SHORT-TERM EMPLOYMENT IMPORTANT TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY IN LIBERIA

13 August 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The United Nations Mission In Liberia (UNMIL) announced Thursday that the road rehabilitation projects undertaken between September 2007 and May 2008 gave more than 1.3 million working days to over 30,000 people. After years of civil war, the roads and bridges of Liberia have been severely damaged, with only 730 of 9,860 kilometers paved. Director of UNMIL’s Reintegration, Rehabilitation and Recovery Section (RRR) Andrea Tamagnini told MediaGlobal, “The magnitude of the road rehabilitation works required is massive, and this represents the first priority of the Liberian Government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy.” The most recent projects began during the last dry season and were as a result of collaboration between Liberia’s Ministry of Public works, UNMIL, the World Bank (WB), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the World Food Program (WFP). Given findings that increased employment during the time of building contributed to lower incidents of petty crime, higher levels of peace, stability, security and reintegration, improved governance and stimulation of the local economy, Tamagnini said, “the Ministry of Public Works and its partners, including the U.N. and the World Bank, are consulting on the next dry season’s deliverables in terms of road rehabilitation.” The future works will mostly focus on the road network in the Southeast and the critical link between Central and Northern Liberia. Additionally, there are plans to empower local communities along the roadways to organize labour-based road rehabilitation projects thought two-year maintenance programs. “It is expected that thousands of short-term jobs would result from these initiatives,” said Tamagnini. In efforts to create even more employment opportunities, the Liberian Government recently launched a new initiative to strengthen investment in agriculture, where strengthening commercial agriculture activities could create local jobs. Although long-term employment is important, Tamagnini said, “The Mission/RRR believes that short-term employment programs should be promoted and supported over the next two years to provide livelihood for thousands of war-affected populations until economic growth and expansion can create opportunities for more sustainable jobs.” Liberia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy focuses on the goal of infrastructure rebuilding, specifically in roads, as the best way to achieve such rapid employment creation that will lead to quicker economic recovery in Liberia.

Liberian men and women working on a road rehabilitation project. (Photo courtesy: UNMIL)

Liberian men and women working on a road rehabilitation project. (Photo courtesy: UNMIL)

ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CARIBBEAN AND EUROPE POSTPONED

10 August 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Months after the conclusion of negotiations in December 2007 and despite postponements of signing, the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union (EU) and the Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM) is to be signed on 2 September 2008. The EPA is designed to remove trade barriers between the EU and CARIFORUM members in order to enhance trade and improve CARIFORUM’s ability to trade competitively. Importantly, it would expand employment and business opportunities in CARFORUM member states as well as improve their access to European technology and information. Recently, the signing of the document was postponed from 23 July 2008, which left some concerned that it might not happen. Program Officer of Trade Information for the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery Marsha Drakes told MediaGlobal, “The signing has been postponed on several occasions. This has happened because it has been difficult to coordinate an appropriate time and date convenient to both CARIFORUM member states and the European Union.” She explained that it is expected that all CARIFORUM member states will sign because of the negative consequences of not signing. “Without an EPA, we can loose our duty-free/quota-free access for our goods as well as the prospects for wider and increased investment and opportunities for services export,” said Drakes. The alternative to the EPA would be the European Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, under which over 257 of CARIFORUM’s exports would be taxed upon entering the EU. With this agreement, many of the exports, including eight of the most important traditional exports, would go out of business, according to the EPA report. The only member state of CARIFORUM that would not face export tariffs would be Haiti because it is a Least Developed Country (LDC), but it would also miss out on aspects of the EPA that allow for support and innovation assistance in access for services exports to the EU. Until the September signing, CARIFORUM is already being allowed to export duty-free/quota-free to Europe.

ECONOMIC SPECIALIZATION COULD TURN POOR COUNTRIES’ LIMITATIONS INTO ASSETS

8 August 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Steady financial growth by the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) has been a bright spot among global economic statistics for several years, but economists warn that without careful management policies for international aid, economic diversification and increased national leadership in development strategies, rapid growth may not translate into sustainable development. “Although Least Developed Countries are achieving record rates of economic expansion, growth is failing to trickle down into significantly improved well-being for the majority of their population,” Mussie Delelegn Arega, an UNCTAD Economics Affairs Officer specializing in the LDCs, told MediaGlobal, adding that with careful domestic management and international cooperation, aid funds can be used more effectively to build future economic capacity. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 2008 report on the Least Developed Countries, released last month, highlights the critical need for economic diversification by the LDCs, many of which are dependent on a few services and commodities for the vast majority of their export incomes, making their economies vulnerable to market shocks and environmental disasters. “But here ‘dependence’ should be seen as different from ‘economic specialization’ as the latter involves or implies export capabilities and competitiveness,” Delelegn said. He noted that other recent UNCTAD studies have found that “despite the many and complex obstacles they face, there is considerable scope for many LDCs to join the group of successful exporters, particularly in traditional exports such as oil, copper, coffee, cocoa and groundnuts.” LDCs have the potential to be competitive in other “non-traditional” industries as well, such as horticulture, fishing and tourism. Ultimately, the world’s poorest countries cannot overcome poverty alone. Inclusive global trade policies and a supportive international market are needed. “The extensive policies and measures undertaken by these countries have not generated, as yet, the form and quality of growth required to reverse their continued marginalization in the world economy,” Delelegn said. “Their persistent under-development and, in many cases, long term decline, illustrates how trade and integration may be necessary but not sufficient for development and poverty reduction in [the] LDCs.”

SPIRULINA AS A TOOL TO COMBAT GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS

8 August 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: Worldwide, 854 million people are disempowered by malnutrition imposed by the current food crisis. Almost 40,000 of these people die each day from hunger and malnourishment. “Never before in human history was there an inherent and urgent need to explore the ways of food fortification so that the daily nutritional requirements of the human body could be delivered to the peoples of the world,” Ambassador Remigio Maradona, Permanent Observer Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, told MediaGlobal. The Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition (IIMSAM), for which Maradona serves as Director-General, has endeavored to use Spirulina as an enrichment tool in combating the global food crisis and benefiting those of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). As discovered by the World Health Organization (WHO), Spirulina is rich in protein, iron, essential nutrients, and able to be administered to children without risk. Scientific studies have found that Spirulina also counters pathologies from blindness to cancer. The United Nations World Food Conference in 1974 recognized the potential of Spirulina and lauded it as the “best” food for the future. Besides its outstanding nutritional value, Spirulina is also a viable option for the LDCs because of its easy availability, affordability and assimilation in the human diet. “With malnutrition wreaking havoc and severely diminishing the human capital, especially in the developing and Least Developed Countries, it is imperative that Spirulina be included in the global food security agenda at the earliest. Along with other approaches, enrichment of food through Spirulina would be a key-driver to achieve food security, bridge the health divide, and move towards the universal achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals,” said Maradona.

WHO LAUNCHES COMPREHENSIVE HIV/AIDS GUIDE TO ACHIEVE UNIVERSAL ACCESS

5 August 2008 [MediaGlobal]: The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a new guide to help low and middle-income countries reach universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and support. This comprehensive document, which was introduced at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, includes everything about the epidemic, from how to expand condom programming to the most recent treatment methods. “This document is a compilation of all WHO recommended priority interventions and key references. It is the definitive ‘one-stop and shop’ designed to help countries, donors, and other stakeholders expand and improve their response to one of the greatest health-care challenges of our time. The document will greatly facilitate the work of programme managers while scaling up the health-sector response,” Dr. Teguest Guerma, Associate Director of the WHO HIV/AIDS Department, told MediaGlobal. The package is designed to be a “living” web-based document that will be regularly updated by the health-sector with new recommendations. People living in low and middle-income countries will receive a CD-ROM and hard copy of the guide as a reference. The WHO developed the comprehensive package to progress the commitment made by the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AIDS two years ago that set forth universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010.

GLOBAL HAPPENINGS

For August

Fourth World Youth Congress
Québec, Canada: Laval University (10-21 August 2008): The 4th World Youth Congress will bring together 600 of the world’s most dynamic young activists in the field of sustainable development from 120 different countries. Delegates will join forces with young Canadians to undertake hands-on community action projects across Quebec, and will help shape international policy by documenting and showing governments what young people are doing to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. CIDA participates in the event.
Website: http://www.wyc2008.qc.ca/index.php?rand=584811289

International Youth Day: Youth and Climate Change – Time for Change
Worldwide (12 August 2008): International Youth Day gives the world an opportunity to recognize the potential of youth, to celebrate their achievements, and plan for ways to better engage young people to successfully take action in the development of their societies. It presents a unique opportunity for all stakeholders to rally together to ensure that young people are included in decision-making at all levels. The selection of this theme for IYD 2008 is in recognition of the fact that climate change has already begun to devastate communities and deepen the effects of poverty and hunger. This situation complicates the challenges that youth face. However, young people are increasingly adding their voices to the call for action on climate change.
Website: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/iyouthday.htm

Botswana – PIV International Festival – Collaborative Performances
Maitisong, Maru A Pula School (14-15 August 2008): Performers from Botswana, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, UK, Zambia and Zimbabwe will come together and produce collaborative pieces.
Website: http://www.britishcouncil.org/africa-events.htm?&page=&showDetails=1&detailsid=1574

Creating Values for Sustainable Development
Basel, Switzerland (21-22 August 2008): Following the outstanding success of the 1st International Sustainability Conference ISC 2005 in Basel, the organizers – the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland and the University of Basel – are organizing a follow-up conference. The theme of this 2nd International Sustainability Conference is “Creating Values for Sustainable Development”. From a socio-economic perspective we take this to be one of the major tasks and challenges with regard to the expected societal transformation processes toward sustainability.
Website: http://www.isc2008.ch/index.htm

World Water Week
Stockholm, Sweden (17-23 August 2008): The World Water Week in Stockholm is the leading annual global meeting place for capacity-building, partnership-building and follow-up on the implementation of international processes and programmes in water and development. The theme of the week is Progress and Prospects on Water: For a Clean and Healthy World with Special Focus on Sanitation.
Website: http://www.worldwaterweek.org/

Understanding Chronic Poverty and Poverty Dynamics in Rural Bangladesh
Dhaka (19 August 2008): This workshop will present results of various phases of this research project, which has used an innovative mix of focus group, life history and quantitative survey methods; and discuss their implications for research design and public policy.
Website: http://www.chronicpoverty.org/38/event-details.php

UNU: WIDER Project Workshop on Entrepreneurship and Economic Development: Concepts, Measurements, and Impacts
Helsinki, Finland (21-23 August 2008): Entrepreneurship is important for structural economic change, growth, and ultimately for improving human well-being. Governments and development agencies are recognizing the need to build entrepreneurial capacity. This can gain from a better understanding of the role of entrepreneurship in economic development. Topics include: The concept and measurement of entrepreneurship in the context of developing countries; the channels through which entrepreneurship drives economic structural transformation and growth and institutional development; the advantages and disadvantages of small, micro, and medium sized firms as vehicles for entrepreneurship in developing countries; the impact of female entrepreneurs, and the constraints and opportunities they face in developing countries; entrepreneurship’s spatial contexts: local and regional development, and urbanization; the policy challenge for supporting and developing entrepreneurship.
Website: http://www.wider.unu.edu/events/project-meetings/en_GB/21-08-2008/

21st World Congress of Rehabilitation International
Québec, Canada: Centre des Congrès de Québec (25-28 August 2008): The 21st World Congress of Rehabilitation International will bring together people with disabilities, human rights activists, experts, government representatives, service providers and leaders of civil society from all continents. The event provides an opportunity to discuss key questions with respect to people with physical, intellectual or mental disabilities, and to form or reinforce partnerships. CIDA supports the participation of delegates at this event.
Website: http://ewasteguide.info/newsandevents/2nd-in

Development agencies and non-governmental organizations are welcome to send details of upcoming conferences for inclusion in our HAPPENINGS column.