To download free copies of the working papers that have just been posted, click here: http://www.cigionline.org/publications/working_papers.php

The General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to replace the UN's discredited human rights body with a new Human Rights Council, ignoring US objections that not enough was done to prevent abusive countries from becoming members, reports The Associated Press.

A year ago, Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed replacing the widely criticized and highly politicized UN Human Rights Commission, which has allowed some of the worst-offending countries to use their membership to protect one another from condemnation. The Human Rights Council, approved Wednesday, is a watered-down version of Annan's vision. But the secretary-general still called it "historic," and human rights groups welcomed its creation.

Kyodo (Japan) writes that Ambassador John Bolton said after the vote that Washington would cooperate to make the new council as ''strong and effective as it can be,'' despite the fact that ''we did not have sufficient confidence in this text to be able to say that the HRC would be better than its predecessor.''

Canadian daily The Globe and Mail writes that Bolton said his government is concerned that the UN members did not go far enough in ensuring that the council will have credibility. Bolton said the United States wanted council members elected by a two-thirds vote rather than a majority, and wanted a more efficient mechanism for booting violators off the council. Opponents of the resolution in the United States also complained that, under new term limits, the United States would have to vacate its seat three out of every nine years, leaving the world's only superpower vulnerable to political attacks.

Xinhua (China) explains that by the terms of the resolution, the membership in the new council would be based on equitable geographic distribution, and the 47 seats shall be distributed among regional groups with 13 from Africa, 13 from Asia, 6 from Eastern Europe, 8 from Latin America and Caribbean, and 7 from Western Europe and other countries. The members of the council will serve for a period of three years and shall not be eligible for immediate re-election after two consecutive terms. The elections of the first members of the council would take place on May 9, 2006, and that the first meeting of the council shall be convened on June 19.

The New York Times further explains that under terms meant to restrict rights abusers from membership, candidates for the council will be voted on individually rather than as a regional group, their rights records will be subject to mandatory periodic review and countries found guilty of abuses can be suspended. But the final text had a weakened version of the crucial membership restriction in Annan's original plan, which required new members to be elected by two-thirds of those voting. Instead, council members will be elected by an absolute majority of member states, meaning 96 votes.

The Washington Post adds that General Assembly President Jan Eliasson, who led negotiations on the council, said the resolution adopted Wednesday would strengthen the UN capacity to confront rights abusers and make it more difficult for them to join. "The true test of the council's credibility will be the use that member states make of it," Annan said. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other human rights groups praised the General Assembly's decision. But they cautioned that UN members will have to ensure that governments with poor rights records do not win election to the new council.

LONDON – Ethnic and religious fighting, land disputes and communal conflicts have driven more than 3 million Nigerians from their homes since 1999, a report showed in mid-March.
That gives Nigeria the dubious honour of being home to the third-highest number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the world after Sudan and Colombia.

How do other countries stack up? Here’s a league table of countries with the highest numbers of people internally displaced by violence.

1. Sudan 5.4 million
2. Colombia 1.7 to 3.7 million
3. Nigeria 3 million
4. Uganda 1.7 million
5. Congo 1.7 million
6. Iraq 1.2 million
7. Algeria 1 million
8. Turkey 356,000 to more than 1 million
9. India At least 600,000
10. Indonesia 342,000 to 600,000

Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre except Nigeria’s National Commission for Refugees for Nigeria

MILWAUKEE, WI - The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey released March 14, 2006 revealed that second-quarter hiring is expected to be positive in 23 of 24 countries and territories surveyed, with Japanese and German employers reporting their most optimistic hiring plans since the survey began in these countries in the second quarter of 2003. The strongest second-quarter hiring prospects reported globally were in Japan, India, Taiwan, Peru, New Zealand and Hong Kong, with only Italian employers reporting a negative hiring outlook for the quarter ahead. This quarter also marks the first time the survey has been conducted with employers across Peru. The quarterly report from Manpower Inc. (NYSE:MAN) is the most extensive, forward-looking employment survey in the world, gathering data from more than 47,000 employers across the globe each quarter.

"Despite high fuel prices and other challenges, the global labor market looks set to improve in most of Europe and Asia in the second quarter, with steady hiring set to continue in the Americas," said Jeffrey A. Joerres, Chairman & CEO of Manpower Inc. "German employers are saying they will begin to add employees again, albeit modestly, and hiring activity in Japan should be vigorous, beyond what we normally see in the second quarter - their peak hiring season. Chinese employers say they will reduce their hiring activity compared to last year at this time, while U.S. employers expect to add to their payrolls at a continued steady pace."

Employers in 10 of 12 European countries surveyed are reporting stronger hiring intentions compared to first quarter and nearly two-thirds are reporting improvements from last year at this time. Second-quarter hiring prospects are the strongest in Spain, Norway, Sweden, Ireland and the UK, based on seasonally adjusted data. Notably, the only negative Outlook for Europe was reported in Italy where employers have been pessimistic for three consecutive quarters. German, Spanish, Swiss and Dutch employers are reporting their strongest hiring intentions since the survey began in those countries. "Compared to the first three months of the year, hiring intentions in Europe are decidedly improved, however, Italy continues to lag behind," said Joerres. "Encouragingly, German employment prospects have improved from both the first quarter and a year ago at this time, with the strongest hiring activity anticipated by employers in the Finance/Insurance/Real Estate/Business Services sector."

Of the eight countries and territories included in the survey across Asia Pacific, hiring activity is expected to be strongest in Japan, India and Taiwan, while the weakest hiring in the region is anticipated in Singapore, Australia and China. While hiring is set to improve from first quarter in the majority of countries surveyed in Asia Pacific, employment prospects are weaker than the same quarter of 2005 in Australia, China, New Zealand and Taiwan.

"A large part of the robust hiring expectations in Asia Pacific can be attributed to activity in the Finance/Insurance/Real Estate, Manufacturing, and Services sectors, where improvements from first quarter were reported in these sectors across nearly every country," said Joerres. "Meanwhile, employers in five of six industry sectors we survey in China say they will slow hiring from one year ago, the only exception is the Finance/Insurance/Real Estate sector."

Hiring across the Americas is expected to remain stable from last year at this time. Employers in Peru joined the survey this quarter with particularly optimistic second-quarter hiring plans, the strongest of the four countries surveyed. The Canadian outlook remains identical to one year ago.

"The labor markets in North America have been incredibly stable and, as is so often the case, the Mexican labor market is moving in tandem with its northern neighbor," said Joerres. "There is notable optimism amongst employers in the Construction sector in both the U.S. and Mexico, where job seekers should find favorable conditions."

The next Manpower Employment Outlook Survey will be released on the 13th of June 2006 to report hiring expectations for the third quarter of 2006.

The new head of the World Bank is ruffling feathers, but his intolerance of crooked politicians should be applauded, writes former economics correspondent at the Far Eastern Economic Review, Salil Tripathi, in a commentary published in The Guardian (UK). World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has suspended loans to powerful countries, strengthened the internal department of institutional integrity, reshuffled officials, and brought in new staff with the aim of making the organization - and its borrowers – accountable (…) Wolfowitz is on the right track on corruption.

For too long, aid money has been squandered by unscrupulous officials and he appears to be keen to turn that around. In recent months, loans to Argentina, Bangladesh, India, Kenya and Uzbekistan have been put on hold. The Bank's disbursements to Chad have been suspended after the African country went back on its commitment to use revenues from a controversial pipeline with Cameroon only for agreed development targets. Individually, Wolfowitz's decisions may seem like unconnected, reflex-action measures. [But] to understand his crusade against corruption, think of his time as the US ambassador to Indonesia in the 1980s. Anyone who spent time in Indonesia during that time would have seen how corruption was undermining Indonesia. The Suharto regime had made the country self-sufficient in food, built infrastructure, and made serious attempts at spreading literacy, but the government was reeking of graft and hobbled by corruption, which raised costs at all levels. But few in the international community complained at that time, because Indonesia was the model pupil of the World Bank [until] change came abruptly, when the rupiah collapsed and debt-laden Indonesian firms went under. The story of many developing countries is similar, if less stark and spectacular, writes Tripathi.

Corruption hurts poor countries at all levels. It raises costs, diverts resources and undermines integrity. It forces people to act dishonestly. Big business passes on such costs by increasing prices, thereby passing the cost to consumers. At the petty level, bureaucrats who exercise discretionary power seek bribes even from the smallest of businesses - rickshaw drivers or shopkeepers. How will Wolfowitz measure, or eliminate, this? Governance indices from the World Bank, particularly from its innovative recent research on business procedures, such as the Doing Business reports, show that countries which have multiple and cumbersome procedures grow more slowly. When juxtaposed with the corruption perception index of Transparency International, the anti-corruption watchdog, there is often close to perfect correlation. Indeed, Wolfowitz's predecessor James Wolfensohn called corruption "cancer" as early as 1996, in a speech still cited widely within the Bank, writes Tripathi.

One way to address corruption is by setting examples and punishing bad behavior. That, Wolfowitz has already demonstrated. The other is to establish clear procedures that everyone can understand. While headline-grabbing suspension of loans, such as in the case of Chad, are useful and may even be necessary, in the longer run Wolfowitz will need a more coherent strategy.

To do this, he should also think beyond natural resources: oil is not the only culprit. The other elephant in the room is infrastructure - there is a reason why public works departments in many countries are known as "plunder without detection." The Bank needs to develop clearer criteria by pulling together the various anti-corruption initiatives in one framework. For every Chad there is a Cameroon, and the World Bank cannot say no to all loans, all the time, the author concludes.

A new United Nations report, "The World’s Women 2005:

Progress in Statistics", published in January 2006, concludes that there has been limited progress in the last thirty years both in the number of countries reporting national statistics as well as in the degree to which national statistics capture gender-related issues. With over forty percent of Africa’s population not covered by census, it is clear that today’s statistical reporting simply excludes many of the world’s poorest people. The report recommends that governments should conduct at least one census every ten years; and that countries establish and sustain civil registration and vital statistics systems, and adopt sustainable integrated national survey programs. “Statistics are essential building blocks for programs to provide health and education services, to fight poverty, AIDS and deliver clean water to communities,” said Shaida Badiee, Director of the World Bank’s Development Data Group, who chaired a recent World Bank panel discussion on the report. “Without reliable statistics, we don’t know the full scope of the problems and cannot adequately measure the results we actually achieve."

Corruption plays a crucial yet nearly invisible role in depriving nearly a fifth of the world's population of access to safe drinking water, a new United Nations report on water and development said on Thursday, reports Reuters.

While supplies of fresh water are adequate for the whole planet, mismanagement in its distribution helps explain why adequate drinking water is beyond the reach of 1.1 billion people, while 2.6 billion people lack access to basic sanitation, said the report prepared by 24 UN agencies. Those affected are among the world's poorest, and according to the report, over half of them live in China or India.

The Press Trust of India Limited adds that at this rate of progress, regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa will not meet the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water. Such are the findings in the second UN World Water Development Report entitled: "Water: A Shared Responsibility," which was presented at a press conference in Mexico Thursday on the eve of the fourth World Water Forum to be held March 16-22.

The BBC notes that described as the most comprehensive assessment to date of the world's freshwater supplies, the report said that politicians, businesses and aid charities all had a role to play in addressing the problem. Although steady progress had been made in recent years, it said that more still needed to be done. UNESCO, which headed the group of 24 UN agencies that compiled the data, said the report highlighted the need for stronger leadership and coordination.

The Associated Press writes that according to the UN, diarrhea diseases and malaria kill around 3.1 million people globally -- 1.6 million of whom could be saved if provided with safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene. Poor nations are losing as much as eight percent of their GDP due to environmental degradation. Water pollution in China alone cost the country $1.7 billion in lost industrial income in 1992. In Kenya, improved resilience to droughts and floods by better water management and preparedness could see the country's GDP increase as much as 6 percent, the report states.

The news agency adds that water use has increased six-fold during the last century -- double the rate of population growth. More water is needed for food production, which must grow by 55 percent to meet food needs by 2030. But private investment in water services is declining and financial resources for the water sector are stagnating, the report found. Investment in water also pays massive dividends, the authors argued. It is estimated that 322 million working days a year are lost -- worth $750 million -- because of poor water and sanitation. Meeting global targets to provide clean water and sanitation would yield time and convenience savings of $7 billion and $340 million in health care costs.

The Toronto Star (Canada) further reports that lakes, rivers and groundwater are being polluted and much water is wasted in inefficient industrial and farming practices. In many places, "a colossal 30 to 40 percent or more of water goes unaccounted for, through water leakages in pipes and canals and illegal connections." Wetlands, forests and other areas that naturally cleanse and store water are being destroyed. Mushrooming urban populations are spreading on to swampy or hilly land that's difficult to service. Climate change is worsening things: droughts in Africa and southern Europe are more intense, hurricanes are more violent and precipitation is increasingly unpredictable.

The daily adds that the report offers many solutions. They include pollution cuts, attacks on corruption, more efficient use of water - through measures such as drip irrigation instead of spray - and better urban planning. As well, it says, more dams and other storage measures should be built, particularly in Africa where only seven percent of the potential water control has been harnessed. Price increases would discourage waste, but poor people must be protected, the report states. The major reform, Gordon Young, coordinator of the Paris-based UN World Water Assessment Program says, must be improved communication, policies and planning by governments. Canada, with approximately 20 percent of the earth's fresh water is the envy of much of the world, and Young says, has the capacity and expertise to play a major role.

UN: Women Denied Representation, Making War On Poverty Hard To Win

Millions of women around the world are being denied effective representation because of the low numbers of female politicians, judges and employers, warns the United Nations in a report published to mark International Women's Day, The Independent (UK) reports.

Campaigners say that unless urgent action is taken on the status of women, the Millennium Development Goals on reducing poverty, infant deaths and standards of education will not be met. A woman dies every minute from complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth, and HIV rates are now rising faster among women than men. Charities say that 700 million women are living without adequate food, water, sanitation and education.

The UN report says rates of female participation in governments across the developed and developing world are still appallingly low and that for women to be adequately represented in their countries, at least 30 percent of parliamentary seats should have a female representative. Just 20 nations -- including Rwanda, Mozambique, Guyana and Burundi -- have reached or exceeded the 30 percent mark and only three countries (Chile, Spain and Sweden) have complete gender parity in government.

Reuters notes that even after winning a leadership post, women leaders face harsher judgment than their male counterparts when they make mistakes, simply because they are women, Rachel Mayanja, special UN adviser on the advancement of women told a news conference. According to the report, among the obstacles facing women, are their under representation in such male-dominated fields as the military and foreign affairs and the persistence of stereotypical attitudes and behavior toward women. Even though more women are being elected to parliaments every year, they soon discover "the absence of gender-sensitive enabling environments" in the world's legislatures, it said.

The Jakarta Post (Indonesia) further reports the Indonesian National Commission on Violence Against Women, in conjunction with International Women's Day, released a report Tuesday on violence against women in 2005. Commission chief Kamala Chandrakirana reported a 45 percent increase in reported cases of violence against women, from 14,020 cases in 2004 to 20,391 cases in 2005. Some 82 percent of the cases were domestic abuse. She said the increase showed an iceberg phenomenon. This indicates the number of reported cases in 2005 represents the actual extent of violence against women in Indonesia as Kamala said women had been gaining confidence about reporting the violence they suffered or witnessed since the Domestic Abuse Law came into effect in 2004.

Xinhua (China) meanwhile writes that Chinese legislators are calling for the clampdown on various forms of gender discrimination and maltreatment of women. Mentioning rampant extramarital love affairs, domestic violence, sexual harassment and career gender discrimination, deputies attending the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, said that more efforts should be made to prevent women from unfair treatment.

The Hindu (India) reports that in a message on the eve of International Women's Day, Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam said women had an important role to play in the mission to transform the country into a developed nation by 2020. Kalam noted that women were a source of inspiration for the family, society and ultimately the nation and that when a woman was empowered with value-based education, an empowered society was assured.

The Irish Times writes that in marking the theme of the day -- the celebration of leadership by women throughout the world -- there have been notable examples over the last year in politics and other spheres. Angela Merkel became the first female chancellor in Germany, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia became the first female president in Africa, Michelle Bachelet of Chile, the first in Latin America. The struggle to achieve these goals has inspired successive generations of women since International Women's Day was, in effect, inaugurated in Copenhagen in 1910.

Agence France Presse meanwhile notes that Liberian President Sirleaf, is in France on Wednesday as guest of honor for the country's International Women's Day celebrations. French President Chirac's office said that Chirac is expected to hail Sirleaf's efforts in rebuilding and reinforcing democracy in Liberia. Sirleaf, who became Liberia's leader in January after elections, has one of Africa's toughest jobs before

her: picking up the pieces in her small West African state after 14 years of civil war. Sirleaf's Women's Day events Wednesday include a development conference, UNESCO events and a banquet at France's foreign ministry.

China will channel its surging economic growth to narrow the chasm dividing its rich cities and restive countryside, Premier Wen Jiabao told parliament on Sunday in a speech tempering optimism with stark warnings, reports Reuters (03/04).

In setting out government goals for the coming year, Wen promised "continuity and stability" in general economic policy, including the currency exchange rate and monetary policy. But he said more wealth and investment must go to farmers and other struggling groups to ensure China's stability and growth. Wen warned of dangers and difficult choices ahead. Wen also drew a picture of a rapidly growing economy threatened by excessive investment, production gluts and mismanagement. He said distorted industrial expansion was undercutting China's long-term economic health.

A large section of his report addressed the government's plans to build a "new socialist countryside" for the country's 750 million farmers. Wen said the government plans to spend 339.7 billion yuan ($42.3 billion) this year on upgrading agriculture, and billions more on rural social services. The program was a "major historic task" to divert government investment, education and health care, and bank loans to the countryside, where rising protests against corruption and inequity have alarmed central officials.

Wen said these redistributive policies would bring industry and cities not pain but more growth by stimulating domestic demand. He described the measures as part of the government's "strategy of expanding domestic consumption." Income rises would provide cash for the poor to spend on consumer goods, and improved social security and more affordable hospitals and schools would ease fears about the future, he said.

Agence France Presse (03/05) adds that Wen plans to increase subsidies for farmers, and ensure they get paid enough for their products by maintaining floors on the prices of key grain varieties on the market. In another attempt to remedy this, China will completely rescind an agricultural tax collected from farmers nationwide, according to the Premier. The Premier also briefly suggested more efforts would be undertaken to protect farmers from land seizures, which often leave them with only token compensation.

The Associated Press (03/04) reports that China is confronting a rural health crisis on a monumental scale. Up to 90 percent of the 800 million people in China's countryside lack affordable medical care. Children go unvaccinated. AIDS patients can get free drugs, but can't afford the monitoring and additional medicine they need. China ranked 187th out of 191 countries in a recent World Bank survey of affordable care. Communist leaders are now promising to rebuild a rural health care system that has fallen apart with the decline of farm cooperatives during two decades of economic reform.

The Wall Street Journal (03/06) notes that the commitment to fund additional spending on rural health care and education from central coffers could have far-reaching consequences. Until now, Beijing has increasingly pushed the burden of social welfare onto cash-strapped local governments, which have responded by raising ad hoc fees they charge farmers. Hong Liang, a Hong Kong economist with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., said reducing the spending and revenue-raising powers of local governments would curb abuses of power that fuel rural unrest.

Beijing's focus on rural areas wouldn't necessarily result in a slowdown along the booming coast, she said, as investment there is largely funded by local governments, and central-government infrastructure spending has long been skewed toward the interior. Liang said it was "much more worrisome" that Wen made scant reference to private enterprise in his speech and emphasized government spending and subsidies over market-based solutions to tackle the country's welfare and agricultural problems.

Geneva, Switzerland, 6 March 2006 - The World Economic Forum, the world leader in competitiveness research, will release its annual Global Information Technology Report on Tuesday 28 March at 11.00 CET (10.00 GMT).

The Global Information Technology Report 2005-2006 assesses and ranks the competitiveness of a record 115 economies. The annual study is used widely by governments, academics and business leaders as a valuable tool for shaping economic policy and guiding investment decisions. It is based on the latest national statistics as well as results of the Executive Opinion Survey, which captures the perceptions of over 10,000 top business leaders around the world.

Since it was first launched in 2001, The Global Information Technology Report has become a valuable and unique benchmarking tool to determine national ICT strengths and weaknesses, and to evaluate progress.

The China Development Marketplace, a new initiative of the World Bank to support and strengthen grassroots civil society organizations (CSOs) in China, selected the top projects from 100 finalists. The winners proposed reduction of poverty through a range of different approaches. The winning ideas included supplying environmentally sustainable biological gas to single mothers in Hubei Province; creating support networks for waste collectors in Shenzhen City; teaching poor children believing in Islam in pasturing areas of Xinjiang vocational skills by providing them with micro-credit.

He Shenghua is the winner of a project that will create community service centers to teach deaf youngsters vocational skills in East China's Jiangxi Province. She said teaching sign language enhances communication not only between deaf children and their parents, but also within the wider deaf-mute community throughout China. "Every penny of the grant from China Development Marketplace will be spent on promoting services for deaf people in society."

Entitled "Supporting Innovations for Scaling-Up Services that Reach the Poor," the scheme reflects the World Bank's commitment to promoting the potential of CSOs to improve their communities, the Bank said. World Bank Vice President Frannie Leautier said China has made significant achievements in poverty reduction, but there are still challenges. "It is important and necessary for civil society organizations to play a key role in supplementing the government's efforts in the fight against poverty. "Often focusing on particular districts, and working closely with local governments, CSO interventions involve capacity building, training and service-delivery in micro-credit, agriculture, off-farm employment, education, health, water and sanitation, and other activities," said the vice president.

The news agency notes that almost 1,000 applicants from all over China submitted their ideas on how to best reduce poverty. The 100 finalists with the best ideas were invited to Beijing for the two-day competition to showcase and share their unique ideas. A diverse and eminent jury selected the winners during the event. Many of these judges came from China Development Marketplace partner organizations, including government agencies, academia, non-profit organizations, media, Chinese corporations, multinational corporations and the international donor community.

Each of the winners received up to $30,000 to implement their projects. David Dollar, China Country Director of the World Bank, thanked the finalists for their participation in the competition and for the role they are playing to reduce poverty around the country, saying, "In my mind they are all winners because they are doing important and rewarding work on the ground."

In other developments, Xinhua and Asia Pulse (02/27) note that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz praises China's poverty reduction efforts in a new publication that details worldwide efforts to reduce the scourge of poverty. Entitled “Reducing Poverty on a Global Scale: Learning and Innovating for Development,” the book identifies the main factors that cause an increase or reduction in poverty and what this means for the World Bank and donor countries.

An entire chapter is devoted to China which has worked closely with the World Bank to pilot innovative poverty reduction efforts in Southwest China, Qinba Mountain Area and northwest China's Gansu Province, and China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The book outlines how the World Bank-sponsored programs helped raise incomes, improve food security, and expand access to basic services in 61 of China's poorest counties. These projects have played an important role in poverty reduction and rural development, it said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Press International Information Services (02/24) report the World Bank Thursday announced names of 33 finalists being invited to the first Pakistan Development Marketplace, scheduled for March 15, 2006 in Islamabad.

After Chad, Kenya, and Bangladesh, it is now Congo-Brazzaville’s turn to be scrutinized by the World Bank, writes La Tribune (France). World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has decided to suspend several loans and block debt forgiveness to the country. Kleptocrats better watch out, the daily warns. Wolfowitz, who became head of the World Bank in June, is in the process of making the fight against corruption one of the priorities of his mandate, as corruption undermines the growth and thwarts the efforts of poverty reduction -- the heart of the World Bank’s mandate. But Congo is not an isolated case. Chad, Kenya, Bangladesh, India and Argentina recently witnessed themselves refused loans due to problems of corruption or the non-observance of commitments they entered into.

Meanwhile, the World Bank President has succeeded in enlarging his new crusade. Last week, during a meeting in Washington, the African, Asian, Inter-American, European development banks, as well as the World Bank, agreed to reinforce their practices in the fight against corruption, notably through the exchange of information.

A Radio France Internationale broadcast further reported that during a meeting of the World Bank’s Board of Directors in Washington last Thursday, Paul Wolfowitz said that Congo’s debt could not be cancelled without major changes by the government in terms of transparency. Wolfowitz said that debt relief for Congo could not be granted on the basis of promises, but on the basis of facts, good governance, and transparency. “I think we are basically on the right figures that have to be reached. There are basically three: the implementation of a new procurement code that promotes transparency and competition; reforms in the national oil company marketing practices that bring them in line with best international practice; and completion and implementation of a national governance and anticorruption plan,” Wolfowitz said.

The head of the global development lender stressed that a central issue was to get “real performance, the kind of performance that makes sure that debt relief goes to benefit the poor people of Congo.” Wolfowitz noted that 70 percent of the country’s population was living on less than a dollar a day, even though the country has more than $2 billion, the oil revenues of the country are more than $2 billion annually.

RFI adds that the decision of the World Bank President fully satisfies NGOs such as Global Witness, which belongs to the Publish What You Pay initiative. Sarah White of Global Witness stated that, “We, as a member of PWYP, are very happy with the decision the World Bank has taken. In the case of Congo, there are clear proofs of bad management of oil revenues and even embezzlement. In these circumstances, we think neither the World Bank nor the IMF should cancel Congo’s debt.”

La Croix (France) meanwhile writes that the government of Congo-Brazzaville “took note” of Wolfowitz’s desire to link debt forgiveness to country performance in the fight against corruption. “This desire is not at all in contradiction with what our country tries to do in the field of transparency and good governance,” stated a spokesperson for the Congolese government.

After more than two years of debate, the IFC's board passed measures changing the way businesses qualify for World Bank funding and injecting more flexibility into rules on consultations with local residents and assessments of the impact on the environment. The lender hailed the new guidelines as increasing the influence of local residents in developing countries over the lifetime of the projects, not just before they start, and said they also promoted sustainable use of natural resources.

The new guidelines cover labor rights, the impact of a project on health and safety of people and tracking greenhouse gas emissions - as well as expanding environmental assessments and social consultations. The IFC said its new standards will likely lead to an update of the so-called Equator Principles that - based on IFC guidelines - are already applied by 40 commercial lenders representing some 80 percent of global project finance.

Triggers for the changes, it said, were that old rules were inadequate for increasingly complex projects and a new IFC business model that believes long-term profitability of these ventures is better secured by the companies running them. But wider unease about standards applied to IFC-funded projects has been rising as some sparked protests by local communities over environmental problems and lack of consultation.

The Financial Times meanwhile reports that the move to tighten standards will have a big impact on the IFC's investment in Asia. Last year, the IFC committed nearly $1.5 billion to projects in south Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, out of a total of $6.5 billion. Under the new rules, projects will have to meet eight performance standards, including rules on pollution, health, biodiversity and working conditions. Companies working on projects with IFC financing will have to disclose much more about their engagement, including the expected risks and impacts. The IFC itself will also undertake to disclose more information than before.

Reuters further writes that concerned NGOs on Tuesday warn loosening the guidelines and moving away from minimum requirements and concrete benchmarks now left the IFC, whose mandate is development, behind many private banks in the benchmark it provides for good practice. Specifically, they said the new standards do not state when consultation with local populations should take place, fail to include the right of indigenous peoples to prior informed consent and rely largely on firms' self-reporting rather than independent assessments of a project's impact.

La Tribune (France) finally writes that certain World Bank officials fear that too strict standards encourage companies to seek other sources of financing among private banks. These fears, La Tribune writes, need to be qualified as 40 private international banks have said that they are ready to adopt the new criteria. Some have been members of the Equator Principles since 1998. The mining sector has stated in the past few days that it was "at ease" with the new criteria which raise the image of the companies. The IFC has already started to put them into practice. In Ghana, it recently granted partial financing to a gold extraction project piloted by Newmont on the condition that the mining giant involves the local communities.

MONTREAL - The kidnappers of American journalist Jill Carroll in Iraq have set Sunday, February 26th as a new deadline for meeting their demands. Reporters Without Borders is launching an international week of mobilisation starting on Tuesday, February 21st for her release. Reporters Without Borders Canada invites Canadian media to express their solidarity with Carroll and the two kidnapped Iraqi journalists also being held in the country. During this week, RWB distributes badges to media workers with the slogan "Free Jill Carroll" written on a white background, white being the colour we have chosen for this campaign. Everyone is encouraged to wear a badge in solidarity with the detained journalists and to publicise their case whenever possible. Reporters Without Borders Canada also has new audio recordings from Jill Carroll's father and twin sister asking for her release. These recordings can be sent to media representatives by email.

With only five days to go before the new ultimatum expires, the efforts of everyone are vital. If we really believe it is essential for journalists to be reporting in Iraq, it is our duty to step up action to save the lives of not only Carroll, but also Iraqi journalists, Ms. Rim Zeid and her colleague Mr. Marwan Khazaal, who are also being held hostage. Carroll, who works for several Jordanian, Italian and US papers, including the Christian Science Monitor, was kidnapped on January 7, 2006 by three armed men in the western Adel neighbourhood of Baghdad as she went to meet a Sunni politician, Adnan al-Dulaimi. The body of her interpreter, Allan Enwiyah, who was shot dead, was found at the scene.

Zeid and Khazaal, who work for the Iraqi TV station Al-Sumariya, were seized by four armed men as they left a press conference on February 1, 2005 at the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party.
37 journalists and media assistants have been kidnapped in Iraq since fighting began there in March, 2003. Eight of them are women.

In a commentary published in The Washington Post (02/20), columnist Sebastian Mallaby writes that nine months into his tenure as President of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz has made headlines mainly by provoking a staff backlash. Meanwhile, the staff backlash is obscuring something interesting. In the past few months, there have been hints of fresh thinking on corruption. Now the evidence has reached critical mass: The change appears to be genuine, writes Mallaby.

The Bank has held up $800 million in lending to Indian health projects. Indian politicians were said to have their hands on the health funds, so Wolfowitz blocked the loans. The Bank has frozen lending to Chad, whose government had reneged on a promise to spend its oil revenue on poverty reduction. It took some courage to admit that the curse of oil remained unbroken. The Bank has canceled 14 road contracts in Bangladesh because of corrupt bidding. Two government officials have since been fired, and Wolfowitz plans to ban the private firms involved from future World Bank contracts. The Bank has frozen five loans to Kenya because of corruption, though it did go ahead with a project to improve Kenya's financial management. The Bank has interrupted a project in Argentina that topped up the wages of poor workers.Some of the money seems to have greased the ruling Peronist Party's electoral machine before elections in 2003, and the government has brought charges against one senior official and fired 10 others.

Finally, the Bank has postponed debt relief for Congo. A team from the International Monetary Fund had certified that the country deserved relief, and the Bank was supposed to fall in line last Thursday. But a newspaper report about the Congolese president's extravagant hotel bills was passed around by Wolfowitz's top staff, who noted that KPMG, the firm that audits Congo's state oil company, had refused for three years running to sign off on its financial statements. On Tuesday Wolfowitz called the IMF's boss and asked whether Congo really merited debt relief. On Thursday he refused to go ahead with it.

In sum, Wolfowitz's World Bank presidency, which had seemed to lack an organizing theme, has acquired one. The new boss is going to be tough on corruption, and he's going to push this campaign beyond the confines of the World Bank; on Saturday he persuaded the heads of several regional development Banks to join his anti-corruption effort.

“As each case for intervention arises, Canada must prioritize our choice between intervention and respect for state sovereignty, realistically assess our capabilities, and then clearly identify the states and organizations that will make the best collaborators for Canada,” says Dr. Cooper in the paper. This entails adding the “3Ns”: niches, norms and networks, to the existing “3Ds” of defence, development and diplomacy.

Accompanying the release of this paper, Dr. Cooper will also give a public lecture entitled “Rethinking Canada’s Strategy for Humanitarian Intervention” as part of CIGI’s Food for Thought lecture series on February 17, 12:00pm-1:00pm. CIGI hopes the lecture and release of the Working Paper will generate broader public discussion on Canada’s foreign policy in fragile and weak states.

This Working Paper is the first in an upcoming series of publications on fragile states. The series builds on two international conferences held at CIGI in 2005: ”Canada in Haiti: Considering the 3-D Approach” (November 2005) and “Canada in Afghanistan: Assessing the 3-D Approach” (May 2005). Military, development, and political experts and NGO practitioners took part in those discussions. More information on those conferences may be found at www.cigionline.org

All CIGI Working Papers, encompassing themes such as emerging economies and the re-shaping of diplomacy, are available at http://www.cigionline.ca/publications/working_papers.php.

The World Bank announced this week that Latin America needs to cut poverty to boost growth - a conclusion that may be "descubriendo el agua tibia," or, stating the obvious. But this is a big deal for the international lending institution, writes columnist Marcela Sanchez of The Washington Post.

The authors of the World Bank report, "Poverty Reduction and Growth: Virtuous and Vicious Circle," recognize that a country can't necessarily grow its way out of poverty, and that poverty can be a huge drag on economies and on growth. Poor regions lacking in infrastructure fail to attract investment. Poor families, faced with substandard schools and high costs, are less likely to invest in the education of their children. And, as has been particularly clear in recent years, countries unable to moderate income disparities face social tensions that jeopardize business. As the authors quantify it, when poverty levels increase by 10 percent, growth decreases by 1 percent and investment is reduced by up to 8 percent of a country's GDP.

Two of their main conclusions are a breakthrough for the Bank: that private sector growth is not a panacea for the poor and that inequality must be targeted directly. Sanchez suggests that a third conclusion is almost heretical for the Bank: that the state needs to take on more economic responsibility than less. "Converting the state into an agent that promotes equality of opportunities and practices efficient redistribution is, perhaps, the most critical challenge Latin America faces in implementing better policies that simultaneously stimulate growth and reduce inequality and poverty," the report says.

The authors of the World Bank report point out that there are specific "intervention" programs already in place in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico that manage to be "both pro-poor and pro-growth." These programs provide cash to very poor families under the condition that their children stay in school and that they take steps to improve their health. Rather than creating dependency or increasing birth rates, as some critics feared, the programs have "successfully increased human capital" in high-poverty regions.

Tages Anzeiger (Switzerland) meanwhile reports that according to the World Bank report, one fourth of Latin Americans live on less than three Swiss francs per day. And the gap between rich and poor is getting bigger. Latin American heads of governments can be satisfied with the overall economic growth over the past two years. In 2004, GDP rose on average 5.7 percent, and 4.2 percent last year. The majority of the population did not, however, profit from the newly won dynamics. The new study by the World Bank shows that growth does not automatically remove poverty. Of the 450 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean, 135 million cope with less than 3 francs per day. About 40 million people are extremely poor, they don't even have enough money to buy the most basic food items on a regular basis.

EFE News Service and Cinco Dias (Spain) also report on the World Bank study, "Poverty Reduction and Growth: Virtuous and Vicious Circle."

Boomtown Rats member and Live Aid founder and Bob Geldof has joined forces with Berlin-based global anti-corruption group Transparency International (TI) to better ensure global aid is not lost to corruption, reports The BBC (UK).

They will focus on the $50 billion of additional aid to developing nations pledged last year by the Group of Eight (G8) most industrialized nations. "It will not be possible to beat poverty without fighting corruption," said Geldof. Geldof wants TI founder Peter Eigen to head a group studying aid delivery.

Geldof said he would urge UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to appoint Eigen to lead the independent monitoring committee on aid delivery proposed by Blair's Commission on Africa Report. Geldof, along with fellow anti-poverty campaigner and pop star Bono, wants Eigen to head a committee of six or seven high profile members.

Eigen said Tuesday's coming together of TI and Geldof would have a real impact. "Today we have started a dialogue between a champion of the global fight against poverty and the worldwide organization at the vanguard of the anti-corruption movement," he said. "This cooperation has the potential to save millions of lives and improve the quality of life for millions more."

Geldof said the proposed monitoring committee must "have an understanding of corruption and how it works." He added that structures need to be put in place to ensure that the G8's promised increase in aid got through to those who needed it.

Le Monde (France) meanwhile writes that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has made the fight against corruption one of its priorities. The Kenyan government had to realize a few days ago not to take his words lightly. The organization suspended a loan of $250 million while several ministers in the government are facing corruption charges. "The money will only be made available once we are satisfied with the governments' efforts in the fight against corruption," his spokesperson said. For Wolfowitz, the number one priority of the Bank towards its shareholders is to ensure that the $20 billion in loans that are made available each year are neither wasted nor embezzled.

A blueprint for China's future Thursday predicted that the world's most populous country will have eradicated poverty by 2050, reports The Guardian (UK).

The China Modernization Report, drawn up by the country's leading research institute, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, predicted that the more than 80 million Chinese living below the government's poverty line of less than 668 yuan ($81) a year will be lifted out of poverty and that half the projected population of 1.5 billion will own a car and be able to afford overseas travel. If the country can maintain its current nine percent rate of economic growth, it predicts the average income in China will rise to $1,300 a month, about ten times the current level.

Agence France Presse notes that if China were to continue along its current development path, the earth's most populous country would be among the world's top 40 modernized nations by 2050, the academy, overseen by the State Council, China's cabinet, said. "By the end of the 21st century it will be in the top 20." The academy pointed out that in 2001 China lagged 80 years behind the US and Europe in terms of a developmental index that factored in overall productivity, urbanization, average life expectancy and adult literacy. However, to attain such goals China will have to leave behind its agrarian roots and transform itself into a wholly industrialized society and then move towards a knowledge-based society, similar to that of Europe and the US. The academy's report was not resoundingly endorsed, however, with an editorial carried in the English language China Daily on Thursday cautioning it may not be realistic.

The Press Trust of India writes that China has already recorded impressive achievements in reducing poverty. According to Chinese official statistics, the population in abject poverty was reduced from 250 million to 26 million during 1978 and 2004. The ratio of the very poor to the total rural population has been reduced from 30.7 percent to 3.1 percent.

He Chuanqi, head of the research team who compiled the report, said that to attain the goal, China should follow two stages of social transformation. It should first turn into a city-based industrialized society from the present agricultural one, and then step into a knowledge-oriented society with rural and urban areas developing at the same rate.

By 2050, 80 percent of the urbanization work in China will have been completed, Xinhua (China) quoted Chuanqi as saying. He added that the social transformation will also bring great changes to peoples' life-styles, as 80 percent of the population would have access to information industry services, 50 percent could afford foreign travel and 50 percent would own private cars. However, he was keen to point out that the current situation is still not that optimistic. The economic index of China in 2001 equaled that of the US 100 years ago. China is lagging far behind developed countries in terms of urbanization, life-expectancy and adult literacy. He also noted that the social transformation will change peoples' opinions and life-styles, thus evoking controversy and provoking social problems.

But the Bank's quarterly report on the eight ex-communist countries which joined the European Union in 2004 said elections in four central European countries and inflationary pressures in the Baltic states may delay euro adoption beyond current plans. "Growth remains buoyant in the EU-8 despite high oil prices, slow recovery in Western Europe, and domestic political uncertainty related to elections," Thomas Laursen, the World Bank lead economist for the region, said in a statement. "However, slow progress in fiscal consolidation in the Visegrad countries and inflation pressures in the Baltics create uncertainty about euro adoption prospects," he said.

The Bank said it expected no improvement this year in budget positions, needed to fulfil euro entry criteria, among the so-called Visegrad countries of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, with Hungary even risking deterioration. Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia face elections this year and Poland's polls last year produced a minority government.

Laursen said Poland, the biggest of the new EU members, was missing an opportunity for bolder budget reforms, created by a pick-up in economic growth and the fact that its conservative government was still at the beginning of its term. Poland's government last week signed a deal with two smaller parties, raising concerns it may lead to looser budget policy and higher spending. Buoyant growth in the region is helping to reduce high unemployment rates which are easing in tandem with strong output and productivity growth, the Bank said. But sustained growth and more job creation required further reforms.

The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania eased their fiscal policies in recent months despite continued robust economic expansion, the World Bank said. It warned that this policy shift, coupled with high oil prices, may complicate inflation control. The Bank said Slovakia was set to adopt the single currency in 2009, while Slovenia was on track for euro zone entry in 2007. Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, which aim to take up the euro either in 2007 or 2008, may miss their targets, because of their problems with controlling inflation, it said. It reiterated that Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary were all unlikely to join the euro bloc before 2010.

The World Bank boosted its forecast for China's economic growth this year from 8.7 percent to 9.2 percent on Thursday following an economic census that prompted Beijing to sharply increase the official size of its economy, reports The Associated Press.

Agence France Presse writes that the Bank offered a "benign" outlook for the world's fastest growing major economy in its "China Quarterly Update," attributing growth to strong demand for its exports, continuing robust investment and increasing domestic demand. However, consumption is not expected to expand fast enough in 2006 to achieve the government's goal of more balanced growth, largely due to subdued rises in already low rural incomes, the report said. To achieve more balanced growth, the government will need to invest more on social services, such as health care, education and a social safety net to encourage farmers and others to spend more, the bank said.

The organization said the revised figure was due to the government's announcement in December last year that the size of economy had been underestimated by 16.8 percent in 2004 and so was not due to any change in the general economic situation. The world's fastest growing economy grew 9.9 percent in 2005, elevating it to the world's fourth biggest, from seventh place previously, overtaking France and Britain.

Xinhua (China) notes Bert Hofman, the World Bank's chief economist for China, told a briefing in Beijing that China's adoption of a more flexible exchange rate last year should make it easier for its central bank to limit spare credit in the banking system. China scrapped its currency's 11-year-old peg to the dollar in July last year in favor of a link to a trade-weighted basket of currencies, allowing it to appreciate 2.1 percent against the US unit. Hofman noted that the reform had achieved a "fair amount of success" in reducing non-foreign direct investment inflows into the country, especially in the second half of 2005, thereby increasing monetary policy independence. Funds had rushed into the country betting on a large appreciation of the Chinese currency, the yuan, but the limited gains against the dollar achieved since July plus interest rate hikes in the US and elsewhere may have dampened the enthusiasm of speculators.

AFX Asia (Hong Kong) adds that the World Bank forecasts broad M2 money supply growth of 15 percent in 2006 but stops short of any interest rate predictions. It said, however, that a more flexible exchange rate system could eventually allow for rises in the cost of capital, which is currently priced well below international levels and strictly controlled by the People's Bank of China. A market-driven currency policy could also provide China with another means of managing inflation via exchange rate fluctuations that influence the cost of imports and, as a result, domestic prices. At present, however, China's economy is not at major risk of either inflation or deflation, according to World Bank forecasts, which put consumer price index (CPI) growth at 1.8 percent in 2006, the same as last year. Overcapacity, which pushed down prices in China last year, remains restricted to selected sectors and does not yet deserve macroeconomic intervention, the Bank said.

Reuters adds that as significant as the headline forecasts is the Bank's judgment that domestic demand is taking over the baton of growth from exports - a key goal of China's latest five-year plan, which has just commenced. While China's trade surplus tripled to a record $102 billion in 2005, fanning protectionist flames in the US, the World Bank said the contribution of trade to economic growth had already turned negative. Louis Kuijs, the Bank's senior economist for China, said import growth was likely to keep outstripping exports in 2006. "We expect looking forward that there will be a gradual decline in the trade surplus," Kuijs told a news conference. "It will take a while before the surplus has dropped dramatically, but we do see a halt in this trend."

Bringing better balance to the economy will also require tilting domestic demand away from investment towards consumption. Here the Bank was less optimistic of swift progress because of the difficulty of significantly boosting incomes in the countryside, where two out of three Chinese live, without much faster emigration to the cities. Strong fixed-asset investment - growth in the last 3 years has averaged 26.3 percent - has raised fears that gluts will squeeze margins and profits, spawning a new crop of bad loans.

Hofman acknowledged that state-owned companies, flush with cash and with easy access to credit, may not have incentives to rein in investment. But he said there was no convincing evidence of systemic overcapacity or overproduction. The Bank said the challenges facing policy makers had not changed much as a result of China's first comprehensive economic census.

It has been written off as wristband idealism, but last year's "Make Poverty History" campaign mobilized a generation of politically active young people, according to a survey for Oxfam, reports The Guardian (UK).

Eighty-four percent of 16- to 25-year-olds said the campaign and the Live8 concerts had had the biggest impact on them last year, ahead of London's Olympic bid victory and the general election. Two-thirds of respondents said they had worn the white bands last year and a similar percentage intended to support charities this year by signing petitions or joining email campaigns. Nearly half said they would attend rallies or events this year, and 45 percent said they would donate money or goods to charity.

But the survey of 1,400 16- to 25-year-olds for Oxfam's website, Generation Why, also indicated that charities needed to work hard this year to maintain the impetus. More than half (54 percent) of those surveyed said they were uncertain about what should happen next. Young people were not turned off by the celebrity-driven nature of Make Poverty History. More than three-quarters (78 percent) said celebrity endorsements got "the message to people who might not otherwise care", and 63 percent said actors and music stars could raise awareness of important issues. Just 6 percent said the involvement of celebrities trivialized the issues.

The office and World Economic Forum USA Inc. - an independent, non-profit organization with its own board and officers - will be led by the former Chairman and CEO of CNH Global NV, Jean-Pierre Rosso, who will become its Chairman as well as Chairman of the Centre for Global Industries. Mr Rosso previously was Chairman and CEO of Case Corporation (which through its merger with New Holland formed CNH Global NV) and currently serves on the boards of ADC Telecommunications, Inc., Eurazeo, and Medtronic.

"I am excited to join the World Economic Forum team and contribute to its mission to improve the state of the world. The Centre for Global Industries is a major step towards reinforcing the partnership between business and other global stakeholders to address key global issues."

With operations spanning New York and Geneva, the Centre for Global Industries will focus on developing the Industry Partnership programme, which is aimed at engaging global companies in the Forum's activities at the industry level. To date, more than 80 companies have formally joined the programme, including more than 45 from North America.

Commenting on the announcement, Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum said: “This step of expanding our presence in the US will help us better serve our core constituency, the business community, many members of which are based in North America or have significant operations there. Along with the recent announcement of an office in Beijing, it helps give the Forum a truly global presence. Jean-Pierre Rosso brings a wealth of experience and intelligence to his new role, and I have complete confidence that we will see the Centre thrive under his leadership. On a personal note we have always had a very special relationship with New York - we even moved our Annual Meeting normally held in Davos to New York to show solidarity with the city in the months after 9/11. In many ways the city is a home from home.”

“The World Economic Forum's decision to locate its North American affiliate here signals its enormous confidence in New York City as one of the world's greatest places to do business," said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. "Our unparalleled access to global companies and international markets will allow World Economic Forum USA to advance its mission and achieve great success in its new office."

US operations will be led by Kevin Steinberg, who will become the Chief Operating Officer of the World Economic Forum USA Inc. Mr Steinberg brings 14 years of experience with the World Economic Forum to his new role, having in recent years led its Membership and Partnership department, overseen its Geneva-based industry teams and guided its Institutional Strategy function.

Kevin Steinberg noted: “Complementing our presence in Geneva with dedicated teams in New York will allow us to more effectively and systematically work with our corporate partners - not only those based in the US, but also globally. New York, as a leading centre for global business, is a focal point of expertise and activities for many industries. With the creation of the World Economic Forum USA Inc., we hope to become an integrated part of that hub, offering our members and partners a way to collectively engage on issues that matter to them most."

The Board of the World Economic Forum USA Inc. will initially include Al Berkeley, Chairman and CEO of Pipeline Trading Systems and formerly the President and Vice-Chairman of NASDAQ; Rajat Gupta, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company and formerly its Managing Director Worldwide; Joe Schoendorf, Partner, Accel Partners; with Jean-Pierre Rosso as its Chairman. Kevin Steinberg will serve as its Secretary.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) wrapped up its annual meeting in the Swiss mountain resort Sunday with the emphasis firmly on business, reports The Associated Press (01/29). Business leaders reviewed the discussions of the week, which covered topics including the potential growth of China and India, Iran's nuclear program, Iraq and Hamas' landslide election victory. Martin Sorrell, group chief executive of the British-based advertising giant WPP, said India had made a strong presentation to leaders during the Forum, while reports on the strength of the Chinese economy, now in third place globally by some measures, had sharpened the discussions. "But it's not just India and China," Sorrel said. "In the context of Asia it's countries such as Pakistan, countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh in the long term, that will become critically important. Latin America, in contrast, was hardly mentioned in the Forum's discussions, he said.

The Business Standard (India, 01/30) writes that the 36th Annual Meeting of WEF identified several areas of concern during the 240-odd sessions held in the course of the last five days. These included the challenges arising out of the need for encouraging risk-taking, creating a global educational framework, reducing income disparities, meeting skills requirements, tackling the threat of climate change and ensuring sustainable environment through sustainable energy policies, global integration, accountability and responsibility among global leaders. But in the closing session many stressed the need for reducing the imbalances in global growth as the primary area of concern.

The Associated Press (01/28) further notes that the question of what is needed not just to aid Africa but actually solve its seemingly never-ending problems was the theme of a top international panel -- including Britain's finance minister, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, rock star-activist Bono and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo -- at the WEF. Obasanjo tried to focus on the positive, but attention soon turned to Africa's endemic miseries of conflict, corruption, and government incompetence. And from the labyrinth of advice, gentle scolding and genuine good will from panel and the audience of several hundred people, consensus seemed to emerge.

In related news, Agence France Presse (01/28) reports that World Trade Organization (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy and ministers from 19 nations agreed on a detailed timeline Saturday to smooth progress over global trade talks, which one participant said was entering its "end game." After the first political gathering since the WTO's full ministerial conference in Hong Kong last month, Lamy said about 40 percent of a landmark deal on breaking down barriers to commerce still needed to be secured by the agreed deadline of the end of the year. Full details were not made available because the rest of the WTO's 149 members still have to examine them.

The International Herald Tribune (01/28) writes that as world trade ministers started a two-day meeting on Friday in an effort to unblock global trade talks, the EU warned that it would lose nothing by walking away from the negotiating table, while the US said there would be little progress unless the EU made a new offer on agriculture. Just over three months before an April 30 deadline for trade leaders to agree to a formula for cutting trade barriers, both sides are intensifying their rhetoric.

Reuters (01/28) notes that the US and South Korea will announce the launch of politically sensitive free trade negotiations next week, a source close to the situation told Reuters on Saturday. "There is going to be a press conference in Washington on Thursday. This is going to be the largest US free trade arrangement since NAFTA," the source told Reuters on the sidelines of the WEF. US Trade Representative Rob Portman said he hoped to announce the launch of free trade talks with South Korea "in the immediate future."

Agence France Presse (01/28) adds that a summit of leaders of key WTO nations should be held around late February or in March to drive forward global trade talks, Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Saturday. Amorim said top-level political input was fast becoming essential to help negotiators overcome conflicting demands in the 149-nation WTO talks, particularly on the controversial issues of cutting agricultural tariffs and subsidies. Amorim said a trade summit would have to be a carefully-timed "one-shot operation" involving key nations.

Reuters (01/28) further notes that Japan will help developing countries sell their products under a "one village, one product" campaign at the country's two international airports, Japan's trade minister said on Saturday. Toshihiro Nikai, minister for trade, economy and industry, said the campaign would help contribute to the WTO’s Doha round of free trade negotiations launched in late 2001.

The BBC (01/28) reports that UK chancellor Gordon Brown has dismissed suggestions that little progress has been made in tackling global poverty since the Gleneagles G8 summit in July. Brown told BBC £170 billion of debt had been written off, aid to Africa had doubled, and health and education programs organized. But Brown, speaking from the WEF in Switzerland, conceded trade negotiations had failed. And he said the Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis, launched on Friday at the WEF, "wouldn't have happened" without pressure from the Gleneagles summit. He also cited an education plan - which aims to provide by 2015 primary schooling for 110 million children who currently receive no provision - as a further example of progress made on global poverty since Gleneagles.

Agence France Presse (01/28) further writes that as world leaders build a response to the threat of a bird flu pandemic, health experts and officials simulated a worst-case scenario of a deadly outbreak among humans in Europe. The experiment on the margins of the annual WEF was one of a series governments and officials have been carrying out to assess their readiness. It underlined, said David Nabarro, the United Nations' coordinator for bird and human influenza, that much work remains to be done in order to prevent or, if necessary, contain any outbreak.

Davos, Switzerland, 28 January 2006 - Business leaders have called for a greater role in the fight to reduce poverty and speed progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). A new report from the World Economic Forum released today calls for business expertise and skills to be more broadly applied in partnerships to tackle world problems.

In meetings here this week, business leaders defined strategies for expanding private-sector partnerships with government, agency and non-profit groups to address health, education and hunger in developing countries.

The Forum released a new report today outlining high-leverage ways in which companies can apply their skills to the problems of hunger, malaria and basic education. The report, "Harnessing Private Sector Capabilities to Meet Public Needs," includes examples of over 40 companies engaged in high-impact work on these three issues.

"Companies have skills and capabilities that can be applied to development," said Richard Samans, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum. "Often these capabilities turn out to be more valuable than simply writing a cheque. This report takes a first step towards mapping out the ways in which core capabilities of specific industries can help meet development needs."

Business and public leaders met Thursday with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to discuss private-sector strategies for reducing hunger in Africa. "Business is joining the fight against hunger, through a wider strategic action plan," said Antony Burgmans, Chairman of Unilever, who co-chaired the meeting. Participants discussed applying business skills and innovation to help small-scale farmers grow and sell more food, through supply chain improvements, the training of entrepreneurs and investments in higher education. The Forum report points to promising efforts by agribusinesses to get improved seeds and fertilizer into hungry regions; by food retailers to provide training and guaranteed markets to farmers; and by food manufacturers to fortify staple foods with key micronutrients.

John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, noted that information technology firms have teamed up with governments, school administrators, local and global companies and NGOs to develop new curricula, train teachers and provide IT infrastructure to schools in poor regions. Cisco Systems has helped lead successful efforts by companies and public partners to improve education systems in Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and Rajasthan, India, through the World Economic Forum's Global Education Initiative.

"The Internet and education can provide equal and greater access to opportunities for individuals, communities and nations," Chambers said. "An effective educational system is critical for economic growth and the development of a thriving private sector, and success in improving global education can only be achieved through strong public-private partnerships, the co-application of core competencies and resources, and sustained investment." Chambers and other CEOs are discussing broadening their efforts to other countries in meetings undertaken at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, through the Forum's Global Education Initiative.

At the Forum's Global Health Initiative meeting, over 50 CEOs met to discuss business strategies for addressing malaria and other diseases. These include not only expanding the market reach of anti-malarial drugs, bednets and diagnostic tests by their manufacturers, but also innovative efforts by companies in malaria-endemic areas to reduce the impact of the disease on a community scale. Exxon-Mobil distributes subsidized bednets to pregnant women through its filling stations in Africa, and BHP Billiton works in partnership with the governments of Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland to reduce the malaria burden around its mining operations in Southern Africa.

According to John Clarkeson, Chairman of the Boston Consulting Group, companies are increasingly perceiving the value of engaging in such efforts. "In the case of malaria, the business case for companies to get involved in malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment can include business considerations like saving on employee health costs or developing new markets. But it can also include less-tangible factors such as enhancing reputation or strengthening community relations."

Governments and public agencies are increasingly seeking collaboration with companies to help improve and expand development programmes. "The MDGs will not be reached without active private sector engagement," said Kemal Dervis, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme.

The Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis (2006-2015) - released today by the Stop Tuberculosis Partnership, a coalition of more than 400 organizations worldwide - calls for global tuberculosis spending to triple over the next decade to increase access to tuberculosis control programmes and accelerate research on new tools to fight the disease.

Chancellor Brown called for the G8 to formally designate tuberculosis a top priority at its next meeting in July, and urged G8 member countries to pledge immediate new funding to implement the Global Plan.

"I welcome the Gates Foundation's announcement today. For far too long, world leaders have ignored the global tuberculosis epidemic, even as it causes millions of needless deaths each year," Chancellor Brown said. "Today's plan demonstrates that the fight against tuberculosis is one we can win. I hope that the G8 will make fighting tuberculosis a top priority."

President Obasanjo said implementing the new tuberculosis plan should be also a major priority for African leaders. Nigeria will be hosting an African Heads of State meeting in May, at which tuberculosis is likely to be addressed.

"The Global Plan is fundamental for Africa, where tuberculosis was declared an emergency by 46 countries in 2005," Obasanjo said. "We hope the African Union will endorse this plan, and call upon African governments to commit their share of the resources needed to implement it."

Fully implementing the Global Plan would cost an estimated $56 billion over the next decade - including $47 billion for tuberculosis control and $9 billion for research and development - an overall increase of $31 billion over currently projected funding. Based on current funding trends, the plan estimates at least 40% of the additional funding needs to come from the G8 and other donor countries, while the remaining 60% should come from the governments of tuberculosis-affected countries.

Gates Foundation Pledges to Triple Tuberculosis Funding

To help achieve the plan's goals, Bill Gates announced that the Gates Foundation will triple its funding for tuberculosis over the next decade, with a focus on supporting research and development. To date, the foundation has committed more than $300 million for tuberculosis. Today's pledge will take this total to more than $900 million by 2015.

"This plan makes a compelling case for greater investment in tuberculosis," said Gates. "We're willing to triple our funding for tuberculosis, and we urge others to do the same. If we have the chance to save 14 million lives, and a clear plan to make it happen, we have an obligation to act."

Gates emphasized that new tools are urgently needed to fight tuberculosis - the current treatment regimen for tuberculosis takes at least six months to complete, and approximately 300,000 cases of tuberculosis every year are resistant to multiple tuberculosis drugs.

New Plan to Provide Tuberculosis Treatment to 50 Million People in 10 Years, Help Achieve MDGs

Full funding of the new Global Plan announced today will help achieve the Millennium Development Goal to have "halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of tuberculosis". Key objectives of the plan include the following:

Improve treatment access - prevent 14 million tuberculosis deaths and provide treatment to 50 million people.

New drugs - develop and distribute the first new tuberculosis treatment regimen in nearly 40 years.

New vaccine - develop a safe and affordable vaccine to improve upon the existing vaccine, which has been in use since the early 1900s.

New diagnostics - develop efficient, effective and affordable diagnostic tests for tuberculosis - the first in more than a century.

"We have a unique historic opportunity to stop tuberculosis, but we must act now," said Dr Marcos Espinal, Executive Secretary of the Stop Tuberculosis Partnership. "The challenge now is for people to work together in putting the plan into action, in order to stop one of the oldest and most lethal diseases known to humanity. This plan tells the world exactly what we need to do in order to defeat this global killer."

Dr Espinal noted that the plan will build upon important progress against tuberculosis over the past several years. Since 2000, estimated spending on tuberculosis control in the 22 hardest-hit countries has increased from US$800 million to US$1.2 billion; as a result, the number of patients receiving tuberculosis treatment in these countries more than doubled.

The Plan will be implemented based on a new Stop Tuberculosis Strategy developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), which houses the Stop Tuberculosis Partnership. The strategy has six key elements: optimizing and sustaining access to the existing tuberculosis treatment and control strategy - known as DOTS; adapting DOTS to respond to challenges such as HIV/AIDS and Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis; strengthening health systems; partnering and engaging with all care providers; empowering patients and communities to fight tuberculosis; and promoting research and development for new drugs, diagnostics and vaccines.

Global risks can no longer be dealt with reactively. In line with "The Creative Imperative" which underscores this year's Annual Meeting, the Global Risk Report 2006 outlines the pillars of a proactive risk mitigation agenda.

Our common vulnerabilities to global risks, from terrorism to natural disasters, were on tragic display in 2005. In an increasingly interconnected world, we have a shared responsibility to collectively address global risks, from those in the public eye at the moment - such as pandemics - to those that are moving fast up the international agenda - such as climate change. The aim of collective risk mitigation is to ensure that today's global risks do not become tomorrow's headlines.

The report draws on the expertise of the Forum's extensive network of academics, business leaders and practitioners to provide insights into the nature of global risks.

In 2005, the network benefited in particular from the partnership of Merrill Lynch, MMC (Marsh & McLennan Companies) and Swiss Re, and the expertise of the Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. In the year ahead, the Forum intends to build on the insights of the Global Risk Report 2006 through an enhanced Global Risk Network.

Professor Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, explaining the thinking behind the network, said