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 …
Developed countries are insisting on greening GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) to minimise environmental degradation that could be caused by unshackled international trade in the post-Uruguay Round era. But this may result in barriers to trade with developing countries and also bring about a new range of protectionist …
During the release of a commemorative volume on 35 Years of Indo-US Collaboration in Science and Technology, Union minister for science and technology P R Kumaramangalam sprang a surprise. In the presence of US assistant secretary for oceans and scientific affairs Elinor Constable, he criticised the US for "denying high-technology …
You have been sharply critical of census methods in different parts of the world, in particular India. Why are you unhappy with the Indian census? Starting from 1881, we have had a census every 10 years, except during the war in 1941, when we had a restricted census. Frankly, I …
NOW THAT developing countries such as India have agreed to respect the Montreal Protocol and phase out the use of ozone-depleting substances, the North is beginning to bare its fangs -- or, more correctly, its dollars. For long, Western diplomats and negotiators have argued that the Montreal Protocol is an …
"ONE OF the best investments the global community can make is in AIDS prevention," says Dr Michael H Mezon, director of the Global Programme on AIDS (GPA) of the World Health Organisation. "Money spent now on changing behaviour to slow the spread of infection will return billions of dollars of …
HOW MUCH oil would be needed to replace all the firewood used in the developing world? According to one set of calculations, just about one-twentieth of all the oil used by the world. But for women in the developing world, access to this oil would mean relief from hours of …
• Acknowledge that forests are an inalienable national resource and countries will choose uses of their forest resources according to national priorities and strategies; • assure access to technology through international cooperation to strengthen national capability; • increase financial assistance provided by developed countries and international organisations, including a restructured …
Tropical Forest Action Programme (TFAP) By far the biggest international body in tropical forest management, TFAP was formed on the 1983 decision of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's committee on forest development in the tropics, consisting of about 50 Northern and Southern governments. FAO and some aid agencies expected …
DEVELOPING countries with vast forest reserves took a major step in coordinating a joint position on international cooperation in tropical forest management at the first ministerial conference of the forestry forum for developing countries (FFDC) in New Delhi in September. Indian environment minister Kamal Nath, who chaired the conference, told …
THE NAIROBI-based United Nations Environment Programme has been asked by its governing council to focus less on monitoring the global environment and more on advising and helping developing countries. This new responsibility, termed capacity building in UN parlance, means UNEP will promote environmentally benign technology and "skills" to developing countries …
THE BOOK focuses on a new environmental agenda for cities, followed by details on environmental problems in the home, workplace and neighbourhood. The treatment of the subject makes interesting reading of a much debated topic. For a change, concrete suggestions emerge for tackling environmental problems, especially health problems. Despite the …
US-BASED pharmaceutical companies provide incomplete -- and even misleading -- information on the labels of products they market in developing countries, an official study by the office of technology assessment (OTA) states. The study, based on the labelling of 241 products sold in 1988-90 in Kenya, Panama, Brazil and Thailand …
THOUGH retaining environmental issues high on their G-7 policy agenda, the leaders of the world's seven richest nations confirmed their determination to maintain the global Environmental Fund (GEF) as the sole funding agency for implementing the biodiversity and climate change conventions, adopted in Rio last year. In doing so, the …
THIS OBJECTIVE and creditable book brought out by UNESCO is based on discussions organised under the auspices of the International Council for Science Policy Studies (ICSPS), a section of the International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science (IUHPS). These are representative of the main schools of thought in …
EVENTS leading to the 1992 Earth Summit, then to the Commission on Sustainable Development and to the UN Conference on Population and Development in 1994 have reinvigorated the South as an important bloc in international negotiations. After its heyday during movement in the 1970s for a new international economic order, …
THE GLOBAL Environment Facility (GEF) meeting in Beijing recently marked the beginning of the first year after Rio. And it set the tone for the green world order of tomorrow -- a world in which Southern governments are conciliatory but persistent with their demand for more green funds; in which …
Moderator: I understand your centre was against the forest convention, which was presented in Brazil. For me it's amazing, because as an NGO, how can you possibly go against the convention? Sunita Narain: Through this convention we will actually end up destroying forests. We strongly believe that the forest convention …
VIRTUALLY all population growth is centred round the Third World. According to an annual survey by the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau, the number of people in the world is rising at the fastest pace ever. Population figures are expected to touch 5.5 billion by mid-1993 and 8.5 billion by 2025, …
WHEN THE UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights meets in Geneva in August, we may see another forward step by the growing movement for international acceptance for the concept of environmental rights. The meeting will review a three-year study on the links between human rights and the environment by the sub-commission's …
MOST OF the 300 million indigenous people in the world live in highly vulnerable ecosystems and have often been deprived of their human rights and fundamental freedom, resulting in dispossession of their land and resources. Because they are such a high risk group, they are also the most in need …
