According to the South Centre, the global economic system is at a turning point, and the need to rethink the Financing for Development (FfD) concepts proposed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) is becoming increasingly apparent. It is unlikely that leaders from the North and South will rise to this challenge when they meet for the UN conference on development finance in Doha later this month.
Available at: http://www.inwent.org/ez/articles/082661/index.en.shtml
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Financial Crisis: Collapse of an ideology
South Centre calls for Revamping the Global Financial Architecture
Statement by Board Members of the South Centre
The financial crisis has shown how dysfunctional the current international financial architecture is to manage the global economy of today, with its myriad of interconnections through which financial turmoil spreads across the world and with its revealed and significant regulatory deficit. In the 1980s, the debt crisis in Latin America, Africa and other parts of the developing world, and in the late 1990s the succession of the Asian, Russian and Latin American crises, had already revealed that something was deeply wrong with that architecture. The industrial world did not understand the need for serious rethinking of the governance of global finance.The fact that this time developed countries are at the center of the storm may now lead them into action.
More information at: http://www.southcentre.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=871&Itemid=1
Friday, October 24, 2008
LIVE @ Al Jazeera TV (with Riz Khan) : Dr. Yash Tandon, South Centre
Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director, South Centre appeared as a panelist on Riz Khan's Live show at Al Jazeera on 23 rd October 2008 on financial crisis.
Dr. Tandon provided a commentary on Africa's growth strategy and the need to end aid dependence. He also fielded several question from the viewers on the development path to be followed by Africa and the steps Africa must take to get out of aid dependence.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Briefing on Global Financial Crisis and Possible Multilateral Responses to Systemic Issues
South Centre in partnership with G77 and UNCTAD will hold a briefing on the Global Financial Crisis and especially how it relates to the Doha FFD Review Conference and Beyond. The briefing will be held on 31 October 2008, 10:00-13:00, Room XXV, Palais des Nations, Geneva.
The meeting will be chaired by Ambassador Chipasaka Chipaziwa, G77 Chair -Geneva.
For more information and the agenda, go to: http://www.southcentre.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=863&Itemid=77
Thursday, October 16, 2008
South Centre @ International Forum on Climate Change Policy, Korean Environment Ministry, Seoul
Mr. Vice Yu, Coordinator, Global Governance for Development Programme, made a presentation on "MRV for developing countries and its linkages to mitigation actions, technology, financing and capacity-building" on at the International Forum on Climate Change Policy organized by the Korean Environment Ministry, from 29 Sep to 3 Oct. 2008
Read related paper "Measurable, Reportable, and Verifiable: Using the UNFCCC's Existing MRV Mechanisms in the Context of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long Term Cooperative Action under the Convention" available from
http://www.southcentre.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=633&Itemid=1
South Centre @ Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Meeting on an African EPA Template - Addis Ababa
The South Centre was invited to an Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) meeting on EPAs entitled ‘African Workshop on Economic Partnership Agreements – the benefits of the EPAs: Taking Stock of the Interim Agreements to ensure African Countries Reap the Benefits of the EPAs’
The meeting took place on 8 – 10 October 2008 in Addis Ababa. Those attending the meeting included many government negotiators based in capitals but also in Brussels.
The meeting was essentially an attempt to respond to an African Heads of States request for a template for Africa in the EPA negotiations. As such, the ECA invited a number of experts to address various issues raised in the interim EPA agreements, and also to provide ideas and comments in the discussions on an African EPA template.
The presentations made by the South Centre by Ms. Aileen Kwa and Mr. Offah Obale at the workshop are available from: http://www.southcentre.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=858&Itemid=77
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Seminar on "New thoughts on Aid"
Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the South Centre participated made a presenation at the seminar on "New thoughts on Aid" organized by the Freedom of Expression Foundation, Oslo on 3 October 2008.
The Seminar addressed important issues associated with the aid industry, mainly why aid is not more effective, how aid is viewed by recipient countries, and what the future of aid might look like.
The seminar was organized by Asle Toje, an advisor to Norway's Progress Party, a political party that is critical of current aid practices.
The seminar was filled to capacity; representatives from all the major players in Norwegian aid were in attendance.
Global Financial Meltdown: the West and the Rest
The first lesson, surely, is that contrary to mainstream thinking, the market does not have a self-corrective mechanism. In the present crisis the "market makers" are watching nervously from the sideline as the Congress and the politicians huddle together to see how to bail out the banks. The leaders of the South have been instructed in innumerable reports and policy recommendations by "experts" from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as well as Northern politicians that they should let their economies be ruled by the market.
South Centre organises Training Workshop for new Developing Country Delegates on Intellectual Property
(Click here to read the South FACE produced of the "Second South Centre International Symposium: Examining Intellectual Property Enforcement from a Development Perspective" held on 16th September 2008).
On 9 October 2008, South Centre organized a Training Workshop for new Developing Country Delegates on Intellectual Property.
The training session was aimed at providing developing country delegates, particularly newly-posted colleagues in Geneva, with a holistic overview of the current multilateral negotiations and other processes on intellectual property. The training was intended to allow delegates to understand and relate the current agendas and discussions on the subject of intellectual property in key multilateral organizations in Geneva and elsewhere. These include Geneva-based organizations such as t
he World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as the World Customs Organization (WCO) based in Brussels, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) based in Paris, and related processes such as the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Treaty (ACTA).
Over 50 participants from various developing country mission benefited from this training and encouraged South Centre to hold such training programmes regularly.
Click here for more information on agenda and speakers.
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