Trade has historically been a geopolitical tool, creating significant economic imbalances in developing countries. However, many countries in East Asia and Latin America have been able to alleviate poverty due to increasing trade. Tackling poverty has proven to be much harder in low income countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America, and their dismal trade performance is one important reason for that. They remain at the margins of world trade and indeed of the world economy. These articles are aimed at informing readers about the complexities of trade and its varying effects on development, with a special focus on the consequences of the global economic crisis, the potential of fair trade and the gender implications of trade policies.
ECONOMY & TRADE
Greening Economic Growth
When I hear people in Pakistan talk of how we really need to focus on economic growth now and on cleaning up later, I cannot help thinking about the Mexican finance secretary’s reaction in 2000 when he heard that environmental degradation was costing his country about nine per cent of gross domestic product per annum. I still remember him holding up one hand and pointing the other hand downwards and summing it up as (to paraphrase): you mean we are pushing the country up through our policies to promote growth with one hand, and pulling it down, through environmental degradation, with the other hand?
PPPs Likely to Undermine Public Health Commitments
The United Nations Agenda 2030 for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is being touted in financial circles as offering huge investment opportunities requiring trillions of dollars. In 67 low- and middle-income countries, achieving SDG 3 — healthy lives and well-being for all, at all ages — is estimated to require new investments increasing over time, from an initial $134 billion annually to $371 billion yearly by 2030, according to recent estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO) reported in The Lancet.
40% of India’s Thermal Power Plants in Water-Scarce Areas, Threatening Shutdowns
New WRI research finds that 40 percent of the country’s thermal power plants are located in areas facing high water stress, a problem since these plants use water for cooling. Scarce water is already hampering electricity generation in these regions—14 of India’s 20 largest thermal utilities experienced at least one shutdown due to water shortages between 2013-2016, costing the companies $1.4 billion.
Expansion of Soy Resurrects Key Railway Line in Brazil
The railroad can contribute to the economy, making transportation cheaper, but it is unlikely to foment equitable development in and of itself, apart from facing complex construction obstacles in countries like Brazil.
Sustainable Energy Critical for Achieving Overall Goals of Paris Climate Agreement
The Paris Agreement ushered in a new global approach to climate change. At the core of this agreement are the Nationally Determined Contributions. We are now implementing these pledges.
Tocantins, a River of Many Dams in Central Brazil
Tocantins, the newest of Brazil’s 26 states, which was created in 1988 to seek its own paths to development in central Brazil, fell into the common plight of expanding borders, based on soy and hydroelectricity.
Argentina Pursues the Lithium Dream
The government of Mauricio Macri dreams of Argentina becoming the world leader in lithium production. But it does not seem so clear that this aspiration, underpinned by the interest of multinational corporations, would also drive the development of local communities.
Digital Infrastructure
Millennials are the natives of the digital infrastructure. They have the privilege of having been born in a time when everything is within reach through the click of a button. Having worked in Dubai in the 1970s, I learned that there are three kinds of infrastructure: progressive, hard, and soft. Progressive infrastructure refers to the international airports and the seaports. The hard infrastructure are the roads, highways and the like. Lastly, the soft infrastructure refers to the ease of doing business. Back in the day, the Sheikh of Dubai would mention, what is good for business is good for Dubai. Later, I added two more; these are sustainable and institutional infrastructure. Even if you have the best plans in the world, without the right institutions to implement these, these plans would not come to fruition. Lastly, infrastructure should be sustainable in order to last for generations. With the advancement of technology, this is the Age of Digital Infrastructure.
Can Uganda Reduce Financial Exclusion to 5% in 5 Years?
In October 2017, Uganda launched a new five-year National Financial Inclusion Strategy. The strategy seeks to reduce financial exclusion from 15 to 5 percent by 2022 by ensuring that all Ugandans have access to and use a broad range of quality and affordable financial services.
Paying a High Price
Living costs in Dhaka have soared so high that it's not just low-income groups struggling to make ends meet—the middle class is feeling the squeeze too. According to an analysis by the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), the cost of living in the capital hit a four-year high in 2017 due to rising prices of essentials and utilities. Onions had the highest price hike last year, followed by other vegetables, household gas, rice, liquid milk and beef. The change in the living costs in 2017 went up by an alarming 8.44 percentage points from 2016. Besides, house rent soared by 8.14 percent and electricity by 6.44 percent in 2017 from that a year ago.
The Data Revolution Should Not Leave Women and Girls Behind
If there is one political principle that has been constant throughout the history of human civilization it is the fact that land is power. This is something that is particularly true, and often painfully so, for women who farm in Africa.
Clean Energy Sources Manage to Cut Electricity Bill in Chile
A 75 percent drop in electricity rates, thanks to a quadrupled clean generation capacity, is one of the legacies to be left in Chile by the administration of Michelle Bachelet, who steps down on Mar. 11.
Policy Support Gap for “Climate-Smart” Agriculture
Conditioned that ploughing is the sure way to produce crops, Zimbabwean farmer Handrixious Zvomarima surprised himself by trying a different method. He planted cowpea seeds directly without tilling the land. It worked.
How Low-Income Bangladeshis Use Loans
Bangladeshis have a long tradition of borrowing from family, neighbors and other informal sources. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have proliferated over the past three decades and offer a more formal loan service that has been taken up with enthusiasm, and today some 25 million Bangladeshis borrow from MFIs.
Tourism Should Be Regulated, Before It Is Too Late…
This year, we will have 3 million tourists each day wandering the world. This massive phenomenon is without precedent in human history and is happening (as usual), with only one consideration in mind: money. We should pause and take a look at its social, cultural and environmental impact and take remedial measures, because they are becoming seriously negative if things are left as they are.
Disasters Bring Upheaval to Sri Lanka’s Rural Economy
Last year was an annus horribilis for 52-year-old Newton Gunathileka. A paddy smallholder from Sri Lanka’s northwestern Puttalam District, 2017 saw Gunathileka abandon his two acres of paddy for the first time in over three and half decades, leaving his family almost destitute.
On a Self-Destructive Path
Three pictures in this paper yesterday depict the utter callousness with which we have degraded our natural resources because of greed and indifference. The front page shows a horrific pile of rubbish in an area in Keraniganj—an earlier picture of the same area juxtaposed with it makes us realise with disbelief, that this garbage dump was actually a canal only a year and a half ago. It is hard to believe that once this pit of rubbish was a pristine waterbody running between rows of buildings, providing relief to the concrete jungle. Obviously, over this short period of time, there has been absolutely no oversight regarding illegal dumping of waste.
Uncertainty Surrounds Renegotiation of NAFTA and Its Consequences for Mexico
The first few months of 2018 will be key to defining the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), whose renegotiation due to the insistence of U.S. President Donald Trump has Mexico on edge because of the potential economic and social consequences.
Trade Multilateralism Set Back yet Again
As feared, the Eleventh Ministerial Conference (MC11) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 10-13 December 2017, ended in failure. It failed to even produce the customary ministerial declaration reiterating the centrality of the global trading system and the importance of trade as a driver of development.
Billionaires, Fiscal Paradise, the World’s Debt, and the Victims
Among Bloomberg's many profitable activities is a convenient Bloomberg Billionaires Index that has just published its findings for 2017. It covers only the 500 richest people, and it proudly announces that they have increased their wealth by 1 trillion dollars in just one year. Their fortunes went up by 23% to top comfortable 5 trillion dollars (to put this in perspective, the US budget is now at 3.7 trillion). That obviously means an equivalent reduction for the rest of the population, which lost those trillion dollars. What is not widely known is that the amount of the circulation of money stays the same; no new money is printed to accommodate the 500 richest billionaires!
Critical Issues to Watch in 2018
Another new year has dawned, and on a world facing serious disruption on many fronts. What are the trends and issues to watch out for in 2018?
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario