"The human race is pushing our planet towards the edge of disaster by flooding land, sea, and air with pollution and by over use of our natural resources. These issues amount to one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced. As the world explores alternative growth paths, new ways of doing business are critical. Innovative solutions are pointing the way to new ...

"The cereal import bill of the world's poorest countries is forecast to rise by 56 percent in 2007/2008. This comes after a significant increase of 37 percent in 2006/2007, and for low-income food-deficit countries in Africa, the cereal bill is projected to increase by 74 percent, according to the FAO latest Crop Prospects and Food Situation report (April 2008). The increase ...

Why another Forum?

Trade liberalization, economic growth, sound policies and good governance are keys to poverty reduction. Some developing countries have been successful at using the right instruments and resources to prosper. Unfortunately, not all are thriving the way emerging countries, such as China, India or Brazil, are. Indeed, the developing world is not uniform: in some regions poverty has increased and the gulf between North-South and some ...

In late 2007 WIDE organised a successful consultation on EU bilateral and regional free trade agreements and gender, which brought together members of WIDE, academics, researchers, non-governmental organisation activists and representatives of the European Commission and the private sector. The aim of the consultation was to increase understanding of the relationship between gender and trade and to provide a space for critical reflection and debate on the opportunities, ...

Contributed by Lebret MC, a dgTrade Development member

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) defines rules on the international trade in goods and services, and these rules have consequences for national policies. An arena for decision that claims to be democratic, the WTO is ...

Clothing and textiles are among the world's most traded products. Large retailers and branded manufacturers control global production networks in which the demand is for low costs, high quality and rapid turnover. Consequently production is sourced from the lowest cost locations in developing economies. The weaker sub-Saharan textile industries need to be ...