This fifth annual report offers a detailed look at the U.S. administration's approach to funding and providing assistance to support democracy and governance in the Middle East and North Africa. As some countries in the region embark on political transitions and others continue to protest authoritarian rule, it is important to examine changes in U.S. funding for the Middle East and the impact on Washington’s relations with the region.
The Green Deal Nigeria study commissioned by the Heinrich Böll Foundation focuses on the potential for a greener Nigeria and is being launched as the country prepares for the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit. The study provides an overview and practical examples of how to green Nigeria before 2020 and explains the long-term measures that Nigeria needs to take today to make the economy grow beyond oil.
The World Bank's May 2012 volume on "Inclusive Green Growth" has some positive solutions to offer, but falls short in several crucial ways: the lack of emphasis on poverty reduction, equality and human rights; an uncritical regard for market mechanisms to govern asset markets, and a view of infrastructure as the “heart of green growth,” among other things.
Susan Ariel Aaronson, Associate Research Professor of the Elliott School, George Washington University, underscores how firms often operate in states where human rights may not be respected. For these and other firms, the Guiding Principles (GP) on Business and Human Rights, adopted by the UN in 2011, delineate their human rights responsibilities. This paper identifies how policy-makers can help firms meet these responsibilities.
Do development institutions have a choice between safeguards and "country ownership”? The World Bank’s new lending instrument – the Program-for-Results – abandons binding safeguards in the name of “country ownership.” This paper asserts that both country ownership and safeguards are necessary to achieve development results.
The European crisis is not only a Euro or financial crisis, it also has far reaching political implications. In his article Rainer Emschermann analyses the political dynamics while Europe is struggling for ways to solve its deepest crisis since the foundation of the European Union.
In the European Union, the Euro, the common currency of 17 EU countries, has been under speculative attack in global currency markets for some time. This is due largely to the debt crisis sweeping several of its member countries, but also a signal of larger global imbalances and power shifts in global financial markets.
The links between climate change and industrial agriculture create a nexus of crises—food insecurity, natural resource depletion and degradation, as well as human rights violations and inequities. This report unravels the interrelated causes of and effects on these issues.
Christine Lagarde is the first woman to head the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Undoubtedly, this is a step forward in the right direction, and would have been difficult to imagine only a few years ago.
This report offers a detailed look at the U.S. funding and assistance for democracy and governance in the Middle East, the Congressional appropriations process, and implications for U.S. policy in the Middle East during this turbulent time.
This paper describes the G20's Development Action Plan (DAP) to promote economic growth in some 80 low-income countries. The DAP would deploy existing bilateral and multilateral aid to offset risks to private investment in infrastructure and agriculture projects that promote regional integration.
This paper critiques the World Bank's proposed Program for Results (P4R) instrument by examining protections of the environment and affected communities and control of corruption (Part I); the effectiveness of proposed mechanisms of accountability (Part II); and the integrity of the consultation process on the proposed P4R instrument (Part III). Part IV presents conclusions.
This paper examines how the current WTO negotiations propose limits or disciplines on governmental regulations. The paper focuses on regulations that limit or discourage speculators from participating in commodity markets, which contributes to volatility in the prices of food commodities. To demonstrate this point, the paper presents a case study of a specific policy option for regulation of derivatives. It concludes with a description of options for resolving the ambiguity of selected disciplines.
It is certainly laudable that gender equality gets the serious consideration it deserves in the current international development discourse, and having a WDR exclusively focused on gender equality gives it yet another ‘stamp of approval’ of being an intrinsic development issue. Too bad, that the World Bank is not using this occasion to accompany the academic exercise internally with a serious reflection and reconsideration of the Bank’s own understanding of and approach to gender equality.
For more than three decades, transnational corporations have been busy buying up what used to be known as the commons -- everything from our forests and our oceans to our broadcast airwaves and our most important intellectual and cultural works.
On October 22, Nancy Alexander spoke at the Global Capital Forum of the Korean Women's Development Institute about the importance of women's leadership in achieving sustainable development. Her paper appears here.
Gender equality is highlighted as a special theme in the ongoing 16th round of replenishment talks for the World Bank Group’s International Development Association (IDA 16). A discussion about gender equality at the World Bank group is not new. Since 2001, the World Bank has had an official gender mainstreaming strategy. Yet there are some structural weaknesses in the way the World Bank addresses gender considerations that need to be overcome in order for IDA 16 to be able to contribute to gender-equitable development in the poorest developing countries.
An important addition to the growing international dialogue about the commons can be found in the new anthology, Genes, Bytes and Emissions: To Whom Does the World Belong? The essays in this book are now available online in English.
This paper recommends that the World Bank distribute its assistance to Africa in more equitable ways. On August 16, 2010, it was presented to the African Caucus of Finance Ministers, Central Bank Governors, and World Bank and IMF Executive Directors in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The Caucus established a Task Force to advocate that the World Bank implement the recommendations.
The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) has become a centerpiece of the administration's efforts to engage civil society and support democracy in the region. Following a 30% increase in funding in FY10, the new budget requests an additional 32% increase up to $86 million.
The World Trade Organization is negotiating “disciplines” on domestic regulation that could be more powerful than negotiators realize. They could transform the GATS, the General Agreement on Trade in Services, into the first trade agreement that foreign investors enforce through claims against governments for hundreds of millions of dollars. If so, the magnitude of disputes could change the course of development for a small state or a vulnerable economy.
The World Trade Organization is negotiating “disciplines” on domestic regulation, one of which requires regulations to be “pre-established.” Established before what? If this means, before government can apply regulations to an existing financial institution, the discipline would limit the government’s authority to change “too big to fail” policies or increase developmental lending mandates to serve businesses that are rural, small, or owned by women.
The World Trade Organization is negotiating “disciplines” on domestic regulation, one of which requires regulations to be “pre-established.” Established before what? If this means, before a development permit is sought, the discipline would limit the government’s authority to change environmental or community impact standards before a permit is issued. If so, this discipline could constrain changes in climate policy or environmental regulation of existing extraction industries.
The World Trade Organization is negotiating “disciplines” on domestic regulation, which is essential for both development and environmental protection. Often ambiguous, some of the draft disciplines can be interpreted as a radical departure from the practice of most nations. They could change the course of regulation and development, particularly within federal systems and in small and vulnerable economies, where government systems are changing.
The World Bank’s Investment Lending Reforms (ILR) will significantly shift the way in which the institution operates. This re-issued paper contains updated information on the reforms and the implications of these reforms for people and the environment in recipient countries.
In 2009, the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) released an unprecedented 700-page evaluation which found evidence that the institution is failing to adequately address the risks of fraud and corruption in its assistance programs.
Between January 2007 and June 2009, the IMF claims that it was more flexible in terms of providing greater policy space to low-income countries to boost spending in the face of fuel, food and financing crises. To examine this claim, scholars at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) examined the empirical evidence in 13 countries. Learn about their findings in this report.
As with many of the other WTO negotiating areas, talks on “trade in services” present serious challenges to developing countries. One challenge is the fact that – whereas tariffs are a primary barrier to trade in goods – domestic laws and regulations are the primary barrier to trade in services. Hence, when governments make commitments to liberalize services in different sectors such as, energy, environment, basic services, domestic laws and regulations governing these services need to be re-examined to ensure that they do not conflict with WTO rules.
With its gigantic domestic market, its allure to foreign investors, and the world’s largest currency reserve, China should be better prepared to weather the financial crisis than other emerging markets. Yet China’s exports account for 40 percent of its GDP and it has thus been deeply impacted by the worldwide recession, especially by the drop in U.S. demand
August 2009"The United States is a women’s success story in many ways... Yet for the past two decades at least, policies in other countries are catching up with and exceeding those in the United States, so that we can no longer consider ourselves the leader in women’s achievement or economic well-being."
For the first time in 25 years, the World Bank’s annual Development Report (WDR 2008) is dedicated to agriculture. The report is a welcome indicator of renewed interest in agriculture worldwide that is urgently needed.
Although publicly-funded International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have missions to reduce poverty and promote economic growth, IFI projects often ignore gender inequality and increase poverty, prostitution, and HIV/AIDS, particularly among women and girls.
