New Special Report: Democracy and Globalisation
How democracy must be reformed in order to meet the new requirements posed by globalisation? The main problem is not how to conceive a blueprint of a global democratically structured government, and define its tasks. The main problem is rather to find out how we could come from here to there.
>>> more

Stepping Up Pressure on G8 and German Presidency
Coinciding with the first meeting of G7 Finance Ministers under Germany's G8 presidency on 9-10 February in Essen, NGOs and civil society organisations stepped up significantly their pressure on the richest countries of the world to make good their promises on aid, debt cancellation and trade.
>>> more

Retreat or a New Wave of Globalisation?
Whereas the prominent globalisation critic Walden Bello already sees the “retreat of globalisation”, the World Bank in its most recent report believes that a new globalisation wave is about to hit and the decisive issue is how to manage the globalisation of the next 25 years. Yet the protagonists have more in common than generally assumed.
>>> more

Intellectual Property High on the G-8 Agenda
Intellectual property rights are supposed to play a crucial role at the coming G-8 summit in Heiligendamm. The subject itself is politically highly explosive. The German federal government’s G-8 agenda leans heavily toward the short-term interests of knowledge owners (= industrialised countries).
>>> more

The New Landscape of Lenders and the World Bank
The creditor landscape is rapidly changing. New donor countries such as China, India and Venezuela are stepping forward with offers of rapidly-disbursed and almost condition-fee cash to low-income African and Latin American nations. This has the "traditional" donor community seriously worried.
>>> more

World Economic Perspectives in 2007
Stepping back from an all-time high growth the world economy is expected to moderate in 2007, according to a new UN report, titled "World Economic Situation and Prospects 2007". While growth in the US slows, it remains robust in the South.
>>> more

Special Report: Climate Change and Human Rights
Climate change is far from being just an ecological issue; it is also an issue of equity. Equity has at least two dimensions. First, the fair distribution of burdens and benefits of fossil fuel use among nations. Secondly, the universal protection of the fundamental rights of every human person to water, food, housing, and health. A new report focuses on the latter.
>>> more

Action Plan: The New 'Smarties' of the World Bank
"Forget China, India and the internet: economic growth is driven by women". Under this quote from "The Economist", the World Bank presents its new gender action plan for the fiscal year 2007-10 and thereby anticipates the key objective of its women and gender policy: growth.
>>> more

China: Reversing the Brain Drain
Brain drains rob developing countries of valuable human talent, as their best and brightest people go abroad to study and opt to stay in the developed world. For many years, the People's Republic of China has been no exception to this phenomenon.
>>> more

The EU Presidency Outlook for Development
As the Finns enter the final stretch of their EU Presidency, a review is in order of the achievements for development during the past six months as well as a look ahead with Germany in the starting blocks for its Presidency beginning in January.
>>> more

The Coherence Panel's Mixed Bag of Proposals
After less than nine months, the High-Level Panel on system-wide coherence commissioned by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has just delivered an attention-grabbing report. To what extent the panel's efforts will lead to genuine change, entirely depends on the political will of member states.
>>> more

Towards Heiligendamm: The German G-8 Agenda
At the G-8 summit, to be held from 6-8 June 2007 in Heiligendamm, the German government intends to focus on "shaping globalisation and helping Africa to develop". One can only agree. Yet the question is: How? On that point the agenda proves to be deeply flawed. It does not even mention the long overdue reform of the summit architecture itself.
>>> more

HDR: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis
Focusing on the global water crisis, the Human Development Report 2006 takes up a subject which for several years has been widely and hotly debated. Thus, it is difficult to say something really new - but with its focus on equity issues the HDR is markedly different from comparable reports.
>>> more

EU: The New Financial Instrument for Development
After more than two years of negotiations, the European Union (EU) agreed on a Budgetary framework for 2007-2013. This framework, known as Financial Perspectives, is made up of a series of instruments. The instrument that covers EC financial assistance to developing countries is the Development Co-operation Instrument (DCI).
>>> more

Counterrevolution or Reform at the United Nations?
Although the American media generally depicted Kofi Annan’s end-of-term reform package for the United Nations as a failure, its achievements are by no means negligible. The cup is certainly more than half full.
>>> more

Around the World, Millions Stand Up for MDGs
In churches and schools, in slums and outside posh hotels, on Indian cricket fields and in Mexican football stadiums, close to 24 million people participated in the United Nations-led “Stand Up Against Poverty” initiative to remind world leaders of their promises to eliminate extreme poverty by 2015.
>>> more

Helsinki Meeting on EU Policy Coherence
Development experts discussed policy coherence for development at a meeting on 2 and 3 October in Helsinki. They concluded: Aid alone is not enough; also other policies must support the fight against poverty. However to find practical solutions to ensure policy coherence for development in the EU and Member State policies is no easy walk.
>>> more

The EU's Good Governance Agenda in Development
The European Commission's August 2006 communication on governance and development co-operation is a flawed approach, set in motion too quickly for reasons of the internal EC aid programming calendar and lacking thorough debate with stakeholders in developing countries.
>>> more