April 2006
This monthly Newsletter brings you news for international co-operation professionals on economic and social development. Free of charge if you recommend it to other colleagues. Edited by Karsten Weitzenegger, Karsten Weitzenegger Consulting, http://www.weitzenegger.de
CONTENT
- EU countries exposed for misleading aid claims
- Improving transparency of the EU institutions
- EP focuses on fighting corruption in developing countries
- Discussion: Changing the aid industry?
- dgCommunities Member Directory opened
- Venture capital goes global
- Training and events
- Publications
- Websites of the Month
1. EU countries exposed for misleading aid claims
Ahead of vital talks this week of EU Foreign Ministers on whether the EU will meet its aid targets, NGOs criticized key EU member states including the UK, France and Germany for inflating their aid figures. NGOs provide evidence that a total of 12.5 billion Euro (15.1B USD) of headline EU aid in 2005 did not result in additional money for poverty reduction but was spent on debt cancellation, housing refugees and educating foreign students in European universities. In its briefing, the coalition of European organizations and national platforms representing hundreds of NGOs across Europe, called on EU governments to live up to their promises and called for new rules to ensure that debt cancellation does not come at the expense of new aid for developing countries.
http://www.1to1Catalog.com/
2. Improving transparency of the EU institutions
The European Parliament takes action to ensure transparency and democratic scrutiny of the EU institutions. In two reports adopted Tuesday, MEPs call for the Council to meet in public when it is acting as a legislator, and requests the Commission to revise existing rules and to table new legislation by the end of this year on ''the right of access'' to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
http://www.europarl.eu.int/news/
3. EP focuses on fighting corruption in developing countries
''Corruption hurts the poor'': MEPs back report on development aid and the fight against corruption
MEPs have called for tougher measures in the fight against corruption and more effective EU aid. Noting that 25% of Africa's GDP is lost annually to corruption, - the report calls on all EU members to implement the OECD and UN Conventions on corruption and for greater accountability and openness in EU aid programmes. Good governance, media freedom, developing budget capacity in developing countries and boosting civil society ''watchdogs'' are just some measures proposed
http://www.europarl.eu.int/news/
4. Discussion: What events will make the most difference in changing the aid industry?
A new Development Gateway Members Forum discussion topic has been posted on the dgAid Effectiveness page: ''What Events Will Make the Most Difference in Changing the Aid Industry?'' Almost everyone--from aid donors to recipients--seems to agree that changes are needed in delivering overseas development assistance to make it more effective in reducing poverty. What events of the next year might make the most difference in making the system more effective?
Please add your comments to this important topic at http://topics.developmentgateway.org/aideffectiveness/
5. dgCommunities Member Directory opened
The new Member Directory is up and running, and many of you have established your profiles! We are amazed at the diversity and caliber of the dgCommunities membership, and it is our privilege to serve your needs with online collaborative tools that make a difference. With over 30,000 registered dgCommunities members, the Member Directory provides a one-stop shop for key contacts and collaboration worldwide. We invite you to take advantage of this unprecedented collaborative tool and add your profile today! http://www.developmentgateway.org
6. Venture capital goes global
According to the findings of the 2005 Global Venture Capital survey undertaken jointly by Deloitte & Touche LLP and the National Venture Capital Association (published in January 2006), U.S.-based venture capitalists are planning to expand further their investments abroad. China and India are considered to be among the top destinations for international venture capital. The survey also finds that impediments to expanding abroad include lack of investment profile matches, intellectual property issues and potential difficulties in exiting markets. For non-U.S. venture capital investors, the United States is viewed as the most attractive destination.
http://www.deloitte.com,
7. Training and events
Conducting Professional Focus Group Research
http://www.ageg.de/news-events/news-events.html
23-25 October 2006, AGEG Training Center, Kirchheim, Germany
With Janet Mancini Billson, Ph.D., and Martin Steinmeyer.
This intensive, three-day AGEG focus group training workshop is designed for individuals and organizations working in the field of international development and who wish to improve their capacity for conducting reliable group interviews for program evaluations, assessment of consumer or client needs, or basic research. Cost 1.290 Euro (including VAT, early bookers only pay 1.190 Euro, including VAT).
Course Value Chain Concepts
http://www.mdf.nl/en/register.php?dm=nl&sub=4
22-26 May 2006, Ede, The Netherlands
Content of this MDF Training & Consultancy and Hans Posthumus Consultancy event: Private Sector Development, Sub Sector Analyses, From Value Chain Analysis to Development, Value Chain Development, alue Chain Development Practice. The previous mix of theory and case work are practised in the Real Life Cases brought in by the participants, enabling discussions and learning form each other. The course is closed with action planning and evaluating the course. The course fee includes a new toolkit: CAPSA: Capacitating Sector Analyses, a CD-ROM providing an overview of the steps, tools, instruments and practical examples and case studies of Value Chain Development. This same CD contains a large number of research and policy papers with respect to Value Chain Analyses and Development. Given the innovative stage Value Chain Development is in, much attention will be given to presenting and discussion the recent trends and developments in the field of Value Chain Development. More information can be found at www.mdf.nl and www.hposthumus.nl or by mailing to hans @ hposthumus.nl
Summer Academy on Local Economic Development
http://www.mesopartner.com/summer-academy/mesopartner_LED_Summer-Academy.pdf
24 -28 July 2006, Duisburg, Germany
Register with mesopartner, Registration form at www.mesopartner.com/summer-academy/mp-Summer-Academy_Registration.doc. Additionally, you may also check out our websites www.mesopartner.com and www.paca-online.org for more details and information on previous Summer Academies.
Value Chain Program Design: Promoting Market Solutions for MSMEs
http://www.idc-aachen.de/2_4_3.html
9-13 October, 2006, Aachen, Germany
Action for Enterprise (AFE) and IDC Unternehmensberatung GmbH (IDC) are offering a five-day training workshop that presents the latest methodologies and practice for designing subsector and value-chain programs that incorporate strategies for sustainable impact. Participants will learn how to design programs that result in market solutions to MSME constraints such as market access, input supply, technology/product development, management training, policy reform, and access to finance. Examples will be used from enterprise development programs and practitioners worldwide. The training targets those who wish to improve their facilitation skills and design programs that respect the latest thinking in value chain and market development principles.
ILO BDS Conference: Private Sector Development – What's Next?
http://www.bdsknowledge.org or http://training.itcilo.it/bdsseminar
18-22 September 2006, Chiang Mai,
ITC ILO is preparing to write the 2006 Reader, as a snapshot of what the industry as a whole is doing now - and which will also serve as background reading for the Seventh annual Seminar on Business Services. The Reader this year will be broader than in the past with the aim of updating practitioners and donors on the various directions that those in the fields of market development, BDS and small enterprise development are going in. It will show how practitioners are applying ''market development” principles to a range of fields with the aim of making changes in systems that benefit the poor and help economies grow. If you have input, urgently send your information to Jim Tanburn at reader @ tanburn.com.
AFRICITIES – CITEXPO The Cities and Local Governments Pan-African Event
http://www.citexpo.info
18-22 September 2006, Nairobi, Kenya –
Taking place only every three years, the CITEXPO Exhibition and AFRICITIES Summit are organised in collaboration with the executive bureau of the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA). The Pan-African event acts as a showcase of products, services, investment, expertise and experiences, giving practical solutions to the needs of cities and local governments. ''Access to basic services in African local governments for the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals” is the theme of the 2006 exhibition. CITEXPO is the perfect place to build relationships with African political and international business leaders. After the success of previous events in the Ivory Coast, Namibia and Cameroon, 120 selected exhibitors will enhance their activities in Nairobi with 5000 delegates.
INTRAC: Share Your Capacity Building Success Stories
http://www.intrac.org/pages/CB_SuccessStories.html
INTRAC will be holding a major conference on the subject of the changing environment for Civil Society Capacity Building in December 2006. One of our premises is that capacity building works. That is, that concrete planned interventions to support organisational development do bring about the hoped for changes in the medium and long-term. To make the case, we need to supply evidence from our own and others' capacity building practice. In the lead up, therefore, INTRAC is searching for Capacity Building Success Stories: Impact from Practice. We're particularly interested in gathering cases from capacity building pracitioners from the South and East and are offering incentives to busy pracitioners with stories to share. To submit by 28 April 2006 contact praxis @ intrac.org
Eschborn Dialogue: Knowledge Powers Development
5-6 September 2006, GTZ, Eschborn, Germany
http://www.gtz.de/en/top-themen/3047.htm
Knowledge Powers Development – Sharing experience, shaping the future Knowledge is the key to mastering the challenges of the future in international cooperation. It is a topic of fascinating complexity that affects all areas of life. All development is based on knowledge. That is why GTZ is devoting this year's Eschborn Dialogue to the theme Knowledge Powers Development – Sharing experience, shaping the future. Knowledge as a factor of production is becoming increasingly important, because economic growth depends primarily on a growth in knowledge. Conversely, the lack of access to knowledge is always an obstacle to development. GTZ is a company that concerns itself with knowledge and learning in a variety of ways.
World Bank Private Sector Development Forum 2006 held
http://rru.worldbank.org/psdforum/default.aspx
On April 4th, the World Bank Group welcomed over one thousand participants and speakers to its Private Sector Development Forum. The purpose of these biannual forums is to provide an all important update on private sector development work and innovations in the World Bank Group and around the world. The title of the 2006 Forum was ''Markets and Growth: What, Where, When, and How?'' The sessions asked what policy reforms have most impact, in which countries, how they should be sequenced, and how they should be done. With an emphasis on job creation and fighting corruption, the Forum opened with a plenary on where the world is going, and ended with an outside panel on the costs of corruption and the role of the private sector in fighting it.
8. Publications
DG Development's E-Courier newsletter article: The 10th European Development Fund: stepping up a gear in the fight against poverty
http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/body/news/mt_03_2006_en.pdf#zoom=100
The 10th EDF: stepping up a gear in the fight against poverty
Making tourism more sustainable: a guide for policy makers
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21472
The purpose of this document by G. Carbone and E. Yunis is to provide governments with guidance and a framework for the development of policies for more sustainable tourism as well as a toolbox of instruments that they can use to implement those policies. Shaping sustainable tourism looks at the process of developing a tourism strategy that embraces sustainability and identifies some of the strategic choices that need to be made. It looks at product and market selection, and introduces the tools that may be used to influence tourism development, the operation of tourism enterprises and the behaviour of visitors.
Developing smallholder agriculture
http://www.smallholderagriculture.com
Developing Smallholder Agriculture is thus a very practical book by Richard L. Tinsley. It promotes looking beyond technology and development. Dissemination concentrates on the supporting services that smallholders need to enable them to enhance their crop management. It emphasizes the importance of village-level, private micro-enterprises as a cost-effective means of assisting smallholders, and questions the potential of governments and public sector institutions in providing these support services.
Innovative methods for BDS market Development
http://www.bds-ethiopia.net/news.htm
Create Funds for non-financial Services in Collaboration with Banks, Special Edition April 2006 of the BDS Newsletter by Dieter Gagel
Graduating the Poorest into Microfinance
http://www.cgap.org/docs/FocusNote_34.pdf
New CGAP Paper Makes the Case for Linking Safety Nets and Financial Services
This paper discusses the opportunities—and existing models—of linking these two programs together to reach the most marginalized populations. Microfinance can be a powerful tool to break the exclusion of poor people from formal financial services. But despite a few notable exceptions, microfinance has not been able to provide services to the poorest and the destitute. These populations, many of them surviving well below the bottom rung of the economic ladder, have been the focus of another important development initiative—safety nets.
Assessing World Bank Support for Trade 1987-2004: An IEG Evaluation
http://www.worldbank.org/ieg/trade/?intcomp=544813
The World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) has issued the first comprehensive and independent assessment of Bank assistance for trade. The report finds that despite greater openness, full benefits from trade are yet to be realized.
Economic impact of natural disasters on development in the Pacific
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21454
Authors: McKenzie, E.; Prasad, B.; Kaloumaira, A.
Produced by: Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) (2006)
This report responds to a lack in practical materials for measuring the impacts of natural disasters.
Macroeconomic challenges of scaling up aid to Africa: a checklist for practitioners
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21367
Authors: Gupta, S.; Powell, R.; Yang, Y.
This new IMF handbook is intended as a practical guide for assessing the macroeconomic implications and challenges associated with a significant scaling up of aid to African countries. Its purpose is to provide a resource for policymakers, practicing economists in African countries, and staff of international financial institutions and donor agencies who participate in the preparation of medium-term strategies for individual African countries, including in the context of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs).
What works: serving the poor, profitably
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21218
This article by C.K. Prahalad and A. Hammond, from the World Resources Institute, considers how the global market system could be expanded to provide direct benefits and opportunity to poor communities. There are nearly 4 billion people who live in relative poverty, forming a market which the article refers to as the bottom of the economic pyramid (BOP). The authors argue that multi-national corporations could use their reach, scale and resources to bring poor communities into the market and provide them with affordable basic goods and services. The report: addresses the misperceptions of this notion; documents the business case for private sector involvement at BOP; illustrates the possibilities of ICT (information and communication technologies) as a development tool when linked to appropriate business models; and describes corporate strategies for making this happen.
The authors argue that there are powerful business drivers for expanding the market at the BOP. They also argue that there is an undeniable social need for this: jobs, access to affordable basic services and other social benefits could emerge from this sort of engagement. Moreover, the creation of markets and workable business models could be a more effective solution to poverty than increased foreign aid alone. The authors conclude that the real needs and opportunities at the BOP mean that the private sector needs to engage and learn.
Trade, FDI, and the organisation of firms
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC21388
This literature review examines new trends and developments in the theories of international trade and foreign direct investment. In particular it focuses on the need to model alternative forms of business involvement in foreign activities. The theoretical refinements identified have focused on the individual firm, studying its choices in response to its own characteristics, the nature of the industry in which it operates, and the opportunities afforded by foreign trade and investment. Important among these choices are organisational features, such as sourcing strategies. But the theory has gone beyond the individual firm, studying the implications of firm behavior for the structure of industries. It provides new explanations for trade structure and patterns of FDI, both within and across industries, and has identified new sources of comparative advantage. By E. Helpman of the US National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
Reinventing UNCTAD
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC17863
This South Centre paper by Boutros Boutros-Ghali examines the development of UNCTAD since its inception in 1964, and proposes possible steps for reform. The paper looks at UNCTAD's mandate, its achievements and its decline. It also makes a case for revitalising UNCTAD, and makes suggestions how this can be achieved. The paper argues that it is necessary to breathe new life into these wide-ranging and unique mandates and revive the roles and functions of UNCTAD to their full potential, because: UNCTADs mandate to ''promote international trade, especially with a view to accelerating economic development.'' is unique within the UN system, and following this mandate is essential to the interest of developing countries and the international community as a whole as developing countries increasingly feel that globalisation and liberalisation is not the answer to their economic problems, they are looking to the UN system to suggest alternative approaches and as negotiation in the WTO are stalled, UNCTAD might offer a way forward. The paper argues that the revitalisation of UNCTAD very much depends upon the unity, dynamism and the sense of purpose of the Group of 77. In order to revive UNCTAD, the paper suggests a number of issues that need to be kept in mind: The first and the most important precondition for revitalizing UNCTAD is to recognise the need for alternative views on economic polices from a development angle. UNCTAD should complement civil society organisations in their research efforts, thereby lending them a stronger voice and to ultimately advance alternative views through research and analysis thereby bridging the gap that has developed in intellectual pluralism. UNTCADs negotiating role needs to be revived, and one of the important steps that developing countries can take, is to confine rule-making on development issues to UNCTAD and not to dissipate their time, energy and resources in discussing them in WTO. In order to take an over-all integrated view of global economic issues, various sectoral or area specific issues that are today debated in an isolated fashion in different organisations of the UN system should be pulled together by UNCTAD for an analysis on an integrated basis. UNCTAD needs to take steps that foster its ability to provide an instrument and a forum for South-South cooperation.
Aid for Trade presentation by Joseph Stiglitz
http://www.dgroups.org/groups/CoOL/docs/Aid_for_Trade-Stiglitz_Presentation_0306.ppt?ois=no
Stiglitz provides a general overview of what aid for trade could/should cover. He mainly suggest to make these aid commitments binding in WTO (and thus open for challenge if the developed countries don't comply with the agreement) . It seems however that his proposal to create one global trust fund, managed by the World Bank was not well received by many, including the WB itself.
Better data needed to assess impact of FDI
http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/webiteiia20063_en.pdf
According to this recent UNCTAD report assessing the impact of FDI on economic development for a country in general, and the effectiveness of investment promotion campaigns in particular, requires better data on both FDI and the activities of multinational enterprises. Despite improvements in data collection efforts over time, widespread differences amongst countries in terms of methodologies and definitions utilized still persist. As a result, both policy makers and investment promotion agencies are challenged in formulating appropriate FDI policies or in evaluating promotional efforts. Data harmonization, training and technical support, with the assistance of multilateral agencies, such as the IMF and the OECD, would be important to ameliorate the state of FDI data collection efforts.
9. Websites of the Month
Research4Development portal
http://www.research4development.info/news.asp?articleID=175
DFID's Central Research Department has developed the R4D portal, which promotes new research awarded under the Research Funding Framework. It also provides information about the research activities prior to 2006 in Rural Livelihoods, Health, Social Sciences, Education and Infrastructure and Urban Development. By using R4D you will be able to identify areas such as the topics we fund, the countries where we have research programmes, what the major findings are from them (including access to policy briefs and media outputs) and who is working with it from which country
Digital Access Index
'Digital divide' map of the so-called Digital Access Index (DAI). The DAI measures the overall ability of individuals in a country to access and use information and communication technologies. With the Digital Divide Simulator you can experience browsing the web with low bandwidth and compare it with the (of course faster) bandwidth you are used to.
http://wireless.ictp.trieste.it/simulator/
Proconsul system is for sale
http://www.proconsul.com/
The Proconsul system and the domain names (Proconsul.com and Proconsul.co.nz) are offered for sale as a total going concern, or offered for sale individually. Proconsul is a web based marketplace which provides value to consultants and organisations around the world. Recognised professionals and consultants can market their skills and services to a world-wide audience of clients, and organisations can search the Proconsul database at any time to locate and match their requirements for professional consulting and contracting services.
Can you recommend useful Websites on economic development? Please contact us and send a brief description and the URL, so we can check and add it here.
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