Problems and Policy Challenges faced by Commodity-Dependent Developing Countries.
This note presents the commodity problems and their implications for Commodity Dependent Developing Countries (CDDCs); (ii) identifies the underlying causes of these problems and (iii) examines some of the major policy approaches used in the past to deal with them, their merits and limitations. (more…)
Changing Gears on Global Economic Policymaking Coherence: Policy Choices, Flexibility and Diversity in Development Strategies.
This TRADE Analysis provides a brief overview of the “Coherence” agenda in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and tries to inject a new perspective on how such agenda can be made to serve the development goals and interests of developing countries. (more…)
Policy Challenges for Developing Countries in Large Scale Mining.
Many developing countries are rich in natural resources and in particular mineral commodities. (more…)
Developments on Discussions for the Improvement of the Framework for ICSID Arbitration and the Participation of Developing Countries.
The International Centre for settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) is established by the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (the ICSID Convention) that entered into force on October 14, 1966. (more…)
The World Development Report 2005: An Unbalanced Message on Investment Liberalization.
The principal message of the World Development Report 2005 of the World Bank to the developing countries is that they should adopt liberal policies related to foreign investment to spur economic growth and development, and that the development of binding multilateral rules relating to foreign investment would create a favorable climate for foreign investment in developing countries. (more…)
The UNCTAD XI Sao Paulo Consensus: Defining UNCTAD’s Mandate.
This analytical note has been prepared in order to give a concise overview of the salient points of the Sao Paulo Consensus of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) at its Eleventh Session. (more…)
The UNCTAD XI: Comments on the 13 May 2004 Draft Negotiated Text.
This paper is intended as a follow-up to the South Centre’s informal paper entitled “The UNCTAD XI: Defining UNCTAD’s Future Mandate” in which readers were provided with a brief overview of the current state of play (as of late March 2004) of the pre-conference negotiations, and then a paragraph by paragraph description of the differences in negotiating positions among various countries. (more…)
The UNCTAD XI: Defining UNCTAD’s Future Mandate.
This paper is intended to provide readers with a brief overview of the current state of play (as of late March 2004) of the pre-conference negotiations, and then goes on to describe, paragraph by paragraph, the differences in negotiating positions among various countries. (more…)
Technical Assistance in the Area of Trade and Investment.
The Doha Ministerial Declaration (DMD) confirms the understanding among members that adequate, demand driven and recipient-controlled technical cooperation and capacity building constitute a core element of the development dimension of the multilateral trading system. (more…)
The issues raised in this report reflect major ongoing concerns about food security in developing countries. Several of these issues were addressed in the “Rome Declaration on World Food Security and World Food Summit Plan of Action”. However, they were dealt with in a somewhat superficial manner. Moreover, Northern interests and the liberalization agenda embedded in the “Washington consensus” heavily influenced this Summit document. More serious for the interests of the South may be that no politically realistic strategy emerged for mobilizing popularly based movements and governments to eliminate hunger.
The purpose of this publication is to emphasize in an integrated manner a set of food security issues and policies of particular concern to peoples and governments of developing countries. The South Centre hopes it will contribute to more effective actions towards universal food security. An earlier version of this paper was prepared as a contribution to discussions at the World Food Summit held at FAO Headquarters, 13-17 November 1996.
