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''The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.''

February 2003

Content February 2003
  1. Human Development Report 2002: Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World
  2. State of the World 2003 Report
  3. Global Employment Trends 2002
  4. Human Rights Watch World Report 2003
  5. Good Governance and the World Bank, Bretton Woods Project paper
  6. World Bank Funds Controversial Diamond Project on Bushmen's Land
  7. Ciranda: International Independent Information Exchange
  8. GTZ Information Gateway about Internet Portals for SME
  9. European Commission Green Paper on Entrepreneurship
  10. Listening to clients: financial service needs and the poor
  11. What is Poverty and How to Measure it?
  12. Making public-private partnerships work harder for the poor
  13. The Multinational Monitor, monthly
  14. Development Gateway "Highlight" on community telecentres
  15. ICCDA Inter-Regional Co-ordinating Committee of Development Associations

1. Human Development Report 2002: Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World

Politics matter for human development. Reducing poverty depends as much on whether poor people have political power as on their opportunities for economic progress. Democracy has proven to be the system of governance most capable of mediating and preventing conflict and of securing and sustaining well-being. By expanding people's choices about how and by whom they are governed, democracy brings principles of participation and accountability to the process of human development.

In a World Bank event, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Director of the United Nations Human Development Report Office, noted in her overview of the 2002 Human Development Report that Nobel winning economist Amartya Sen once proclaimed democracy to be the greatest achievement of the twentieth century. By the year 2000, more than half of the world's population lived in democracies while those living under authoritarian rule dropped to less than one-third. But the report, which focused on the role of politics in development, suggests emerging democracies remain vulnerable to abuses which may negatively affect social and economic development. Improving governance becomes a focal point for successful development, and the report called an increased emphasis on citizen engagement a critical ingredient in such a process. Democracies, the report noted, improve economic and social development through accountability and public participation rather than relying solely on competition for power or resources. Download the complete Human Development Report entirely at http://www.undp.org/hdr2002/complete.pdf (2.7MB) or by chapter.

http://www.undp.org/hdr2002/

2. State of the World 2003 Report

The report examines how the world economy could become more sustainable by scaling up recent successes in curbing infectious disease, increasing the income of the poor and advancing the use of renewable energy. In this 20th anniversary edition of the Worldwatch classic, the Institute's highly respected interdisciplinary research team argues that past successes-such as the elimination of smallpox and the encouraging drop in birth rates in many countries-prove that humanity is capable of redirecting itself in positive ways. Most encouraging, the world is sitting on the cusp of similar successes that could usher in a sustainable human civilization. The use of clean, renewable energy technologies, like wind turbines and photovoltaics for example, is growing at over 25 percent per year, and they are increasingly competitive with fossil fuels. Organic farming is the fastest-growing sector of the world agricultural economy, with the potential to rejuvenate rural communities from the Philippines to Sweden. And a quickening of religious interest in humanity's place in the natural environment could awaken a powerful new constituency to the cause of sustainability. The challenges are still immense, of course, as the book also documents, but the building blocks for a historic reinvention of human civilization are now within reach.

http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/sow/2003/press.html

3. Global Employment Trends 2002

This International Labour Organisation (ILO) report estimates that the number of unemployed grew by 20 million since the beginning of 2001 to reach about 180 million at the end of 2002, and that the increase was most severe among women. In addition an increasing number of young people entering the labour market were unable to find jobs. The report presents labour market trends and underlines the main employment challenges at the global level in each of the eight regions of the world. It states that part of the greatest increase in unemployment since the year 2000 has been in the industrialized countries, with a similar rise in developing countries as well. This has been attributed to the inability of the informal sector to absorb those who aren't able to find formal employment.

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/strat/download/trends.pdf

4. Human Rights Watch World Report 2003

This report is Human Rights Watch's thirteenth annual review of human rights practices around the globe. It addresses developments in fifty- eight countries, covering the period from November 2001 through November 2002. Most chapters examine significant human rights developments in a particular country; the response of global actors, such as the European Union, Japan, the United States, the United Nations, and various regional and international organizations and institutions; and the freedom of local human rights defenders to conduct their work. This report reflects extensive investigative work undertaken in 2002 by the Human Rights Watch research staff, usually in close partnership with human rights activists in the country in question. It also reflects the work of the Human Rights Watch advocacy team, which monitors the policies of governments and international institutions that have influence to curb human rights abuses. (Dev-Zone)

http://hrw.org/wr2k3/

5. Good Governance and the World Bank, Bretton Woods Project paper

The concept of good governance in the World Bank's agenda is strongly linked to the relationship between the market, the state and the civil society in loan-receiving countries. Despite the Bank is seeking to establish well-functioning market economies with stable property rights, enforceable contracts, high levels of transparency, and low levels of corruption, this paper reveals that: * the role of political factors in corruption and legal reform is still underestimated * the World Bank's good governance agenda definitely appears more market-centric rather than state-centric Although the Bank has started addressing 'political' issues such as decentralisation and democratisation in its lending activities, the good governance agenda is ambiguous enough about how far the Bank's commitment to civil society really extends and what participation means in practice. Author(s): Drake, E.; Malik, A.; Xu, X.; Kotsioni, I.; El-Habashy, R.; Misra, V. Produced by: Bretton Woods Project (2003) (ELDIS)

http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/topic/governance/goodgov/s32goodgovfinal.pdf

6. World Bank Funds Controversial Diamond Project on Bushmen's Land in Botswana

Kalahari Diamonds Limited, formed at the initiative of, and partly owned by, BHP Billiton, has secured US$2 million funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to explore for diamonds in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), Botswana. The CKGR is the ancestral land of the Gana and Gwi 'Bushmen' and Bakgalagadi. Despite IFC requirements that indigenous communities are informed participants in the development of such a project, no Bushmen communities from the CKGR were consulted over the plans. De Beers has also increased its exploration concessions on the Bushmen's land. In November they threatened legal action against Survival for associating the evictions with diamond interests. (Survival International, Dev-Zone)

http://www.survival-international.org/bushman.htm

7. Ciranda: International Independent Information Exchange A Better World Is Possible

Conceived by the staff of the Porto Alegre 2003 and recreated every year during the World Social Forum, the Ciranda has become a trademark of the meeting that searches for global alternatives. It brings together hundreds of journalists and dozens of independent print and electronic publications from all over the world. It offers a special coverage of the Porto Alegre meeting in six languages through the Internet. (Dev-Zone)

http://www.portoalegre2003.org/publique/
http://www.ciranda.net/publique/

8. GTZ Information Gateway about Internet Portals for SME

The Information Gateway about Internet Portals for Small and Medium Enterprises is intended for those who want to develop and market web-based information services for SMEs as well as those who want to use the information for SME-consultancy in general. The Gateway presents, therefore, different SME-portals - including those which have been supported by GTZ in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In addition to this you can find several guidelines and checklists for the development, operation and marketing of SME-portals as well as GTZ good practice and portal contents such as business plans, import-export and investment guides, trade fair calendar, loan conditions, tender procedures, appropriate technologies, marketing strategies, taxation procedures and other information services. (GTZ)

http://www.gtz.de/sme-portals/

9. European Commission Green Paper on Entrepreneurship

The European Commission has published a Green Paper to stimulate debate on the future agenda for entrepreneurship. This is the first time that the Commission has launched a comprehensive policy initiative to focus on the entire range of issues that could stimulate entrepreneurship in Europe. The Paper addresses two key issues for Europe. Firstly, why do so few people start a business, when a relatively large number of individuals express their interest in entrepreneurship? Secondly, why do so few European enterprises grow and why do those that grow do so at such a modest rate? (EC) Green paper and online survey questionnaire until 30 June 2003:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/entrepreneurship/green_paper/index.htm

10. Listening to clients: tools for assessing the financial service needs and preferences of the poor

This technical note by J. Sebstad, contends that the microfinance debate has moved beyond an emphasis on the negative impact (or not) of debt and the inappropriateness (or not) of credit for the poor towards a focus on developing new financial products that respond more effectively to the needs of the poor. Some market research tools that have been used by AIMS and MicroSave-Africa are described. With adaptation to local contexts and environments, these and similar tools can generate information that can be useful in developing new products that match the needs and preferences of the poor. (EDIAIS).

http://www.mip.org/componen/aims/publications.htm

11. What is Poverty and How to Measure it? A paper from Thailand

How does poverty measurement affect poverty policy? A paper by Somchai Jitsuchon examines the different prevailing definitions of poverty, and attempts to reconcile these seemingly different definitions. It brings together the different poverty definitions, or the characteristics of the poor, proposed by three different groups: the poor, the academic, and the policy makers. The official poverty lines have recently been updated and reconstructed by updating the consumption basket to reflect current lifestyles of contemporary Thais. However, the paper states that the new, and recently revised official poverty lines have been criticised on the basis that the official poverty incidences are still too low. Based on the discussion and the criticism of official poverty lines, the paper recommends that future poverty reduction policies cannot ignore the distributional aspects of development, as perceptions of relative poverty have become increasingly more important than perceptions of absolute poverty; and that the official revised poverty lines should use the average consumption basket in deriving the cost of food for all regions and areas. Produced by: Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) (ELDIS)

http://www.thaieconwatch.com/articles/qr_sj.pdf

12. Making public-private partnerships work harder for the poor

The UK-based Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC) of Loughborough University has undertaken research on the needs of the poor as they relate to public-private partnerships (PPP) and the ways that PPP arrangements can be made more "pro-poor." Important findings include: * PPPs offer huge scope for technological innovation, including locally applied engineering standards, and differentiated levels of service according to need. * Communication is a vital component of PPPs, particularly concerning legal rights. Civil society organizations can play an important role here in helping to develop an information base about the requirements and priorities of the poor prior to the start of the contract development process. (Source Weekly)

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/wedc/projects/ppp-poor/index.htm

13. The Multinational Monitor, monthly

The Multinational Monitor is published monthly except bimonthly in January/February and July/August by Essential Information, Inc. The Multinational Monitor tracks corporate activity, especially in the Third World, focusing on the export of hazardous substances, worker health and safety, labour union issues and the environment. (Dev-Zone)

http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/

14. Development Gateway "Highlight" on community telecentres

The Development Gateway web portal has prepared a "Highlight" on community telecentres, featuring an interview, articles, stories and research papers by some of the key experts and champions of telecenters in Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well as a discussion forum and a number of links to Internet resources dealing with telecenters. You can access all the materials of the "Telecenters" highlight at:

http://www.developmentgateway.org/ict/telecenters

15. ICCDA Inter-Regional Co-ordinating Committee of Development Associations

ICCDA is the informal umbrella institution made up of the six sister associations ADIPA , AICARDES , CLACSO , CODESRIA , EADI and OSSREA . It was created in 1976. Its headquarters are based presently in Senegal, but rotate from one association to the other on a regular three-year basis.The EADI website features news from its sister organisations ADIPA, AICARDES, CLACSO, CODESRIA and OSSREA.

http:// www.eadi.org/iccda.htm
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