because its debt deflation (its reduction of expenditures to repay its debt) will reduce developing-country exports and, in turn, the outflow of U.S. dollars, the international reserve currency, which is crucial to financing international trade. He also notes that the recent fall in commodity prices and the appreciation of the U.S. dollar will only exacerbate developing-country problems. http://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/publications/dv/49755.pdf

CDPR also announced the publication of Development Viewpoint #26, ‘‘Global Financial Crisis and Recession: What Could Happen to Major Emerging Economies?” http://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/publications/dv/49965.pdf. The authors, Terry McKinley, Director of CDPR, and Naret Khurasee, a researcher at Alphametrics, draw on the results of a 2010-2015 global scenario, generated by the State of the World Economy macroeconomic model, to assess the projected impact on the major emerging economies of Brazil, China, India and South Africa. They find that as the global economy is projected to recover after 2010, all four economies should resume credible rates of economic growth. But China is expected to perform the best during 2010-2015. The other three economies are projected to grow more slowly and confront problems of current-account deficits or government debt. For related material on the State of the World Economy model, see: http://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/researchareas/worldmodel.

The Centre for Development Policy and Research is pleased to announce the publication of Development Viewpoint #28, ‘‘The Roots of the Global Financial Crisis”, http://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/publications/dv/50940.pdf. The author, Costas Lapavitsas, Department of Economics, SOAS, and Research on Finance and Money, identifies several factors that he believes are at the root of the current crisis: loose US macroeconomics policies in the early 2000, the extraction of financial profits by commercial banks directly out of personal incomes (such as through subprime mortgages) and the adoption by banks of highly risky investment banking functions (such as securitisation of mortgages).

Labor Market in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its Adjustment to Global Financial Crisis http://www.adbi.org/email.notification/url.php?id=2711&url=%2Fevent%2F2941.labor.market.prc.global.financial.crisis

In 2008, total net official development assistance (ODA) from members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) rose by 10.2% in real terms to USD 119.8 billion. This is the highest dollar figure ever recorded. It represents 0.30% of members’ combined gross national income. Bilateral development projects and programmes have been on a rising trend in recent years; however, they rose significantly by 12.5% in real terms in 2008 compared to 2007, indicating that donors are substantially scaling up their core aid programmes.

Fears remain however that the unfolding economic crisis will have a negative impact on the 2009 aid levels putting agreed 2010 targets in jeopardy. The current global financial crisis is having a serious impact on low income countries. World trade is experiencing its largest decline since 1929 and commodity prices, particularly for the exports of low income countries, are falling.

Only a special crisis-related effort can ensure that the 2010 targets for aid are met, which is even more important now that the economic crisis is reducing developing countries’ growth prospects and their ability to make progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. The European Commission urges Member States to stick to their aid commitments as aid plays a vital countercyclical role in poor countries severely hit by the economic crisis.
http://tinyurl.com/d4g8vm http://tinyurl.com/c5whar

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% in 2007. If the global economy experiences a mild recovery next year, the outlook for the region will improve to 6% in 2010. Deteriorating economic prospects will hinder the efforts to reduce poverty. With the slow growth, more than 60 million people in 2009, and close to 100 million people in 2010, will remain trapped in poverty – living on less than US$1.25 a day – than would have been if growth had continued at its earlier pace. Despite the dismal outlook, the report says that the region is in a much better position to cope with this crisis than it was in 1997/98. http://www.adb.org/projects/project.asp?id=39264

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 said that in this last scenario some 200 million workers, mostly in developing economies, could be pushed into extreme poverty. http://tinyurl.com/bbx2so

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 Trade, emphasizes EU’s strong commitment to Aid for Trade agenda and provides information on EU’s Aid for Trade activities in Africa. http://europafrica.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/memo-09-150_en.pdf

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

How can donors and partner countries assess the intended and unintended consequences of donor interventions? The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) explores ex ante Poverty Impact Assessment (PIA), which can assist in modifying the design of interventions to improve pro-poor impacts by identifying key areas for monitoring and evaluation (M&E). It can be applied to most modalities of donor support.

PIA is a process which helps policy-makers to understand the intended and unintended consequences of their interventions. This approach considers that good design of an intervention requires governments and their partners to understand the effect of their policies on diverse social groups, actors and institutions, including those not targeted by the policy.

The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness stresses the importance of results-oriented frameworks, harmonisation and alignment to improve aid effectiveness and to assure better pro-poor outcomes. Yet, prior analysis of the impacts of policy and investment decisions on poverty reduction is a complex task. It is often built on contentious assumptions and is dependent on data availability. Ex ante PIA helps donors and their partners understand and maximise the poverty reducing impacts of their interventions. It responds both to the need for accountability to partners’ constituencies and to the importance of transparent evidence-based decision-making. It can identify interventions with high impact on poverty reduction and pro-poor growth as well as mitigating measures to protect the poor. A broad application of ex ante PIA could also provide a basis for a harmonised reporting system on poverty impacts.

Poverty Impact Assessment helps decision makers determine strategic choices for public actions so as to have the greatest impact on reducing poverty and achieving pro-poor growth. PIA provides a better understanding about potential winners and losers of an intervention and thus strengthens a results-oriented approach. PIA helps to understand stakeholders and institutions that influence and are influenced by an intervention understand the importance and inter-relationship of specific transmission channels through which changes are transmitted to the stakeholders assess the likely positive and negative outcomes for stakeholders taking into account multi-dimensionality of poverty assess the reliability of data/information and knowledge gaps.

Using PIA, policy-makers can estimate the likely quantitative and qualitative outcomes of the policy for poor groups, identify potential risks and assess the reliability of available data. Through involving people with different interests and approaches, ex-ante Impact Assessment helps to save resources, and design interventions to be better targeted to achieve their goals and avoid unintended harmful consequences. Thus it also contributes to strengthening the transparency and accountability of democratically elected governments, and encourages consistency of policy-making across policy areas.

PIA is not just another new approach to assess the distributional impacts of interventions. It deliberately draws on existing approaches and their terminology, in particular on the Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA). While PSIA is more suitable for structural policy reforms, PIA is more a stand-alone approach to assess the poverty outcome at project and programme levels. But it can also help at the initial phase of sector or policy reforms to identify requirements for a full-fledged PSIA. PIA is thus less resource demanding. While a complete PSIA requires more than 100 000 Euro, the estimated cost of PIA is less than 20 000 Euro.

See the PIA Concept Note: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/13/9/38878575.pdf
For more information on Poverty Impact Assessment and POVNET’s work:
http://www.oecd.org/dac/poverty

Poverty Impact Assessment (PIA) helps donors and partner countries identify the intended and unintended consequences of their interventions. PIA provides a framework for improving baseline data and monitoring the impact hypothesis during implementation and inputs for ex post evaluations. It formulates recommendations for decision makers on how the intervention might be improved. Ex ante PIA is designed to harmonise approaches. It seeks to avoid both incoherent assessments created by competing methods and often-conflicting demands placed on partner governments.

PIA’s novelty is that it integrates already established approaches, their terminologies and procedures into one modular approach. The PIA consists of 5 modules. In each step the risks, monitoring needs and information quality are assessed and recommendations are made – based on evidence – on how the intervention can be improved.

Module 1: Poverty situation and relevance to national strategies and plans
Module 2: Stakeholder and institutional analysis
Module 3: Identification of transmission channels and overall results by channel
Module 4: Assessment of stakeholders’ and target groups’ capabilities
Module 5: Assessment of results on MDGs and other strategic goals

The PIA modules lead to a picture about possible poverty impacts of specific development projects or programmes. These projects can take place in all kinds of areas of development and need not specifically be directed towards the poor. PIA is a tool to then assess in how far the project does actually impact the poor. Although the tool has useful elements and forces one to think about a multitude of issues that otherwise might have slipped the mind, it is also based on very strong assumptions about linear relations between different situations. The tool asks you to predict poverty impacts based on very little information with little analytical tools. In academic terms, this tool wouldn’t be considered to be a very sound or solid tool for measuring poverty impact. Nevertheless, if it is used to force its users to think more in-depth about the project and its possible outcomes for the poor, it is certainly useful in its own right.

PIA is based on balancing qualitative and quantitative information to achieve a sound and reliable assessment. The level of detail can be determined by the needs of the organisation commissioning the PIA. This might be a quick exercise, based on already available data, or a longer, more detailed assessment, requiring greater consultation and research.

Ex ante PIA holds a number advantages over other forms of impact assessment:

• It provides a flexible methodology, which can draw on more intensive data collection and analysis where these are available. It also provides useful guidance in their absence.
• It is based on a simple framework and associated assessment procedures that build on existing methodologies and definitions. It is less demanding than poverty and social impact analysis (PSIA) in terms of data, time, personnel and financial resources.
• It complements rather than replaces other assessments during the appraisal process, such as log-frame analysis, cost-benefit/cost-effectiveness analysis or environmental assessments.It can be applied to projects, programmes, sector-wide interventions and policy reforms. However, it is not useful for assessing budget support or identifying the poverty impacts of very small projects.
• It can serve as a framework for monitoring impact hypotheses during implementation and as an input for later evaluation exercises.
• It provides a flexible level of analysis dependent on the resources available. Should more detailed analysis be required, it can be scaled up to a poverty and social impact analysis (PSIA).

Promoting Pro-Poor growth: A Practical Guide to ex-ante Poverty Impact Assessment
http://www.oecd.org/document/…

This practical guide, developed by the DAC Network on Poverty Reduction (POVNET), is designed to help staff in developing countries and in aid agencies to plan and execute PIAs and to interpret their findings, the ultimate goal being to design and implement more effective poverty reduction policies and programmes. Download: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/46/39/38978856.pdf

Ex ante appraisal of the impacts on poverty of the project ”Plateforme du Millénaire de Diamniadio”
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/57/32/39206523.pdf
Process documentation of the first Poverty Impact Assessment (PIA) in the Republic of Senegal, by Kerstin Meyer, Andrea Warner, Roland Hackenberg, Nathalie Manga Badji, GTZ, Dakar, June 2007

Sample Mission Report
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/57/53/38609100.pdf
Ex Ante Poverty Impact Assessment for Regional Economic Development: Green Belt Siem Reap Province, Cambodia

Sample Mission Report

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/31/27/41768805.pdf
Financial Cooperation with Cambodia. Poverty Impact Assessment for Rural Electrification II

Managing for Development Results and Mutual Accountability
The value of evidence based decision-making for advancing cross cutting issues
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/57/40/38607559.pdf
Workshop on Development Effectiveness in Practice, Dublin, Ireland, 26-27 April 2007

Using Poverty and Social Impact Analysis to design more effective poverty reduction measures
http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCPovertyInFocus14.pdf
This IPC Focus issue examines the usefulness of two recently developed analytical tools: Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) and Poverty Impact Assessment (PIA). Both approaches provide a framework to analyse the distributional impact of policies, programmes and projects. PSIA involves in-depth analysis of complex policy reform processes and offers evidence-based policy choices. PIA focuses on decisions concerning development projects and programmes. To explore PSIA’s and PIA’s potential contribution to more effective poverty reduction policies, individual articles in this volume.

Lessons learned in conducting Ex Ante Poverty Impact Assessment
http://www.mfdr.org/rt3/Glance/Day3/Sen.ppt
Lessons learned in conducting Ex Ante Poverty Impact Assessment for a Natural Resource Management Programme in India Third Round Table MfDR – Hanoi 2007.

Ex Ante Poverty Impact Assessment
http://www.mfdr.org/RT3/Glance/Day3/Dio.ppt
Presentation by Wolf M. Dio, GTZ, POVNET Task Team Leader, Third International Round Table MfDR, Hanoi 2007

Poverty (and social) impact analysis compared
http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCPovertyInFocus14.pdf
PSIA is an approach developed in 2001 by the World Bank and other donors, while the PIA came about in 2006 as a result of discussions within the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC). The main difference between both tools is that the PIA is designed to focus on project, programmes or specific policy reforms, while the PSIA approach is better for macroeconomic and structural policy reforms. Since PSIA was introduced, approximately 150 assessments have been conducted and the International Poverty Centre (IPC) show that it has been applied with a different degree of success in different occasions. Most of the articles in the journal agree that further progress needs to be made in order to unleash PSIA’s full potential.

As well as the PIA approach, POVNET has recently developed and is actively disseminating guidance for donors on promoting pro-poor growth , including in relation to:
Agriculture:
http://www.oecd.org/document/…
Employment:
http://www.oecd.org/document/…
Infrastructure:
http://www.oecd.org/document/…

Private sector development:
http://www.oecd.org/document/…
Social protection:
http://www.oecd.org/document/…

Poverty and Social Impact Analysis
http://www.worldbank.org/psia
This World Bank website was conceived as a forum for interaction and a tool for disseminating experience.

Sourcebook on Emerging Good Practice in Managing for Development Results (MfDR)
http://www.mfdr.org/Sourcebook.html
The Sourcebook is a valuable resource which provides solution-oriented examples of MfDR in action for practitioners at many levels and in many contexts. By focusing on observable and replicable interventions, the Sourcebook aims to increase the understanding of MfDR and illustrate how many stakeholders are effectively implementing MfDR principles for greater development effectiveness.