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Amid the furor over Paul Wolfowitz's conduct there are additional
questions about the US role and the bank's future. Does the bank still need to
make loans to middle-income countries, for instance, given the rivers of
investment capital that now flow around the world? Does the tradition of
allowing the United States to name the bank's president make sense any longer? Does
the bank even need to continue to exist? See story from Christian
Science Monitor
As U.S. trade deficits mount there are fewer voices
defending unbridled free trade policies. Supporters of globalization are expending
more energy to defend the concept – often calling for new policies to help
compensate workers whose jobs migrate abroad. See story from
Christian Science Monitor
By most economic measures Nafta has been a success. Millions
of Mexican families who were lower middle class or working class have made the
leap to middle class security. This can be measured in new houses, new cars, private
schools for their children, vacations taken together and the number of iPods
school children enjoy. But for an equal number of Mexicans, Nafta has not only
passed them by, it has hurt them. U.S. farm subsidies have rendered obsolete Mexican farming,
and millions of farmers have lost their livelihoods. It is this Nafta failure
that it driving illegal immigration. See
story from New California Media
Although countries like the US tend to regard immigration as
strictly a domestic concern, there is a growing international focus on the
subject of the benefits and detriments of international migration. A UN
conference on the subject has been developed but it is doubtful that any
concrete proposals will occur in the near future. See story from
Christian Science Monitor
One of the defining myths of modern China - that it has a bottomless well of unskilled, low-wage laborers - is coming apart at the seams. And hardest hit are the southern coastal cities that produce much of America's consumer bounty. See story from Christian Science Monitor
China and India are poised to shape the world's future and decisions made by the ascendant Asian giants in the next few years will determine whether that will be for better or worse according to a prominent environmental think-tank. See story from One World Net
When it comes to feeding the world's poor, United States government policies favoring domestic suppliers and shippers mean each taxpayer dollar is feeding fewer hungry people, officials and independent experts are saying. See story from One World Net
The U.S. renewed its opposition to the world court last week as the 15-member Security Council started negotiating the draft text of a new resolution that seeks further protections for civilians caught up in bloody conflicts. See story from One World Net
As 2006 begins, the U.S. stands alone in its opposition to many treaties adopted by all major nations. See story from One World Net
As trade officials from around the world haggle in Hong Kong this week over how far to liberalize trade rules, it is Europe that is coming under the heaviest fire, from both its rich and poor trading partners, for blocking a deal designed to pull developing countries out of poverty. See story from Christian Science Monitor
The problems presented by subsidies and their effect on the agricultural economies of developing countries can be illustrated by the chicken consumption in Ghana. Global imports of chicken into Ghana are ten times what they were a decade ago. Although American and European chicken farmers do not receive direct subsidies, the grains used to feed their birds do qualify for state aid, and this indirect assistance puts the African farmers at a disadvantage. After much lobbying from the industry, which directly employs an estimated 10,000 people, Ghana's government agreed to double tariffs on imported chicken to 40 percent. However, in March this year, using emergency legislation, parliament overturned the hikes in a move government officials, trade campaigners, and poultry farmers alike attribute to pressure from the International Monetary Fund, which sits atop a pyramid of donors on whom Ghana relies for 45 percent of its money. See story from Christian Science Monitor
In Hong Kong, delegates from 149 World Trade Organization economies are getting down to the nuts and bolts of global commerce as a stalemate continues over agricultural trade. See story from Christian Science Monitor
In 1989, the United Nations put forth the Convention on the Rights of the Child -- a treaty that protects the civil and economic rights of children around the world. To date, 192 nations have ratified the treaty. Only two have not. A decade later, just seven countries voted against the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), an independent body created to prosecute genocide and crimes against humanity. And in October of this year, members of the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) voted overwhelmingly to pass a new treaty aimed at protecting cultural diversity worldwide. Only two states voted against it. The United States is the only nation to oppose all three. And the list of U.N. treaties and conventions that Washington has not signed or has actively opposed goes on and on. See story from Inter Press Service
While Alan Greenspan has won praise for his successful 18-year battle to keep inflation under control, he's the first to say he's had a lot of help. Among those most responsible are tens of millions of workers in China, India and Eastern Europe. Adding all those workers to the global economy has made the Federal Reserve's inflation-fighting job easier by increasing competition. That has helped hold down labor costs -- the biggest single expense for employers -- and, as a result, prices. But workers have been the losers as wages have become stagnant, manufacturing jobs have been lost and economic inequality has soared. See story from Associated Press
Leaders of Asian and American nations at an economic summit in South Korea have an ambitious goal: revive negotiations on a new global agreement to reduce trade barriers - a move that experts say could add some $300 billion a year to the global economy and help lift millions of people out of poverty. But to do so, they'll have to counter faltering worldwide momentum for free trade. See story from Christian Science Monitor
India is experiencing a job boom in the textile industries. Although the jobs to not pay much, they represent the type of low-end, labor- intensive manufacturing growth India needs if it is to better the lives of its 390 million low- skilled, impoverished citizens - those who still live on less than a dollar a day and who have been largely bypassed by India's high-end job growth. See story from Christian Science Monitor
Great Britain is attempting to adapt to the global economy by constructing a system that matches the dynamic aspects of the U.S. economy with some of the social protections which have traditionally existed in Europe. See story from Christian Science Monitor
Fifty years ago, Finland was known for little more than the wood pulp from its endless forests. A poverty-stricken land of poorly educated loggers and farmers on the edge of the Arctic Circle, few paid it any attention. Today, this small Nordic nation boasts a thriving hi-tech economy ranked the most competitive in the world, the best educated citizenry of all the industrialized countries, and a welfare state that has created one of the globe's most egalitarian societies. Envious policymakers from far and wide are beating a path to Helsinki to learn the secrets of Finland's success. See story from Christian Science Monitor
A majority say France's safety nets are broken, but they're divided on a solution. Chronic unemployment and inflexible labor laws are seen as a major obstacle. See story from Christian Science Monitor
A deal by the world's richest states to erase debt of up to $55bn owed by the poorest has been backed by one of the main international lenders. The International Monetary Fund's panel said in Washington it had approved all elements of the deal, which now goes to its twin institution, the World Bank. See story from BBC
The US Senate rejected an amendment designed to preserve U.S. anti-dumping trade provisions. The Bush administration warned that such a restriction would have weakened its ability to negotiate a comprehensive world trade deal. See story from Reuters See vote
The UN summit resulted in no major reforms although there was one real shift: recognition that the world body has a "responsibility to protect" - to ensure that genocide, ethnic cleansing and other war crimes should not be ignored in the name of state sovereignty. See story from Guardian
The U.N. General Assembly may have failed to come up with a stirring plan to combat the world's ills. But there was former president Bill Clinton -- once said to have harbored an ambition to become secretary general -- assembling his own mini-General Assembly of presidents, prime ministers, kings and other leaders and experts to devise specific plans for addressing poverty, global warming, religious conflict and better governance. See story from Washington Post
The United States and Europe vowed to work in harness to break the stalemate at WTO talks, but insisted they would not impose "tablets of stone" on the rest of the world. EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and US Trade Representative Rob Portman (news, bio, voting record) singled out agriculture as the key sticking point on which both they and the rest of the World Trade Organization must focus. See story from Agence France-Presse
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says 99% of maternal deaths are preventable yet every minute a woman dies from pregnancy-related causes. This loss impacts not only on the family and society, but also on the economy, its latest report says. UNFPA says investment in reproductive health and gender equality could spur growth and sustainable development. See story from BBC
Medicare's plan to fight fraud in its new prescription drug benefit is drawing skepticism from experts who say the benefit is too complex to monitor properly and leaves too much discretion to the industries that have fleeced government health programs in the past. See story from Knight Ridder
When it begins on Jan. 1, 2006, Medicare's new prescription drug benefit will mark a major turning point in the program's 40-year history. Slated to cost more than $720 billion over the next decade, the drug benefit is one of the most generous health offerings in U.S. history and will provide immediate relief and life- saving assistance for millions of elderly and disabled Medicare enrollees who struggle with high prescription drug costs. That help will not come cheaply, however. The benefit will push Medicare drug spending to a projected $70 billion next year and help drive total Medicare spending from roughly $332 billion this year to $425 billion in 2006, according to Medicare actuaries. See story from Knight Ridder
Total U.S. spending on medical research has doubled in the past decade to nearly $95 billion a year, though whether the money is being well spent needs much better scrutiny, a study has found. See story from Associated Press
Unless drastic measures are implemented, the world will not meet its targets for reducing poverty and millions of people will die needlessly during the next decade, according to the 2005 U.N. Human Development Report. Despite progress globally, many countries are falling behind, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where the HIV/AIDS pandemic is dramatically reducing life expectancy and creating financial and social burdens that slow development. See story from Associated Press
A new CBO study indicates that more than $200 billion is spent annually to subsidize domestic agriculture worldwide. Even though the United States isn't that far behind Europe in extreme tariffs, the European Union dominates the use of export subsidies with between 85 and 90 percent of the world's total; the United States provided 2 percent. Only 25 countries have existing export subsidies, however, and those countries have agreed to reduce or eliminate them. See story from Associated Press
China's authoritarian government is coming under an unusually strong and public attack for the collapse of the country's universal health care system and the rise of profit-oriented state-owned hospitals. Top government advisers, scholars and the state-controlled media are openly criticizing the ruling Communist Party for failing to avert a growing crisis in public health care. These critics allege that paying patients are treated as cash cows while the poor are denied access to proper medical care. See story from International Herald Tribune
At the September 2005 UN summit, the U.S. is pressing for fundamental reforms in management and human rights. The U.S. wants to separate the Secretary General's office from the day to day management of the agency and wants to reform the process for selecting members of the Human Rights Council to insure that countries who have been identified as human rights violators are not members. See story from Christian Science Monitor
As political leaders prepare to meet at a UN summit, religious leaders are working to keep global antipoverty efforts high on that agenda, which will also address UN reform. See story from Christian Science Monitor
A growing number of ordinary people in China are beginning to manifest dissatisfaction with the alliance between businessmen, economic growth and the Communist Party. See story from Washington Post
The House narrowly approved the controversial Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in an important victory for President Bush. Ending a contentious debate, it voted 217 to 215 in favor of the deal, which lowers trade barriers between the U.S. and six Central American nations. See story from USA Today See vote
In a break with half a century of bipartisan support for trade liberalization, the House heads into a deciding vote on the Central American Free Trade Agreement with nearly all Democrats opposed. At least marginally, CAFTA is a better deal for US workers than trade agreements before it. The pact, forged in early 2004, lowers trade barriers with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and includes a related agreement with the Dominican Republic. Since most exports from the region already enter US markets freely, the main change is to open Central American markets to US goods. See story from Christian Science Monitor
The collapse of a huge ice shelf in Antarctica in 2002 has no precedent in the past 11,000 years, according to a study to be published today that points the finger at global warming. Measuring some 3250sq km in area and 220m thick, the Larsen B iceshelf broke away from the eastern Antarctic Peninsula in 2002, eventually disintegrating into giant icebergs. See story from Australian
The United Nations Environment Programme has welcomed the new Asia- Pacific partnership to develop new technologies aimed at reducing greenhouse gases, but stressed that it was not a substitute for the Kyoto Protocol. See story from Hindustan Times
Economic self-interest took a back seat when Group of Eight leaders signed off on debt relief and an extra $50 billion per year for under-developed regions at the Gleneagles golf resort in Scotland on July 8, half of it for Africa. But the goodwill faded when the eight men were asked to stop government support for exports of farm produce so that needier countries can compete on a more even footing in world markets. See story from Reuters
The Christian Science Monitor summarizes the issues concerning debt relief and aid to developing countries. See story
There are 1.2 billion people in the world living on less than a dollar a day - what the United Nations calls "extreme poverty." Typically they have limited education, little access to jobs or capital, and are ruled by an indebted government that lacks a coherent plan for helping its poorest citizens. See story from Christian Science Monitor
The House disregarded strong White House objections and voted to withhold half of the country's dues from the United Nations if the world body does not cut its bureaucracy, redirect its budget and tighten its accountability. The bill requires the creation of whistle-blower protections, an independent oversight board with broad investigative authority and an ethics office to thwart possible conflicts of interest. The House rejected an alternative that would have included the same criteria but would have given the secretary of state discretion in whether and by how much to withhold dues. See story from Washington Post See vote See vote on alternative
Among ordinary Africans, feelings about debt relief and aid money are far more nuanced than many Westerners may realize. Africans interviewed this week, from farmers to artists to health workers, say they are grateful for the outpouring of sentiment but they also said there was a dangerous disconnect between what the industrialized nations see as solutions and what Africans believe they need. Instead of debt relief and more aid, many Africans said they wanted the G-8 to focus on ending corruption and on improving roads, courts, banking and secondary education. See story from Washington Post
But it is not clear that debt relief, or even substantially increased aid flows, will be enough to produce success where so many previous development efforts have failed. Critics of aid have long pointed out that corrupt or incompetent governments will waste any hand-outs they are given-indeed, by providing funds that such governments can use to maintain their hold on power, aid donors can even make things worse. See story from the Economist
They don't always see eye to eye. But US religious leaders across the theological and political spectrums have found a common cause: ending global poverty and hunger, particularly in Africa. See story from Christian Science Monitor
The Bush Administration is pumping more money into finding innovative ways of addressing failed states around the world. Among its ideas: developing coordinated efforts by public and private forces and the military for intervening in crisis situations. See story from Christian Science Monitor
Some recent developments indicate that relations between the U.S. and European countries have improved. Some diplomats attribute the improvement to the emergence of Condoleezza Rice as both an effective diplomat and as someone who has the authority to act for the President. See story from Christian Science Monitor
The UN General Assembly is debating a reform package that its author, Secretary-General Kofi Annan, says aims to restore UN credibility and relevance. Four significant proposals dominate. Three of them have endured years of contentious, inconclusive debate - expanding the UN Security Council, defining terrorism, and increasing foreign aid. The fourth is the lone fresh proposal - scrapping the UN Commission on Human Rights for a new Human Rights Council. See story from Christian Science Monitor
Global policymakers must boost women's share of resources and political standing in the developing world if they hope to make a significant dent in world poverty, researchers say. See story from One World Net
Even as the Bush administration refutes charges by critics that U.S. aid to poor nations is miserly compared to the contributions of other wealthy countries, it appears to be quietly rolling back its previous commitments to increase development assistance by 50 percent beginning next year. See story from One World Net
The developing world is not an unrelieved landscape of despair. When high-level government vision and support are accompanied by a significant increase in funds - often aid from richer countries - problems of poverty can be overcome, according to a detailed new UN report. See story from Christian Science Monitor
Doctors Without Borders released it list of the top ten underreported humanitarian stories: They include soaring tuberculosis (TB) deaths and the immense toll on people living through chronic conflicts in Chechnya, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Northern Uganda. Also listed are the unrelenting crises in North Korea and Somalia, an emergency in Liberia one year after the end of civil war, the constant threat of hunger and disease in Ethiopia, and how Burundi's health care financing system excludes its poorest citizens from even the most basic care. See press release
A new forecast compiled by U.S. intelligence experts foresees China and India spearheading an expansion of Asian political and economic influence throughout the world. It also sees many Arab countries at a crossroads as globalization spreads. The report, labeled "Mapping the Global Future," lays out a world 15 years from now in which the United States remains the dominant power, but faces increased competition from growing economic power in Asia and challenges from political Islam. See story from Voice of America
Britain's Finance Minister Gordon Brown said it was "vital" to make progress during 2005 in writing off African debt, tackling disease and breaking down trade barriers. The chancellor said that Britain is prepared to be judged on how it uses its presidency of the G8 industrial nations to tackle poverty in the world's poorest continent. He added the world had a duty to honor its promises and the international community was now focused on addressing debt relief. See story from Guardian
Of the 21 major donor nations, the United States ranked 16th in the quantity and quality of the population and reproductive-health projects that are supported by its foreign aid program, according to a new study released by Population Action International (PAI), a Washington-based research and advocacy group. See story from One World Net
A recently released report by UNICEF says spiraling alcohol and injectible drug use has caused a significant percentage of deaths of young males in countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). See story from One World Net
A UN-Habitat report on the state of the world's cities documents the unprecedented growth of Asian cities. Asia houses more than half of the world's cities with a population of 10 million or more. Many Asian cities are doubling their population every 15 to 20 years. Although the rapid urban growth is associated with improving life expectancy and educational levels significantly, it has also created problems as urban poverty has been increasingly concentrated in particular neighborhoods that have generally become the habitats of the urban poor and minority groups: racial minorities in some societies, international immigrant groups in others. See story from One World Net
A decade into a manufacturing boom that wows the world, Chinese workers are maturing; and their aspirations are expanding in a manner that implicitly challenges the cheap labor paradigm that makes up China's competitive advantage. See story from Christian Science Monitor
The policy of canceling 100 percent of the massive foreign debts owed by the world's poorest countries, thus freeing them to spend millions on healthcare, education, and other poverty-busting plans, rather than just on interest payments for their massive loans is gaining serious political support. Both the Bush administration and the British government are behind the idea. And it's on the agenda as G-7 finance ministers meet. See story from Christian Science Monitor But the G-7, which includes the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, and Japan, could not agree on ways to finance cancellation of the debt, which totals more than US$100 billion, or roughly two thirds of what the U.S. Congress has thus far appropriated for the war in Iraq. See story from One World Net
In a new report, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says the number of people in Asia living on less than $1 a day fell by 223 million between 1990 and 2002. China accounted for 3 out of 4 of those whose incomes rose above a level classified as "extreme poverty". See story from Christian Science Monitor
The breakthrough was reached after five days of tough negotiations at the World Trade Organization in Geneva. The deal, approved by all 147 members, will cut rich countries' farm subsidies in return for developing countries opening markets for manufactured goods. See story from BBC
The House voted that U.S. economic aid could only flow to countries that have agreed not to surrender Americans to a world court for prosecution for war crimes See story from Associated Press See vote
As the Bush administration pushes U.S. allies to cancel more than US$120 billion in Iraq's debt to help boost the country's economic recovery, a key development group announced the launch of a three-month effort to persuade the Bush administration to press international financial institutions (IFIs) to cancel the debt of the world's 50 poorest nations. See story from One World Net
For the first time on record, the United States has a deficit in high-tech trade, prompting concern about American competitiveness in key job-producing industries from biotechnology to aerospace. See story from Christian Science Monitor
Finance chiefs from the world's rich nations agree that the global economic outlook had brightened significantly but the threat of further oil price rises was one of the few clouds on the horizon. See story from Reuters
Millions of educated, low-wage workers abroad - from Ireland to China, India to the Philippines - have joined the global economy over the past few years. Among the causes of that influx: the end of the Cold War, global trade agreements, free-market economic reforms and the development of the Internet and other technologies. The result? Any service that can be delivered in bits and bytes and does not require face-to-face interaction with customers is up for grabs. See story from USA Today
The Senate voted to prevent federal contractors from using taxpayer dollars to move American jobs offshore. See story from Associated Press
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