G-20
« Previous Entries Next Entries »Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will not be met unless governance improves
Friday, May 14th, 2010In 2000, the international community agreed on eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Among others, countries pledged to halve extreme poverty, achieve universal education, halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and reduce child and maternal mortality rates by 2015. Ahead of the UN’s upcoming September 2010 Summit on the MDGs, countries and aid donors have begun [...]
Corruption and Fiscal Deficits in Rich Countries
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010Some of my research tends to challenge orthodoxy, such as taking issue with the claim that the developing ‘world’ is the corrupt one (contrasting wealthy nations); that corruption is largely about blatant bribery, and that corruption and macro-economic stability should be viewed separately from each other by different types of ‘experts’. I am committing the heresy of focusing on the link between corruption [...]
Wall Street Reform and Beyond
Friday, April 16th, 2010For years I have been arguing that regulatory and state capture is a major challenge in many countries, including in the US. I wrote papers, presented analysis and evidence, even argued the case to top executives at the World Economic Forum long ago. Yet I had limited success, other than getting some articles published in [...]
What Happens in Cancun Shouldn’t Stay in Cancun: Toward Transparency at the Inter-American Development Bank
Friday, March 19th, 2010This weekend the Inter-American Development Bank (IaDB*) will hold its annual meetings in the popular Mexican resort city of Cancun. Much of the focus will be on the capital increase for the Bank, which made an original request for an increase that topped US$ 180 billion. Subsequent estimates of what the main shareholders may [...]
National Disasters Today Provide Governance Lessons
Monday, March 1st, 2010Let us consider three countries: Country 1: Its approach to industrialization has relied heavily on a very large public sector that accounts for well over 40 percent of GDP, and on aid financing from richer countries. The country has no fiscal discipline, running a deficit exceeding 13 percent of GDP. Rather, leaders have focused more [...]
Chile ingresando a la OCDE: como ir al Mundial de Futbol?
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009Es ya oficial ahora: Chile entrará a la OCDE, y pronto. Un gran reconocimiento y logro. Según la BBC, Chile festeja como un Mundial, ya que Andrés Velasco dice en París: “Es como clasificar para el Mundial, donde están los 32 mejores equipos. Aquí en la OCDE son 30 y con Chile vamos a ser [...]
G-20 Global Governance: better than their National Governance?
Sunday, October 11th, 2009I posted this entry after the Pittsburgh G-20 Summit in the newly unveiled blog at Brookings, where I work. The G-20 had just finished their third meeting, and there was a lot of buzz surrounding the demise of the G8 and it being replaced by the broader G-20. Accolades were also given to this Pittsburgh [...]
Rashomon and Hillary Clinton in Nairobi: Account of Crime Differs
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009Rashomon was a path-breaking movie made by the brilliant director Akira Kurosawa in 1950. Set in medieval Japan, it tells the tale of a crime, as seen by four different witnesses, including the crime perpetrator and victims as well. Each witness account is totally different from the other. The message that there is no superior [...]
Financial Crisis, Africa’s Permanent Damage, and Aid Effectiveness
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009Aid is dead: it is worse than merely useless, since it abets and perpetuates mis-governance and dependency by Africa. No, to the contrary, massive additional infusions of aid are crucial for all of Africa. This massive transfer of aid to governments in Africa is particularly urgent right now, in the midst of the financial crisis, [...]
V Summit of the Americas Concludes with ‘Winners’ and ‘Losers’
Monday, April 20th, 2009The 5th Summit of the Americas has just ended, attended by 34 heads of states who spent a number of days in Trinidad and Tobago. Their teams had also spent a couple of years preparing the ‘Declaration’ for this Summit. In the event, such ‘Declaration’ was not approved or signed by all the Heads of [...]
Obama and the Summit of the Americas: One Eye Wide Open, Another Shut
Thursday, April 16th, 2009President Obama has just written an op-ed for over a dozen newspapers throughout the Americas, in the eve of the Fifth Summit of the Americas that is about to take place in Trinidad & Tobago. This is significant. I care deeply about the Latin America and the rest of hemisphere, and wanted to write about the [...]
The End of Ideology: G20 from Washington to London to New York
Thursday, April 9th, 2009Imagine the world powers declaring the ‘Washington Consensus’ dead while at the same time mightily empowering a key institution involved in the Economic Consensus mantra, which ruled since the early 1990s) — namely the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Imagine the same heads of state of the most powerful countries on earth being very close to reaching closure on a major Communiqué during their official deliberations last week [...]
Bob Geldof for Africa at the London G20 Summit: Not a bad day of work — or Is Aid Dead?
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009The whole London G20 Summit affair was a Very Governmental One (VGO). Civil society organizations (CSOs) and activists were excluded. The closest some of them got was actually through blogging, such as by way of the G20 Voice initiative, where 50 bloggers were invited to share space with the traditional media covering the Summit. Not even Bob Geldof [...]
A conversation with NSC’s Froman on the results of the G20 London Summit
Friday, April 3rd, 2009Last night at the London G20 Summit it was rather hectic for everybody, even for bloggers away from official functions… First, UK’s PM Gordon Brown gave his charismatic presentation to the press corps, with large statements and numbers, declaring the Washington Consensus dead. At that time the final communiqué of the Summit was being released. With these, I provided an account [...]
The London G-20 Summit Agreement: An initial reaction to the Communique
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009The G-20* has officially finalized its work in the London Summit and just issued its final communiqué here. Based on a quick review of that communique and the press briefing that has just ended with UK’s PM Gordon Brown, here is my quick account of the commitments made and my initial reactions [IN BRACKETED CAPS] [...]
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