World Economy & Development In Brief

WDEV Recent Issues

Issue 2/Mar-Apr 2012

Rio+20: Rights at risk + Kim or Ocampo: Race at the World Bank + Many Maledives

Issue 1/Jan-Feb 2012

World Economy: Prognosis 2012 + Eurozone at the crossroads + Who follows Zoellick? + Myanmar + Thinking development against the mainstream

Issue 6/Nov-Dec 2011

G20: Wrong forum for development + German aid under Niebel + London contra FTT + Food speculation: How it works

Issue 5/Sep-Oct 2011

The global social crisis +++ Thanks to Germany it's 2008 all over again +++ Nepal: Second chance for Maoists

Issue 4/Jul-Aug 2011

Non-FDI modes of international production + Bail-out 2.0 for Greece + Europe: Tobin tax on the move

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WDEV Highlights

Heavy pressure on UNCTAD before Doha

UNCTAD's analyses of global macro-economic issues from a development perspective have regularly provided alternative views to that offered by the World Bank and the IMF controlled by the west. Now Western countries threaten the mandate of UNCTAD's secretariat to analyse macro-economic issues. In a statement former senior officials of UNCTAD speak out a strong warning against this move to stifle a critical voice.

BRICS summit pushes to redress power imbalances

Heads of state from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa signed an accord to promote intra-BRICS trade in local currencies and proposed the creation of a new development bank to mobilise resources in the five-country group. Furthermore, the Delhi Declaration demands a major overhaul of the Bretton Woods institutions.

Rights at risk in Rio+20 preparation process

In an Open Letter an international coalition of over 400 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from 67 countries is challenging the preparation process for UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as Rio+20 scheduled to take place 22 to 24 June in Rio.

Kim or Ocampo: Who can reinvent the World Bank?

The period for submitting nominations for the position of the next President of the World Bank closed on Friday, 23 March. The race is on. Three candidates take part: Jim Yong Kim from the US, José Antonio Ocampo from Columbia, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria. Among civil society the candidates provoked already diverging views. WDEV documents comments by Peter Bosshard and Kevin Gallagher.

The political economy of a fledgling democracy

History often repeats itself - sometimes as a tragedy, sometimes as a farce. Some editorials over the past few weeks have referred to the Maldives' 2008 elections as a precursor of the Arab spring, now reversed; others are puzzled by the rapidity with which the international community acknowledged the new President, and abandoned ex-president Nasheed.