The African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries face a massive challenge in tackling hunger and under-nutrition, but many critics have argued that the commitments required of ACP countries under Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) will make this more difficult. This article investigates the threat to food security posed by these agreements. While some observers blame trade liberalisation for these problems, the article identifies the lack of investment to improve productivity and address supply-side constraints as the major limiting factor. It argues that the debate around the issue of EPAs and food security distracts from the more important question of what domestic initiatives ACP countries need to take to ensure that agriculture can play its role as an engine of economic growth and poverty reduction. Government should invest in agriculture rather than rely on trade restrictions for food security. The potential of EPAs to improve food security can only be realised by a focus on greater agricultural investment and improved institutions. Resources can be made available from the EU budget, the EU’s European Development Fund and bilateral external funders, but the prerequisite is that these requirements are prioritised by ACP countries.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
The African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries face a massive challenge in tackling hunger and under-nutrition, but many critics have argued that the commitments required of ACP countries under Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) will make this more difficult. This article investigates the threat to food security posed by these agreements. While some observers blame trade liberalisation for these problems, the article identifies the lack of investment to improve productivity and address supply-side constraints as the major limiting factor. It argues that the debate around the issue of EPAs and food security distracts from the more important question of what domestic initiatives ACP countries need to take to ensure that agriculture can play its role as an engine of economic growth and poverty reduction. Government should invest in agriculture rather than rely on trade restrictions for food security. The potential of EPAs to improve food security can only be realised by a focus on greater agricultural investment and improved institutions. Resources can be made available from the EU budget, the EU’s European Development Fund and bilateral external funders, but the prerequisite is that these requirements are prioritised by the ACP countries themselves.
The Economic Report on Africa 2009 is organized into two parts. Part I examines global economic developments and their implication for Africa, analyses recent economic and social trends and highlights emerging development challenges to the continent in 2008. Part II is devoted to the issue of regional value chain development and starts with a discussion in chapter 4 of the need to address challenges to developing African agriculture in the context of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) of the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AU/NEPAD). The report focuses on the question of how to enhance structural transformation of African agriculture through systematic efforts to develop regionally integrated value chains and markets for selected strategic food and agricultural commodities. Finally, the report urges African governments to operationalise commitments to develop agriculture, and suggests strategies that promote viable value chains at the national and regional levels.
The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has concluded a month-long coordinating body meeting in Geneva by adopting resolutions on a range of public policy issues such as internet connectivity, science and technology, and HIV/AIDS. However, the digital divide and the lack of global access to AIDS treatments seriously hinder developing countries’ prospects for development, participants say. They underlined the importance of information and communications technologies (ICTs), as well as science and engineering, in the context of development and in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. ECOSOC recommended mainstream ICTs to promote growth and sustainable development as it adopted, without a vote, a resolution on the assessment of the progress made in the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society and its follow-up. The Council asked its stakeholders to assist developing countries to reduce the digital divide.
Members of the Ugandan Parliament (MPs) under the Parliamentary Committee on Science and Technology have tasked scientists at Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute(KARI) to educate the public more on Genetically Modified crops. The MPs raised concern over the unawareness of the public about genetically modified crops, the misconceptions people have concerning genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and problems in some of the genetically modified crops that have been introduced locally. This was during a meeting at the Agricultural Research Institute. Hon. Rose Mutonyi (Bubulo West) said the public is not convinced about genetically modified crops.
Developed countries have traditionally been the source of most biopharmaceutical innovations as well as the destination for the resulting economic and health benefits. As a result, most prior research on this sector has focused on developed countries. This paper seeks to fill the gap in research on emerging markets by analysing factors that influence innovative activity in the indigenous biopharmaceutical sectors of China, India, Brazil and South Africa. Using qualitative research methodologies, the authors show how biopharmaceutical innovation is taking place within the entrepreneurial sectors of these emerging markets, identify common challenges that indigenous entrepreneurs face and highlight the key role played by the state. Their findings reveal that the transition to innovation by companies in the emerging markets is characterised by increased global integration. Further findings suggest that biopharmaceutical innovators in emerging markets are capitalising on opportunities to participate in the drug development value chain. In this way, they are developing capabilities and relationships for competing globally both with and against established companies headquartered in developed countries.
This article suggests that the recent collapse of the WTO mini-ministerial, July 2008, reflects the new geopolitics of the global economy. The emerging economies are approaching trade issues and negotiations differently. Particularly they place more emphasis on supporting women employed in agriculture. There is new conviction among negotiators that poverty and livelihood issues cannot be left to the market to be regulated. These concerns contributed to the collapse alongside the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) issues. The paper emphasises that the political value of technical issues should not be ignored. Reasons for this and for why the SSM was not the only reason for the collapse include:import surges of subsidised products could displace millions of people, giving the SSM major political value; the G33, the G7 and the G20 could not find a common position in discussions on the SSM; cotton, a highly politically contentious issue, was due to be discussed after the SSM and was likely to have caused problems; and agricultural market access discussions reflected a political choice that links growth to market access and ‘offensive interests’. In conclusion the paper notes: the context of the Uruguay Round no longer exists as the emerging economies now have a voice; there may be increasing use of the Dispute Settlement Body.
The aim of this Report is to provide a rigorous analysis on how employment relations affect different population groups, and how this knowledge may help identify and promote worldwide effective policies and institutional changes to reduce health inequalities derived from these employment relations. Consequently, the report incorporates the political, cultural, and economic context to provide a comprehensive account of the current international situation of labour markets and types of employment conditions. Thus, through regulating employment relations, main political actors can not only redistribute resources affecting social stratification, but also have an impact on the life experiences of different social groups including opportunities for well-being, exposure to hazards leading to disease, and access to health care.
The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Doha Development Round was meant to rebalance decades of unfair rules in agriculture and address the needs of developing countries. Instead, the negotiations have betrayed this promise. It has become a ‘market access’ negotiation, in which developing countries are expected to give disproportionately more and will receive little but stale promises of the general benefits of liberalisation. In order to put the Doha Round back on the ‘development’ track, Oxfam recommends that WTO members take actions to: improve the process of negotiations to make them more transparent and inclusive; ensure special and differential treatment for developing countries; promote development by enabling the realization of rights, such as the right to food, ensuring that trade rules respond to the needs of the most vulnerable people first; and strengthen the WTO as an institution to build greater confidence in its ability to achieve fairer trade rules for developing countries.
The United Nations is the only existing legitimate forum through which the financial crisis can be resolved. The Stiglitz Commission provides a good basis on which new models can be built. In the current financial context, any decrease in aid will push more people into poverty, in particular in the most vulnerable least-developed countries. The cutbacks of aid by some EU member states are already signs that this is happening. It is imperative, therefore, that the fundamental reform of the international financial system must take place in reference to the needs of developing countries. The world’s richest Nations agreed a financial stimulus package amounting worth 832 billion Euros (1.1 trillion US dollars) yet barely one quarter will be given to developing countries. And the money destined for developing countries will be channelled through the IMF, whose loan conditionalities have been central in spreading misery around the developing world. Recent changes in IMFs policies have not resolved this problem.