New report says African countries must tap global markets more effectively if they are to strengthen their economies

African countries could take a big step forward economically by participating more effectively in the global production of goods and services. That’s according to the latest African Economic Outlook, a report produced annually by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the OECD Development Centre and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Culture in sustainable infrastructure: the polycentric cultural framework model

The state of infrastructure and services is widely perceived as a measure of development and a major catalyst for growth in both developed and developing economies. However, financing, maintaining and replicating existing infrastructures in areas of need have been mostly ineffective. In view of the widespread failures and poor state of infrastructure and services, there is a need to review current delivery and procurement frameworks. Given that sustainable infrastructure is also an essential prerequisite for sustainable development, this paper presents a polycentric cultural framework for infrastructure and service delivery; a framework which emphasises the integration of infrastructure users, communities, public and private sectors throughout the process of conceptualisation to actual delivery of infrastructure, by taking the recipients’ culture, beliefs and values into account. The framework also emphasises the use of systemic referendum among stakeholders by way of the traditional consultative processes and the collaborative consensus paradigm to achieve an effective and sustainable delivery of infrastructure and services

Paths to Fisheries Subsidies Reform: Creating Sustainable Fisheries Through Trade and Economics

The world depends on the oceans for food and livelihood. More than a billion people worldwide depend on fish as a source of protein, including some of the poorest populations on earth. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the world must produce 70 percent more food to meet coming hunger needs.Fishing activities support coastal communities and hundreds of millions of people who depend on fishing for all or part of their income. Of the world's fishers, more than 95 percent engage in small-scale and artisanal activity and catch nearly the same amount of fish for human consumption as the highly capitalized industrial sector. Small-scale and artisanal fishing produces a greater return than industrial operations by unit of input, investment in catch, and number of people employed.Today, overfishing and other destructive fishing practices have severely decreased the world's fish populations. The FAO estimates that 90 percent of marine fisheries worldwide are now overexploited, fully exploited, significantly depleted, or recovering from overexploitation

UN-Water Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) 2010: Targeting Resources for Better Results

This report brings together survey data from 42 countries and 27 external support agencies and overlays this information, together with information from other databases, on the data presented by JMP on access to and use of basic sanitation and safe drinking-water. This composite information source is quite central to the actions undertaken by UN-Water members and partners and is facilitating action by the development partners

Supporting Development in Ghana: The Role of Foundations

Foundation funding focused on Ghana over the past decade has encompassed all aspects of the global development agenda and beyond. Among foundations whose grants are tracked by Foundation Center, their giving focused on Ghana totaled $499 million between 2002 and 2012. While few foundations intentionally aligned their grantmaking priorities with the MDGs, over half of grants (54 percent) made by the 151 foundations included in this analysis and most of their grant dollars (79 percent or$394 million) supported activities consistent with at least one of the eight MDGs

Women's Economic Empowerment: Issues Paper

This paper was prepared by the DAC Network on Gender Equality (GENDERNET), as an input to the DAC Network on Poverty Reduction's Task Team on Empowerment. It reviews why WEE matters, where donor money is going, specific challenges, suggestions for improving donor practice, and working in partnership for women's economic empowerment

Agriculture and economic recovery in post-conflict countries: Lessons we never learnt

Rapport

UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS): The Challenge of Extending and Sustaining Services

UN-Water GLAAS reports on the capacity of countries to make progress towards the MDG water and sanitation target and on the effectiveness of external support agencies to facilitate this process. This 2012 edition notes that resources are neither targeted nor sufficient to sustain routine operation and maintenance requirements. Thus, there is a serious risk of slipping backwards on gains already made. The report highlights immediate steps that can be taken to sustain services already in place, while extending sanitation and drinking water provisioning

Policies for capacity development

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