Viewing blog posts on: Global governance
To mark this year's anniversary of the UN Convention on the rights of the Child, Caroline Harper and Hanna Alder reopen the conversation on the importance of considering the impacts of economic crisis on children... (more)
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Caroline Harper on
Friday, November 18, 2011 11:32 AM
Alison Evans reflects on what was missing from Andrew Mitchell's 'Beyond Aid' speech at the Wellcome Trust in this ODI Blog... "There was no mention of the eurozone crisis or the recent G20 summit, but the most glaring omission was acknowledgement that the UK has a lot more to do on it's beyond-aid agenda to make UK policy as a whole development-friendly.".. (more)
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Alison Evans on
Thursday, November 10, 2011 3:16 PM
Claire Melamed reflects on the key messages she took away from Tony Blair's speech on leadership for development, a speech delivered at an event jointly hosted by the Overseas Development Institute and Africa Governance Initiative. This blog discusses what changes can be made to the development agenda to enhance and support strong developing country leadership... (more)
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Claire Melamed on
Friday, October 21, 2011 9:25 AM
As the g7+ – a grouping formed in 2010 of 17 of the world’s most fragile and conflict-affected countries – has pointed out, the MDGs do not adequately take account of their very particular development needs. In response, the g7+ is calling for a ‘New Aid Deal’ based on a set of more realistic interim goals needed in fragile states. Lisa Denney explores what this means for the aid effectiveness agenda... (more)
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Lisa Denney on
Friday, October 14, 2011 3:33 PM
in the midst of a debt, equity and policy crisis, confidence is sliding amidst lags in global policy responses. A path out of the crisis is still possible – including through a G20-led rebalancing from the public to the private sector and from current account surplus to deficit countries. So far the markets have reacted favourably to yesterday’s G20 commitment, but it still needs to be followed by action... (more)
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Dirk Willem te Velde on
Friday, September 23, 2011 3:34 PM
We recently finished a series of ODI events considering what may happen once the Millennium Development Goals expire in 2015. In planning the series, we tried to cover a range of issues that aren’t included in the MDGs, but which have become increasingly important since the year 2000. This blog investigates what we have learned... (more)
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Claire Melamed on
Thursday, August 11, 2011 4:42 PM
The Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group – established at the initiative of the Commonwealth Heads of Government in November 2009 – has recently launched a consultation process to feed into its report on strengthening the impact and effectiveness of the Commonwealth Secretariat. The consultation report highlights several areas of strategic Commonwealth Secretariat involvement. Surprisingly, however, the report is almost silent on the issue of governance and institutions... (more)
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Alina Rocha Menocal on
Monday, June 06, 2011 2:09 PM
The World Bank’s latest World Development Report (WDR) presents some sobering realities for the relationship between conflict and underdevelopment in the world today. It estimates that 1.5 billion people live in countries affected by repeated cycles.. (more)
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Leni Wild on
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 11:26 AM
Over the last ten years there has been a quiet revolution in how the International Monetary Fund (IMF) operates in the poorest countries. As one official in an African Ministry of Finance put it, the IMF has turned from ‘dictator to partner’. The IMF is now considering further changes, especially in relation to fragile states. This is what I’d like the IMF to be saying to its mission chiefs... (more)
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Marcus Manuel on
Wednesday, March 09, 2011 10:30 AM
Breathe the atmosphere here at the UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals this week and, for the first time in several years, there's a whiff of hope. Less of the language of ‘Development Emergency', and more encouraging numbers – on just how many.. (more)
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Liesbet Steer on
Thursday, September 23, 2010 10:29 AM
Current debates on South-South cooperation (SSC) and its effectiveness are marked by the absence of some of the most prominent providers of financial and technical assistance to the South. Brazil is a case in point. But is the country ready to engage.. (more)
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Lidia Cabral on
Thursday, July 22, 2010 3:13 PM
The UN system has long been criticised for not matching its often impressive and widely supported commitments to gender equality with the human and budget resources, as well as the requisite institutional muscle, to translate commitments into reality.. (more)
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Nicola Jones on
Tuesday, July 06, 2010 6:04 PM
The EU's Foreign Affairs Council discussed development issues on 14 June. Its Conclusions can fairly be considered as a partial endorsement of the proposals put forward by the Commission in its Spring Package back in April. Of 31 specific proposals,.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 3:16 PM
The EU Commission’s ‘Spring Package’ on development, launched this week, will be scrutinised with special care, as the first major policy statement by the new Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs. Does it mark new strategic leadership? Does it suggest the Commissioner will take political risks? Will it excite and challenge the Member States? .. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Thursday, April 22, 2010 4:15 PM
As delegates at the Copenhagen Summit on climate change debate, argue and even walk out, this ODI blog focuses on three areas of critical importance for the world's poor. First: a commitment by rich nations to further emissions cuts beyond 2012 as part of the Kyoto framework. Second: a proper timeframe for the financing, and clarity on whether funds to address climate change are new, or just re-packaged. And third: the need for clear, simple targets to monitor what countries have agreed to deliver. .. (more)
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Alison Evans on
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 7:36 AM
This blog looks at how the Lisbon treaty could put the EU in a stronger position: ready and able to play a more prominent role in the world; looking after its own interests whilst recognising that those interests are reinforced by an international outlook that actively promotes stability and sustainable development. .. (more)
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Mikaela Gavas on
Monday, October 05, 2009 3:49 PM
Many believe that the global financial crisis is the fault of risk-taking by bankers in America, the UK and other rich nations, and poor regulation by their governments. The impact of the crisis has rippled across the developing world. Given that the rich nations made the mess, shouldn’t they also clear it up? Some people think so. Others claim that charity begins at home – and with government revenues down in many rich countries, aid budgets have been under pressure. Furthermore, there is no consensus on what southern governments should do, or what rich countries should do to help southern governments. This blog highlights some of the debates raging over the issue... (more)
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Kate Bird on
Wednesday, September 09, 2009 5:04 PM
This blog welcomes the new UK Government White Paper as a valiant attempt to walk the blurred line between promoting international development on moral and pragmatic grounds. .. (more)
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Alison Evans on
Monday, July 06, 2009 5:18 PM
A groundbreaking study coordinated by ODI finds that developing countries are being hit harder than expected by the global financial and economic crisis, and that, sooner or later, they will need to respond. Research in ten developing countries, carried out by 40 researchers, provides a vivid picture of how these countries are faring in the crisis. The research examines the transmission belts -- such as remittances, private capital flows and trade -- that have been affected and are now carrying the crisis from the rich industrialised countries of the north to the poor developing countries of the south. .. (more)
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Dirk Willem te Velde on
Thursday, June 04, 2009 3:48 PM
It is clear that Europe is important for development, but the EU is battling against charges of irrelevance and strategic confusion. This blog outlines what the authors would like to see emerge from a development ministers meeting in Brussels in May. .. (more)
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Alison Evans on
Monday, May 18, 2009 10:53 AM
As ODI prepares to host, jointly with the UK Department for International Development (DFID), a series of meetings in London on the change agenda in EU Development Cooperation, we should celebrate the publication of new proposals by the European.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 3:40 PM
The G-20 Communiqué was published yesterday. Probably fewer than a dozen people in the world fully understand the numbers, but the words and numbers together secure gains for development and for the poor. The text provides a plan of attack, but also.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Friday, April 03, 2009 11:20 AM
ODI Director, Simon Maxwell, outlines why we need to reinvent globalisation and international institutions to ensure they genuinely reflect and represent regional, cultural and income diversities and provide a framework to govern the world amid new global threats. .. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 9:30 AM
On Monday 26 January, Yvo de Boer and Joan Ruddock MP will speak on the process for agreeing a deal on climate change in 2009 at the next event in the series "Climate change and international development". This blog asks some key questions participants may want to consider in advance of the event... (more)
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Natasha Grist on
Friday, January 23, 2009 9:58 AM
Last week’s startling news that Chinese trade shrank for the first time since 2001 and that India’s industrial output fell for the first time since 1994 will have dispelled any remaining hope that developing countries would be insulated from the global financial crisis... (more)
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Dirk Willem te Velde on
Friday, December 19, 2008 12:40 PM
The global financial crisis is bound to have a major impact on developing countries, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF ) having downgraded its growth forecasts for 2009 for both developed and developing countries. With two key global events coming up (the G20 crisis summit and the Doha Finance for Development meeting), this blog asks how deep a fall developing countries can expect, and what should be done about it. .. (more)
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Dirk Willem te Velde on
Thursday, November 13, 2008 8:20 AM
The World Economic Forum's Summit on the Global Agenda has just ended in Dubai. By both luck and judgement, the meeting was well-timed to contextualise current crises and look ahead. The big debates were on this being a time of great risk, but also an opportunity to get things right – on finance, of course, but also climate, ecology, social welfare and global governance. There was much talk of 're-booting' world systems, ranging from better regulation to more collective action, and from green growth to better global leadership. .. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Monday, November 10, 2008 5:24 PM
The global financial crisis has caused a considerable economic slowdown in developed countries such as the UK, Germany, France and the USA. The USA and UK face the greatest financial crisis since the 1930s. By contrast, the Malawian finance minister told me last week that he projects growth in Malawi of more than 8% this year. Nigeria is also projected to see economic growth of 8%, and China 9%. Will all developing countries be isolated from the downturn in the west? If not, which countries are at risk and how might the global financial crisis affect them?.. (more)
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Dirk Willem te Velde on
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 5:55 PM
There is lots to say about risk analysis. Global or Local? Long-term or short-term? Financial or social? There is lots to say, too, about the implications for development planning. It is a useful approach. However, a risk analysis is only half the story. We are missing the opportunities. A sensible guide to making decisions and spending money should take account of risks, but also of opportunities. Where is the opportunity analysis?
.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Wednesday, October 01, 2008 2:44 PM
A high profile European report on the MDGs is being launched in Brussels on Friday and in New York on 24 September. It says the Millennium Development Goals have been a force for good in the world, but that progress is uneven, too slow and threatened by the global economic slowdown. The authors also argue that the European Union brings particular strengths to the MDG project... (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Friday, September 19, 2008 10:03 AM
I've just returned from the ministerial day at the third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, where I moderated the two main plenary discussions. The forum generated a great deal of drama over the outcome document, known as the Accra Agenda for Action. This had been carefully prepared over many months, as a consensus statement to be approved by Ministers. When I turned up for my breakfast briefing at 7 am on Thursday morning, the news was that the process had broken down over dinner the previous evening and that the whole negotiation was in jeopardy... (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Monday, September 08, 2008 4:56 PM
The trade talks have collapsed over the issue of Special Safeguard Measures (or SSMs) in agriculture. This was not even among the hottest negotiating issues. This suggests that the talks could (and probably would) have collapsed over any other (more controversial) issues. The bottom line is that the (real) interest for a far-reaching agreement to liberalise multilateral trade regimes has quickly been vanishing in the face of faltering global economy... (more)
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Massimiliano Cali on
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 5:44 PM
Is the first WTO Director-General Peter Sutherland right to call the collapse of the trade talks a 'disaster'? It would certainly have been better for world trade, world income, and most people in developing countries if the Doha negotiations had succeeded in producing a significant liberalisation in trade rules. But it has been clear for at least five years that a 'big' agreement was not possible, so the claims that several hundred billion dollars worth of potential world trade gains have been lost this week are not realistic. .. (more)
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Sheila Page on
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 2:19 PM
As we wait for the final draft of the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) to be published it seems a good time to take stock of what will be happening at the third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF3), which takes place in Accra, Ghana in the first week of September. A recent Commonwealth workshop to bring together senior finance officials from across the Commonwealth to prepare for HLF3 highlighted for me the potential that the HLF3 offers for moving the aid effectiveness agenda forward... (more)
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Simon Burall on
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 12:11 PM
The Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations is once again at a crucial juncture. But will it deliver for developing countries? As discussed in a new ODI paper, developing countries have varying interests in a final settlement at next week’s ministerial talks... (more)
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Massimiliano Cali on
Thursday, July 17, 2008 1:40 PM
In 2005, Africa was promised an additional $25 billion per year in aid. But has the G8 delivered? There is no simple answer, given the complex package of commitments. As we approach the Japanese G8 summit at Hokkaido in July, there is a dangerous dearth of concrete and accessible information in the public domain... (more)
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Geoff Handley on
Friday, June 20, 2008 2:49 PM
The EU Council meeting on 19 and 20 June represents an important marker in this year of the Call to Action on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). There are some serious issues to consider, including the failure of European donors to meet their commitments on aid, both in terms of the levels of funding and in delivering harmonisation and alignment. Most importantly, however, the future of the MDG project itself will be debated... (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 1:01 PM
The Commonwealth mini-Summit in London is the latest sign that reform of the international system is moving rapidly up the agenda. The Summit discussed reform of the UN, the Bretton Woods Institutions and global environmental governance. On all these, there is enthusiasm among Heads of Government for faster and better coordinated change... (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Friday, June 13, 2008 10:19 AM
The Food Summit in Rome turned out better than expected. It was not derailed by Robert Mugabe. It survived the unedifying wrangling over a final communiqué. It gave the topic a good hearing. It confirmed some practical actions. And it passed the torch successfully to the G8 in Japan in July... (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Friday, June 06, 2008 12:12 PM
The Food and Agriculture Organisation summit is a vital step in a process that will develop through a series of events in 2008, including the G8 in Hokkaido in July, and the UN Call to Action on the Millennium Development Goals, in New York in September. At this stage, the Rome summit must deliver four things... (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Monday, June 02, 2008 11:38 AM
In April, after several years of negotiation and discussion, the member states of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a governance reform package. The impetus for the reform was to ensure that the IMF maintains credibility and legitimacy with fast growing developing countries. It is, therefore, envisioned as a first step in a longer process of reform for the representation of developing countries in the IMF... (more)
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Lauren Phillips on
Monday, May 19, 2008 3:01 PM
The 2008 G8 Summit in Toyako, Japan will be particularly significant because there are big issues on the international development agenda that require firm G8 commitments to be made in 2008; and yet the risk of not delivering on these agendas has never been higher... (more)
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Fletcher Tembo on
Thursday, December 20, 2007 10:29 AM
Today the UN begins a year long campaign leading to the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on the theme of ‘Dignity and Justice for us all’. Over the years, the Declaration inspired the creation of more than 60 human rights instruments and it is one of the most translated document of all times. However, 60 years on, these are not easy days for human rights. .. (more)
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Marta Foresti on
Monday, December 10, 2007 10:15 AM
We always knew that the final few days before the EU’s self-imposed deadlines for initialling Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) texts to forestall the application of generalised system of preferences (GSP) tariffs on 1 January would be frenetic. And so it has proved to be... (more)
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Chris Stevens on
Friday, November 30, 2007 5:56 PM
Is the breakthrough in the negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) being claimed by the Commission an example of spin or has the chasm that existed only a couple of weeks ago really been bridged? Mandelson labelled the initialling of an.. (more)
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Mareike Meyn on
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 4:33 PM
The International Year of Sanitation is an opportunity to draw attention to S&H goals. From ‘World Toilet Day’ on November 19th, the launch of the IYS on November 21st and the year of activity that follows, development practitioners around the world can expect to witness a renewed and more determined effort to make the case that providing better sanitation & hygiene facilities for poor households is a development priority – especially for the benefit of all the people who are currently without basic means to carry out a basic daily function. .. (more)
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Peter Newborne on
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 6:26 PM
This weekend, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank held their annual meetings in Washington. Top of the agenda was the reform of IMF governance, and in particular the formula which determines the representation of each country in the IMF, which has been under negotiation since last spring. No progress was made, despite high expectations and a need to push the reform programme forward prior to the end of the year. .. (more)
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Lauren Phillips on
Monday, October 22, 2007 2:09 PM
There have been some important messages on international development from the UK Government since the change of administration in June – and they signal changes of emphasis to which we might want to react.
A first set of changes was to do with structure,.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Monday, October 15, 2007 9:51 AM
The International Health Partnership was launched in London on 6 September, signed by 8 bilateral donors, 7 developing countries, 9 international organisations, and 2 other donors. Importantly, the ‘signature party’ was led by two Prime Ministers,.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Friday, September 07, 2007 2:56 PM
The World Bank’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President, Francois Bourguignon, was in London yesterday, for informal consultations on the future strategy of the World Bank. This contributes to the Long Term Strategic Exercise (LTSE), described.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 12:55 PM
The Conservative Party’s Globalisation and Global Poverty Policy Group reported today. At nearly 500 pages long, the report is a substantial contribution: there are 76 recommendations. Without being party political, we are going to use the.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Saturday, July 21, 2007 3:39 PM
Just weeks after the leadership debacle at the World Bank seemed to have finally faded from front page news, the uncertainty spread across H Street to the Bank’s sister institution, the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Rodrigo de Rato, Managing Director of the IMF, announced his intention to resign from his post much earlier than expected. .. (more)
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Lauren Phillips on
Sunday, July 15, 2007 2:45 PM
With Gordon Brown about to take office, ODI asked representatives of the three main political parties in the UK to speak on the theme ‘What’s Next in International Development?’. These three speeches tell us something about the issues that will.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Friday, June 22, 2007 1:05 PM
The EU Code of Conduct on Complementarity and Division of Labour in Development Policy, approved by the Council on 15 May 2007, is potentially revolutionary, with significant implications for the future of British and other bilateral aid.
The Code of.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Friday, May 25, 2007 10:02 AM
Just last week Kofi Annan, in his new role as chairman of the Africa Progress Panel, called on G8 leaders to deliver on the promises for increased aid to Africa that were made at Gleneagles in 2005. While large amounts of additional aid have so far failed to materialise, there is little doubt that in the near future aid will play an important part in efforts to assist African countries in reaching the MDGs. Yet, how and when scaling up happens is likely to be as important as how much additional aid is actually given. .. (more)
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Paolo de Renzio on
Tuesday, May 08, 2007 3:03 PM
With the trade talks failing and aid volume way below target, is Tony Blair's legacy on Africa at risk? The G8 meeting in Heiligendamm, Germany, in June, provides a last opportunity to persuade the most powerful leaders in the world to deliver on.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Tuesday, May 08, 2007 2:20 PM
With July 7th 2007 designated the official mid-point of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the time is ripe to assess challenges to meeting these goals, and to look beyond them. In this blog we ask: how do the physical impacts of climate change affect the prospects for achieving the first goal, to halve world poverty?.. (more)
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Martin Prowse on
Thursday, April 19, 2007 5:12 PM
This has been a challenging couple of weeks for DFID. On 19 March, Bronwen Maddox published a sceptical piece in The Times newspaper, that was followed up in its tabloid stablemate, The Sun, and then in a series of interviews on 25 March on the World.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Wednesday, April 04, 2007 9:47 AM
The business agenda dominated at Davos this year, with fewer NGOs invited, hardly any Africans, and fewer sessions with ostensible development content. On the other hand, our ‘What’s Next’ theme at ODI reminds us that the business agenda is actually.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Monday, January 29, 2007 10:36 AM
(This piece was first published in www.openDemocracy.net)
2007 will be a difficult year in international development, for five reasons.
First, there will be many reminders that poverty remains ubiquitous, that conflict destroys lives and livelihoods,.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Friday, December 22, 2006 12:55 PM
In the heart of Whitehall, negotiations are currently underway on two matters that will shape the Government’s actions on international development until 2011. Surprisingly, there is little public debate about either. Yet there should be. .. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Tuesday, December 05, 2006 12:17 PM
I welcome the release of ‘Delivering as One’, the Report of the High Level Panel on UN Reform. The Report is blunt and brutal. That’s what happens when you commission a report from three serving Prime Ministers and have Gordon Brown.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Friday, November 10, 2006 1:22 PM
Kemal Dervis, the UNDP Administrator, spoke for ODI and the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Overseas Development on Wednesday and hinted at the recommendations of the UN High Level Panel on System Wide Coherence, due to be published next Thursday,.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Monday, November 06, 2006 12:32 PM
Bill Easterly's new book has attracted a lot of publicity, mainly because it provides a strong criticism of aid. We helped him launch the book in London on 21 September, at a meeting chaired by David Goodhart, Editor of Prospect Magazine. .. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Monday, November 06, 2006 12:18 PM
We need to start having a discussion about ‘human security’ as a vehicle for thinking about aid, especially with respect to the EU, and with the following question in mind: is human security a neat way of framing a poverty-focused aid programme in the modern era, or is it a clever device to appropriate development aid for the purposes of foreign policy?.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Friday, October 27, 2006 4:26 PM
Anne Kruger’s comments in yesterday’s Financial Times article (“IMF to give more weight to Asian vote”) disingenuously makes it sound as if there is still some scope of negotiation on IMF governance reform. In fact, behind closed doors, both the.. (more)
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Lauren Phillips on
Wednesday, June 07, 2006 11:52 PM
Yesterday global financial markets faced their worst sell of since the Russian default and Asian crisis of 1997-98. The Brazilian and Mexican stock markets – two of the largest in the developing world – closed massively down, as did those.. (more)
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Lauren Phillips on
Tuesday, May 23, 2006 3:31 PM
President Hugo Chavez opened last night's Canning House speech by saying that making economic policy without consideration for social goals is like having hydrogen without oxygen - in other words, having only half of the ingredients necessary.. (more)
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Lauren Phillips on
Tuesday, May 16, 2006 1:03 PM
1. This year's Davos gathering, the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, was designed to focus more on business and less on 'development', thus fewer sessions on Africa and few African representatives - but ironically the business agenda threw.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Tuesday, January 31, 2006 11:01 AM
The Africa strategy is a nice re-wrapping of EU policy towards Africa. Don’t get me wrong, this is not to belittle the paper. It is laudable to have the multitude of different policies in one reference document. The strategy refers to the new Development.. (more)
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Sven Grimm on
Saturday, October 22, 2005 12:06 AM
The UN Secretary General’s report 'In Larger Freedom' was ground breaking: it squarely put human rights as one of the three pillars of the United Nations, alongside development and international security. In order to achieve this status, the UN human.. (more)
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Laure-Helene Piron on
Thursday, September 15, 2005 4:28 PM
There are two big agendas at the UN MDG Summit in mid-September. One matters and one does not. Keeping this thought in mind helps greatly in sorting through the Bolton amendments and in helping to focus debate during the last days before the meeting... (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Wednesday, September 07, 2005 2:57 PM
US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton's proposed edits of the draft outcome document to be signed off on by world leaders at the end of the UN Summit on the MDGs (14-15 September 2005) can be found at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thenewswire/archive/boltondoc.pd.. (more)
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Peter da Costa on
Wednesday, August 31, 2005 11:35 AM
In September, heads of state will meet in New York to evaluate the progress made towards the UN Millennium Development Goals and to appraise how best to face the security and development challenges of the 21st century. There are many central questions.. (more)
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Ruth Barnett on
Thursday, August 11, 2005 10:59 AM
The events of last Thursday are already serving to reinforce the
renewed emphasis on the links between the security and development
agendas. Aid is being (again) explicitly linked to security objectives
in the EU and US. But whether this is a threat.. (more)
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Karin Christiansen on
Monday, July 11, 2005 4:43 PM
No last-minute plums were pulled out of the pudding for the G8 communiqué
on Africa, but the summit was still a success. The major commitments
were announced well in advance. They included doubling aid, writing off
debt, and moving to lift agricultural.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Monday, July 11, 2005 10:09 AM
The G8 and Japan’s aid to Africa: A Turning Point?
Despite being the world’s "number 2" aid donor, Japan often seems misunderstood and marginalized. But it is approaching a turning point in its aid policy towards Africa. After years of drift, Japan.. (more)
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Julius Court on
Thursday, June 30, 2005 5:21 PM
On Tuesday, we held a media briefing at ODI on the 2005 agenda. As usual, we paid tribute to the political leadership and energy driving the 2005 agenda, and then got stuck in to the technical issues we mostly work on: absorptive capacity, investment.. (more)
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Simon Maxwell on
Friday, June 24, 2005 1:24 PM
The European Union (EU) is going through difficult times. The recent 'No' votes on the Constitutional Treaty in France and The Netherlands and the failure to agree on the Union’s medium-term finances are forcing us to ask ourselves some tough question about what ‘Europe’ means and where it is going... (more)
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Sven Grimm on
Monday, June 20, 2005 9:22 AM
G8 finance ministers agreed last week to cancel the debts of 18 HIPC which have passed their ‘completion points’ to IDA, the IMF (PRGF) and the African Development Fund, virtually eliminating their external debt...
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John Roberts on
Wednesday, June 15, 2005 6:23 PM
The longstanding ties between France and its former colonies in Africa may finally be giving way to something else. Although little acknowledged, the 1990s saw a massive decrease in French aid to Africa and essentially saw the end of most of the so-called ‘relations spéciales’ between France and Africa. As Tony Blair travels to Paris today ahead of the G8 what can he expect...
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Julius Court on
Tuesday, June 14, 2005 3:21 PM
