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November 2009

The Doha Trade Round is Worth Fighting For

Submitted by Otaviano Canuto on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 10:21

November marks the eighth anniversary of the Doha Development Agenda– the first multilateral trade negotiation under the auspices of the World Trade Organization.  But what started as a real opportunity to help poor countries prosper through trade, for some it has now become a lost cause. But Doha doesn’t have to be a metaphor for failure. We can still save it and make it work. After all, if we can’t fix Doha, how can we hope to address much greater challenges that confront us, such as climate change?

For many, lowering subsidies and tariffs appears to be a tough sell for their domestic constituencies. They say a Doha deal is not worth the costs because it will not generate enough market access opportunities.  But as we gear up for the upcoming World Trade Organization’s (WTO) ministerial meeting in Geneva on Nov. 30, we have to stress an unequivocal fact: the conclusion of the Doha round is worth fighting for. It will give the world economy a boost when it is most needed, reduce the scope for governments to resort to protectionism, and bolster the prospects for cooperation in other critical areas like the environment.

In terms of improved market access, the modalities under consideration – even taking into account likely exceptions for sensitive products – will generate increased trade that in turn could produce an additional US$160 billion in real global income, as new World Bank research shows.  Are we really in such good economic shape that we can do without the extra stimulus?

A Look Back at Private Sector Responses to the Global Economic Crisis

Submitted by Ihssane Loudiyi on Sun, 11/22/2009 - 18:00

As the world is showing signs of recovery from the global financial crisis, countries and businesses must more than ever show caution and follow best practices in order to fully recover from the effects of the crisis and maintain sustainable growth.

As part of the series of Global Dialogues on "Responses to the Global Economic Crisis" organized by the World Bank Institute (WBI), WBI also hosted a series of videoconference dialogues targeting private sector practitioners and other relevant stakeholders from around the world to discuss corporate response to economic slowdown.

The first of such videoconferences brought together participants from multiple countries, including Brazil, Ghana, Kenya, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the United States. Business leaders and other stakeholders came together from different regions to learn from one another's experiences and to identify some concrete actions that can help take solutions to scale and/or transfer models across regions and industries. Below are some videos that show some of these private sector responses to the crisis, more specifically from Saudi Arabia and Ghana.

Jamal Khashoggi, Editor in Chief for Al Watan Newspaper shares his views on the effects of the crisis on Saudi Arabian businesses:

Brazil Fights Hunger & Illiteracy

Submitted by Ihssane Loudiyi on Fri, 11/13/2009 - 18:57

(Thanks and credits for sharing this information go to the Brazilian Secretariat of Social Communication - SECOM)

 

Social development and progress continue to stay strong in Brazil:

 

With one of the world’s largest populations, Brazil’s government has invested heavily in programs to eliminate poverty and hunger and improve access to services and opportunities in low-income communities. These efforts and their success to date earned Brazil’s President Lula UNESCO’s prestigious Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize in July, and Brazil’s Minister of Social Development the World Future Council’s Future Policy Award just a few weeks ago.

 

Detailed information can be found below.

ADePT: a Great Software for Data & Analytical Reports

Submitted by Ihssane Loudiyi on Wed, 11/04/2009 - 18:14

ADePT, the Software Platform for Automated Economic Analysis, is a free program designed to simplify and speed-up the production of analytical reports. Created by the Research Department (DECRG) of the World Bank, it can be used to extract indicators from micro-level surveys and present them in a print-ready form. ADePT can generate sets of about 50 print-ready tables and graphs in different areas of economic analysis, and already includes, among others, modules on Poverty, Inequality, Labor, Gender, Education, Health, and Social Protection.

ADePT helps both to minimize human errors and to introduce new techniques and methods to a wide audience of practitioners. It can be used as a tool for sensitivity analysis, data checking, and simulations - it's an ideal tool for training! Tasks that take several weeks of work from qualified consultants could be accomplished within minutes using ADePT. Furthermore, by producing a standard set of tables and graphs, the program allows standardization of the economic statistics among countries expanding the possibilities for research on intra-country comparisons.

The website contains a free, downloadable version of the software, as well as video tutorials in several languages, PowerPoint presentations, examples and more about how to use ADePT by utilizing different data sets. Please visit www.worldbank.org/adept for more information.

 

The current version of ADePT requires a prior installation of the STATA software, but updates might be available in the near future to bypass this requirement.