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CGD works to reduce global poverty and improve lives through innovative economic research that drives better policy and practice by the world’s top decision makers.
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Although there were significant efforts made on all sides throughout the negotiations and more progress made than anyone expected, the collapse of the Doha Round yesterday was unsurprising to anyone who tracked the discussions in Geneva over the past several years.
The Doha Round of international trade negotiations collapsed yesterday and prospects for reviving it are dim. A key factor in the collapse was reportedly the insistence by developing countries, led by India and China, that they need maximum flexibility to protect their agricultural sectors for food security reasons and to protect subsistence farmers.
The U.S. Congress launched a new bipartisan Caucus for Congressional-World Bank Dialogue at a packed event on Capitol Hill July 16. The caucus, co-chaired by Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Betty McCollum (D-MN), provides a forum for members of Congress to engage the World Bank, parliamentarians and policy experts on poverty reduction, global development and trade.
Click here (opens Google Reader) to access my weekly selection of mainstream news articles covering rich world policies and practices that affect poor people in developing countries.
Trade ministers are currently gathered at the World Trade Organization in Geneva to give one last push to delivering a Doha Round trade agreement before it is put on the shelf indefinitely. As it has been from the beginning, agriculture remains a key stumbling block (see my book, Delivering on Doha).
Back in December 2006 I blogged a meeting in Paris at which the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a sort of microfinance think tank operating out of the World Bank, won a mandate to hold a mirror up to the aid agencies that fund it. A year and a half later, CGAP's new SmartAid Index looks at the quality of donors' work in supporting micorofinance.
This is a joint posting with Martina Tonizzo
The World Bank has announced a new poverty line on the basis of revised estimates of Purchasing Price Parity (PPP) price levels around the world. In the working paper that explains the basis for the new line, poverty measurement guru Martin Ravallion and his co-authors make two proposals.
The more than 80 events that CGD hosts each year include a wide variety of formats and range in size from those whose participants can fit around our conference table to audiences of more than 300. Our occasional Development Matters series has focused on popular culture treatments of development, such as books and movies. We also host CGD Meetups, monthly evening activities for people who want to combine some social networking with learning about development.
Click here to access my weekly selection of mainstream news articles covering rich world policies and practices that affect poor people in developing countries.
In a landmark speech last week that deserved more attention than it received from the mainstream media, former U.S. vice president and Nobel Prize laureate Al Gore challenged the United States to produce 100% of its electricity from carbon-free renewable energy within 10 years. To help low-income and working families cope with the cost of the transition, Gore suggested cutting payroll taxes and making up the difference with CO2 taxes.
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