Analysis
21 issues for the 21st century
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- Written by UNEP
A top priority list of emerging environmental issues with options for action.
Delhi push for ‘IMF’ of poor
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- Written by Archis Mohan
An Indian proposal to explore whether the developing world can set up its own alternative to the World Bank or International Monetary Fund (IMF) is on its way to a feasibility test.
The idea, described by international observers as a push for a world banking revolution, is to be discussed by the Brics nations later this month following a thumbs-up from China yesterday.
The economic consequences of a Financial Transaction Tax
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- Written by Avinash Persaud
A 0,1 % tax does not usher in a nuclear winter!
The Fallacies of Green Growth
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- Written by UNCTAD
A new UNCTAD Discussion Paper (No. 205) reviews the fallacies of green growth in coping with climate change and the implications for development space. Drawing on ample empirical data and examples, the paper analyses the environmental effectiveness, economic efficiency and social-political acceptability of the main elements in the green growth toolbox. The key results of the analysis are as follows:
Do we still need development goals?
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- Written by Charles Kenny
More of the same?
Read the blog!
The Inequality Trap
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- Written by Kemal Dervis
(From Social Europe Journal)
As evidence mounts that income inequality is increasing in many parts of the world, the problem has received growing attention from academics and policymakers. In the United States, for example, the income share of the top 1% of the population has more than doubled since the late 1970’s, from about 8% of annual GDP to more than 20% recently, a level not reached since the 1920’s.
Collateral damage: How the UK government plans to water down anti-tax haven rules
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- Written by ActionAidUK
(From Eurodad)
A huge new tax loophole specifically for multinational companies will be hidden in the UK Chancellor’s new budget due to be released on 21 March. This move bizarrely comes at a time when polling shows that 79% of the British population thinks that the government is not doing enough to tackle tax avoidance.
Read more: Collateral damage: How the UK government plans to water down anti-tax haven rules
Elites Loot Africa While Foreign Debt Mounts
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- Written by J. Boyce & L. Ndikumana
(From Global Financial Integrity)
It was an African equivalent of stealing the Brooklyn Bridge, and for four years, nobody noticed. From 2007 to 2010, $32 billion in public funds went missing from Angola. The unexplained money outflow from sub-Saharan Africa’s second largest oil exporter was revealed in a December International Monetary Fund report, which pegged the loss as equivalent to one-quarter of the country’s GDP.
Social Protection Floor: beyond poverty reduction?
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Since 2000 two parallel global strategies for poverty reduction are being followed. On the one hand, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) changed in 1999 its ‘Enhanced Facility for Structural Adjustment’ into a ‘Facility for Growth and Poverty Reduction’ (FGPR) and asks poor countries to introduce a ‘PRSP’ (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper) in order to receive concessional funds and debt relief. On the other hand, the UN (United Nations) Millennium Summit adopted a Declaration from which were taken –afterwards – eight so-called ‘MDGs’ (Millennium Development Goals) which became the guidelines for development cooperation.
Read more: Social Protection Floor: beyond poverty reduction?
The poverty of poverty statistics
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Statistics are very useful, and we know you can use them in every way you like. Poverty statistics are extremely useful, because you can show how much progress is being made in the world with development policies. You can also use them to show how disastrous neoliberal globalisation is. If more than one billion people, or 22 % of the world population, is unable to survive, there must be something very wrong with the economies and societies in which they live.
