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 …
agriculture remains the biggest source of inequity in the world trading system. Unlike telecom, financial, and legal services, farming practices in the North have stoutly resisted the logic of market forces. Farming in the North thrives on prodigious subsidies and price support systems combined with coddling protection through high tariffs …
Developing countries also fear the huge costs associated with greener technologies, which will be unbearable by their domestic industries. It could make their goods uncompetitive in western markets. This unequivocal opposition to greening of trade is what brings the motley crew of poor countries together. “If there’s one thing that …
...the West eats into the world's resources, leaving the developing nations and its poorest struggling against ecological degradation wreaked by the huge consumption rates. The wide gap in consumption between the rich and poor takes its toll on local and global resources. Today some 800 million people remain chronically malnourished
they might well be the modern-day buccaneers. To further their research, agricultural and pharmaceutical companies often tap local communities for traditional knowledge relating to the use of biological resour ces. The conglomerates lose no time in appropriating this painstakingly assimilated information. And make a fast buck by developing products based …
even as the controversy generated by Gujarat's highly polluting Alang shipbreaking yard refuses to die down, Andhra Pradesh is clearing the decks for a similar unit to be located in its fragile coastal belt. The proposal for the yard at Vodarevu near Chirala of Prakasam district was given the technical …
During the past years, there have been calls to move the tasks of sustainable development at the international level to a new independent body, often labelled a World Environment Organisation (weo) or International Environmental Organisation. Advocates of weo include academics and expert commissions as well as international civil servants, politicians, …
I n the past few decades, society has played a proactive role in purging the market of toxic products. This has been largely possible due to sustained information campaigns, highlighting the damage these noxious substances cause to the environment and health. Cases in point are public disclosure drives that have …
the issue of access to drugs has shifted from anti aids drugs in Africa to anti anthrax drugs in the us. The us government is contemplating to override the patent on Ciprofloxacin, which is held by the German pharmaceutical company, Bayer and procure generic copies from other sources. This move …
The 4th wto ministerial conference in Doha has granted that governments are free to take all necessary measures to protect public health. Simply put, governments can override patents without the threat of a backlash of large pharma multinationals. It is now upto governments to use these powers to bring down …
This fortnight the Indian delegation to the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (wto) in Doha is going to stand out as the champion of the Third World, defending the poor of the world against the "rich man's organisation" in the words of our minister of commerce, Murasoli Maran. …
tens of millions of children could face starvation in 20 years time if the governments across the world do not focus on irrigation, education and agricultural research for poor countries, according to a new analysis. The analysis was performed by the world's most complex computer model of the global food …
anti-hiv drugs could be useless for nearly half of patients within four years, according to a computer model prediction. The new study, using data from the San Francisco, usa- based gay community, suggests that by 2005, at least 42 per cent of hiv cases could be drug resistant. In 1997, …
a wide range of opinion continues to exist on whether genetically modified (gm) crops pose a significant risk to human health. But there is a growing consensus on one important aspect of the debate: greater public investment is needed in the research used to justify claims that such crops are …
How does vitamin A rice help solve poverty and malnutrition in developing countries? People whose staple diet is rice usually suffer from vitamin deficiencies. In Bangladesh, for instance, 75 per cent of the calories come from rice. Similarly, in countries like Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, rice accounts for 70 per …
Developing nations prioritise expenditure and social costs, like that for pubic health, are the first to be axed. The Human Development Report 2001 indexes the overall development by including the expenditure made on health related activities. Developing countries, specially India, come out culprits for ignoring the health of its citizens. …
pharmaceutical giant Cipla has introduced a three-in-one aids drug called Triomune. The new drug is a combination of stavudine, lamivudine and nevirapine. Cipla could synthesise the drug because Indian laws allow generic copies to be made. The generic drug would remain one of its kind, as the patent holders of …
"I hear no objections, it is so decided,' Jan Pronk, president of the meeting, said in obvious relief as he brought down the gavel at the resumed session of the sixth conference of parties to the climate change convention. The meeting, held in Bonn from July 16-27, 2001, outlined details …
The emperor of Kyoto is not wearing any clothes. This is certainly the case of the weary, weakened and pretty much nothing agreement on climate change the world agreed to last fortnight. The meeting on the Kyoto Protocol
climate change could could hit food production in the some of the world’s poorest countries and widen the gulf between the industrialised countries and the rest. India could be one of the worst hit. These findings were presented by Mahendra Shah, researcher on land use at the Austria
the world's six leading publishers of medical journals have agreed to give researchers in developing countries online access to their publications free of cost or at greatly reduced prices. The agreement covers about 1,000 of the world's top 1,240 medical journals. The World Health Organisation ( who ) had urged …
