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Guides: IDEAS Centre

Image: The World Bank
Why Trade Costs Matter to Africa
Global trade and investment has expanded over the past several decades. In Sub-Saharan Africa, however, a region hampered by political instability and governance problems, lack of foreign investment, and other barriers – the opposite has occurred.

At a May 31, 2008 workshop in Entebbe, Uganda organized by the World Bank’s Development Research Group and the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)—an event supported by the UK’s Department for International Development and a Trust Fu more...
August 27, 2008
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'Global food prices are up 83 per cent compared with three years ago. The resulting food price crisis constitutes an unprecedented threat to the livelihoods and well-being of millions of rural and urban households who are net food buyers.

This briefing note sets out a series of steps, both short- and medium-term, to deal with the current food crisis, and to put in place the reforms required to prevent future repetitions.'

Added by  Najmee Chowdhury  August 28, 2008

'While reducing tariffs and other trade barriers remains important, and must continue as part of the liberalization process, many African countries will not be able to benefit from reform unless trade costs are reduced'. Authors: Alberto Portugal-Perez and John S. Wilson of the Bank.

Added by  Carmen Villegas Caballero  August 27, 2008

AERC's principal objective is to strengthen local capacity for conducting independent, rigorous inquiry into problems pertinent to the management of economies in sub-Saharan Africa.

Added by  Carmen Villegas Caballero  August 27, 2008

'New poverty estimates published by the World Bank reveal that 1.4 billion people in the developing world (one in four) were living on less than US$1.25 a day in 2005, down from 1.9 billion (one in two) in 1981. The new numbers show that poverty has been more widespread across the developing world over the past 25 years than previously estimated, but also that there has been strong—if regionally uneven—progress toward reducing overall poverty.' by Ravallion and Chen, The World Bank, 2008.

Added by  John Daly  August 27, 2008

The First MicrofinanceBank Ltd (FMFB) is the result of the transformation of the microfinance program of the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP), with more than twenty years of experience, into a separate, specialised microfinance bank. In 1996, the AKRSP started to streamline its microfinance program separately, with the objective of creating a separate entity, capable of mobilising savings. FMBL has benefited from the long experience and transfer of key employees and technologies from AKRSP more...

Added by  Carmen Villegas Caballero  August 27, 2008

Design for Sustainability (D4S) has the potential to improve efficiencies, product quality and market opportunities (local and export) and at the same time improve environmental performance. In many developed countries, because of a high level of awareness, D4S efforts are linked to the broader concepts of product-service mixes, systems innovation and other life cycle-based efforts. This publication is an example of one such effort

Added by  Moushumi Biswas  August 27, 2008

'This report on the EU-China partnership and co-operation relations comes in a series of political analysis of EU trade agreements with countries in the South from a gendered perspective. China remains to a large extent a blind spot in the gendered analysis of neoliberal globalization. Only a few in-depth studies on women workers in export production have been published recently. In particular, the service sector and care economies are unknown territories which are, however, being increasingly a more...

Added by  Imran Uddin  August 26, 2008

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