July 2008

A slowdown in the growth of remittances to Mexico has been a cause for concern as these flows (mostly from the United States) provide a lifeline to a large number of Mexican families.

Migrant remittances to Mexico declined by 0.1 percent in June compared to the same period the previous year, according to the latest official data. This represents an improvement over the significantly larger 3.3 percent decline the previous month.  Also, this article from the WaPo states that overall in the first six months of 2008, remittances to Mexico have declined by 2.2 percent compared the first half of 2007.

In the current climate of negative news, it’s worth taking a step back to see if the pessimistic picture is justified.

Monthly data show that officially reported remittance flows to Mexico in the first six months of 2008 followed a very similar trend to that of the previous two years, and they have remained almost unchanged from 2007. Monthly remittances to Mexico show strong seasonality, reaching a peak during May on account of Mother’s Day. The official data shows at best a flattening since early 2007, especially coming after 20 percent average annual growth during the previous five years, and after taking into account seasonal fluctuations.
 
Moreover, Mexican migrants are still sending money home, if necessary by taking up whatever jobs they can find, postponing consumption, or drawing on savings. There are also anecdotal reports that stringent immigration enforcements have encouraged some remittances to shift to hand carry or informal channels.

After seven years of fitful trade negotiations, the WTO’s Doha Round has collapsed, and the post mortems have already hit the newsstands.  Writing in the International Herald Tribune, Keith Bradsher points to a new alliance between China and India, both pushing for so-called “safeguard” rules for agriculture, translating into uncapped tariffs on food imports from rich countries, ostensibly to support farmers in developing countries. 

Image credit: CPI at Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

I thought the most innovative way to detect land mines was, to date,  the use of sniffing rats (light enough not to set off the explosive). But scientists in South Africa (a team set up by the University of Stellenbosch and the Danish biotechnology firm Aresa) are now turning to vegetables.

According to EcoWorldly, they have developed the "Red-Detect" bio-sensor technology in a weed that changes color from green to red when when it detects the nitrogen dioxide that leads from buried mines. The weed, Thales Cress, is too small to be seen from a safe distance, however, so the scientists are now betting on using the tobacco plant instead, which has large leaves and grows easily in most parts of the world.

Field trials are already underway in Serbia, but scientists keep researching the plant's response to drought and extreme temperatures, as well as the risk of environmental contamination coming from this genetically engineered tobacco. In East Asia, projects to clean the land from mines are currently underway in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar (at least).

I'm getting a lot of satisfaction lately from this blog, and here is the very last example: in response to a rather light posting simply calling attention to an ingenious awareness campaign, I received this comment from reader S.Y. which provides actual data, links to recent, relevant reports, and makes a solid connection between food waste, development, and the East Asia & Pacific region:

"Despite its personal perspective style, your article on food waste awareness is very relevant to both the food crises recently making the headlines and the Bank's EAP region.

You are hardly alone in housing that ugly peach. Food waste occurs at different levels of a chain extending from harvesting to consumption. Household food waste is, as you point out, a relatively recent phenomenon in many developed countries (what the Bank delights in calling the North). This was publicised in July 2008 when Gordon Brown urged Britons to stop wasting food. The U.K. report "Food Matters" http://tinyurl.com/ypmpxq  says consumers in this country throw away 4.1 million tonnes of edible food (worth an average of £420--USD836 or €533 at today's rate) per household per year. Nearly a decade ago, a U.S. report estimated an annual waste of 10 times more, 41 million tonnes, of edible food at the consumer and food-service levels in that country! (Kantor et al., Food Review 1997 20:2-12).

(Found at divinecaroline.com)

Here's an eye-catching way of raising awareness about food waste. The Instituto Akatu, a Brazilian organization aimed at making consumers more conscious about their choices, participated a few months ago in a campaign about food waste. It came up with a brochure that imitated the style of those used by supermarkets to advertise their weekly offers, but shows the food all rotten (in their estimation, 1/3 of all food purchased goes bad before being eaten --I guess this figure applies to Brazil). A group of actors posing as supermarket employees handed these out outside the supermarket, raising a good number of eyebrows, I bet.

The brochure resonates with me not because it discovered any hidden fact --although 1/3 sounds like a *really high* proportion--, but because it reminds me of what I know is the case in my household and I'm not proud to admit: I'd swear that papaya was sitting in my fridge last night. And I think I've met that avocado before.

From  Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes.

 Wage Rates

Continuing and persistent gender inequalities in wages suggest that the labor market is not operating freely. One reason may be differences in bargaining power between men and women and the different obligations that the individual sexes face. For example, the reservation wage for women is often lower than that for men. This may reflect the lower mobility that women have because of family obligations. In effect women are price takers in the labor market. This is especially true in developing economies where most times agricultural wages paid to women are lower than those paid to men, even for the same work.

GDLN Indonesia covers more than 220 public and private universities across the archipelago, opening up opportunities to share knowledge both within Indonesia and with other countries.

Earlier this month in Jakarta I participated in the inauguration of the expanded Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) Indonesia.  GDLN, for those who may not be familiar with the network, is a World Bank initiated partnership dedicated to the use of information and communications technology to facilitate learning and knowledge sharing for people working in the development field.  Its programs include formal courses as well as multi-country dialogues and virtual conferences, delivered via a blend of videoconference, web, and other modes of distance learning. 

Indonesia’s participation in GDLN began several years ago with distance learning centers at the University of Indonesia and three other universities around the country having been connected to the global network, via satellite, under a World Bank loan.  However, a few months ago, the Government of Indonesia decided to bridge the four existing centers, through the University of Indonesia DLC, with the broadband fiber optic infrastructure of the Indonesia Higher Education Network (INHERENT). 

Red-eared Sliders, one of the invasive alien species in Lake Dianchi. See full photogallery.

Another notable achievement of the ‘Restoration of Freshwater Biodiversity in Lake Dianchi’ project (see previous entries--part 1 and part 2) was the discovery and action taken against a number of invasive alien species which had not been recorded from the lake before the surveys initiated by the project. These include the Golden Apple Snail, Louisiana Crayfish, Red-eared Slider (the turtle or terrapin commonly found in pet shops the world over), and Muskrat. Their introduction to the area, as with many alien invasives, “seemed a good idea at the time” but they all have – or likely will have – serious negative economic and ecological impacts. The Golden Apple Snail has a predilection for young rice plants, the Louisiana Crayfish burrows into bunds, and the Red-eared Slider predates on fish.

The Government of Myanmar, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations have released the first comprehensive report covering the impact of Cyclone Nargis on the people in the Ayeyarwady Delta and Yangon. Among the highlights:

- It estimates the cyclone killed over 84,530 people, with a further 53,836 still reported missing.

- The assessment of damage and losses confirms a similar scale of impact to that of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in Indonesia in 2004, especially at the household and community severely damaged, together with around 4,000 schools.

- The cyclone wiped out the livelihoods of families overnight, flooding over 600,000 hectares of agricultural land, killing up to 50 per cent of draught animals, destroying fishing boats and sweeping away food stocks and agricultural implements.

- This has left households extremely vulnerable – in mid-June, 55 per cent reported having only one day of food stocks or less, and have relied in part on the steady flow of relief supplies.

- The total economic losses amount to about 2.7% of the projected 2008 GDP, with the effects of the cyclone concentrated on a region important for agriculture and fishing in Myanmar.

- Recovery needs, which are estimated at just over a total of US$1 billion over the next 3 years, include the most urgent priorities of significant food, agriculture, housing, basic services and support to communities for restoring their livelihoods and rebuilding assets.

- The indicative estimate of recovery needs and costs is preliminary and will need to be updated over time, reflecting the experience of other natural disasters in the region which demonstrate the importance of refining assessments and recovery plans at a sectoral level.

In reading Tom's excellent post on CIMA's new report on independent media development efforts, I was struck yet again by how little we know about the impact of media development assistance - and how little we know about what we know. For instance, it's commonly held that donors need to be able to understand the impact of their assistance, to make sure their dollars are being spent wisely and in the right place. But how should we determine this?