The
IMF's Policy Support Instrument: Expanded
Fiscal Space or Continued Belt-Tightening? |
Action
Aid Policy Brief, October, 2007 |
|
This
Action Aid Policy Brief discusses whether,
after two and a half years of 'the Policy
Support Instrument (PSI)', there is any
evidence that the IMF has used its signaling
power to support the 'mature stabilisers'
to move from perpetual belt-tightening to
long term development and growth. The paper
reviews all five PSI agreements that have
so far been signed and looked in detail
at two of them, in Uganda and Mozambique.
The paper finds that PSIs often recommend
even stricter inflation targets than their
predecessors, despite the progress the IMF
has acknowledged, and despite the substantial
concern that low inflation targets are inhibiting
growth and development. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Policy
Notes of the United Nations Department of
Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) |
|
The
United Nations Department of Economic and
Social Affairs (UNDESA) has launched a series
of Policy Notes to assist policy-makers
at the country level to prepare National
Development Strategies, as called for by
the 2005 UN World Summit. The notes present
alternatives to standard policy solutions
to achieve the internationally agreed development
goals. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Growth
isn't Working: the Uneven Distribution of
Benefits and Costs from Economic Growth' |
David
Woodward and Andrew Simms, New
Economics Foundation |
|
A
New
Economics Foundation publication, this
article shows that globalisation is failing
the world's poorest as their share of the
benefits of growth plummet, and accelerating
climate change hurts the poorest most. The
report, the first in nef's series of 'Re-thinking
poverty' reports, reveals that the share
of benefits from global economic growth
reaching the world's poorest people is actually
shrinking while the poorest do continue
to bear an unfair share of the costs. The
authors argue that to achieve real progress
we need to change the way we think about
and discuss economic issues, and break out
of the confines of mainstream economic thinking
along with a shift in power relations, from
all elite and commercial interests to the
poor. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
States
of Unrest III |
|
States
of Unrest III documents protests against
the policies of the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank in developing countries
in 2002. Typically the protests are against
cuts in government expenditure, privatization
of state-run industries, and the removal
of price controls and subsidies. Protesters
include: peasant farmers, indigenous peoples,
the unemployed, teachers, civil servants,
priests, doctors, public-sector workers,
trade-union activists and owners of small
businesses. |
|
|
|
|
Making
Global Trade Work for People |
Kamal
Malhotra, Chandrika Bahadur, Selim Jahan
& Mumtaz Keklik |
|
This
study provides an assessment of the rules
of the current multilateral trade regime
from a human development perspective. It
is argued that if trade is to maximize possibilities
for human development, the global trade
regime should provide developing countries
with a flexible policy space. |
|
|
UNCTAD
World Investment Report 2002: Transnational
Corporations and Export Competitiveness |
Mohan
G. Francis |
|
WIR
2002 argues that Transnational Corporations
as sources of FDI and exports are important
means to further the process of development.
What is more, the report brings back the
much-maligned 'State' by giving it a role
not as an agency protecting domestic against
foreign investors, but as an important instrument
for attracting FDI and increasing its developmental
impact. |
|
|
|
|
Assessment
of Trade in Services |
|
Seven
developing and Least Developed Countries
(LDCs) submitted this paper on Assessment
of Services. It states that past experience
in privatization and liberalization of Services
Sectors indicate that benefits are not "automatic". Countries
need "appropriate preconditions"
and "adequate flanking policies"
to promote economic growth and development. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|