May 2007 from weitzenegger.de

International cooperation professionals willing to make poverty history

This monthly Newsletter brings you news for international cooperation professionals on economic and social development.
Edited by Karsten Weitzenegger, http://www.weitzenegger.de. Free subscription by sending an eMail to subscribe @ weitzenegger.de.
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CONTENT

  1. EU countries not delivering on aid promises
  2. State of the World 2007 - Chapter 8. Strengthening Local Economies
  3. Modern Slave Work - A Crass Reality in the Twenty-First Century
  4. EU negotiates Association Agreement with the Andean Community
  5. ADB Loans Jump to $7.4 Billion in 2006, Annual Report Says
  6. Value Chain Development for Conflict-Affected Environments
  7. Training and Events
  8. Publications
  9. Websites of the Month

1. EU countries not delivering on aid promises

In 2002 and again in 2005 European Union governments committed to substantial increases in the amount of aid they give to poor countries. According to official figures most European countries are living up to their aid promises. But European citizens should hold their applause. European governments continue to make misleading claims about their aid figures: nearly one third of Europe’s reported Official Development Assistance (ODA) was not in fact genuine aid.

Eurodad authored and co-produced a report entitled ''Hold the applause! EU governments risk breaking aid promises”, launched in capitals across Europe on Friday. This report was produced under CONCORD the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development, representing over 1,600 European NGOs. The report shows that several European governments won’t keep their aid promises to poor countries by 2010 unless they radically increase their provision of genuine aid resources.

''We have seen scant change from last year’s inflated aid figures by key European governments as less real money is reaching the people who need it most,” said Lucy Hayes from Eurodad, the European Network on Debt and Development. ''It is time for European governments to come clean and deliver what they have promised”.

Many European governments are inflating their aid figures with debt cancellations, particularly to Iraq and Nigeria. They are also chalking up as aid their spending within Europe on refugees and foreign students’ education. In 2006 these non-aid items accounted for 13.5 billion Euro, almost one third of European Official Development Assistance (ODA). ''Poverty reduction does not always seem to be the main objective of European aid,” explained Justin Kilcullen, President of the European NGO confederation CONCORD. ''Security, geopolitical alliances and domestic interests often take precedence”.

European governments continue to make misleading claims about their aid figures with nearly one third of Europe’s reported ODA not in fact being used as genuine aid. Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain missed the individual minimum 2006 target outright. Once non-aid items are deducted, this report shows that France, Germany and Austria failed to reach the levels they originally promised.
http://www.eurodad.org/whatsnew/reports.aspx?id=1212
http://www.concordeurope.org/Public/Page.php?ID=3042


2. State of the World 2007 - Chapter 8. Strengthening Local Economies

Excerpt: ''The wealth of a nation depends in large measure on the economic health of its cities. Strong local economies are the foundation of strong communities that can grow and withstand the pressures created by an increasingly urbanized world. And strong communities require a holistic approach that not only provides the traditional deliverables of economic development—jobs, income, wealth, security—but also protects the environment, improves community infrastructure, increases and develops local skills and capacity, strengthens the social fabric, and respects heritage and cultural identity. While individual actions and lifestyle choices, such as buying organic produce, are important personal contributions, strengthening local economies requires a collective shift in individual actions and political choices. The cooperative economy of Emilia Romagna in northern Italy, the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Vancity Credit Union in Vancouver, the Women’s International Sewing Cooperatives of Nueva Vida, and the campaigns for local trade across North America are all examples of the potential of community mobilization to help strengthen local economies. Strong local economies give communities the capacity and resources to address specific and immediate problems such as the provision of health care, adequate housing, clean water and sanitation, and disaster prevention and response. Human settlements—large and small, rich and poor—need strong local economies to withstand the pressures created by an increasingly urbanized world.'' Authors: Mark Roseland is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Community Development (CSCD) and a professor in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. Lena Soots is a researcher at the CSCD. http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4837


3. Modern Slave Work - A Crass Reality in the Twenty-First Century

Despite all the international organisations and conventions created by the world's governments in favour of human rights, with respect to labour, the crass reality is that today labour under slavery conditions has become, with the blessing of governments, a strategic factor in the operations of many multinationals that own brands well known by the world's consumers. In this way, slave work, predominantly in the Southern countries, is quite a stark reality in spite of all the statements in favour of good corporate citizenship and of a sustainable ethos, which only serve to appease our ''good conscience,'' but that will not rest until we dare to eradicate this subhuman practice from the face of the earth.
By Alejandro Calvillo Unna and Álvaro de Regil Castilla
http://www.jussemper.org/Resources/Corporate%20Activity/Resources/ModernSlaveWork.pdf


4. EU to start negotiations for Association Agreement with the Andean Community; aid package for the region of 713 million Euro

http://www.europa.eu/rapid/...
The EU and the Andean Community announced yesterday in Santo Domingo[1] their intention to start negotiations for an Association Agreement in the margins of the next EU-Andean Community Joint Committee that will be held in La Paz at the end of May 2007. By then, it is expected that the Andean Community will have made further progress on regional integration. The Commission will carry out the negotiations on behalf of the EU. During the meeting, Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner presented a large aid package for the Andean region, amounting to around €713 million for the period (2007-2013), adopted by the European Commission to assist the region to address the most important challenges they face. The allocations are €234 million for Bolivia, €160 million for Colombia, €137 million for Ecuador, €132 million for Peru and €50 million to support regional integration. The bilateral cooperation envisaged by the Commission for the four Andean countries for the period 2007-2010 will address mainly social inequalities, the fight against poverty and against illicit drugs, good governance, rule of law and justice.


5. ADB Loans Jump to $7.4 Billion in 2006, Annual Report Says

Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a total $7.4 billion in loans in 2006, reflecting a 28% increase over the previous year’s level. ''Sustainable economic growth was the most prevalent theme,” said ADB’s latest annual report, in describing the general thrust of the 67 projects supported by the loans approved in 2006. ADB approved 260 technical assistance projects valued at $241.6 million last year, of which 234 were new projects while 26 were supplementary projects. Last year’s technical assistance was 22% higher than the $198.5 million for 299 projects approved in 2005. Of the total technical assistance projects, 73 were for project preparation, 98 were advisory, and 89 were for regional assistance. Of the total amount approved, $92.3 million came from the Technical Assistance Special Fund, $56.6 million from the Japan Special Fund, and the balance from other multilateral and bilateral sources. The annual report said ADB continued to strengthen its results orientation in 2006. Its country strategies are becoming more selective, more responsive to country priorities, and have better monitoring frameworks, the report added. Project design frameworks have improved but more improvement is needed. http://www.adb.org/News/archives.asp


6. Guided Case Studies for Value Chain Development for Conflict-Affected Environments

Pact, Inc. releases a Request for Applications for ''''Guided Case Studies for Value Chain Development for Conflict-Affected Environments.'' The guided case studies are part of research being conducted by the Microenterprise Development office of USAID to increase understanding of value chain approaches in economic reconstruction and recovery. Contact: Carrie Keju, tel.: 202-466-5666, ext 304 amapgrants@pacthq.org, http://www.microlinks.org/ev.php?ID=17263_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC


7. Training and Events

TrainEval - New training programme on development cooperation and evaluation
http://www.traineval.org/
TrainEval consists of 4 modules of 4 days each, which will take place in Brussels between September 2007 and January 2008. TrainEval is an advanced training programme in development cooperation, which has been further adapted to the specific requirements of the European development cooperation and the EC evaluation approach. The programme has been developed by experienced trainers and evaluators to respond to the increasing demand for evaluation expertise and its professionalization. It is offering a qualification opportunity in development evaluation for consultants, project and evaluation managers of implementing agencies as well as for representatives from financing agencies. Contact: Simona Scheibitz, AGEG Consultants eG, Tel: + 49 7021 970870, Fax: + 49 7021 970879, s.scheibitz@ageg.de

Conference: Business powered by Women
http://www.bpbw.org
Novi Sad, Serbia, 8-9 June 2007, Master Center,
Info: Mrs Natasa Varjaski, E-Mail: n.varjaski@gtzwbf.org

Tools of the Trade for Development Practitioners
http://www.mdi-nh.org
Manchester, New Hampshire, USA, 11-29 June 2007
The Microenterprise and Development Institute - New Hampshire is holding this event. Contact: Emma LeBlanc, tel: (603) 644-3124, mdi@snhu.edu

Serving the Poor: 10 million clients by 2010
http://www.sanabelnetwork.org/en/conference
Sana'a, Yemen, 12-14 June 2007, Mövenpick Hotel
Sanabel, the Microfinance Network of Arab Countries will be holding its Fourth Annual Conference from June 12-14, 2007 at the Mövenpick Hotel in Sana'a, Yemen under the patronage of H.E. Ali Abdullah Saleh, the President of the Republic of Yemen. Contact: Youmna Khalil, tel.: + 202 337 0714/748 8624 Ext.108, ykhalil@sanabelnetwork.org

Brasil: VI Seminário Banco Central sobre Microfinanças
http://www.bcb.gov.br
Porto Alegre - RS, Brasil, 14 a 15 de junho de 2007
O objetivo principal do seminário é divulgar o resultado das ações já empreendidas e apresentar, por intermédio da troca de experiências e da discussão dos diversos aspectos que envolvem a atividade de microfinanças, sua viabilidade como opção de investimento a agentes provedores de capital e sua potencial contribuição à inclusão social e ao desenvolvimento do Brasil, ao permitir o acesso da população de baixa renda a serviços financeiros com formato apropriado à sua realidade e ao proporcionar opção de crédito de maneira facilitada a empreendedores populares.

Training on SME Export Consortia Development
http://www.unido.org/en/doc/63579
Turin, Italy, 25-29 June 2007, ILO ICT
UNIDO, ILO and the Italian Federation of Export Consortia (Federexport) are organizing a training workshop for designers and managers of export consortia development programmes from 25-29 June 2007, at the ILO Training Centre in Turin.

Communities and Sustainable Development
http://wms-soros.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/apabis
Port Vila, Vanuatu, 25-27 June 2007, Asia Pacific Academy of Business in Society (APABIS)
The conference will host a range of international speakers, as well as holding sessions for the presentation of academic and practitioner papers.

AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
http://ecas2007.aegis-eu.org/
Leiden, Netherlands, 11-14 July 2007, African Studies Centre
The African Studies Centre is hosting AEGIS’s (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies) second biennial conference in Leiden. The conference has ''African Alternatives: Initiative and Creativity beyond Current Constraints

Managing Change within Organisations
http://www.intrac.org
Oxford, United Kingdom, 25-27 July 2007, INTRAC
People in NGOs work in turbulent environments and need to adapt accordingly. This course will enable you to analyse forces which drive change, and manage the change process. It includes helpful tools on how to understand and deal with different interests, manage resistance, and work productively with your colleagues. It will also explore the concept of change as a continuous process. Info : training@intrac.org

Micro Banking Summer Academy: Leading Change in Microfinance Markets
http://www.frankfurt-school.de
Bad Homburg, Germany, 19-31 August 2007
Frankfurt School of Finance & Management (previously Bankakademie) has for seven years provided a microbanking management training programme, designed to equip microfinance managers with a set of tools needed to manage change and lead their institutions in dynamic markets. The content during the two-week training programme focuses on five different management perspectives.

Seminar on developing Business Service Markets and Value Chains
http://learning.itcilo.org/entdev/bdsseminar/
Chiang Mai, Thailand, 24-28 Sep 2007
Over 900 people from 100 countries have participated in the first 7 Seminars-now the 8th in the Series offers you the opportunity to learn about current trends,and to network with your peers. As you would expect from an event in its 8th year,there is also the chance to hear from people who have used the approaches and tools from previous Seminars. And you will be able to hear how some of the most interesting work presented in previous years has progressed and scaled up. Peter Tomlinson & Cristiana Actis, tel: 39 011 6936580, PSDSeminar@itcilo.org

Value Chain Program Design: Promoting Market Solutions for MSMEs
http://www.idc-aachen.de/2_4.html
Aachen, Germany, 8-12 October 2007
After successful completion of the first workshop in Germany in October 2006, which hosted 20 value chain practitioners from 10 countries, Action for Enterprise (AFE) and IDC Unternehmensberatung GmbH (IDC) are again offering a five-day training workshop that presents the latest methodologies and practice for designing subsector and value chain programs. 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.

Conference: Creating better business environments - African and global lessons for donors
http://www.enterprise-development.org/events/event.asp?eventid=49
Accra, Ghana, 5-7 November 2007
The conference will bring together development partners involved in the assessment, design and implementation of business environment reforms in Africa.

European Conference ''Integrating Environment, Development, and Conflict Prevention - European and National Approaches and Challenges''
http://www.adelphi-consult.com/ECC2007/documents.htm
T he conference report including the summary from the perspective of the conference hosts can be downloaded now. Additionally, you may find on the conference homepage many of the presentations and speeches held at the conference.

Making Local Economic Development Strategies: A Trainer’s Manual
http://www.worldbank.org/urban/local/toolkit/pages/home.htm
The Trainer’s Guide to Manual outlines the core trainer competences, approach and requirements necessary to successfully deliver the LED training program. The five teaching modules that follow comprise the training program and provide a structured approach to learning, reflecting the five stage approach to LED strategic planning. Each module is accompanied by a supporting series of PowerPoint slides, exercises, templates and supplementary learning materials. Product of the World Bank and Cities of Change Initiative, and was produced in conjunction with the Bertelsmann Foundation.


8. Publications

World Economic Situation and Prospects 2007
http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/wesp2007_en.pdf
This report provides an overview of recent global economic performance and short-term prospects for the world economy and of some key global economic policy and development issues. One of its purposes is to serve as a point of reference for discussions on economic, social and related issues taking place in various United Nations entities in 2007.

OECD African Economic Outlook 2007
http://www.oecd.org/document/22/0,2340,en_2649_33731_38561046_1_1_1_1,00.html
The African Economic Outlook combines the expertise of the OECD with the knowledge of the African Development Bank on African economies. The objective is to review annually the recent economic situation and the likely short-term evolution of selected African countries. The 2007 focus is on Access to Drinking Water and Sanitation

Value chains for a better integration of smallholders to trade - the case of chilli in Ghana
http://www2.gtz.de/dokumente/bib/06-1267.pdf
Christin Schipmann / FU Berlin, GTZ 2006
The objective of this study is to compare international and national value chains with regard to potential benefits for smallholders and existing entry barriers to their integration. The research was carried out in the chilli sector of Ghana.

Global value chains in the agrifood sector
http://www.ruralfinance.org
John Humphrey, Olga Memedovic / Institute of Development Studies, UNIDO 2006
Trends in global agribusiness and their consequences for strategies to eradicate poverty through increasing export growth are analysed in this paper using the GVC perspective. This perspective analyses inter-firm linkages in global agribusiness, placing agricultural production and processing in developing countries in the context of the dynamics of the broader global agribusiness and agrifood systems. The value chain perspective has highlighted issues of codification of knowledge in value chains, supplier competence, strategies to reduce the costs of governance, power asymmetries, and concentration. These issues are decisively affected by the two major trends in agribusiness value chains, the increasing importance of standards and increasing concentration, subjects of this paper.

ILO Guide for Value Chain Analysis and Upgrading
http://www.bdsknowledge.org/dyn/bds/bdssearch.details?p_phase_id=545&p_lang=en&p_phase_type_id=6
The purpose of the guide is to look at how to practically carry out value chain analysis, find upgrading solutions and implement them, using an ILO approach towards upgrading. The structure of the guide is divided into two sections: The first part gives an example for the value chain approach towards upgrading, as well as explanations for basic concepts. The second part is all about putting theory into practice: it is divided into five modules that outline a kind of project approach with real outcomes at every stage.

Measuring microenterprise profits : don't ask how the sausage is made
http://www-wds.worldbank.org
Woodruff, Christopher; McKenzie, David; de Mel, Suresh, World Bank 2007
A large share of the world's poor is self-employed. Accurate measurement of profits from microenterprises is therefore critical for studying poverty and inequality, measuring the returns to education, and evaluating the success of microfinance programs. But a myriad of problems plague the measurement of profits. The authors report on a variety of different experiments conducted to better understand the importance of some of these problems and to draw recommendations for collecting profit data. The authors conclude that firms underreport revenues by about 30 percent, that account diaries have significant effects on both revenues and expenses but not on profits, and that simply asking profits provides a more accurate measure of firm profits than detailed questions on revenues and expenses.

Microfinance Cracking the Capital Markets II
http://www.accion.org/insight/
Rekha Reddy / ACCION 2007
Investment in microfinance, particularly cross-border investment, is booming. Where is this investment coming from? How is it being absorbed? What types of advances need to occur to build a healthy infrastructure for debt and equity investments into microfinance? How do we manage the risks investors face? These questions were discussed as part of the second annual Microfinance Cracking the Capital Markets conference, hosted by ACCION International and sponsored by Credit Suisse. The conference highlighted the growth in microfinance investment, recent innovations in structured deals, and ways in which microfinance institutions (MFIs) need to develop to integrate more fully into the capital markets.'', Microfinance

Creating an enabling business environment in Asia: To what extent is public support warranted?
http://www.die-gdi.de/...
Tilman Altenburg / Christian von Drachenfels / German Development Institute 2007
This paper critically reviews the assumptions of the NMA (''New Minimalist Approach''), with a special focus on evidence from Asia. It supports the view that policy reforms to ease private commercial activities are an important, but certainly not sufficient, element of growth strategies. Other growth constraints may be more important, such as lack of entrepreneurial skills, failures in technology markets, or lack of information about export market trends. These constraints however cannot be overcome by applying laissez-faire policies. The exclusive NMA focus on government failure diverts the attention away from the need to address market failures in a proactive way. Furthermore, the NMA systematically ignores potential trade-offs, e.g. between the need to make business procedures easier on the one hand, and certain regulations that are required to lubricate the market economy, to internalize social and environmental costs, or to achieve equity goals on the other.

The Landscape of Microinsurance in the World's 100 Poorest Countries
http://www.microfinancegateway.org/files/40285_file_15.pdf
Jim Roth, Michael McCord, Dominic Liber / MicroInsurance Centre 2007
The report provides: A description of how microinsurance works, and a landscape study of microinsurance in the world´s 100 poorest countries.

Analysis of Business Registration and Licensing in the Philippines
http://www.smedsep.ph/...
Deanna Lijauco, Aurma Manlangit / GTZ, SMEDSEP 2007, Philippines
This study aims to conduct an inventory of the laws, rules and regulations that govern business and licensing procedures in the Philippines on the national and local levels. The study will also describe and analyze their impact on the actual process of securing business permits.''

The Local Business Environment and Local Economic Development: Comparing Approaches
http://www.mesopartner.com/publications/mp-wp11_Local-BE.pdf
Doug Hindson, Joerg Meyer-Stamer / Mesopartner 2007 / Global, -
From the LED perspective, a favourable business environment involves a broad set of locational factors which is only partly shaped by government. While BE interventions have a tendency to be top-down and to depend on external consultants, the LED approach emphasises bottom-up processes and a strong involvement of local actors. A consistent effort to reduce red tape and improve the local regulatory environment is an important element of bottom-up LED processes. In fact, an argument can be made that efforts to improve the business environment will have a stronger impact in already strong locations, so that it can ultimately widen the gap between growing and lagging locations and thus reinforce spatial disparities.

The Local Business Environment and Local Economic Development: Comparing Approaches
http://www.mesopartner.com/publications/mp-wp11_Local-BE.pdf
By Doug Hindson & Jörg Meyer-Stamer

Access to Credit and Borrowing Behaviour of Rural Households in a Transition
http://www.microfinancegateway.com/files/39950_file_33.pdf
Cuong H. Nguyen, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK 2007. This paper assesses the determinants of rural household credit activity using data from Vietnam.

Acuerdos de libre comercio entre los países andinos y los Estados Unidos
http://www.cepal.org/publicaciones/xml/3/28333/S77CI-L2678e-P.pdf
José E. Durán Lima Carlos L. de Miguel Andrés R Schuschny / CEPAL 2006 -

Are Social Entrepreneurs important for Social and Economic Development?
http://www.business4good.org/2007/04/importance-of-social-entrepreneurship.html
This PDF-paper reviews the Social Entrepreneurship literature and links it with studies ob Entrepreneurshop from OECD and others. It identifies four key areas where Social Entrepreneurs are creating social and economic value: Employment Development, Innovation and new products/services, Social Capital as well as Equity Promotion. (contributed by Juergen Nagler)

Business Incubation Sustainability Model
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/businessenvironment/...
This model is an interesting good practice form a local business incubator in Medellin, Colombia. Incubadora de Empresas de Base Tecnolgica de Antioquia (IEBTA) is self-sustainable and has been in business for 10 years.

Corporate Governance in Latin America
http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=963281
Chong, Alberto E. / IADB 2006
This paper analyzes recent trends in Latin America's institutional development regarding to investor protection.

Do workers in Chile choose informal employment? A dynamic analysis of sector choice
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/...
Packard, Truman G.; / World Bank 2006
The degree to which a labor market is segmented and jobs in the formal sector of the economy are rationed is critical to the analysis of coverage of social insurance and pensions. Using unique panel data spanning the 1998-99 contraction in Chile, the author finds little evidence that self-employment is the residual sector of a dualistic labor market, as is often depicted in the literature. Data on transitions between sectors show that self-employment is not a free-entry sector, and that entrepreneurs can be ''pushed'' out of self-employment just as others are pushed out of formal employment during economic downturns. But employment without a contract does exhibit many of the features of the free-entry, employment safety net depicted in the dualistic literature.

Facts & Figures: Africa's Trade
http://www.tradeforum.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/1139/
Sub-Saharan Africa's economic stability, combined with a favourable global growth climate, now offers opportunities that the region has begun to exploit. But further work is needed at the ''micro'' level to accelerate progress on the Millennium Development Goals.

Indigenous peoples in Latin America : economic opportunities and social networks
http://www-wds.worldbank.org...
Lunde, Trine; Skoufias, Emmanuel; Patrinos, Harry Anthony; World Bank 2006
Despite significant changes in poverty overall in Latin America, the proportion of indigenous peoples living in poverty did not change much from the early 1990s to the present. While earlier work focused on human development, much less has been done on the distribution and returns to income-generating assets and the effect these have on income generation strategies. The authors show that low income and low assets are mutually reinforcing. For instance, low education levels translate into low income, resulting in poor health and reduced schooling for future generations. Social networks affect the economic opportunities of individuals through two important channels-information and norms. However, the analysis shows that the networks available to indigenous peoples do not facilitate employment in nontraditional sectors.

Jobs for Youth/Des emplois pour les jeunes, Spain
http://www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/display.asp?sf1=identifiers&lang=EN&st1=812007081p1
This OECD book surveys the main barriers to employment for young people in Spain, and assesses the adequacy and effectiveness of existing measures to improve the transition from school to work.

La igualdad en el trabajo: afrontar los retos que se plantean (ILO 2006
http://www.ilo.org/...
Informe global con arreglo al seguimiento de la Declaración de la OIT relativa a los principios y derechos fundamentales en el trabajo.

Making Business Registration and Licensing Easier, Cheaper and More Attractive
http://www.businessenvironment.org...
This Bangkok Conference Session examines the lessons that can be learned from reforming business registration and licensing procedures in Asia. Case studies are drawn from Vietnam, Philippines and Laos. In addition, a practitioners guide for reforming business registration and licensing is presented, which includes a number of country examples; India is the only one in Asia.

OECD Report: Financing Development: Aid and Beyond
http://www.oecd.org/document/18/0,2340,en_2649_33731_38468562_1_1_1_1,00.html
Aid alone cannot finance development; new actors and fresh sources of finance are essential complements to it. This highly stimulating book takes a deep look at the changes in the ''international development finance architecture.

OECD: Micro-Policies for Growth and Productivity
http://www.oecd.org/document/2/0,2340,en_2649_37461_34941890_1_1_1_37461,00.html
The project’s objective has been to identify the critical areas of the business environment for each driver of growth and to identify effective micro-policies for each of these critical areas in order to develop a more coherent growth strategy for the micro level of the economy. Its target has been to identify critical policy areas for each of the micro-drivers of growth – entrepreneurship, information and communications technology (ICT), innovation and human capital – through a quantitative benchmarking methodology. Three documents are available: the Synthesis and Benchmarking User Guide is a brochure which provides a brief synthesis to the Micro-Policies for Growth and Productivity Project Final Report and also serves as a guide to the benchmarking methodology used in the analysis. A summary of key findings is also available for download.

Returns to capital in microenterprises : evidence from a field experiment
http://www-wds.worldbank.org...
Christopher Woodruff, David McKenzie, Suresh de Mel / World Bank 2007
Small and informal firms account for a large share of employment in developing countries. The rapid expansion of microfinance services is based on the belief that these firms have productive investment opportunities and can enjoy high returns to capital if given the opportunity. However, measuring the return to capital is complicated by unobserved factors such as entrepreneurial ability and demand shocks, which are likely to be correlated with capital stock. The authors use a randomized experiment to overcome this problem and to measure the return to capital for the average microenterprise in their sample, regardless of whether they apply for credit.

The Next 4 Billion: Market Size and Business Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid
http://www.wri.org/business/pubs_description.cfm?pid=4142
Four billion low-income consumers, a majority of the world’s population, constitute the base of the economic pyramid (BOP). New empirical measures of their aggregate purchasing power and behaviour as consumers suggest significant opportunities for market-based approaches to better meet their needs, increase their productivity and incomes, and empower their entry into the formal economy.

Capacity building for business information networking
http://www.unido.org/doc/28890
SMEs need tailor-made information solutions, i.e. business information services that assess, verify and apply information to a specific business problem. From there the UNIDO developed a programme that ''creates value added by bringing together information from different sources and transforming that information into solutions, including ICT and e-business support, in order to enable the integration of SMEs in national and global value chains.

SME cluster and networking development
http://www.unido.org/userfiles/PuffK/SMEbrochure.pdf
Individual SMEs experience difficulties in achieving economies of scale in the purchase of such inputs as equipment, raw materials, finance and consulting services and are often unable to take advantage of market opportunities that require large production quantities, homogenous standards and regular supply. Small size is also a constraint on internalization of functions such as training, market intelligence, logistics and technology innovation, while preventing the achievement of a specialized and effective internal division of labour.


9. Websites of the Month

FOCUSS Search Engine
http://www.focuss.eu
Focuss.eu provides a high quality search engine for practitioners, researchers and students in the area of global development studies. Other than generic search engines, like Google and Yahoo, focuss.eu indexes a specific choice of electronic resources, selected by librarians, researchers and practitioners working in participating institutions. The resources are selected based on their relevance for the development studies and the quality of the information. Individual researchers, students and practitioners can contribute by adding their bookmarks.

Business in Development Network
http://www.bidnetwork.org
The BiD Network Foundation's mission is to contribute to sustainable economic development by stimulating entrepreneurship in developing countries.
Activities are: 1. Stimulating small and medium sized entrepreneurship to create jobs and raise income in developing countries. 2. Engaging professionals, investors and organisations offering them the opportunity to directly contribute to poverty reduction through SME development in developing countries. 3. Inspiring people that business and poverty reduction can go hand-in hand.

Business4Good
http://www.business4good.org
The intersection between business approaches and non-profit missions towards the social good has increasingly received interest from development practitioners and academic researchers. This blog covers contemporary developments and news especially in Social Entrepreneurship, Corporate Social Responsibility and Microfinance . It follows the words of Kofi Annan: ''It is the absence of broad-based business activity, not its presence, that condemns much of humanity to suffering. Business generates employment and wealth.'' (contributed by Juergen Nagler)

Brand Africa
http://www.tradeforum.org
Investment and growth levels are rising across Africa and governments are more stable. ''Brand Africa'' needs to reflect these changes. The latest stories on the Trade Forum site, from IMF, UNCTAD and ITC contributors, give an overview of African trade trends today. In pictures, in words and in figures, they tell a story of cautious optimism.

ADB Launches Online Version of Statistical Database System
http://www.adb.org/Statistics/sdbs.asp
ADB has launched an online version of its Statistical Database System, containing easily searchable economic and social data from 1988 onward for ADB's developing member countries. The database, developed and maintained by ADB’s Economics and Research Department, contains data from 1988 onwards and will be a major resource and analytical tool for policymakers, academics, researchers and journalists interested in issues and challenges facing Asia and the Pacific.

IDB launches DataGob portal of governance indicators
http://www.iadb.org/datagob/home_esp.html
The Inter-American Development Bank unveiled DataGob, an innovative portal that offers access to some 400 governance indicators, covering topics as varied as support for democracy, the cost of starting a business, wastefulness in government spending and police corruption in Latin America and the Caribbean and other developing regions of the world. The indicators available at DataGob come from 30 different sources, including academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, private firms and multilateral agencies. They cover four major areas: democracy, markets, public sector management and rule of law, as well as a number of key socioeconomic indicators.

InTERRAgate: Online Global Hazards
http://www.interragate.info/
This online natural hazards database is to identify the most vulnerable countries and give information to first responders, humanitarian agencies and NGO's to improve preparedness and foster appropriate mitigation and management measures.

The Development CAFE Web services for NGOs
http://www.thedevelopmentcafe.org
The Development CAFE is an online network of social science professionals dedicated to bridge the technology and knowledge divide between policy and grassroots. The Cafe now offers either free or cost effective web services for NGOs who would like to make a web presence. This will be with your own URL, organizational, email id and maintenance by professionals. It costs 1/4th of the market rates. If however, you do not have budget in your organization for a website and you are doing a good, the CAFE does it for free. For more information contact the Cafe Moderator, moderator@thedevelopmentcafe.org.


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