Promoting Youth Employment in Africa

As successive editions of the African Economic Outlook have shown, Africa’s rate of growth has outperformed the global rate over the last decade. Yet high growth is not sufficient to guarantee productive employment for all. Large sections of the population, and particularly the young, can be left behind and become frustrated. In the absence of…

Green Economy is key catalyst for growth and poverty eradication, says UNEP-report

UNEP has launched a report entitled Towards a Green Economy, Pathways to a Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication, in advance of Rio 2012, that focuses on innovative ways to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development. The report aims to ”demystify” two myths about greening the global economy. First, sustainable development and economy go together. A…

Green and growth go together, says OECD

The OECD Green Growth Strategy , and the new report, Towards Green Growth, provide a practical framework for governments to boost economic growth and protect the environment. Governments must look to the green economy to find new sources of growth and jobs. They should put in place policies that tap into the innovation, investment and…

weitzenegger.de Green Economy and Development | June 2011

This Newsletter guides you to content relevant for international co-operation and economic development. Reposted from sources linked below. Feel free to circulate it to your network. Edited by Karsten Weitzenegger CONTENT Special Issue: Green Economy and Development On the road again to Rio+20 1. UNEP: Green Economy is key catalyst for growth and poverty eradication…

OECD: Green and growth go together

OECD work on green growth. Governments must look to the green economy to find new sources of growth and jobs. They should put in place policies that tap into the innovation, investment and entrepreneurship driving the shift towards a greener economy. Green growth makes economic as well as environmental sense. In natural resource sectors alone,…

Development ministers discuss future development policy, Sahel strategy

CTA – Brussels Office Weblog – Development ministers discuss future development policy, Sahel strategy. At the informal meeting member states discussed the European Commission’s green paper outlining the future trends of European development policy. The main idea is to coordinate the European Union’s support policies with the goals of sustainable growth by putting economic growth…

Office of Science & Technology – The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and the Self-destructive of Innovation Policy:

Innovation has become the central driver of economic growth and thus a key focal point of countries’ economic development strategies as they seek to gain global competitive advantage. In fact, no fewer than three dozen countries have now created both national innovation agencies and strategies designed specifically to link science, technology, and innovation with economic…

UNU-WIDER : Promoting Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries: Policy Challenges

This policy brief provides some fresh perspectives on the relationship between entrepreneurship and development, and considers policy design issues. It reports on the UNU-WIDER two-year research project ‘Promoting Entrepreneurial Capacity’, which aimed to understand whether and how entrepreneurship matters for development, how it could derail development, how entrepreneurs function in high growth as well as…

Weitzenegger's Publication Review

New on entries Weitzenegger’s Publication Review http://www.weitzenegger.de/en/publications.html Agricultural Diversification for the Poor – Guidelines for Practitioners. http://tinyurl.com/2vs2wx8 This World Bank study treats diversification as a differentiated form of agricultural development and recognizes its role to spur sustainable growth in the rural sector. The principle purpose of this study is to outline practical ways for implementing…

WTO: Trade likely to grow by 13.5 per cent in 2010

Following faster than expected recovery in global trade flows so far in 2010, WTO economists have revised their projection for world trade growth in 2010 upwards to 13.5 per cent. The WTO’s March forecast was a 10 per cent expansion in trade volumes. This would be the fastest year-on-year expansion of trade ever recorded in…

Global economic prospects 2010: crisis, finance, and growth

Fallout from the financial crisis will change the landscape for finance and growth over the next 10 years, a new World Bank report concludes. Developing countries facing higher borrowing costs, lower credit levels, and reduced international capital flows. 2010’s Global Economic Prospects report examines the consequences of the financial crisis on both the short- and…

Much «clean» growth possible in developing world with existing technology, right strategy and incentives, UNCTAD Report says

The stress of the global financial crisis — as well as concerns about climate change and food prices — should be used by developing countries to shift towards ”clean” growth, a new UNCTAD report recommends. It says such progress is possible and affordable with existing technology, based on the right strategy and incentives. UNCTAD’s Trade…

Bleak outlook for developing Asia, but region can cope with crisis, says ADB

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%…

A comprehensive plan to drive Europe's recovery from the current economic crisis

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

Africa's economic growth in 2007 again well above the long-term trend

Africa’s average real GDP grew by 5.7 per cent in 2007. The 2008 African Economic Outlook report , jointly published by the African Development Bank, the OECD Development Centre and the UNECA expects the rate of GDP growth to strengthen to about 6 per cent in 2008 and in 2009. The 2008 African Economic Outlook…

New Publications

Responsible enterprise, foreign direct investment, and investment promotion http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=15511IIED Foreign direct investment (FDI) is widely considered to be a key factor in economic development in middle and low income countries. Positively, it can be associated with the introduction of new technologies, job creation, access to new markets and improvements in the competitiveness of host countries.…

Rising Food Prices hit the Poor, shake Development Agendas

With food and other commodity prices skyrocketing in recent months, energy and climate change have been all over the news. Prices for rice, the staple food for about half of the world’s 6 billion people, have soared to record highs, with key benchmarks touching $1000-per-tonne earlier this month, more than double the rate at the…

ADB Launches New Long-Term Strategy

The Asian Development Bank has launched Strategy 2020, a new long-term strategy for its vision of an Asia and Pacific region free of poverty. Strategy 2020 sets ADB’s new strategic course, emphasizing that poverty reduction can only be sustained if more people are economically productive, economic growth takes place in a well-managed natural environment, and…

Growth. Building Jobs and Prosperity in Developing Countries

UK DFID research on Growth. Building Jobs and Prosperity in Developing Countries Growth can generate virtuous circles of prosperity and opportunity. Strong growth and employment opportunities improve incentives for parents to invest in their children’s education by sending them to school. This may lead to the emergence of a strong and growing group of entrepreneurs,…

UNCTAD XII to consider impact of economic trends on development

Twelfth United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to take place in Accra, Ghana, 20-25 April Heads of state, ministers, economists to discuss better translation of globalization gains into poverty reduction; nurturing and expanding South-South trade; commodities boom; regional integration; foreign investment for development, debt management; technology; growing impact of creative economy; importance of small…

Google.org names TechnoServe a Strategic Partner in International Development

Google.org has also awarded TechnoServe a new multi-year grant of $3 million to expand the organization’s private-sector development efforts. The focus of the strategic partnership is to spur the growth of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are vital to ending the cycle of poverty in developing countries. SMEs create the bulk of new ideas…

Moving Toward Competitiveness: A Value-Chain Approach

Developing countries face tremendous opportunities for economic growth given economic liberalization worldwide, and rapid advancement and application of information and communications technologies. However, along with the many opportunities global network trade has to offer, firms in developing countries also face strong competitive pressures for greater efficiency and productivity to maintain market share or even survive.…