Posts filed under 'International Aid and Development'
April 15th, 2008 at 06:53am
The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) responded to the controversy surrounding investments by government-owned Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) by releasing a report stating its commitment to remain open to such investments as long as they are commercially rather than politically motivated. The report responds to concerns among OECD member countries that such funds will be used for political purposes. It also sought to deal with fears among the oil-producing and export-focused Asian nations that operate SWFs that recipient nations will use political concerns as a means to impede legitimate SWF commercial activities. For more information, please click here.
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March 21st, 2008 at 02:40pm
A new OECD study investigated the interaction between income, inflation and tax obligations in OECD countries. Notably, workers in several countries saw their nominal tax burden rise in response to high earnings growth. This phenomenon, known as fiscal drag, occurs in countries where tax rates increase as nominal taxable income rises. Workers are thus forced to pay higher taxes due to inflation or, ironically, after experiencing increases in real income. The latter scenario played out in several upper-middle income OECD countries that experienced high growth rates in full-time earnings, such as Greece, Hungary, South Korea, Portugal and Turkey. Despite concerted legislative efforts to ease tax burdens, such high growth in earnings – in many cases more than 40% – pushed enough workers into a higher income bracket to create fiscal drag.
For the full story, please click here.
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March 18th, 2008 at 06:31am
On March 4, the European Commission announced that it would devote €160 million to provide food aid to nations suffering from destabilizing crises around the world. Between the 17 initially-targeted nations - largely in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East - it is estimated that 18.7 million people will receive aid. Specific concerns include refugees and internally displaced peoples, with an emphasis on providing for mothers and young children.
The funds will not only support the distribution of foodstuffs in the aftermath of disasters and conflicts, but will also assist “food-for-work” activities directed towards re-establishing lines of income, agricultural self-sufficiency, and stability. The aid will be funneled through the UN World Food Programme, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Commission-partnered NGOs. More allocations are planned for later in 2008.
For more information, click here.
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February 24th, 2008 at 02:01am
The OECD, a Paris-based organization that aims to facilitate economic cooperation among 30 leading industrialized nations, recently released a report elucidating general trends in immigration in OECD countries. The report found that immigrants in OECD countries are generally better educated than locally-born populations. Roughly one in four immigrants have earned a university education, compared to the roughly one in five native-born residents who have done so. This is almost universally accompanied, however, by what OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría called the “problem of overqualification”, whereby immigrants find it difficult to find jobs that match their abilities. Gurría urged OECD countries to put into place policies to alleviate issues underlying the problem, which include language barriers and difficulties in evaluating foreign institutions of higher education. The report also notes the magnitude of the “brain drain”, a term used to denote the massive migration of skilled workers away from poor, undeveloped countries. The impact is especially stark amongst small African and Caribbean countries, with many having 40% of their skilled workers and 50% of their health professionals living abroad.
For the full story, click here.
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November 13th, 2007 at 08:20pm
The African Union continues to take cognizance of the “Arche de Zoe” affair two weeks after condemning it as unjustifiable, scandalous, and an abuse of humanitarian interference. The incident refers to a case in which sixteen Europeans (including nine French citizens) who claimed to be on a mission to save war orphans from Darfur could be facing stiff sentences and hard labor after attempting to airlift 103 children out of Chad. Members of the group, which is linked to a French charity called l’Arche de Zoé (Zoe’s Ark), are charged in Chad with extortion and child abduction. Amid evidence that the 103 children in question were not necessarily sick, orphaned, or even from Darfur, the failed mercy mission has grown into a diplomatic scandal that could jeopardize international plans to deploy peacekeepers in the borderlands of the troubled Sudanese region.
The full text of the press release is available here.
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May 1st, 2007 at 09:40am
Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, announced yesterday that the nation is withdrawing from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Venezuela recently paid off its debt to the World Bank, five years ahead of schedule. Its IMF debt has been paid off since 1999, and that institution has already closed its offices in the country. The withdrawals are considered a symbolic measure on the part of Chavez, who has been vocal in his opposition to Latin American reliance on Washington.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/04/30/chavez.venezuela.money.ap/
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April 30th, 2007 at 03:22pm
Paul Wolfowitz testified before the panel of World Bank directors today as part of the continuing investigation of his conduct in the Shaha Riza controversy and amid increasing pressure from the international community for his resignation. Oxfam International, the first “top-tier non-governmental” organization to support the resignation campaign, joined the call for Wolfowitz’s ousting in a statement to the Financial Times on Sunday, asserting that the World Bank cannot fulfill its obligation to the poor when it has been “deeply compromised” by this ethical dispute. Wolfowitz, who was “combative” and “defiant” during his testimony according to some reports, said today, “I will not resign in the face of a plainly bogus charge of conflict of interest” and referred to the call for his resignation as a “smear campaign.”
For more information, see here and here.
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April 25th, 2007 at 12:35pm
In a speech to the Seventh Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade, held in the Doha, Qatar, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the world’s poorest countries will slip further behind if the current round of international trade talks fail. Mr. Ban expressed his frustration at the slow pace of progress of the trade talks, and cautioned that unless the trade talks succeed, “serious damage will be done to those who can least afford it, to the multilateral trading system, and to multilateralism itself.
For more information, see here.
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April 24th, 2007 at 07:15pm
At a meeting of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, international experts agreed that bioenergy can be a positive force for rural development as long as environmental and food security concerns are also considered. Biofuels hold the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but often are grown after large tracts of land are cleared for monocultures, risking environmental damage and loss of biodiversity. The head of FAO’s Natural Resource Management Natural Resources Management and Environment Department said, however, that despite these concerns, biofuels can be “an important tool for improving the well-being of rural people.”
For more information, see here.
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April 24th, 2007 at 01:00pm
In an effort to aid country development by strengthening the relationship between the UN and civil society, the United Nations Development Programme in Bolivia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania have created national civil society committees to work with the United Nations Country Teams.
For more information, see here.
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