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

[sic!] Free Monthly Newsletter

December 2004

The monthly Newsletter [sic!] brings you News for International Cooperation Professionals.
Edited by Karsten Weitzenegger. Comments and suggestions: editor @ weitzenegger.de


CONTENT
  1. UN launches International Year of Microcredit 2005
  2. Commitment to Development Index 2004
  3. UNCTAD: The Least Developed Countries Report 2004
  4. Training and Events
  5. Publications
  6. Websites

1. UN launches International Year of Microcredit 2005

http://www.yearofmicrocredit.org

The International Year will promote innovative partnerships among governments, donors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector. The five key objectives for the Year are designed to unite Member States, UN Agencies and Microfinance Partners in their shared interest to build sustainable and inclusive financial systems and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The objectives are to:

  1. Assess and promote the contribution of microfinance and microcredit to the MDGs;
  2. Increase public awareness and understanding of microfinance and microcredit as vital parts of the development equation;
  3. Promote inclusive financial systems;
  4. Support sustainable access to financial services, and
  5. Encourage innovation and new partnerships by promoting and supporting strategic partnerships to build and expand the outreach and success of microcredit and microfinance.

With more than one billion people living on less than one dollar a day, microcredit could prove to be a ''powerful tool'' for achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of cutting in half extreme poverty by 2015, said Mark Malloch-Brown, head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP). ''The year is an effort to bring sustained public attention to one of the great success stories of development,'' he stressed. ''In South Asia and Latin America a dramatic expansion of credit to the poor is taking place. It is creating a revolution at the bottom of society.'' In addition, the International Year will promote innovative partnerships among governments, donors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector. Source: UN News Center

The Microfinance Gateway (http://www.microfinancegateway.org) is a public forum for the microfinance industry at large that offers a wealth of tailored services for microfinance professionals, including resource centers on specific topics in microfinance, a searchable library of electronic documents, a consultant database, a jobs listing service, a news bulletin board, and specialized discussion groups. The Gateway's resources constitute the most comprehensive source of information on microfinance on the World Wide Web, featuring 3,000 online documents, over 700 listings of microfinance institutions (MFIs) and over 200 consultant curricula vitae.


2. Commitment to Development Index 2004

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2540

The second annual Center for Global Development/Foreign Policy magazine Commitment to Development Index ranks 21 rich nations on how their aid, trade, investment, migration, environment, security, and technology policies help poor countries. Find out who's up, who's down, why Denmark and the Netherlands earn the top spots, and why Japan-once again-finishes last.

The CDI assesses seven major domains of government action: foreign aid, trade, investment, migration, environment, security, and-new this year-technology policy. How much foreign aid do countries give and to whom? Do rich nations erect high trade barriers to products made in the developing world? How do they treat the global environmental commons? Each country is scored in each area and averaged to arrive at a country's final ranking. The index ranks Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United States, and most of Western Europe in their effort and leadership in promoting development in poorer countries, not their absolute impact.


3. UNCTAD: The Least Developed Countries Report 2004

http://www.unctad.org/Templates/WebFlyer.asp?intItemID=3074&lang=1

The Report assesses the relationship between international trade and poverty within the LDCs, and identifies national and international policies that can make trade a more effective mechanism for poverty reduction in these countries. The Report argues that international trade can play a major positive role in reducing poverty in the LDCs. However, in practice this is not happening in many of them. In some this is due to a weak trade performance. But most of the LDCs achieved much higher rates of export growth in the 1990s than in the 1980s. The failure of trade expansion to lead to poverty reduction has been related to weaker linkages between trade and economic growth than in the more advanced developing countries. Moreover, there is a tendency for export expansion in very poor economies with mass poverty and few surplus financial resources to be associated with an exclusionary rather than inclusive form of economic growth.


4. Training and Events

The Microfinance Distance Learning Course
http://www.yearofmicrocredit.org
Written by Heather Clark, emphasizes sustainability. How to lend small sums of money to micro-entrepreneurs in a manner that ensures the long-term viability of the institution. The course brings together advice and best practices from successful practitioners and institutions around the world, from Latin America to Africa to Asia. Online access to the course will be available soon.

UNITAR's Courses on Debt and Financial Management
http://www.unitar.org/dfm/DFMelearning/index.htm
United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) offers training for lawyers and non-lawyers in the legal aspects of external debt management through short-duration regional seminars and workshops, online training courses as well as development and dissemination of best practices and training packages. UNITAR's training programme in debt and financial management has taken the lead in the development of online training courses. The first suite of online courses is now open for registration, participation is free.

CINFO seminars 2005
http://www.cinfo.ch/english/pagesnav/HO.htm
The Center for Information, Counselling and Training - Professions relating to International Cooperation (CINFO) presents its seminar programme for 2005.

Toolkit: Proposal Writing and Fundraising
http://www.gdnet.org/online_services/toolkits/proposal_writing/
The Global Development Network provides tips and practical suggestions for fundraising and proposal writing. It is based on interviews with experienced research fundraisers. Obtaining funding for your research is a difficult achievement, so we hope this guide will help give your proposal the best possible chance of success.

EADI Summer School 2005 in Prague
http://www.eadi.org/detail_page.phtml?page=iss2005
The next EADI International Summer School will take place in Prague and focus on the topic ''Experience of the Central and Eastern European Transition Period. Challenges for Development Cooperation''.


5. Publications

Tools for Policy Impact: A Handbook for Researchers
http://www.odi.org.uk/rapid/Publications/Tools_handbook.html
RAPID has been looking at the links between research and policy for several years. It is now beginning a process of identifying, developing, distributing and delivering tools, resources and training support that can help researchers access policy processes, with the aim of using their research to contribute to more evidence-based and pro-poor policy. This handbook presents work-in-progress on tools for policy impact, specifically geared towards the needs of researchers. The tools are grouped under the headings Research Tools, Context Assessment Tools, Communication Tools, and Policy Influence Tools.

DG Development Annual Report 2004
http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/reports/index_en.htm
The European Commission has published its forth Annual Report on the European Community´s development policy and external assistance.

OECD Working Paper: Overcoming Barriers to Competitiveness
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/37/56/34027373.pdf
Raising manufacturing productivity is of central importance to the developing world and an essential element of policy making. Overcoming Barriers to Competitiveness is about establishing the most reliable analysis of manufacturing productivity possible and helping policy makers set their priorities. The paper demonstrates that productivity rests on five elements of the economy: infrastructure, capital, trade, education and aggregate efficiency. These factors, when multiplied together, give a true picture of a country's situation on the productivity ''league table''. More than a simple comparison, this ranking system allows the identification of which elements in each particular national or regional case require most attention. This approach can be viewed as another way of addressing the so-called ''competitiveness problem'' of poor countries. It does not say, however, that other areas can be totally neglected; one of the main points of the paper is that all five elements have to be dealt with if they are not to impact negatively on each other and, thus, hamper productivity gains that could contribute to the reduction of poverty and attainment of several of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The Role of Diaspora in Poverty Reduction in their Countries of Origin
http://www.livelihoods.org/hot_topics/docs/MPIDiaspora.doc
This paper analyzes the impact of established Diaspora on the reduction of poverty, and identifies ways in which policy interventions, especially from donors of official development assistance, might strengthen that impact.

Decentralisation and poverty in developing countries: exploring the impact
http://www.oecd.org/ dataoecd/40/19/33648213.pdf
This paper finds that the link between decentralisation and poverty reduction cannot be clearly established. It argues that in some of the poorest countries characterised by weak institutions and political conflicts, decentralisation could actually make matters worse. OECD. (Source: ELDIS)

Entrepreneurship and Financial Constraints: The Case of Nicaragua
http://www.iadb.org/sds/doc/TFCpaper2.pdf
The purpose of this paper is to apply a methodology to test for the existence and distinguish between types of financial constraints for entrepreneurs who want to start a business but are not wealthy enough to finance the startup costs by themselves, the paper uses survey data from Nicaragua to test the implications of two well known models of occupational choice with different underlying assumptions about financial constraints. Article by Luis Tejerina, IADB.

Paying the Price. Why Rich Countries Must Invest Now in a War on Poverty
http://www.oxfam.org/eng/pdfs/pp041206_MDG.pdf PDF 1,378 Kb
A new report from international agency Oxfam today reveals that 45 million more children will die needlessly by 2015, because rich countries are failing to provide the necessary resources they promised to overcome poverty. The report, Paying the Price, finds that rich countries' aid budgets are half what they were in 1960 and poor countries are paying back a staggering $100 million a day in debt repayments. Oxfam also calculates that 97 million more children will be out of school by 2015 unless urgent action is taken.

Practical Guide to the WTO
http://www.3dthree.org/en/complement.php?IDcomplement=36&IDcat=4&IDpage=14
The Practical Guide to the WTO is a concise and simply-worded guide to the World Trade Organization (WTO) elaborated by 3D in collaboration with FORUM-ASIA. The Practical Guide is unique in providing concrete examples of how trade and trade rules developed in the WTO and elsewhere can affect human rights, as well as detailed reference and contact information for those wishing to learn more about how to undertake work relating to trade. About 8 Euro plus shipping from Bangkok.


6. Websites

Launch of G8 Website
http://www.g8.gov.uk
Africa and climate change will be at the top of the UK's agenda as it prepares to take over the G8 Presidency from the USA in January 2005.

Eldis features World Reports
http://www.eldis.org/finance/big_reports_feature.htm We used to present important reports on international development in this newsletter. Eldis now has a selection from this years crop of the big macro-economic 'State of the World' surveys and analysis.

ILO: Employment and Poverty
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/recon/poverty/index.htm
This website seeks to promote better understanding of the mechanisms through which economic growth, employment and poverty reduction are interrelated. The website provides news of the ILO studies, online publications, and links. For further information on the Employment Sector's activities, please contact: Tel: +41.22.799.6853 or e-mail: MSU @ ilo.org

UN Evaluation Forum
http://www.uneval.org
The UN Evaluation Forum is a knowledge network that contains moderated discussions, digests and interesting news postings relating to monitoring and evaluation of development efforts. This Forum disseminates good practices and lessons learned on measuring, monitoring and evaluation to all member agencies of the UN Evaluation Group (UNEG). Also has a Consultant's Roster.

RKET Research Library
http://www.buyusainfo.net/adsearch2.cfm
Whether you want to know the Albanian market for medical equipment, the outlook for platinum smelting in Zimbabwe, or the trade situation in dozens of other countries, you can find the lowdown at the U.S. Commercial Service Market Research Library. This is a valuable resource for anyone doing international market research. You can search by industry, region, country, time period, and type of report (market research, industry sector analysis, trade directory, trade events, etc.). (Source: FITA)

Internet Resources For Business Journalists
http://jclass.umd.edu/cars/Special/SABEW2004.htm
It's chock-full of useful links. Scroll down the page and you'll find connections to useful links pages at places like the Society of American Business Editors & Writers. There are also links to reference sites (stock filings, glossaries of financial terms, etc.) university databases, business journalism collections, economic data, public records, trade associations, and much more. (Source: FITA)

Allyoucanread.com: Magazines and News
http://allyoucanread.com
This site has a directory of 23,000 magazines, newspapers and information sources from around the world. You can click on the world map at the home page to find publications by country, or you can browse by category (click on ''Newspapers'' or ''Magazines'' at the top of the page). You can also find detailed country profiles by clicking on ''World Reference'' at the top of the page. (Source: FITA)

GTR News
http://www.gtreview.com/
GTR News is a bi-weekly free newsletter with regular and timely news and information about global trade, commodity and export finance. It includes the latest news and information from its distinguished parent publishers Exporta Group, publishers of Global Trade Review and producers of important international trade and trade finance conferences worldwide.

World Income Inequality Database
http://www.wider.unu.edu/wiid/wiid.htm
WIDER UNU has launched a beta version of the revised and updated World Income Inequality Database (WIID). A revised version of the World Income Inequality Database (WIID2 Beta) has been released on 3 December 2004. This is available as a spreadsheet file in Excel-format (ZIP file 324KB).

World Bank and IMF Launch Quarterly Online External Debt Database
http://www.worldbank.org/data/working/QEDS/sdds_main.html
The World Bank and the IMF launched an online database that offers access to external debt statistics for 41 countries, updated every three months. It provides policymakers and market participants with more timely data in a format that enables cross-country comparison, as well as better support for balance-sheet analysis and surveillance initiatives.

UNESCO Free Software Portal
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=12034&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
The UNESCO Free Software Portal gives access to documents and websites which are references for the Free Software/Open Source Technology movement. It is also a gateway to resources related to Free Software.

World Bank Empowerment Team and Community of Practice website
http://www.worldbank.org/empowerment
The World Bank's Empowerment Team and Community of Practice newly updated website features current initiatives on measurement and power relations, information on empowerment in Bank operations, and a page of community of practice newsletter articles and learning events. Please visit the site to access the latest information from the empowerment team, including a new publication ''Power, Rights, and Poverty: Concepts and Connections''.

Management A-Z: Innovation
http://www.ftmastering.com/mmo/mmo10_6.htm
Innovation is widely believed to be the key to sustainable success: those companies that compete and win are those that develop either new products or new ways of producing products, and continue to do so over time. Although everyone recognizes the importance of innovation, it is much harder to take the next step and become a truly innovative company. In part, this is because we don't really understand how innovation works and are bad at organizing for it. Morgen Witzel describes the concept of innovation and how it is related to other concepts such as technology and organizational knowledge.

Pro-Poor Tourism Initiative
http://www.propoortourism.org.uk
The Pro-Poor Tourism (PPT) website provides you with up-to-date information on Pro-Poor Tourism, tourism that results in increased net benefits for poor people. You can download a range of research reports and studies that focus on how tourism's contribution to poverty reduction can be increased.

EducaNext for creation and sharing of knowledge
http://www.educanext.org
EducaNext is a free service supporting the creation and sharing of knowledge for Higher Education. It is open to any member of the academic or research community. EducaNext fosters collaboration among educators and researchers.


The monthly Newsletter is a free service provided by Services for International Cooperation [sic!] and is circulated via Yahoo! Groups. Edited by Karsten Weitzenegger. Subscribers are encouraged to share the newsletter with others who do not subscribe. Please send comments and suggestions by e- mailto:karsten @ weitzenegger.de. For more information, or to subscribe or unsubscribe this newsletter, visit the website http://www.weitzenegger.de


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