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

Human Development Report 2007/2008

The HDR provides evidence of the mechanisms through with the ecological impacts of climate change will be transmitted to the poor. Focusing on the 2.6 billion people surviving on less than US$2 a day, the authors warn forces unleashed by global warming could stall and then reverse progress built up over generations. The Report argues that climate change poses challenges at many levels. In a divided but ecologically interdependent world, it challenges all people to reflect upon how we manage the environment of the one thing that we share in common: planet Earth. It challenges us to reflect on social justice and human rights across countries and generations. It challenges political leaders and people in rich nations to acknowledge their historic responsibility for the problem, and to initiate deep and early cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Above all, it challenges the entire human community to undertake prompt and strong collective action based on shared values and a shared vision. http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008

Filed under: Uncategorized, Aid Efficiency, Development Policy, Poverty, Publications

Publication Review January 2008

Aid for Trade: New OECD Report
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/trade/highlights/viewHighlight.do~activeHighlightId=114720?intcmp=925
The WTO Aid for Trade Task Force argued that a global picture of aid-for-trade flows is important to assess whether additional resources are being delivered, to identify where gaps exists, to highlight where improvements should be made, and to increase transparency on pledges and disbursements. For that purpose the Task Force defined aid for trade as comprising support for trade policy and regulations, trade development, trade-related infrastructure, building productive capacity and trade-related adjustment if identified as trade-related development priorities in partner countries’ national development strategies.

WTO launches first Global Review of Aid for Trade
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/a4t_e/global_review_prog_e.htm
WTO provided an overview of what has been learned from the first year of Aid for Trade monitoring, with a focus on global flows and the result of the donor and partner self-assessments. Subsequently, roadmaps for mainstreaming trade in national development strategies were brought on the way.

Africa Development Indicators 2007
http://www.dev-zone.org/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=13581
Africa Development Indicators 2007 provides the most detailed collection of data on Africa. It contains over 1,000 indicators covering 53 African countries. Findings suggest that the economic outlook for Africa is improving (World Bank, 2007)

Understanding Your Local Economy: A Resource Guide for Cities
http://www.citiesalliance.org/activities-output/topics/cds/led-guidelines.html
Cities Alliance has released a new publication, “Understanding Your Local Economy: A Resource Guide for Cities” that addresses the challenges of analysing local economic conditions and a city’s comparative and competitive advantages. Funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Guide presents practical approaches to conducting citywide and regionwide economic and competitive assessments. It includes advice on how to choose local economic development (LED) indicators and tools that can assess a local economy’s competitiveness.

Growth, Poverty and Employment in Brazil, Chile and Mexico
http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCWorkingPaper42.pdf
International Poverty Centre – Working Paper # 42
We are pleased to announce the publication of IPC Working Paper #42, “Growth, Poverty and Employment in Brazil, Chile and Mexico”. The authors find that earnings trends were more powerful than employment trends in explaining changes in labour income. They also find that out of the total of eight country periods that they reviewed, only three exhibited a pro-poor pattern of change in labour income but two of these occurred during economic contractions. The authors also note that 1) poor workers would have suffered more if they had not significantly boosted their participation in labour markets in response to downturns but 2) such workers benefited less than proportionately from economic expansions compared to non-poor workers.

Pro-Poor Growth: Though a Contested Marriage, Still a Premature Divorce
http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/pub/IPCOnePager45.pdf
The author of IPC One Pager #45, Terry McKinley, analyses why enthusiasm for the concept of ‘pro-poor growth’ has waned and been replaced recently by such alternatives as ‘inclusive growth’. He argues that the twin objectives inherent in the concept, namely, faster growth and greater equity, should have remained distinct. Pragmatically merging the two led to the conclusion that growth could no longer be considered ‘pro-poor’ or ‘anti-poor’, just ‘more’ or ‘less’ poverty-reducing. He concludes by raising concerns about whether a strong focus on greater equity has been lost in the process.

Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism
http://www.grameenfoundation.org/yunus_book/
A new book by Dr. Muhammad Yunus which advances his pioneering vision of social businesses—for-profit companies with a strictly social mission that reinvest their profits to further their mission rather than distribute dividends to shareholders.

“Microfinance Fever” by Matthew Swibel
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0107/050.html?partner=email
A lot of people are chasing returns in barefoot banking. Here’s what you should know before you follow.

Good Practice Guidelines for Funders of Microfinance E-book
http://www.cgap.org/portal/site/CGAP/menuitem.929eeda637b63d5167808010591010a0/
To help funding agency staff translate guidance into daily operations, CGAP has developed an e-book version of the Good Practice Guidelines for Funders of Microfinance. The e-book version goes one step further than the Good Practice Guidelines that help to raise awareness of good practice and improve the effectiveness of donors and investors’ microfinance operations–it provides links to practical operational tools.

New ILO Study on Microfinance and Efficiency
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/microfinance/highlights/viewHighlight.do~activeHighlightId=115288?intcmp=920
An estimated US$4 billion is invested annually in microfinance around the world. But while microfinance institutions must have strong business models in order to survive, they face the challenge of making profits while creating lasting social change. A newly published study entitled Microfinance and public policy: Outreach, performance and efficiency edited by Bernd Balkenhol, the head of the Social Finance Programme at the International Labour Office (ILO) provides practitioners and policy makers with guidance on how to deal with the issue of balancing business and poverty reduction by defining criteria for supporting microfinance institutions. This research study seeks to clarify an issue that practitioners of microfinance and donors often face: how to preserve the dual commitment of microfinance institutions (MFIs) to both poverty reduction and profitability, whilst ensuring their progressive integration into the financial market and the phasing out of subsidies.

Girls Count: A Global Investment & Action Agenda
http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/15154
The wellbeing of adolescent girls in developing countries shapes global economic and social prosperity — yet girls’ needs often are consigned to the margins of development policies and programs. This new CGD report describes why and how to provide adolescent girls in developing countries a full and equal chance in life. Offering targeted recommendations for national and local governments, donor agencies, civil society, and the private sector, Girls Count provides a compelling starting point for country-specific agendas to recognize and foster girls’ potential.

Online access to the complete Palgrave Macmillan Journals Portfolio
http://www.p algrave- journals.com/accessallareas/index.html
Until February 15th the Palgrave Macmillan Access All Areas campaign gives visitors unrestricted online access not only to all Palgrave Macmillan journals, an impressive list of more than 60 journals, but also to a selection of our reference and books content.
You might want to explore the Development site, and experience the rich content archive – see http://www.sidint.org/development

Manual ‘Policy Coherence for Development, a practical guide’
http://evertvermeerstic.email-service5.nl/nct88121/qWYjIjAy
The EU Coherence Programme is happy to present you the new Manual ‘Policy Coherence for Development, a practical guide’. Our brand new Manual provides the reader with seven case studies on different EU policy areas where clear contradictions are seen with EU development objectives.

Information and Knowledge Management: IKM Emergent Newsletter
http://www.ikmemergent.net
The quarterly newsletter will be a vehicle to inform both Programme members and non-members on the developments taking place within the EADI Programme “Emergent Issues in Information and Knowledge Management (IKM) and International Development”. It presents both work that is being undertaken and approaches that are being developed.

From e&lr to Rural 21
http://www.rural-development.de/3070.0.html#01
The journal Rural 21 replaced entwicklung & ländlicher raum (e&lr) as of January 2008. The journal will have a new name, a new design and a completely revamped editorial concept. This step towards further internationalising the journal will make it accessible for an even greater readership, because Rural 21 will also incorporate the former English journal agriculture & rural development.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Development, Development Policy, Poverty, Publications

Check out our daily Newsbox zine and RSS feed

Check out our daily Newsbox zine and RSS feed

It has been kept as a secret, but most of the input we compile for our newsletters is now open for our readers. Visit our Newsbox at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/newsbox/ It has a fast search facility, that leads you to latest partner newsletters. With the full version with 10+ e-mails per day you’ll get an overwhelming wealth of information, but might feel flooded by mails. We recommend you to set YahooGroups to the Daily Digest option, which sorts all in one handy file. Or simply read the RSS feed at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/newsbox/rss

Filed under: Uncategorized, Development, Newsletter, Publications, Webguide

World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development

The WDR 2008 calls for placing the sector at the center of the development agenda if the goals of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 are to be realized. The last time a WDR on agriculture was published was in 1982, making this a landmark report that comes when many are calling for an African agricultural revolution. While 75 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas in developing countries, only 4 percent of official development assistance goes to agriculture. In Sub-Saharan Africa, a region heavily reliant on agriculture for overall growth, public spending for farming is also only 4 percent of total government spending and the sector is still taxed at relatively high levels. The report finds that for the, poorest people, GDP growth originating in agriculture is about four times more effective in raising incomes of extremely poor people than GDP growth originating outside the sector. The ,authors argue that a dynamic ‘agriculture-for-development’ agenda can benefit the estimated 900 million rural people in the developing world who live on less than $1 a day, most of whom rely on agriculture for a living. http://go.worldbank.org/ZJIAOSUFU0

Filed under: Uncategorized, Development, Development Policy, Poverty, Publications, Rural Economies

Migration can help fight global poverty, according to new OECD report

Better and more coherent migration policies can contribute to the fight against global poverty. This is the main conclusion of “Migration and Developing Countries”, a new report by the OECD Development Centre that was presented at the German Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development.

People, goods and capital move across international borders: this is what globalisation really means. The effects of trade and capital flows have been measured and quantified by the OECD and others and are widely known. Flows of people and their impact on development, however, are much less understood. By focussing on the costs and benefits of the movement of people Migration and Developing Countries shows how all parties can benefit from migration: migrants’ countries of destination, their home countries, and migrants themselves. Emigration, say the book’s authors, can reduce unemployment for low-skilled workers in migrant-sending countries, while remittances fuel consumption and investment, helping to reduce poverty.

While migration can contribute to development, development does not immediately halt international migration. International development assistance – aid – is not necessarily; therefore, a means of influencing migration flows. For this reason, Migration and Developing Countries calls for mutually reinforcing aid and migration policies. In this way, say the authors, developing countries can derive greater economic benefits from the mobility of their citizens. One example could be to link policies facilitating the recruitment of skilled workers to aid policies underpinning training and capacity building in the sending country. To unlock the development potential of international migration, policy makers in rich and poor countries must recognise that neither migration policies nor aid policies alone are enough in isolation to stimulate and maintain the momentum of development. OECD countries need to consider the development impact of their migration policies, while migrant-sending countries must rethink their development policies in the light of labour mobility. Moreover, migrants’ associations, enterprises and banks dealing with migrants and their families all play a role in increasing the development pay off of international migration.
http://www.oecd.org/document/46/0,3343,en_2649_33731_39207662_1_1_1_1,00.html

Filed under: Uncategorized, Development, Development Policy, Diaspora, Migration, Poverty, Publications, Remittances

Entrepreneurship: New Data on Business Creation and How to Promote It

The World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey continues to extend our knowledge of the importance of entrepreneurship for a dynamic economy. In its second year, with more countries participating, the survey again shows a strong relationship between entrepreneurship, the business environment, and governance. New data shed light on how the distribution of businesses among sectors varies by level of development. And analysis of new data on business registration suggests that automation can greatly reduce the barriers to starting a business. This finding makes a strong case for pursuing e-government initiatives to spur entrepreneurship. http://rru.worldbank.org/documents/publicpolicyjournal/316Klapper_Delgado.pdf

Filed under: Uncategorized, Development, Entrepreneurship, Publications

Promoting Pro-Poor growth: A Practical Guide to ex-ante Poverty Impact Assessment

Enabling poor women and men to participate in, contribute to and benefit from growth is critical to creating a path out of poverty and meeting the Millennium Development Goals. Yet without ex ante assessment of likely impacts, policies and programmes often fail to achieve the desired pro-poor impacts. To help donors and partner countries identify the consequences of their interventions, the DAC Network on Poverty Reduction (POVNET) has developed a modular, ex ante Poverty Impact Assessment (PIA) approach. This practical guide will help staff in development agencies and their partners to plan and execute PIA, and to interpret the findings it produces. OECD DAC Guidelines and Reference Series. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/46/39/38978856.pdf

Filed under: Uncategorized, Development, Events, Manuals, Poverty, Publications