South Centre in Media (Business Daily): Regional trade helps fight hunger

May 28, 2008: Regional trade agreements could not only serve to protect farmers in developing countries but could also be used for the swift distribution of food aid from neighbouring countries in times of famine.

Luisa Bernal, coordinator of the trade development programme at the South Centre in Geneva, made these remarks last week in an interview with IPS about the links between commodity dependence and development.

South Centre, together with ActionAid, recently concluded a report revealing how a few large players have secured most of the agricultural commodity business for themselves. South Centre is an intergovernmental organisation working at enhancing South-South cooperation.

Read complete news article at: http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7877&Itemid=5822

South Centre in Media: Africa: The Committed Intellectual - Reviving And Restoring the National Project

South Centre appears at AllAfrica.com:

A man or woman with no passion has no heart; one with no power of reasoning has no mind, writes Yash Tandon.

It is the combination of heart and mind that produces the balanced person who uses their mind to pursue their passion. Let us speak truth to power, but let us also speak the existential truth of our people's world to the negotiated truth of the diplomatic world. Our collective efforts, he continues, will lead to a new vision of a better world, one that is fair, just, peaceful and bountiful to all the peoples of the world.

Read the complete news article at:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200805300034.html

South Centre on Radio: Statement on "Digital Divide" and "Access to Knowledge"

On the occasion of the World Telecommunication Day, a statement was made by Dr. Xuan Li, Coordinator- Innovation and Access to Knowledge Progrmme, on "Digital Divide" and "Access to Knowledge".

The statement was dubbed in German and broadcasted on 16th May for the World Communications Day by the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation for one of their Radio programmes from 6:05pm to 6:30pm.

The digital stream of the programme is available from:

http://www.br-online.de/imperia/md/audio/podcast/import/2008_05/2008_05_16_18_35_08_podcastiq_1605_a.mp3

South Centre in Media (AllAfrica/Africa Focus)- Africa: UN Conference on Trade and Development

The South Centre piece on UNCTAD XII appears at (AllAfrica/Africa Focus)....

AfricaFocus (Washington, DC). "Attempts to take matters outside of the United Nations (UN), such as at G7/8 meetings or at the World Economic Forum, have not been inclusive or democratic. The UN, with all its weaknesses, is still the only multilateral intergovernmental democratic institution the world has, and UNCTAD [United Nations Conference on Trade and Development] is part of that machinery.... Unfortunately, UNCTAD seems to have been further compromised in Accra." - Yash Tandon, Executive Director, South Centre.

South Centre in Media: Equitable Development- The Risks of Inaction

Here is the recent column piece from the South Centre appearing at the Inter Press Service.

MAY 2008 (IPS/South Centre) - There is much to celebrate in the growth and development of the South in recent years, from the ability of certain Latin American countries to avoid dependence on the North to the growth of the economies of certain Asian countries whose increasing sovereign wealth is now being tapped to bail out distressed banks in the North. While there are signs of growth in Africa too, the continent is worse off than the rest of the South, writes Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the South Centre.

Complete piece is available at: http://www.ipsnews.net/columns.asp?idnews=42330

South Centre in Media: UNCTAD To Address Challenges Of Change In Africa

Quoted from ISD News-Ghana and Government of Ghana Portal:

UNCTADXII/Accra. The Executive Director of the South Centre, an Intergovernmental Organization of the Developing Countries based in Geneva, Dr Yash Tandon, has urged the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to direct its energies and future efforts towards addressing the obstacles to change in Africa.

He said “at the systemic level there are still many serious and formidable obstacles to change towards a more equitable and just world that needs urgent collective action by the global community” adding that “Africa looks more mired than the rest of the South in the quagmire of the past, but there are signs of growth in Africa too".

Dr Y. Tandon made this known in a statement dubbed "Towards National and Collective Self Reliance of the South" at the General Debate of ongoing UNCTAD-XII in Accra yesterday .

Complete quote can be read at:
http://www.ghana.gov.gh/ghana/unctad_address_challenges_change_africa.jsp

South Centre in Media: Aid and charity is wrong for Africa

Quoted from Ghana News, Joy Online.

UNCTADXII/Accra. An International Economist has said “aid and charity are the wrong way towards addressing the systemic challenges and development issues in Africa.”

Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the Geneva based South Centre, an intergovernmental organisation of developing countries made the statement during the general debate at the conference.He, therefore, called on UNCTAD to lead the way in finding ways and means of exiting from aid dependence for countries in the South, especially Africa.

Dr Tandon noted that though there were areas of development in the South that gave reasons for celebration “we are still confronted with major challenges at the systemic level of the world economic order that hampered the development of the South despite so much aid from the North.”

Read the complete quote at:
http://www.myjoyonline.com/business/200804/15704.asp

South Centre@UNCTAD XII: Millions of Small Producers Squeezed Out in the Commodities Game

UNCTAD is one of the few multilateral spaces available for developing countries where issues related to small producers can be defended. But more than ever before, we find that this space is shrinking. For all the talks in recent years, developed countries have failed to live up to a string of pledges to help developing countries create an environment that will help them in meeting market volatility and fluctuations head on.

"The space occupied by UNCTAD is the space developing countries should defend to protect the rights and livelihoods of the small farmers", this was one of main messages coming out of the event organized by the South Centre in partnership with Action Aid on 19th April 2008 as a pre-event to UNCTAD XII being held in Accra, Ghana.

The Event was chaired by Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the South Centre. The panelists included, among others, Ms. Dede Amanor-Wilks, International Director - West and Central Africa, Action Aid, Ms. Luisa Bernal, Coordinator - Trade for Development Programme, South Centre, and Mr. Mamadou Cissokho, President, ROPPA, Senegal.

South Centre in Media: Speaking existential truth to negotiated truth

South Centre gets quoted in the Trinidad and Tobago Express.

Dr Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the Geneva based South Centre challenged the intellectuals of the region to once more "speak truth to power" and to push back the now dominant economic and trade theories. The problem, as Arthur pointed out, was that no one was listening to the Caribbean any more. "In the prevailing intellectual and ideological climate, it has been virtually impossible to call upon a grand design for development, subscribed to by all." Tandon was however insistent that the region should not capitulate. "Go back into the sea,if necessary .Fight against the current. Only dead fish float back to the beaches."

Read the complete article at:
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_opinion?id=161308525

Political scholars charged to report the real, non-diplomatic truth to govts

Academics, especially political economy scholars, must not be afraid to tell governments real, non-diplomatic truths, according to Dr Yash Tandon, executive director of the South Centre in Geneva, Switzerland.

"We who research, write and critique have an obligation, in my view, to speak truth to power, to say how things are and how they should be from the vantage point of some distance from political power and authority," Tandon said.

He was speaking at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies' (SALISES) ninth annual conference at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Wednesday night. He said the challenges some Caribbean intellectuals have made to the Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the CARIFORUM group, was a case in point.

Read the complete article at:
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20080328T190000-0500_133979_OBS_POLITICAL_SCHOLARS_CHARGED_TO_REPORT_THE_REAL__NON_DIPLOMATIC_TRUTH_TO_GOVTS.asp

South Centre in Media: Implications of the Economic Partnership Agreement

A reference to the South Centre appears in the Jamaica Gleaner in article "Implications of the Economic Partnership Agreement" appearing on January 25, 2008 authored by Guest Commentator, Professor Norman Girvan.

It quotes:

Development assistance in specified forms, quantities, and time-frames is not included in the EPA. If additional investment and development assistance are not forthcoming, there is no provision within the EPA for the promised beneficiaries to be released from their obligations.
This issue may be illustrated with regard to the EPA chapter on innovation and intellectual property. A comment prepared at my request by a team of experts at the South Centre observes that:
"Chapter 2 of Title IV of the draft EPA text covers issues linked with key aspects of socio-economic development of the Cariforum states. One can easily assess the different levels of engagement of the parties under Section 1 and Section 2. Section 1 largely provides for non-binding commitment, declaratory statements, and matters that will be defined during implementation. Section 2 largely establishes binding TRIPS-plus standards that should be implemented by the parties. If Section 1 is assumed to be of interest for Cariforum, then what they are getting from the EPA will be largely promises that may face the inherent difficulty of determining their scope and the kind of measures that can be considered as adequate implementation of the commitments. The implementation of Section 2 is straightforward, involving the introduction of domestic laws to implement the section that can be easily verified and assessed."

For more information:
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080125/business/business8.html

South Centre in Media: IPR Enforcement at Meeting in Dubai

Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme (IAKP), South Centre organized an event parallel to the "Fourth Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy" in Dubai. The views shared by Dr. Xuan Li, Coordinator of the IAKP are quoted in the ICTSD reporting as following:

In contrast, an event organised by the South Centre on the sidelines of the Dubai meeting highlighted TRIPS flexibilities on the enforcement of IPRs and called for maintaining “legitimate balances” between the rights of intellectual property holders and the public interest.

“Currently there exist a lot of misunderstandings that confuse the public in terms of concepts, definitions and obligations of the enforcement of IPRs and the combating of counterfeiting goods and piracy,” said Xuan Li, coordinator of innovation and access to knowledge at the South Centre.

See: http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/08-02-13/inbrief.htm

Chairman Mkapa and Board of the South Centre issue a Press Release

The governing Board of the South Centre completed its meeting in Geneva today. The South Centre is the think-tank of the developing countries, G-77 and China, on global strategic and development issues.

The Board is chaired by Mr. Benjamin W. Mkapa, the former President of Tanzania and members include Professor Norman Girvan (former Secretary- General of the Association of Caribbean States, Jamaica), Chief Emeka Anyaoku (former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Nigeria), Professor Deepak Nayyar (former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India and former Vice Chancellor of University of Delhi, India), Mr. Li Zhaoxing (former Minister of Foreign Affairs, China), Professor José Antonio Ocampo (former UN Under-Secretary General, Colombia), Mr. Al Zalzalah (former Minister of Commerce, Kuwait), and Mr. Bagher Asadi (former Ambassador of Iran to the UN, Iran).

The Board reviewed the past performance, present activities and future challenges of the institution, and believes that the Centre has made excellent progress in its work programmes and in particular Trade for Development, Innovation and Access to Knowledge and Global Governance for Development, supported by its strengthened outreach activities. For more details, see http://www.southcentre.org/

South Centre in Media: EU Sugar Reform a Bitter Pill for Poorer Producers

This piece written by David Kleimann while working at the South Centre appears in the IPS Columnist Service.

(IPS/South Centre) - For more than three decades, the European Union has maintained an extremely costly supply management scheme for its domestic sugar market which insulates domestic producers from international market forces with price supports and tariffs and has resulted in domestic prices triple world market prices and a major production surplus. At the same time, the EU has granted duty free market access for guaranteed quantities to some of its former colonies at guaranteed prices, writes David Kleimann, a German expert on international law and international relations.

In February 2006, the EU adopted a radical reform programme of its sugar regime which is having severe effects. Some ACP high-cost producers are very likely to cease production because of the price reductions, while others will face a sharp reduction in their export earnings, and only a small group of competitive LDCSs will be able to comfortably continue to supply the EU market after the price reductions have been implemented and the preferences terminated. The EU has the moral and legal obligation to provide the small and vulnerable ACP economies with market access for sugar that is worth no less than the previous trade arrangement and that continues to contribute to the realisation of their economic development and poverty reduction.

South Centre in Media: More Balance Needed In IP And Trade; Disclosure May Not Be Enough

The current patent system has been seen as the primary enabling mechanism for biopiracy, the misappropriation of genetic resources, said panellist Xuan Li, Coordinator of the innovation and access to knowledge programme at the intergovernmental South Centre. The World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) also has allowed the misappropriation of genetic resources, she said.

Li made the remarks at a 24 January event organised by the South Centre and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), held alongside a weeklong meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) working group on access and benefit sharing (ABS). A Chinese official on the panel also raised these concerns and said that TRIPS is sometimes unbalanced and privileges the holder of IP.

Source: IP-Watch, 29 January 2008. http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=898

Read the South FACE from the event at: http://www.southcentre.org/southface/South_Face_IAKP-CBD-Jan-2008.pdf and watch the Digital Videos at: http://southcentre.blip.tv/

Watch Digital TV on "Disclosure of Origin at the CBD, WIPO and the WTO: Conflict, Coherence or Complementarity?"

The presentations made at the South Centre event on "Disclosure of Origin at the CBD, WIPO and the WTO: Conflict, Coherence or Complementarity?" have now been captured on the South Centre Digital TV.

For rest of the presentations, go to: http://southcentre.blip.tv

Development Cooperation 2.0: ICT mainstreaming into International Cooperation

Vikas Nath, Head - Media and Communication spoke at the plenary on emerging opportunities and challenges in ICT mainstreaming into International Cooperation at the "Development Cooperation 2.0" event held in Astruias, Spain on 30- 31 January 2008.

The event was first ICT International Meeting for Development Cooperation organized by the Spanish Development Agency (AECID) which brough together governments, social bodies and business organisations to discuss and exchange experiences and knowledge on ICT with a clear aim: to bridge the digital divide, promoting social integration and improving methods and practices for development cooperation through the use of ICTs.

More inforamtion: http://encuentro.1arroba1euro.org/index_en.php

South Centre in Media: Helsinki Process- Consensus Against Neoliberal Washington Consensus

Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the South Centre participated in the Helsinki Process conference held in Dar-es-Salaam from 27-29 November.

The news item "Consensus Against Neoliberal Washington Consensus" appearing with the Inter-Press Service quotes Dr. Tandon.

Another consensus was also reached in Dar es Salaam: that the "Global South" -- developing countries, assumed to share common problems and goals -- does not exist. "There is no such Global South," Yash Tandon, executive director of the Geneva-based South Centre, told the conference. "The South is facing, fragmented, the development challenges posed by globalisation."

Read the complete news item at:
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=40257

Trade deal a game of high stakes: An Op-Ed by Yash Tandon

An opinion piece written by Yash Tandon, Executive Director, South Centre today appears in the Business Daily (Nairobi).

In the next few days, our leaders will decide whether to sign a new trade agreement with Europe. It will be a tough judgment call. The decision they make will weigh heavily on the course of our region’s development for decades to come. We have a long history with Europe in the light of which we must interpret current events. The proposed agreement by Europe will change the nature of our relationship from cooperation to one based on purely mercantile considerations. The EU and the ACP “partners” will be bound by the same rules. However, when unequal partners play by the same rules, the outcome is always in favour of the stronger side. With the proposal on the table it isn’t difficult to see who is likely to win. Analyses on the potential impact of the agreements prepared by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) show that the proposed opening up of 80 per cent of trade of the Eastern Africa Community (EAC) with Europe, will result in loss of tariff revenue of up to $130m per year.

Read the complete article at:
http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4428&Itemid=5821

The East African (Kenya): South Centre- Traps Africa must avoid in talks with EU

The outcome of Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations, set for this December, will change a decades-old reciprocal trading regime between the European Union (EU) and African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) countries. Specifically, negotiations on trade in services under the EPAs have important development implications for Eastern and Southern African (ESA) countries, states Joy Kategekwa, Programme Officer at South Centre in her article "Traps Africa must avoid in talks with EU" published in the The East African (Kenya) newspaper.

The countries that constitute the ESA negotiating group are Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, many of which are also the poorest and least developed in the world. For them, ensuring universal access to basic services such as health, education, sanitation, and water, as opposed to exporting services — which is the rationale behind a free trade agreement, is the real priority, and challenge.

Read complete article at: http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/Opinion/2110200724.htm