This issue of the South Bulletin reports on the meeting between the South Centre’s Chairman, Mr. Benjamin Mkapa, and China’s President, Mr. Xi JinPing, held in Tanzania.

Mr. Mkapa explained the work and priorities of the Centre and President Xi praised the efforts of the Centre in promoting South-South cooperation and in increasing the representation of the Centre, and said China would continue to provide help to the Centre.

15 de enero de 2013

Estimado Señor Secretario General:

En el curso de este año usted presentará ante la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas su candidato para ocupar el cargo de Secretario General de la Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre Comercio y Desarrollo (UNCTAD). Las virtudes personales del dirigente de una organización internacional son factores decisivos que determinan su desempeño y credibilidad. Por lo tanto, la selección es crucial y la UNCTAD no es una excepción en ese sentido en estos tiempos de incertidumbre económica mundial.

El creciente número de países que hacen frente a crisis de la deuda es señal de que el mundo necesita con urgencia un sistema internacional de arbitraje y reestructuración de la deuda.

Resulta cada vez más evidente que las operaciones de rescate, en las que los países endeudados obtienen nuevos préstamos que les permitan mantenerse al día con el pago de la totalidad de sus préstamos anteriores, no son suficientes y pueden ser contraproducentes cuando los países hacen frente a problemas de insolvencia y no simplemente a una falta temporal de liquidez.

Policy Brief, October 2012

As seen over and again during recurrent financial crises in both developing and advanced economies (DEs and AEs), including the recent global crisis originating in the US and Europe, financial instability and boom-bust cycles undermine all three ingredients of sustainable development – economic development, social development and environmental protection.

Los países en desarrollo hacen frente ahora a una disminución del crecimiento del producto interno bruto (PIB) y de las exportaciones y a un endurecimiento de las condiciones crediticias, provocados por la crisis en la zona del euro y la desaceleración económica de los Estados Unidos.

El escándalo del LIBOR, que sigue dando de qué hablar,constituye el más reciente y duro golpe a la credibilidad de los grandes bancos y sus organismos de reglamentación.

El escándalo, que no pudo haber ocurrido en un peor momento para el sector bancario sumido ya en numerosas y graves crisis financieras, aumenta considerablemente la pérdida de confianza en el comportamiento de los banqueros y en la credibilidad del sistema bancario que ya en los últimos años han sufrido duros golpes.

Research Paper 46, July 2012

Whilst the first steps towards Asian trade cooperation stated in 1970s, it was the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 that triggered Asian efforts at monetary and financial integration. This paper argues that the conditions for Asian monetary integration are not conducive but that efforts at monetary cooperation should proceed at three fronts – exchange rate cooperation, coordination of capital flows control, and strengthening of regional financial liquidity management as in the Chiang Mai Initiative and regional surveillance.

Del 13 al 22 de junio tendrá lugar en Río de Janeiro (Brasil) la Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Desarrollo Sostenible (Río+20). A continuación presentamos un análisis de las cuestiones más controvertidas por resolver y de cómo podría Río+20 producir resultados satisfactorios.

Es casi imposible que Río+20 logre ser un hito en la solución de las crisis económicas y medioambientales mundiales, pero todavía puede ser un éxito si se reafirman los antiguos compromisos y se ponen en marcha nuevos procesos para fortalecer las instituciones y establecer nuevos objetivos y planes de acción.

Durante la UNCTAD XIII, celebrada en Doha (Qatar), se librará una gran batalla para lograr que el mandato de la UNCTAD siga enfocando su trabajo en temas importantes, sobre todo de índole macroeconómico y financiero. Las negociaciones en la reunión preparatoria de la UNCTAD XIII se encuentran en un punto muerto.

El objetivo de esta reunión es preparar el proyecto del documento final que los ministros deberían adoptar al término de la UNCTAD XIII, celebrada en Doha (Qatar) del 21 al 26 de abril de 2012.

Durante la conferencia de la UNCTAD XIII, una ardua sesión de negociaciones que duró una semana, los países en desarrollo ganaron la batalla para darle a la UNCTAD un nuevo y más amplio mandato para su trabajo a futuro, el cual engloba también la crisis económica.

Al concluir la conferencia, un grupo de países desarrollados declaró que el nuevo mandato representa un triunfo para la cooperación multilateral en tiempos en que ha habido muchos fracasos.

Research Paper 44, March 2012

This paper argues that the unprecedented acceleration of growth in the developing world in the new millennium in comparison with advanced economies is due not so much to improvements in underlying fundamentals as to exceptionally favourable global economic conditions, shaped mainly by unsustainable policies in advanced economies. The only developing economy which has had a major impact on global conditions, notably on commodity prices, is China. However, growth in China has been driven first by a rapid expansion of exports to advanced economies and more recently, after the global crisis, by an investment boom, neither of which is replicable or sustainable over the longer term. To maintain a rapid growth, export-led Asian economies need to reduce their dependence on foreign markets. For Latin American and African commodity exporters, gaining greater autonomy and achieving rapid and stable growth depend on their success in reducing reliance on capital flows and commodity earnings – the two key determinants of their growth which are largely beyond national control.

La Conferencia de Durban pone en marcha una nueva ronda de negociaciones sobre el clima

Durante la Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre cambio climático que tuvo lugar en Durban (Sudáfrica) en diciembre de 2011, se puso en marcha una nueva ronda de negociaciones sobre el clima con el fin de llegar en 2015 a un acuerdo que entre en vigor en 2020. Los países en desarrollo tendrán que prepararse bien para las negociaciones en las que se determinarán las condiciones del acuerdo.

Informe sobre políticas, agosto de 2011

El marco principal de la Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Medio Ambiente y el Desarrollo (CNUMAD) de 1992, sus acuerdos conexos (la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (CMNUCC), el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica (CDB) y la Conferencia de las Partes en la Convención de las Naciones Unidas de lucha contra la desertificación) y sus procesos de seguimiento abordan el medio ambiente y el desarrollo dentro de una misma óptica. Este enfoque constituye un logro singular que debe mantenerse y mejorarse y del que no hay que apartarse.

La CNUMAD fue un acontecimiento decisivo que sembró en todo el mundo la esperanza de una nueva colaboración mundial. Esta nueva colaboración, fruto del «espíritu de Río», cambiaría el curso de las relaciones internacionales actuales, haría frente a la creciente crisis ambiental mundial y al mismo tiempo lucharía por una mayor equidad en las relaciones económicas internacionales que sentarían las bases para promover el desarrollo sostenible (y abordar la crisis ambiental) tanto en cada país como en todo el mundo.

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Policy Brief, November 2011

Twenty years after the Rio Summit 1992, the global sustainable development situation has deteriorated. The environment crisis has worsened. After a period of good development performances in some developing countries, the prospects for the global economy have worsened, with the financial-economic crisis now affecting Europe and the US, which has implications for developing countries. Many developing countries followed an export-led growth strategy; however if the economies of developed countries are stalling, this strategy has to be reviewed. The social dimension is bound to be affected by the environment and economic crises, which has adverse effects on poverty, employment and social services, food security, health, etc.

Research Paper 40, July 2011

There are many challenges and obstacles facing developing countries in moving their economies to more environmentally friendly paths. On one hand this should not prevent the attempt to urgently incorporate environmental elements into economic development. On the other hand, the various obstacles should be identified and recognised and international cooperation measures should be taken to enable and support the sustainable development efforts. The conditions must be established that make it possible for countries, especially developing countries, to move towards a “green economy.”

Por qué las negociaciones de la Ronda de Doha están en un punto muerto

La gran distancia que separa las posiciones de los miembros de la Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC) hace difícil que los dirigentes del Grupo de los Veinte (G-20) puedan cumplir su promesa de terminar este año las negociaciones de la Ronda de Doha.

La actual ronda de negociaciones de Doha comenzó a finales de 2001 y fue llamada entonces el Programa de Doha para el Desarrollo. La Declaración Ministerial de Doha proclamó que las necesidades de los países en desarrollo se situaban en el centro de las negociaciones.

South Centre Analytical Note - September 2008

This Analytical Note stresses that both sustainable development and climate change are interlinked. Climate change will have impacts on the pace and progress of developing countries’ efforts to achieve sustainable development objectives, while achieving such objectives form the fundamental premise upon which developing countries are undertaking their actions to address climate change. Sustainable development is a legitimate aspiration of developing countries whose populations are affected by a wide range of poverty- and climate change-related impacts.

Special Policy Discussion Paper - November 2007

Introduction: The Need for Urgent Global Action on Development and Climate Change (excerpt)

Human-induced climate change is now well recognized as a physical and global reality. Global warming associated with climate change has begun to affect global weather patterns, sea levels, snow cover, ice sheets and rainfall. Regional climate patterns shifts are already affecting watersheds and ecosystems all over the world. The human and financial costs to countries of coping with extreme weather events, crop failures and other emergencies related to climate are growing higher. Developing countries, especially Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), who are already facing difficulties in alleviating poverty as a result of their economic situation, are especially vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.

Unless current rates of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are drastically cut and reversed, global average temperatures will rise by at least 2C by 2050, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This will result in, among others, the creation of hundreds of millions of environmental refugees mostly from developing countries, acute water shortages of large proportions of the global population (again mostly in developing countries), food shortages as agricultural production goes down all over the world, sea level rise of at least 1 meter1, and the extinction of a third of the world’s species. Even before that, the expected 1C rise by 2020 and the 1.3C rise by 2025 will already have devastating impacts on the lives and livelihood of people, especially the poor and especially in developing countries.

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South Centre Analytical Note - August 2005

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Many developing countries are rich in natural resources and in particular mineral commodities. While the extraction and processing of mineral commodities through large scale mining can make a major contribution to the economies of developing countries by providing export and fiscal revenues, it can also raise economic, environmental and social issues that pose policy dilemmas from the Government’s perspective.

This paper identifies the limitations derived from the external setting that are faced by developing countries to design, implement and enforce laws and policies intended to foster a developmental strategy based on mineral commodities. The purpose of this paper is to highlight challenges that do not seem to be fully recognized by the “good governance” discourse on decisions related to the extraction and production process of mineral commodities.

This paper is structured in four sections. The first one describes the mining production process and the location of mineral resources and specialization patterns. The second section explains the general characteristics of the large-scale intensive mining industry and the operations of Transnational Corporations (TNCs). The final section identifies challenges faced by developing countries to engage in this sector in view of this context and presents policy recommendations.

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South Centre Analytical Note - June 2003

INTRODUCTION

Paragraph 51 of the 2001 Doha Ministerial Declaration provides a unique but ambiguous mandate for the WTO’s Committees on Trade and Development (CTD) and on Trade and Environment (CTE). It requires that these two bodies “within their respective mandates, each act as a forum to identify and debate developmental and environmental aspects of the negotiations, in order to help achieve the objective of having sustainable development appropriately reflected.” This mandate attempts to implement WTO Members’ desire to ensure that the Doha Round trade negotiations promote the objective of sustainable development.

This objective is deeply embedded in the WTO framework. Explicit references to it can be found in the WTO’s constitutional legal instrument – the Marrakesh Agreement to Establish the World Trade Organisation – and in subsequent WTO legal texts, such as the 1994 Ministerial Decisions on Trade and Environment and on Trade in Services and the Environment, and the 1996 and 2001 WTO Ministerial Declarations. The WTO Appellate Body in the US – Shrimps-Turtle dispute also stated that the objective of sustainable development recognised in the WTO Agreement’s preamble “informs” all of the covered agreements.

The proper and effective implementation of the Paragraph 51 mandate could be the key to ensuring that the Doha trade negotiations result in a final outcome that promotes the sustainable development needs and priorities of developing countries and is consistent with the earth’s long-term ecological carrying capacity from the local to the global level.

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South Perspectives - November 2002

FOREWORD

The 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) is the third global conference on environment-related issues in the last three decades. It is a further, important stage in the process initially charted and launched by the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE) and carried forward by the 1992 Rio Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).

Today, as in the past, the same basic issues that have been central to North-South debates on environment and development over these past three decades are once again stirring passions and controversy. The preparatory process, especially the final meeting of the Preparatory Committee for WSSD, held in Bali in May 2002, as well as the Johannesburg Conference itself were characterized by major disagreements between the North and the South, which ultimately proved impossible to bridge. The developing countries were unhappy, in particular, by what they felt was a negative stand of some developed countries and their reneging on earlier commitments and decisions.

During the preparatory process, as in the case of the 2002 Monterrey U.N. Conference on Financing for Development, the developing countries experienced some difficulty in articulating and defending their views. Nor did the Draft Plan of Implementation for the WSSD allow much scope for their major concerns to be properly reflected, given the need to be sensitive to the views of the major countries of the North and what their respective governments were prepared to consider.

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South Perspectives -August 2000

OVERVIEW

Many national governments and their international organizations, as well as several non-governmental development agencies, in the 1990s declared “sustainable development” and “sustainable agriculture” to be among their overarching goals. This paper examines the crucial importance of agriculture in “sustainable development” and some of the conceptual ambiguities and practical difficulties that must be faced by developing countries in attempting to approach “sustainable agriculture”.

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