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

September 2004

Edited by Karsten Weitzenegger.
Comments and suggestions: editor @ weitzenegger.de

CONTENT
  1. World Bank report puts the spotlight on the investment environment
  2. UNCTAD World Investment Report 2004
  3. EU, Commonwealth and Francophonie join in supporting ACP trade policy makers
  4. WTO Discusses Textile Quota Elimination
  5. Common Code for the Coffee Community - Draft released
  6. African Development Bank said to be victim of a corrupt environment
  7. Training and Events
  8. Publications
  9. Websites

1. World Bank report puts the spotlight on the investment environment

World Development Report 2005: A Better Investment Climate for Everyone
In its annual world development report, launched on September 28, 2004, the World Bank called for developing countries to reduce red tape, make government regulation more predictable, and deliver the basics of stable political environments and secure property rights. The report, based in part of surveys of more than 30,000 companies in 53 developing countries, said that costs associated with crime, corruption, over-regulation, weak contract enforcement and inadequate infrastructure can amount to over a quarter of company turnover, or more than three times what companies typically pay in tax. Policy uncertainty and other policy-related risks, including macroeconomic instability, insecure property rights, and arbitrary regulation hamper investment. Improving the accountability of governments and creating greater transparency, would help to reduce rent-seeking, the report said, and reduce barriers to entry for new firms. The report called on rich countries to help promote investment in the developing world, including reducing barriers to trade - particularly in agriculture trade - that hamper growth in poor countries. http://www.worldbank.org/wdr2005/

http://www.worldbank.org/privatesector/ic/ - the Doing Business Project -
http://rru.worldbank.org/DoingBusiness/default.aspx - and the World Development Indicators 2004 -
http://www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2004/ - an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries.

2. UNCTAD World Investment Report 2004

According to UNCTAD's Trade and Development Report 2004, the global economy is looking better than it was a year ago, as arethe prospects for developing countries. The report also deals with the recent rapid growth in world trade and the developmental effects of closer integration into the world economy. UNCTAD notes that the structure of foreign direct investment (FDI) has shifted noticeably toward services. The report is intended to indicate the latest trends and tendencies regarding FDI, with an emphasis on the performance of developing countries.
http://www.unctad.org/en/docs//wir2004_en.pdf


3. EU, Commonwealth and Francophonie join hands in supporting ACP trade policy makers

The European Commission, the ACP Secretariat, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Agence Intergouvernmentale de la Francophonie are jointly launching a major effort to support capacity in the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to formulate trade policies and negotiate trade agreements. A network of trade advisors will be established throughout the ACP: 9 senior experts and 48 analysts will reinforce ACP international trade administrations. In-country training of national counterparts will be the other large component of the €17 million programme financed by the European Development Fund under the EU-ACP Cotonou Agreement.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/issues/bilateral/regions/acp/pr151004_en.htm


4. WTO Discusses Textile Quota Elimination

At a regular meeting on 1 October 2004, the WTO discussed adjustment-related issues that may be caused by the elimination of quota restrictions against textile and clothing products on January 1, 2005. The plan to end the quotas by 2005 was agreed by 123 nations participating in the Uruguay Round trade talks in 1995. However, the pending end of the fourth, and final, phase of the ten-year liberalization of the sector has raised fears among poor developing countries heavily dependent on apparel exports. Bangladesh, Nepal, Mauritius and the Dominican Republic are among those who fear that China and India are likely to dominate the global markets and crowd them out in lucrative cash markets like the U.S. and the European Union.
http://www.wto.org


5. Common Code for the Coffee Community - Draft released

The Common Code for the Coffee Community is a joint initiative of coffee producers, trade & industry, trade unions and social as well as environmental NGOs to develop a global code of conduct aiming at social, environmental and economic sustainability in the production, post-harvest processing and trading of mainstream green coffee. It is supported and facilitated by Deutscher Kaffeeverband and GTZ. The Steering Committee of the Common Code-Initiative during its fourth meeting on 9 September agreed that the current version of the Code will be the one to be tested in Pilot Projects. As a living document, the Code will be modified and specified referring to the results and analysis of the pilot implementation.
http://www.sustainable-coffee.net


6. African Development Bank said to be victim of a corrupt environment

In his testimony before the U.S. Senate Foreign relations Committee, Dr. George Ayittey, an economist at the American University in Washington and President of the Free Africa Foundation blamed the African Development Bank for adapting to the environment of corruption, bribery and commissions on projects. Both American taxpayers, who wasted their money and Africans, who must repay the loans from which they did not benefit at all are losers in that situation.
http://www.ciobinternational.org/openArticle.asp?ArticleID=4558


7. Training and Events

FEEZ Training Programme on Evaluation in Development Cooperation 2005 AGEG, the German Association of Development Consultants and CEval of the University of Saarland offer in 2005 the third cycle of the evaluation training programme specialized for development professionals. The seminars will be held in German language at different locations in Germany. See http://www.feez.de

Meeting on E-Learning in Bonn
''From Policy to Practice in the Development Sector'' is the title of a conference organised by InWEnt in cooperation with the University of London. The meeting is held on November 4th and 5th 2004 in Bonn. Registration possible till 27th October 2004. The aim of the fourth InWEnt e-learning seminar is to stimulate and strengthen discussion and exchange on the subject of e-learning in development policy between international organisations and researchers in the development sector. The seminar combines short key-note addresses, with plenty of opportunity for participants to work together in small groups to discuss ways of turning policy into appropriate and relevant practice. It is being organised collaboratively with the ICT for Development collective at Royal Holloway, University of London. http://www.gc21.de/ibt/GC21/opengc21/ibt/public/e-learning-seminar/index.html

Training Seminar: International Requirements For Trade (WTO/EU)
Conformity Assessment, Market Surveillance, Technical Barriers to Trade etc. with Mr. A.,Inklaar (in German), Date: 8 - 9 November 2004, Location: GTZ, Eschborn, Germany, Contact: Mr. Niels Hansen, niels.hansen @ gtz.de http://www.gtz.de/trade/

Forthcoming CINFO seminars in Switzerland Detailed information can be found on CINFO's website regarding seminars that will take place in the next 12 months in German and French. See: http://www.cinfo.ch/english/pagesnav/HO.htm

Call for Panels/Papers for the 11th EADI General Conference
EADI will hold its 11th EADI General Conference entitled ''Insecurity and Development - Regional Issues and Policies for an Interdependent World'' from 21-24 September 2005 in Bonn, Germany. A first announcement and a call for ad hoc working groups/panels is available from the EADI Website. Researchers, institutions and other networks interested in the conference theme are invited to submit proposals by 5 November 2004. A final call for papers specifying the topics of the conference will then be published in December 2004. http://www.eadi.org

Trade Related Training Options in International Development Cooperation
GTZ Trade Programme 2nd Edition, by Bettina Merlin, GTZ 2004. The new training portfolio of the programme ''Trade'' offers courses on ''Going global''. This seminar provides participants with knowledge on how to assess trade and competitiveness in the agricultural sector.
www.gtz.de/trade/download/merlin2004.pdf

Preparations for Mediterranean Virtual University Launched
Online courses will be delivered to students across the Mediterranean region once a recently launched MEDA supported project called 'Mediterranean Virtual University' has achieved one of its main objectives. The project, which has been allocated Euro 3.2 million under MEDA, forms part of the EUMEDIS Regional Programme (Euro-Mediterranean Information Society), managed by the EUropean COmmission's EuropeAid Cooperation Office. It brings together top universities in Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Syria, and Turkey, and universities in 4 EU countries (Cyprus, Denmark, Malta, and the UK) who are leading the way in e-learning. 'Mediterranean Virtual University' is co-ordinated by the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK. The courses will initially be in IT-related areas, and the content will be defined in partnership with industry, taking their needs into account. http://www.eumedis.net

German InWEnt calls alumni
Have you taken part in an InWEnt further training measure in Germany or elsewhere? If so, InWEnt will support you! Their further training programmes are not over when a seminar or a long-term training measure ends. Starting to use the new knowledge and skills you have acquired in your day-to-day work can be quite tedious. So we will be there to assist you. You can contact tutors to settle queries. They will inform you about the latest developments and come up with ideas for your further activities.The portal consists of two areas: One is open to the public and the other exclusively to registered users. The red colour of the drop-down menu items indicate the 'members only' area.
http://www.inwent.org./alumni


8. Publications

ILO's The Annual BDS Seminar Reader, September 2004
Developing Markets for Business Development Services: Pioneering Systemic Approaches Fifth Annual BDS Seminar, Chiang Mai, Thailand, September 2004
By: Alexandra Miehlbradt and Mary McVay for the Small Enterprise Development Programme of the International Labour Organization
The ILO works in many developing countries to enhance both the quantity and the quality of employment opportunities. Within the ILO, both the Programme on Boosting Employment through Small Enterprise Development (SEED) and the International Training Centre in Turin play central roles in this effort. They work closely with many other agencies and, in this spirit, collaborate to run an annual Seminar on Business Development Services (BDS). As part of that work, an Update is prepared each year, to give BDS practitioners a quick guide to the latest developments around the world; our particular thanks go to the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for financing the preparation and publication of the Update this year, to be published three languages.
http://bdsknowledge.org/dyn/bds/bdssearch.details?p_phase_id=347&p_lang=en&p_phase_type_id=6

Chronic Poverty Report 2004/2005
The Chronic Poverty Research Centre, a virtual center based on an international partnership of several institutes, launched the report available at http://www.chronicpoverty.org

The Corruption Fighters' Tool Kit
The Corruption Fighters' Tool Kit highlights the potential of civil society to create mechanisms for scrutiny and control of public institutions, and to demand and promote accountable and responsive public administration. Each year new contributions are added to the Corruption Fighter's Tool Kit, making it a dynamic, ever-growing, collection of tools. The Corruption Fighters' Tool Kit is available online (pdf) and for purchase.
http://www.transparency.org/toolkits/index.html

NGOs v the World Bank: who is the real champion of the poor?
A recent paper from Sebastian Mallaby asks whether NGO advocacy groups are acting against the interests of the poor and of international development through unreasonable criticism of the World Bank and similar agencies. ''The Bank designs a reasonable project, which inevitably has flaws. NGOs seize on these flaws and add a large sprinkling of inflammatory rhetoric. The World Bank pulls out, but the project goes ahead anyway, without the Bank's social and environmental safeguards''. http://www.eldis.org/questioning

The Glocal Forum produced The Glocalization Manifesto
The purpose of the Manifesto is to provide a brief account of glocalization, in both theoretical and practical terms, to demonstrate the potential for real steps towards attainable and sustainable development and international peace. Local authorities, local and international organizations, national governments, public and private sector stakeholders and the media are welcome and encouraged to take part in and contribute. Each partner plays a particular role based on their unique capacity and available resources. In this way, a campaign of action can be carried out, steering the resources of globalization towards the real prospect of sustainable development and international peace.
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/glocalization</p>

Privatisation and aid conditionality
This paper analyses the role of privatisation consultants in developing countries. It argues that since privatisation of public services has led to increased poverty in many developing countries, the spending of UK overseas development aid on privatisation consultants is highly inappropriate, and represents a form of aid conditionality. The paper calls on the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) to end the imposition of public services privatisation as a condition of development assistance to developing countries. See http://www.eldis.org/aid

Supervising & Regulating Microfinance in the Context of Financial Sector Liberalization. Lessons from Bolivia, Colombia and Mexico. ACCION Monograph No. 13. By Jacques Trigo Loubiere, Patricia Lee Devaney and Elisabeth Rhyne
This monograph examines the regulatory framework for microfinance in three countries: Bolivia, Colombia and Mexico, each with very different experiences in financial reform, financial crisis and microfinance. It explores the impact of financial reform and crisis on the choices regulatory authorities have made about microfinance, and in turn, explores how these choices have affected the character of the microfinance industry in each country. The complete document is available free of charge for download at http://www.accion.org/pubs

Urban-Rural Linkages: An Annotated Bibliography 1994-2004
Urban and rural areas are interdependent economically, socially and environmentally; cities and towns are engines of growth contributing to the development of both rural and urban human settlements. This bibliography brings together references to published materials from both conventional and grey literature. They examine the major issues of the urban-rural linkages. (GTZ URBANET) UNCHS/ UN-Habitat, 2004
http://www.gtz.de/urbanet/english/detail1.asp?number=785

Understanding Urban Poverty
What the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers Tell Us
This paper is part of a project funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) for the benefit of developing countries. Diana Mitlin reviews 23 Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) to consider how they define and measure urban poverty and thereby assess the extent to which they consider urban poverty. She finds that many countries believe their poverty estimates do not fully capture the level of urban poverty. 'Pockets of poverty' within urban areas may be increasing and inequality may be higher in urban areas than in rural areas. Mitlin points to the reliance on income-based poverty lines to define who is poor as a reason for the difference in opinion regarding the scale and depth of urban poverty in the PRSPs. The single poverty line fails to take into account the higher monetary income required to avoid poverty in some areas, such as larger or more prosperous cities. By Diana Mitlin / IIED, 2004
http://www.gtz.de/urbanet/english/detail1.asp?number=784

Free box of technical publications online
Alex Weir, Contract Software Developer, in Harare, Zimbabwe offers 800+ technical publications for 3rd world development now fully online free and also available for free download and dissemination at http://www24.brinkster.com/alexweir/CD3WD/index.htm


9. Websites

Infomipyme Network: Management Toolboxes for MSMEs
A Regional BDS Product , GTZ Latin America & Caribbean, 2004
GTZ, with projects in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic, has initiated ''Red de Cajas de Herramientas de Gestión Empresarial para MIPYME en Centroamérica y el Caribe'' (Network: Management Toolboxes for MSMEs) to address these problems. The Infomipyme network is a web-based information system for MSMEs that provides selected and up-to-date information for two groups 1) MSMEs in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic and 2) consultants, trainers, and staff of private and public organizations providing services to MSMEs in the region. http://www.infomipyme.com

IntEnt - A migrant entrepreneurship program, Netherlands, 2004
The IntEnt Programme helps migrant entrepreneurs who want to start a commercially feasible business in their home countries. In return for technical assistance and business support, they must contribute considerable effort, motivation, and capital and at different stages of the process the client is expected to pay for the services of IntEnt. IntEnt is a comprehensive programme in the sense that it provides assistance from orientation through the start-up and during the first months of operation of the business. IntEnt aims to create commercially feasible, sustainable enterprises. The programme is demand-led with only some start-up services subsidized. IntEnt has a comprehensive approach, in which only selection and training components are provided directly. All others are facilitated.
http://www.ondernemenoverdegrens.nl

Education as a Development Tool
Education is central to development. It empowers people, strengthens nations, and is key to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. Already the world's largest external financier of education, the World Bank is more committed than ever to helping countries develop holistic education systems aimed both at achieving Education For All and building dynamic knowledge societies that are key to competing in global markets through Education for the Knowledge Economy. This site offers details on many education-related projects, publications and country-level activities.
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/

Website on the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
The new website provides useful information on the contents of the OECD Guidelines, the functioning of the National Contact Points for the OECD Guidelines, specific instances raised by non-governmental organizations and worldwide events organized by OECD Watch. The site is now available in English and in Spanish. A French version is being developed. In November 2004, a comprehensive database (in English and in Spanish) will be added to the website, with detailed information on all specific instances raised by NGOs. OECD Watch is an international network of NGOs promoting corporate accountability. For more information, please visit the website or contact the OECD Watch Secretariat by e-mail (oecdwatch @ somo.nl). http://www.oecdwatch.org

New ACP-EU information space: Key ACP and EU debates impacting Cotonou
ECDPM launches a new website focusing on monitoring key debates related to ACP-EU cooperation. The information provided covers various items of potential interest to those interested in EU-ACP relations. It aims to provide a quick overview of key current and upcoming events and provide insights into some of the context within which the ACP-EU cooperation is taking place. See http://www.dgroups.org/groups/cool

UNESCO Small Grants Programme on Poverty Eradication
The programme aims at strengthening national capacities for research and policy analysis focusing on the relationship between poverty and human rights. Deadline for applications: 31 October 2004. See http://www.unesco.org/shs/poverty_grants

Alibaba's trade platform
Whether you have something to Sell or something to Buy, visit www.Alibaba.com and join the world's largest community of volume sellers & buyers. From China & around the world! http://www.Alibaba.com

Better eGovernment Websites for Developing Countries
A new resource on the eGovernment for Development Information Exchange that includes the following: a) Understanding the jargon, benefits and challenges of e-government websites; b) Practical guidance on planning, designing, implementing, maintaining and evaluating e-government websites in developing countries; c) Case studies of e-government websites. http://www.egov4dev.org/topic5.htm

Multimap.com is Europe's most popular mapping web site
Multimap.com offers a range of free, useful services to assist with everyday life. Key features include street-level maps of the United Kingdom, Europe, and the US; road maps of the world; door-to-door travel directions; aerial photographs; and local information. Multimap also provides a range of complementary services through its partners. These include entertainment, hotel, holiday-cottage, restaurant and train-ticket booking services, SMS weather alerts and the ability to buy both historic and aerial photograph prints. http://www.multimap.com/

Frank's Compulsive Guide to Postal Addresses
Postal conventions vary widely from country to country. Wondering if you should place the street number before the apartment number, or vice versa when you're mailing a package to Italy? The Columbia Univerisity site's guide to international postal addresses sorts out confusing postal rules, codes, and abbreviations. http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/postal.html


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