POLICY ISSUES
Major civil wars are one of the most important source of human suffering in the world today, leaving millions of people dead, maimed, undernourished, and displaced. Since the end of the Cold War, major civil wars in developing countries have increased in number and in the magnitude of their effects. The UNU work on "The Wave of Emergencies of the Last Decade" is the first extensive analysis of the economic and political roots of vulnerability to humanitarian disasters and the political economy of the prevention of humanitarian emergencies. Key issues concern the level of wealth and the role of the state. Unless more is done to prevent humanitarian crises, the world will continue to spend vast sums on food aid, peacekeeping, and diplomacy to cope with humanitarian emergencies.
(http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/pb2.pdf)
Contact: Tony Addision, Research Fellow, UNU/WIDER (addison@wider.unu.edu)
There is increasing evidence that different bureaucratic performance helps explain variations in economic performance around the world. The objective of this UNU work was to undertake the first systematic data collection on bureaucratic structure and performance in Africa and thus to also expand the existing global dataset. The survey indicates that bureaucratic structure and performance vary considerably across Africa. Empirical analysis indicates that better bureaucratic performance is associated with: agency power, autonomy, career opportunities, good relative wages, and merit-based entry mechanisms. The good news is that the relationship between the public and private sector seems to be improving across the region. More worryingly, however, perceived levels of corruption are increasing in a number of countries. Also, many senior bureaucrats feel they lack "ownership"; they felt that economic policy is formulated outside the country, particularly by the Bretton Woods Institutions.
(http://www.unu.edu/hq/academic/Pg_area4/b-structure.html)
Contact: Julius Court, UNU Centre (court@hq.unu.edu)
The continuing degradation of African soils threatens the world's fastest growing region with starvation and poverty on an unprecedented scale within 25 years. Unless action is stepped up, the 48 African nations and territories south of the Sahara - home today to more than 550 million people - will produce sufficient food for just 40 per cent of the projected one billion inhabitants in 2025, according to the analysis released for UN World Food Day. Contact: Uzo Mokwunye, Director, UNU/INRA (Mokwunye@inra.unu.edu.gh)
Tony Addison One of the greatest challenges facing African governments in the next Century is how to strengthen their countries' participation in the global economy - and to do so in ways that bring widespread and sustainable benefits to their peoples. A research project undertaken in collaboration with the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) compared the external performances of Africa with those of Southeast Asia, in order to identify key lessons that could be adapted to African contexts. The key findings were that African countries will need to take a strategic approach toward the forces of globalization. In particular, the research highlighted the importance of institutional factors such as political commitment, administrative competence, and secure property and contract rights. As well as being important in their own right, institutional factors have implications for the pace, timing, and sequencing of policy reform.
(http://www.unu.edu/Hq/academic/Pg_area4/globafrica.html)
Contact: Julius Court, UNU Centre (court@hq.unu.edu)
Two of the key characteristics defining the modern historical period are the twin concepts of globalization and the information economy. This transformation - which embodies social, economic, political, technical and cultural processes - is affecting nearly all of the world's people and economies, and creating tremendous challenges and opportunities in its wake. This paper looks specifically at the challenges and opportunities presented by these developments within the context of current African realities. Finally, the paper discusses a way forward for the region, including recommendations for national, sub-regional, regional, and global action and partnerships. This paper was presented at the inaugural session of the African Development Forum hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
(http://www.unu.edu/africa/papers/cogburn-adeya.pdf)
Contact: Nyaki Adeya, UNU/INTECH (nyaki@intech.unu.edu)
This paper analyses the prospects for greater monetary integration in Africa in the wake of the European Monetary Union (EMU). It argues that while the structural characteristics of African economies differ significantly from those of the EMU members, much can be gained from monetary cooperation as an external agency of restraint and in promoting stability in the financial sector. EMU has only a marginal impact on the net benefits of monetary cooperation, but the euro would be a natural anchor for any African monetary union. Indeed, the most likely route to new monetary cooperation in Africa is via a common peg to the euro.
(http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/wp176.pdf) (PDF file 154 KB)
Contact: Tony Addision, Research Fellow, UNU/WIDER (addison@wider.unu.edu)
This paper reviews the main Special and Differential Treatment (S&D) provisions for developing countries under the GATT-WTO trading system and discusses issues relating to the future of S&D treatment from the perspective of the least-developed countries (LDCs). It argues that negotiations on S&D provisions in the next trade round must take the question of trade capacity building seriously. This would require WTO Members to make binding commitments to meeting the special needs of LDCs in terms of market access and technical assistance. Despite design flaws and deficiencies involved in various S&D provisions under the WTO Agreements, there is little reason to believe that the move back to the past approach to S&D treatment would be desirable for LDCs.
(http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/wp197.pdf) (PDF file 222 KB)
Contact: Mansoob Murshed, Research Fellow, UNU/WIDER (Murshed@wider.unu.edu)
This paper proposes a strategy for the conservation and safe use of biotechnology (biopolicy) and seeks to place issues of natural resource management in the context of the role of technological change in economic renewal. The paper argues that African countries have the opportunity to use their biological resources as a basis for developing new economic activities. However, this requires a new policy orientation in which they enter into strategic alliances with industrialized and other countries to promote conservation of biological diversity and safe use of biotechnology. The first section stresses that the continent needs to turn to new institutional arrangements for technology cooperation to achieve tangible results. The second section proposes a biopolicy agenda for Africa in the form of strategic alliances in science and technology, with emphasis on agricultural biotechnology and biomedical research. The final section presents science and technology policy strategies for achieving the biopolicy agenda.
(http://www.unu.edu/inra/pub/juma/AL99.html)
Contact: Uzo Mokwunye, Director, UNU/INRA (Mokwunye@inra.unu.edu.gh)
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