2011 was a time for celebrating past accomplishments while affirming UNESCO’s global leadership in promoting the role of culture for sustainable development through international advocacy, reinforced standard-setting and operational activities. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/
Saturday, 31 December 2011
The false promise of Aid for Trade
Aid for Trade (AfT) has gained prominence as an innovative form of donor support in the era of the ‘post’-Washington Consensus.This article, however, through critical analysis of AfT discourse within the ‘moral economies’ of multilateral WTO and bilateral EU-ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) negotiations, points to the strategic purposes of donor language in rationalising asymmetric North-South trade systems. Moreover, it questions the ‘development’ credentials of AfT assistance, given its disbursement to strategically significant middle-income states in relation to Western overseas interventions, private sector activities that have dubious consequences for supposed beneficiaries, and the tying of AfT disbursements to the implementation of inappropriate policies. http://www.bwpi.manchester.ac.
MDG Gap Task Force Report 2011: The Global Partnership for Development: Time to Deliver
There report reveals that significant gaps remain in delivering on the commitments in the areas of aid, trade, debt relief, and access to new technologies and to affordable essential medicines. A number of crucial commitments that were supposed to have been reached by 2010, including increased aid volume, improved aid effectiveness, and the conclusion of the Doha Round of trade negotiations, have not been met. http://www.un.org/en/
Friday, 23 December 2011
The Arab Spring of Discontent
Not since the collapse of the Berlin wall and the demise of the Soviet Union has change swept so suddenly across a geographical region.
Written as events unfolded, this collection of articles offers insightful and diverse perspectives on the Arab uprising, and expands to consider related political unrest outside the predominantly Arab world, such as in Iran.
This collection should be of considerable interest to students of international relations, particularly those with an interest in the politics of the Middle East and North Africa. It should also be of intrigue to those with an eagerness to examine the conceptual issues of social change, political protest and humanitarian intervention.
http://www.e-ir.info/wp-
Written as events unfolded, this collection of articles offers insightful and diverse perspectives on the Arab uprising, and expands to consider related political unrest outside the predominantly Arab world, such as in Iran.
This collection should be of considerable interest to students of international relations, particularly those with an interest in the politics of the Middle East and North Africa. It should also be of intrigue to those with an eagerness to examine the conceptual issues of social change, political protest and humanitarian intervention.
http://www.e-ir.info/wp-
Thursday, 22 December 2011
Besigye remains the best ‘Chocolate’ in a x-mas box and Otunu Shouldn’t fire all his enemies
Friends,Most of the NRM mobilizers will be relieved when Besigye retires from FDC leadership because he still remains the best ‘chocolate’ in a box. Love or hate him, he is the most courageous, toughest and principled politician in Uganda history. The guy is undoubtedly the best opposition politician in Uganda’s history. He’s the best at what he does. When he talks on politics, he usually has been worth listening to more than any other FDC politician. Historians and political analysts will write endless books about him. The only thing missing in his political life is becoming the president of Uganda which he almost did in 2006 if Dr.Badru Kiggunud’s EC were not cowards. They reportedly allowed themselves to be intimidated but most political observers ‘believe’ that Besigye won those elections.
Museveni only outsmarted him in elections and I think this is the reason why he wants to retire, not forgetting the famous Gilbert Arinaitwe who liked playing with Besigye’s head using tear gas. What makes Museveni to stand out is that he thinks 10 moves ahead when it comes to rigging elections, and he planned for the presidency for a long time. The rest of the opposition leaders think two moves, and are proud of it. Museveni is probably the best politician of his generation in Uganda- at least of his NRM party; even Besigye would have to agree.
As for UPC, the way there are treating Dr. Otunu now has made me feel the slightest for them. He does not deserve to be treated this way just because he is not a Langi or related to late Obote. The smears his political enemies are now flinging mark them, not him, as beneath contempt.
Olara Otunu is the current UPC president
Anyway, it’s good that Otunu has started learning Uganda’s complicated politics on a table very slowly. In Uganda, all surviving party leaders have been sleeping with one eye open. Otherwise, Otunu should copy some of Museveni’s ugly tactics to survive the current situation. If he doesn’t’ he is a goner not a ‘gunner’ (like Arsenal supporters). If he wants to know some of these tactics, he should freely consult me privately and I help him out, but I will charge him some fee because I need to buy presents for my daughters before the New Year. But overall, he seems to be catching up with the game.
Of course there is a limit to what Otunu can do since he is not as ‘executive’ as president Museveni. The later allegedly uses the intelligence organs and URA to obtain innuendo and political ammo against his enemies, and the police and army to harass his enemies, but otunu can do a little bit of Museveni’s tricks that are less than that to survive his enemies. USA’s Richard Nixon too used IRS to target his political enemies. Bill Clinton also reportedly used to keep files of his political enemies.
Nevertheless, I think Otunu should have kept Robert Kanusu in his team. I don’t know Kanusus personally but he seems to be a people’s person and a grass root politician. He should have won that election in Jinja if NRM had not resorted to Museveni’s ways of survival. If it is true that Kanusu too had also been comprised, Otunu should have deployed him somewhere else but kept him in his team, while at the same time keeping an eye on him. Otunu should know that not everybody in Museveni’s cabinet are his friends. In fact, he does not trust most of them. But he has got his boys that keep an eye on all of Museveni’s ministers. They are people in Museveni’s government whose job is to monitor the likes of Edward Ssekandi (VP), Saida Bumba(Gender ministry), even Mbabazi( PM), and others. The man allegedly keeps a file in his office on all his political enemies in and outside NRM. He uses them when very necessary.
Actually, if people had ears, they would not come out to publicly portray themselves as Museveni’s friends because the man has often said that his only friends are his wife and kids, and he is right. In Uganda politics, you don’t trust anyone if you want to survive for a long time. So, Otunu should forget about New York or UN politics and sort out the mess in UPC. He should not fire all his enemies as he is doing because some of them are better to be kept in the party while keeping an eye on them.
I would say it has more with keeping your friends close, but your enemies closer. For example, The Nazis and the Soviets were on opposite sides during the Spanish civil war. But why did Stalin and Hitler sign the Non-Aggression Pact on August 19, 1939? Why did they agree to the division of Poland and invaded it together? Meanwhile in the period just before that pact, Stalin had been warning all the British, the Americans, and the French that the Germans were getting to be dangerous. In addition there were elements of the German intelligence service that had been trying to work with British MI to assassinate Hitler. These German agents were ignored. The capitalists at that time thought that Nazi Germany would be a good bulwark against the Soviet Union.
Otherwise, let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy X-mas and new year. Besigye said recently while at Makerere University that 2012 is gonna be ‘bloody’. So, let’s keep our eyes on the ball.
Byebyo ebyange
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
An Economic Projection to 2050
This document describes economic baseline projections to 2050 for several world regions. It describes how socio-economic drivers are used to create a consistent projection of economic activity for the coming decades, applying the general framework of “conditional convergence”. This economic baseline is created using the ENV-Linkages model version 3. This baseline is used for modelling analysis with the ENVLinkages model as carried out for the OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050 (to be released in Spring 2012). Specific attention is given in this paper to projections for the energy system as part of the economy, to allow detailed links between economic activity and environmental pressures, including emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/
International Agreements for Commodity Price Stabilization
This paper looks at commodity stocks, their role in price determination for storable commodities, and past efforts of international stockholding arrangements with economic provisions in stabilizing world prices. Low stocks to use ratios of recent years were one of a number of contributory factors to the grain price spike in 2007-08, the paper finds. However, the experience with past international commodity agreements (ICAs) with price band provisions and stockholding obligations suggests that they had only limited success in reducing the volatility of the prices they set out to stabilize, as well as being prone to many other operational problems. The paper also suggests that as a possible response to apparently inadequate private storage, public sector storage would be costly, ineffective in countering price spikes once stocks are fully exhausted, and would crowd out private storage. Some market-based approaches to countering food price volatility are also examined as alternatives to commodity storage.
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/
Service Delivery for Sustainable Human Development
This report focuses on services offered in the agriculture, education, health, and water and sanitation sectors. As such, it touches on the basics of human well-being, which are fundamental to human development and respect for human life. The country’s low performance on the Human Development Index (HDI), despite a slight improvement to 0.395 in 2010 from below 0.35 in 2000, calls for an immediate and real shift in policy choices. This situation requires reform and recommitment by all public sector implementing agencies significantly concerned with each sector. A reorientation of focus with regard to public financial resources, particularly those allocated to health and education services, needs to address identified gaps so that most people can attain needed quality services. Furthermore, the private sector is called upon to act in bringing substantial benefits to the people of Zambia.
http://hdr.undp.org/en/
http://hdr.undp.org/en/
e-Government Capability Maturity Model
The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and its Assessment Methodology provide a tool and methodol-ogy to assess the maturity of an organisation across a number of criteria at pre-sent time. The maturity represents the capability of an organisation to implement and sustainably operate an e-Government portfolio.
The document is to be used as a general reference, training reference and general reading for interested parties. However its main intent is the internal documentation of the tool and its usage. It is not designed to be published as a public document outside the tool usage or training. The content is written and structured in a way to support and facilitate the re-usage of the content in the to-be developed training materials and Online Platform.
http://www.unapcict.org/
The document is to be used as a general reference, training reference and general reading for interested parties. However its main intent is the internal documentation of the tool and its usage. It is not designed to be published as a public document outside the tool usage or training. The content is written and structured in a way to support and facilitate the re-usage of the content in the to-be developed training materials and Online Platform.
http://www.unapcict.org/
Natural resources, corruption and trust: A complex relationship
Do natural resources reduce social trust? And if so, do natural resources have a direct effect on trust, or is their effect indirect through variables such as corruption? This issue paper reviews the literature on natural resources and on trust. The existing theoretical and empirical literature suggests that natural resources can reduce trust through several indirect mechanisms. Notably, studies show that natural resources lead to institutional degradation, corruption, inequality, and civil war, all of which have been associated with reduced trust. The paper tests empirically whether there is a direct effect of natural resources on trust (The Pearl Hypothesis), using cross-country data. The results indicate that no such direct effect exists, suggesting that any effect of resources on trust runs through intermediate variables such as institutions, corruption, inequality, and civil war. Importantly, however, the relationship between corruption and trust turns out to be non-linear, indicating that the effect of natural resources on trust depends on the initial corruption level of a country. http://www.cmi.no/
Effective measures to build resilience in Africa to adapt to climate change
This policy brief, issued while Governments discuss how to adapt to climate change in Durban, reflects that African countries are committed and investing funds to reduce risk to floods and droughts, albeit too little and still insufficiently in development sectors. These findings are potentially important as they demonstrate the effectiveness of addressing disaster risk through public expenditures and contribute to discussions on financial models to address climate change.
This brief builds on the information provided by countries in their reports on progress in the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action. It also builds on the facts provided by the Special Report on Extreme Events of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC/SREX) and in particular the finding that ‘opportunities exist to create synergy in financing for disaster risk management and adaptation to climate change’.
http://www.unisdr.org/files/
This brief builds on the information provided by countries in their reports on progress in the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action. It also builds on the facts provided by the Special Report on Extreme Events of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC/SREX) and in particular the finding that ‘opportunities exist to create synergy in financing for disaster risk management and adaptation to climate change’.
http://www.unisdr.org/files/
CONFERENCE ON U.S. FOREIGN POLICY AND AFRICA
Extended Submission Date
Call for Conference Papers
Tennessee State University
Presents
CONFERENCE ON U.S. FOREIGN POLICY AND AFRICA
The Department of History, Geography, and Political Science, Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee, invites academicians, independent scholars, policymakers, and graduate students to present papers in a one-day conference on the theme, “U.S. foreign policy in Africa in the 21st Century.”
Background
Before World War II the United States did not pursue an active policy toward Africa. In the postwar period, the continent continued to remain rather inconsequential in America’s foreign relations despite wartime economic and strategic needs that compelled a more dynamic interest in the continent. The close of the Cold War, an era in which the United States viewed Africa primarily from the lenses of Superpower ideological rivalry, provided for Washington the opportunity to engage Africa in a more constructive manner. Questions relating to the direction of U.S. policy in Africa persist, although it has been over two decades since the demise of the Cold War. Since the dawn of the 21st century, the American-led war on transnational terrorism has introduced a new dimension into United States-Africa relations. It has enhanced Washington’s strategic engagement with the continent. This conference will offer scholars and other participants a unique platform from which to deliberate on critical issues defining contemporary American foreign policy toward Africa. Within the broad theme of the conference, potential topics for presentation may include but are not limited to the following sub-themes:
· The spring revolutions in North Africa
· Military and strategic partnership with Africa
· Trade and investment in Africa
· Intractable African conflicts and conflict resolution
· Economic growth and sustainable development in Africa
· Africa in the war on terrorism
· The Obama administration and Africa
· Fragile states in Africa
· The debt crisis in Africa
· Democratization and good governance in Africa
· Human rights in Africa
· Political Islam in Africa
· The HIV pandemic in Africa
· Piracy in the Horn of Africa
· Bilateral relations
Guest Speaker
The guest speaker is Mrs. Neneh MacDouall-Gaye, host of Talking Point Africa USA, a TV program. She was a former Gambian Ambassador to the United States. She had also served as Minister of Trade and Industry; and as Minister of Communications and Information Technology as well.
Keynote Address
The keynote speaker is the distinguished teacher, author, and award winning scholar of African and Diasporan African history, Dr. Toyin Falola, the Frances Higginbotham Nalle Centennial Professor of History and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas, Austin.
Date of Conference
Friday, April 13, 2012
Venue
Tennessee State University, Avon Williams Campus, 330 Tenth Avenue North
Nashville, TN 37203
Conveners
Dr. Adebayo Oyebade
Professor of History
Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN 37209
Dr. Wosene Yefru
Professor of African Studies
Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN 37209
Abstracts/Panel proposals
Each prospective presenter should submit electronically an abstract of 500 words or less to Ms. Cordia McCutcheon at cmccutcheon@tnstate.edu by January 15, 2012. Abstract prepared as Microsoft Word document should include the presenter’s name, title of paper, institutional affiliation, and contact information (mailing address, phone number, and email address). Please, note that submission of abstract automatically grants conference organizers the right to publish it in the conference program and website.
Conference Registration Fees
Mandatory non-refundable registration fees for the conference are:
Regular: $50 by Jan. 15; & $60 by Feb. 15 (banquet included).
Student: $30 by Jan. 15; & $40 by Feb. 15 (banquet included).
Banquet only: $25 by Feb. 15.
Please, make your check payable to Tennessee State University.
Publication of Selected Papers
Selected conference papers will be published as a book.
Private Sector Engagement in Adaptation to Climate Change
This paper examines the private sector’s progress in adapting to climate change by considering information from sixteen case studies, drawn from a range of industries across the private sector. The case studies provide insight into companies’ awareness of potential climate risks and vulnerabilities, their progress in assessing specific impacts on their businesses and possible ways to respond to them, and their implementation of adaptation measures and strategies to manage these risks. The analysis also examines how companies are taking advantage of new business opportunities arising from climate change. The paper explores companies’ motivations for implementing adaptation measures, and establishes common factors which can affect companies’ capacities to adapt, their incentives for action, and their perspectives on the need to adapt. The analysis considers how these factors can both encourage and impede adaptation, and assesses potential public sector roles for eliminating barriers to action, encouraging engagement and incentivising private sector investment in adaptation.
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/
Think tanks in sub-Saharan Africa: how the political landscape has influenced their origins
This short report examines the origins and development of think tanks across the African continent.
http://www.odi.org.uk/
http://www.odi.org.uk/
The Alleviation of Poverty: How Far Have We Come?
The first section of this report provides a critical discussion of how far the nation has come in the nearly 50 years since Johnson’s famous commitment to end poverty. The next section presents benchmark trends in income poverty using the official poverty measure. Section three examines the economic, social and policy factors that have driven trends in poverty since 1964. Section four briefly discusses the prospects for alleviating poverty during the next decade. The final section discusses policy options for raising earnings among low-skill workers, improving the antipoverty impact of the safety net, and reducing the share of families at high risk of being poor.
http://evans.washington.edu/
http://evans.washington.edu/
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