Development Gateway Highlight: Business for the Environment

The human race is pushing our planet towards the edge of disaster by flooding land, sea, and air with pollution and by over use of our natural resources. These issues amount to one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced. As the world explores alternative growth paths, new ways of doing business are critical. Innovative solutions are pointing the way to new business models and market opportunities.”

B4E, the Global Business Summit for the Environment, is the leading international conference focusing on business and the environment. B4E 2008, held in Singapore on April 22, highlighted the most urgent environmental challenges facing the world today and discussed business-driven solutions for mitigating and adapting to climate change. Important topics addressed include resource efficiencies, renewable energies, new business models and climate strategies. Delegates shared best practices for identifying and managing the risks posed by climate change and uncover opportunities for developing competitive advantages.

During the Summit, CEOs and senior executives from leading global companies joined leaders from government, international agencies, NGOs, and other organizations to discuss the issues, forge partnerships and explore solutions for a greener future. http://tinyurl.com/67nmfv

Filed under: Africa, Development, Economy, Business Environment, Discussion

Economic Partnership Agreements Negotiations: Where do we stand?

At a time when the pace of the EPA negotiations has increased in all regions, and the state of play is ever changing, accessing the latest information available on these wide-ranging agreements is of essence. Pursuing its efforts to increase the transparency of the highly sensitive EPA negotiations, ECDPM has decided to set up dedicated pages for each ACP region negotiating an EPA with the EU at http://www.acp-eu-trade.org/epa and http://www.ecdpm.org/epa. These pages will be updated on a weekly basis and aim at providing news “as-it-happens”, drawing from various reliable sources of information. French versions of these webpages are available for the regions Central Africa, West Africa and Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) as well as for the All ACP level.

Oxfam International on EPAs in 2008

According to the NGO, these agreements demand ACP countries to liberalise their EU imports as broadly and as rapidly as possible and rule out previous declarations (in most cases, liberalisation will cover more than 80% of imports more often than not over 15 years); do not offer adequate protection for developing industries or food safety because they do not contain adequate safeguard clauses; do not contain a clause for the modification of the tariff commitments; demand the reduction or elimination of export restrictions (reducing the possibilities for reserving raw materials for local processing); do not contain EU commitment to reduce or eliminate export subsidies; only contain minor improvement of rules origin, limiting cumulation to countries that have signed interim agreements; oblige ACP countries to negotiate services, investment, government procurement and other issues even though Cotonou Agreement does not contain such obligations and they remain vague on development cooperation and impact assessment. See http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/pressoffice/2008/01/oxfam_international_on_economi.html

ONGOING DISCUSSION FORUM:
Which factors are necessary to the achievement of a positive relationship between
Trade and Sustainable Development?

“Trade liberalization and sustainable development are not unavoidably incompatible. Trade liberalization can advance sustainable development goals, just as it can retard their achievement. The same can be said for foreign direct investment. Appropriate investment can spur sustainable development, but much investment in developing countries has been environmentally, socially and often economically questionable.” (IISD Statement on Trade and SD) We kindly invite you to participate in the recently posted Discussion Forum. You will need to be logged-in to the Development Gateway to contribute. We advise to register there anyway.
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/trade/discussion/default/showDiscussion.do~id=5306?intcmp=925

GTZ Studies on EPAs
Four Studies on how to ensure development friendly EPAs have been published by GTZ. The main themes are TRIPS, trade in services, SPS measures, and trade liberalisation impacting on regional integration. http://www.gtz.de/en/themen/laendliche-entwicklung/13421.htm

Filed under: ACP, Africa, Caribbean, Development, European Union, Trade, Business Environment, Development Policy, Poverty, Trade

World Economic Situation and Prospects 2008 (WESP 2008)

According to WESP 2008, the world economy is facing serious challenges in sustaining the strong pace of economic growth seen over the past few years. While the baseline forecast is for world economic growth to moderate somewhat in 2008, the risks associated with the bursting of the housing bubble in the United States, the related unfolding credit crisis, the decline of the dollar, large global imbalances and high oil prices are all pointing to the downside. The report draws some lessons from the global financial turmoil of 2007, which was triggered by the meltdown of sub-prime mortgages in the United States, and points out that the various measures adopted by central banks of the major economies did not address the root causes of the turmoil: the huge global imbalances. In an alternative scenario, which takes into account the possibility of a sharper-than-expected decline in house prices in the United States and a hard landing of the US dollar, the United States economy would fall into a recession, while global growth would be significantly lower than the baseline. In addition to trends in international trade and capital flows, WESP 2008 also covers the latest progress and policy issues related to international trade negotiations and reform of the international financial system. http://www.un.org/esa/policy/wess/wesp.html

Filed under: Uncategorized, Business Environment, Microfinance, Poverty, Publications, Trade

Poor families hit hardest by bribery, even in rich countries, finds new TI poll

Poor families are hit hardest by demands for bribes in developed as well as developing countries, according to Transparency international’s Global Corruption Barometer 2007. The public opinion survey, published today ahead of International Anti-Corruption Day on 9 December, also found that citizens in countries across the globe continue to see political parties and parliaments as the institutions most compromised by corruption. The Barometer, which surveys 63,199 respondents in 60 countries, offers a broad spectrum of data on common experiences of corruption, including which institutions most frequently demand bribes, where citizens see the greatest degree of corruption, and how they see both the future development of corruption and their governments’ efforts to eradicate it. http://www.transparency.org/news_room/latest_news/press_releases/2007/2007_12_06_gcb_2007_en

Filed under: Uncategorized, Business Environment, Corruption, Poverty

New Microinsurance Initiative from the ILO and GatesFoundation

The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced a new partnership to develop or improve insurance products to promote decent work for tens of millions of low-income people in the developing world. Over the course of the next three years, the facility will issue bi-annual requests for proposals and provide funding to pilot new insurance products, improve efficiency in the field, and use technology to create new products that better meet people’s needs. The facility will also train technical specialists to help replicate successful models. This facility builds on the successful efforts of the CGAP Working Group on Microinsurance to document the experiences of microinsurance operations around the world. Funded by DFID, GTZ, ILO and SIDA, this “Good and Bad Practices” project conducted a series of case studies of insurance companies, microfinance institutions and community-based schemes that provide insurance to the poor. See case studies on http://www.microinsurancefocus.org

Filed under: Uncategorized, Business Environment, Microfinance

IFC SME: Entrepreneurship Database

IFC SME: Entrepreneurship Database

The 2007 World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey measures entrepreneurial activity in 84 developing and industrial countries over the period 2003-2005. The database includes cross-country, time-series data on the number of total and newly registered businesses, collected directly from Registrar of Companies around the world. In its second year, this survey incorporates improvements in methodology, and expanded participation from countries covered, allowing for greater cross-border compatibility of data compared with the 2006 survey. This joint effort by the IFC SME Department and the World Bank Developing Research Group is the most comprehensive dataset on cross-country firm entry data available today.
http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/sme.nsf/Content/Entrepreneurship+Database

Filed under: Uncategorized, Business Environment, Entrepreneurship

PSD blog is looking for experimental research in entrepreneurship

PSD blog is looking for experimental research in entrepreneurship

The 2007 World Bank Entrepreneuship Database finds significant relationships between entrepreneurial activity and the quality of the enabling environment. The bank and the Kauffman Foundation are now jointly offering funding of up to $35,000 for research projects that will study what contributes to greater entrepreneurship and formal sector participation. http://psdblog.worldbank.org/psdblog/2007/11/looking-for-exp.html

Filed under: Uncategorized, Business Environment

Northern Belize Economic Diversification Study

Northern Belize Economic Diversification Study

We are currently in Belize to identify priority sectors offering economic diversification opportunities in the Districts of Corozal and Orange Walk as their economies adapt to change. We will recommend areas for required social and economic services/infrastructure and capacity building, and develop proposals for investments in the recommended areas. The overall objective is to provide alternative livelihoods opportunities and social and economic services and infrastructure in the districts of Corozal and Orange Walk as the sugar industry adapts to changes in the world market for sugar. Please see our Terms of Reference at http://www.weitzenegger.de/en/sugarbel.html.

If you would like to have a consultation meeting with us while in Belize or if you would like to be invited to a workshop in Corozal or Orange Walk scheduled for mid-February, than please let us know. Ms. Maria Soraia Roches (tel. 8222527) at the Ministry of National Development kindly helps us coordinates our schedule.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Business Environment, Caribbean, Development, Development Policy, Poverty

World Bank calls for broader access to finance

Between 50 and 80 percent of adults in many developing countries have inadequate access to financial services, finds a new World Bank policy research report entitled “Finance for All? Policies and Pitfalls in Expanding Access”. According to the report, failure to provide more households and small and medium enterprises with the financial services they need acts as a brake on development. While noting the microfinance industry’s progress in delivering credit to poor people, the report calls for a broader financial strategy that delivers services to all excluded people and firms. Inclusive financial systems ultimately benefit the poorest people and the smallest firms the most, by creating more jobs, raising incomes, and generating more opportunities for small businesses. The report says that governments should strengthen institutions and adopt new technologies to bring down transaction costs. Research suggests that governments should also encourage competition—including foreign bank entry—and provide the right regulatory incentives. In contrast, direct interventions by governments, such as through credit subsidies or government-owned financial institutions, can be counter-productive, reducing incentives for the private sector to deliver services to the poor.
http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTPRRS/EXTFINFORALL/0,,menuPK:4099731~pagePK:64168092~piPK:64168088~theSitePK:4099598,00.html

Filed under: Uncategorized, Aid Efficiency, Business Environment, Development, Development Policy, Poverty, Rural Economies

Accra Conference: Business environment reform: Syntheses, Conferences papers

Most of the Papers and Presentations from the Conference have now been posted to the Business Environment Working Group of the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development. Of particular importance is the draft BE Donor Guidance, under b); your comments are invited at the dedicated blog at http://donorguidance.blogspot.com. In due course, the remaining Papers and presentations from the Conference (including more documents in French) will also be posted. http://www.businessenvironment.org/dyn/be/besearch.details?p_phase_id=142&p_lang=en&p_phase_type_id=6

Filed under: Uncategorized, Business Environment, Development, Entrepreneurship, Events