The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
INTERNATIONAL NEGOTIATIONS ON TRADE AND ENVIRONMENT History of conflict - The world initiated a multilateral trading system with the establishment of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ( gatt ) in 1946 to promote trade liberalisation. - The Uruguay Round, held between 1986 and 1994, led to the creation of …
THE MULTILATERAL AGREEMENT ON INVESTMENTS Attempted agreement The first suggestion for a multilateral agreement on investments came during the Uruguay Round in 1994. It was strongly opposed by Southern countries as it threatened to take away regulatory control over foreign investment. The eu made an unsuccessful attempt to introduce the …
GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL FACILITY Established in October 1991, number of members: 165 The institution The World Bank designed the institutional structure for the Global Environmental Facility (gef ), initiated in 1990. The us made sure gef began on a temporary three-year term. With Australia and Canada, the us maintained that such …
EVOLVING INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE UN Reform to perform The un 's attempts to streamline its environment programme have been consistent. The results have not. The reform process began in 1992. It involved extensive reassembling and bringing all units dealing with economic and social matters under …
UN FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE In force from March 1994, ratified by 176 countries KYOTO PROTOCOL Signed by 84 countries, not yet in force A political process driven by climate scientists, which began in the mid-1980s, resulted in the Framework Convention on Climate Change ( fccc ), signed by …
I t's official. Bill Clinton will not be coming to India to discuss the nuclear issue, or the Indo-Pak issue. Environment and energy will top his list of priorities. This may come as a surprise to Indian politicos, who consider this a 'soft agenda'. But Clinton will be addressing an …
the failure of policies initiated by the forest department has led to a flourishing business for brokers involved in the sale of medicinal plants and non-wood forest products. This has resulted in the extensive destruction of biodiversity in Kotoor town of Kerala. An hour-long bumpy drive from the state capital …
Despite an expenditure of billions of rupees on various studies connected with the Baghmati river and Kathmandu valley's development, no concrete plans have emerged for the cleanup of the rivers in the region. Vast sums of money have also been spent on the rivers in Kathmandu valley
Aid workers have warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in the flood-affected areas of Mozambique. After weeks of flooding from torrential rain that killed 67 people and displaced 21,000, the cyclone Eline lashed the country on February 22 making matters worse. According to Marielise Berg-Sonne, a Red Cross official, as …
despite the government's claims of the country being a centre of megadiversity with immense traditional knowledge of its use, little has been done to nurture both. Yet another board has been set up, and major issues concerning biodiversity
When Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha said he would be presenting a harsh budget, very few thought it would be harsh on the environment. Today apart from the fiscal deficit, the biggest crisis facing India is the crisis on the environmental front. This budget has even shed the pretense of …
"TIME the politicians of our country heard our side of the story. The last 52 years have been of silence and agony," says D K Mishra, an expert on floods prior to the screening of the documentary Dui Paatan Ke Beech Mein at the India International Centre in New Delhi …
with the Yamuna dead, Delhi's aquifers almost empty and the watertable having fallen more than 7.5 metres in less than 20 years, the state government is considering three proposals for water harvesting in the capital. All of them deal with traditional water harvesting methods, reviving the Yamuna and its ancient …
massive ecological destruction is leading to the drying up of riverbeds, nullahs and streams in and around Similipal. This was a common fear expressed by speakers at a recent workshop on 'River and dam management in the context of Similipal protection' organised recently. It is estimated that there are about …
Ministry clueless on diesel quality It came as a surprise when the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas ( mpng ) recently informed the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority ( epca ) that oil companies would be able to supply diesel with 0.05 per cent sulphur content in Delhi …
An increasing number of studies and reports are indicting the Gujarat government for letting off polluting industries lightly. A recently-released report by the Indian People's Tribunal ( ipt ) on Environment and Human Rights says that "of the approximately 90,000 industries in Gujarat, 8,000 are highly polluting chemical industries. Of …
suddenly the air in Kathmandu is cleaner and does not burn your eyes or cause a feeling of suffocation. The sole reason for this drastic improvement in air quality is the banning of diesel-operated Vikram tempos from the capital's streets since September 1999. In their place battery-operated tempos have been …
europe is in the middle of a major environmental disaster - the worst since the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine. On January 30, about 100,000 cubic metres of slurry, consisting major concentrations of cyanide and other heavy metals, from a containment dam spilled into the Szamos river in Romania. …
beware the fury of a long-suffering impoverished people, give them back the control of their natural resources so that they can rid themselves of their poverty and allow them to take control of their destinies, was the gist of the President of India's Republic Day speech. President K R Narayanan …
