By LATINIDADD
El presente artÃculo hace una revisión de la cooperación internacional haciendo referencia a la calidad, cantidad y modalidad de la ayuda extranjera. El artÃculo enfatiza que aunque se han dado algunos pasos, todavÃa la cantidad y la calidad de la ayuda están muy lejos de ser suficientes para alcanzar los ODM y otras metas sociales y de desarrollo. Asimismo, la ayuda para el desarrollo se ha estado dando principalmente en forma de alivio de deuda y no como una transferencia de recursos frescos.
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By Aldo Caliari
In June 2007, after over one year of review, the Fund modified its main guidelines on the implementation of Article IV of its Articles of Agreement. The guidelines, issued originally in 1977, regulated the Fund’s role in exercising surveillance over the exchange rate policies of member countries.
The group of G24 (group of developing country members in the IMF) expressed to be "especially concerned that expanding the principles for the guidance of members in the Decision would blur the distinction between surveillance over exchange rate policies and over domestic policiesâ€
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By Walden Bello and Mary Lou Malig
This article presents an overview of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiation rounds, posting a question on whether the most recent “mini-ministerial†gathering in Geneva could mean the final collapse of the Doha Round of trade negotiations.
From the Uruguay Round to the current Doha Round, WTO negotiation rounds have been failing to address the interest of developing countries in favour of developed countries. Developing countries had come to the realization that they had bargained away significant space for development and thus they are in no mood to agree in more concessions to liberalize global trade, as the big trading powers demanded. While the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) have not showed willingness to give more than minor concessions on agricultural subsidies, different alliances have been formed by Developing countries (G20, G33 and G90) to resist pressures to open up their industrial sectors and services.
In this sense, the authors stress that the “Doha Development Round,†seems to have little to do with development and everything to do with expanding developed country access to developing country markets.
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By Javier Gomez Aguilar and Juan Luis Espada Vedia
Just over six years since this Monterrey Consensus (MC), only weak and limited results have been achieved, given that the Millennium Development Goals are far from being reached by 2010 and that the financial fragility and vulnerability of our countries has again been brought to light in the last few years. This is made even more notorious due to the economic disturbances generated by the bigger world economies. Within this framework, it is important to note that the MC actions are not based on principals or axes which differ from the current development model. Neither does the mobility of resources that the MC promotes prioritize the financial strengthening of our States for their autonomous management. Rather they aim to generate conditions so as these States are receptors of transnational capital and that the “goodness†of international trade only deepens economic and social concentration and differentiation.
This article explores the economic model in Latin America and the mechanism for the mobilization of internal resource and international financial resources. It also presents critics and recommendations around issues related with International Aid, Debt, International trade and the Reform of the international financial system.
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Autor: Dr Oscar Ugarteche
La arquitectura financiera internacional está sufriendo cambios importantes. Hay debates que se llevan a cabo en Asia y América Latina, además de Europa y medio oriente, sobre la importancia y relevancia de las instituciones financieras regionales dada la debilidad del dólar norteamericano, la inutilidad de las instituciones financieras internacionales (IFIs) y la muy urgente necesidad de tener instituciones más cercanas a la población, más democráticas y transparentes, y que estén menos sujetas a las agendas de un gobierno.
Para algunos es un complemento para las IFIs, para otros es un cambio de rumbo. La evidencia apunta en la dirección de un gran cambio alejándose de las instituciones centradas en Washington que se han debilitado, perdido ingresos, credibilidad y legitimidad.
El autor hace una revisión de las más relevantes iniciativas que aparecieron como alternativa a las IFIs: la Iniciativa Chiang Mai en Asia, el Banco del Sur y las propuestas de regionalización en Latino América y la ampliación de la Unión Europea
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Source: EURODAD
Representatives from developing country governments, donors and CSOs converged in Paris to discuss the recently released Accra Agenda for Action (AAA). The outcome has been concern among CSOs about the very weak commitments being proposed by donors while recipient countries would like to see commitments translated into action. The general claim was that the current draft of he AAA needs to be substantially strengthened if it is going to attract the high level Ministerial attendance that the aid reform process demands.
Concerns about the current draft of the AAA in were mainly related with the principle of democratic ownership, which must be included as a fundamental element of aid effectiveness and the lack of an explicit commitment to greater transparency. Additionally, they stressed three specific issues that need to be emphasised in the AAA: Conditionality; technical assistance; and tied aid.
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By Alejandro Bendana, ALAI (Agencia Latinoamericana de Información)
This opinion paper is critical about the role of aid and it claims that it generates dependence and inequality. It upholds the idea that it is not a question of making the present "aid" modalities more effective, but of substituting present aid system.
As an alternative to the present development order, the paper introduces the Venezuelan led international collaboration scheme known as ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas), which pursues a new form of regional integration and greater political unity in order to achieve independent development. The ALBA Bank (created in early 2008) constitutes another piece in the construction of an alternative international economic order.
The author discusses the implications of the ALBA Bank in terms of the 2008 Aid Effectiveness Debate (Accra, 2008) and Financing for Development (Doha, Sep 2008). He stresses that it is not possible to talk about effectiveness in the context of aid used as an instrument of security and foreign policy goals. In this sense, he considers essential to denounce in the debate the failure of the international aid system. Regarding Finance for Development, the author considers the meeting should help to better identify and challenge the international impediments that stand in the way of domestic accumulation and its domestic mobilisation.
According to the author there is a need for a new development model for aid based on solidarity.
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Author: The North-South Institute (NSI)
Key findings from the Southern Perspectives on Reform of the International Development Architecture project were presented at the 887th Wilton Park Conference in Sussex, England on May 19-22, 2007. The conference discussed the current and changing context for the international development architecture, key findings from the three theme papers and five country studies, possible synthesis issues, and recommendations for reform.
This report presents the proceedings of the conference. Project documents from the Southern Perspectives program are available on the NSI website.
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Source: North South Institute
The third and final theme paper from the Southern perspectives on the reform of the international aid architecture project is available for downloading from the NSI website. Security, the War on Terror, and Official Development Assistance (ODA) by Kwesi Aning of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, underlines the links between development aid and security in the post 9/11 context and shows how the existing ODA architecture is affected.
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Source: Halifax Initiative
In 2007 Brazil’s Development Bank issued loans worth more than double the entire World Bank portfolio. More than half of the increase in aid since 2002 comes from debt relief, rather than new funding commitments. What’s more, from 1995-2005, Africa saw no net increase in its development aid despite a 35% increase in commitments to global aid over that period. In 2007, China financed more infrastructure projects in Africa than all multilateral and bilateral donors combined. The Gates Foundation provides more funding for neglected developing country diseases than all of the Group of Seven. These were some of the facts that emerged at an HI conference on “The Changing Face of Global Development Finance - Impacts and implications for aid, development, the South and the Bretton Woods Institutions.â€
Key note speakers Amar Bhattacharya and Yao Graham brilliantly mapped the changing landscape in developing countries and discussed how these states are financing their development, drawing particular attention to the situation in Africa and the growing regional and in-country disparities. Fabrina Furtado raised concerns about the new “Bank of the South†in Latin America which, while shifting power to developing countries, looks set to replicate past mistakes by funding large-scale regional infrastructure projects in the Amazon. Firoze Manji dispelled the western media myths about a new “yellow peril†(in the form of China) taking over Africa. Charles Mutasa, Lydia Duran and Rasheed Draman spoke about many of the shortfalls in the aid effectiveness agenda. And Alejandro Bendaña reminded us of the need to move beyond the “aid box†and to explore new models of development.
Discussions from the meeting will form the basis of a submission to the Financing for Development review that concludes in November in Doha.
Conference backgrounder, glossary of terms, powerpoint presentations and recorded speeches can be found here
