Promoting debate about Latin America and the Caribbean
View Article  Latin American ballot boxes could bounce Copenhagen treaty into touch

This year sees election fever sweeping across Latin America as electorates head to the ballot box in over half a dozen countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Honduras for presidential, legislative and constitutional votes.

 

As the Copenhagen climate change negotiations edge closer, there is concern the elections could jeopardise both Latin American governments’ willingness to participate and to act effectively on the agreement. With the negotiations running from early December, ...   more »

View Article  Obama and Latin America: Change we can believe in?

Article by Alina Rocha Menocal, first published in the ODI blog

 

President-elect Barack Obama is taking office facing an extraordinary list of international challenges, ranging from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to relations with North Korea and Iran to the global financial meltdown. Expectations for change are enormous, and clearly Obama will need to make some hard choices about what issues to prioritise. Yet, he cannot afford to lose sight of Latin America as his predecessor did. Focusing on the ‘war on terror’ with single-minded determination since 9/11, the Bush administration displayed a strange – and misguided – ...   more »

View Article  Latin think tanks lack credibility in climate challenge
The Think Tank Index published in Foreign Policy makes dire reading for anyone interested in climate change. Even though it is now considered a priority for world leaders, none of the winners have significant programmes on climate change as conventional foreign policy concerns dominate the rapidly warming land of Wonk. In Latin America the situation is identical with the best think tanks yet to develop any credibility on the subject.   more »
View Article  Latin America and Climate Protection: Leaders Missing in Action?
Latin American leaders appear remarkably uninterested in the international conference on climate change currently underway in Poznan, Poland. Before looking for a brighter way forward, we need to understand why this lack of attention is potentially so tragic.   more »
View Article  Poor turn out at the climate disco
The UN Climate Change Conference, which kicked last week in Poznań, Poland, is a key stepping stone towards securing an international agreement on climate change for the post-Kyoto era in 2012. The 10,000 delegates attending will attempt to gain consensus on some extremely thorny issues, not least working out commitments to cut carbon emissions and the amount of cash that developed nations are willing to commit to the developing world for dealing with climate change. These issues are of considerable importance for Latin America for two reasons...   more »
View Article  Amazonian REDD Indians?

In April 2008 indigenous peoples from across the world met in the Brazilian city of Manaus to discuss the rights of indigenous peoples and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).

REDD has been heralded as a major opportunity to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation, whilst protecting biodiversity and improving the livelihoods of some of the world’s poorest communities. There is little consensus on what potential REDD policies may look like, yet it is based on the idea that developed countries would pay developing countries to reduce rates of deforestation or degradation. By either linking these payments ...   more »

View Article  Andes face glacial meltdown

This article was first posted on the Guardian's Comment is free

 

Glaciers in Peru are melting so quickly that by 2015 almost all of them may have disappeared. This is not just a problem for Peru but for the whole Andean Community of Nations, including Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador. These countries generate around 73% of their electricity from hydro energy. Ironically, this renewable source of energy risks disappearing because of melting glaciers caused by climate change.

 

The report, Climate change knows no borders, provides a chilling reminder of the catastrophic impacts of climate ...   more »

View Article  Tackling inequality in Latin America: a report from the OAS Private Sector Forum

This article was first posted in the ODI Blog

 

I’ve been talking about the importance of inequality to everyone in Peru who cares to listen for quite some time now. When I left Peru over six years ago, this ‘inequality’ concept was a term used by a few social and economic researchers with poor communication skills. We had not yet figured out how to explain why it mattered that not everyone benefited from growth in the same way (and at the time we were still in a recession) and resorted to pointing at the persistence of extreme absolute poverty. ...   more »

View Article  Food Crisis: implications and opportunities for Latin America

The first semester of 2008 saw the real price of the main food staples climb to a 30 year peak. The food riots in Haiti and the highly politicized “Sovereignty and Food Security: Food for Life” Presidential Summit held in Managua, Nicaragua on the May 7th have brought issues of trade, international aid and crisis mechanisms to the forefront of the regional political and economic agenda. Growing concern over food security and price vulnerability was clearly reflected by the Summit’s call for a regional production and distribution strategy for fairly priced food as well as for a review ...   more »

View Article  UK Foreign Office lacks coherent strategy in Latin America
This weekend, heads of state and government officials will descend on Peru’s National History Museum for the fifth European Union-Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Summit. The summit will focus predominantly on poverty, sustainable development and climate change. It remains to be seen, however, whether European leaders will be able to take their eyes off Latin America’s natural treasures – oil and natural gas - and come up with a joint action plan on the summit’s agenda. For the UK government, this summit is an ideal opportunity to turn rhetoric into reality. 

That’s where the Foreign and ...   more »

View Article  EU-LAC Summit 2008 – Grand posturing or action time?

From the 16-17th May, European, Latin American and Caribbean Heads of State and Government will congregate in Lima, Peru, for the fifth EU- Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Summit. Delegates will examine specific initiatives on the two major themes of the meeting, “Poverty, inequality and inclusion” and “Sustainable Development: the environment, climate change and energy.”

 

To mark this occasion, Canning House, London, held a discussion on the summit on the 22nd April 2008. The purpose of the discussion was to analyse the two themes: poverty and sustainable development. The panellists included Ricardo Luna (Ambassador of ...   more »

1 Attachments
View Article  Including the affected state: Peru's earthquake response and the cluster approach

With a 7.9 score on the Richter scale, the earthquake which struck Peru on the 15th August 2007 shook up the country’s entire natural disaster response system. The magnitude of the event revealed the institutional and logistical limitations of Peru’s crisis response system particularly at the regional level.

The international community has been seeking to improve the capacity, predictability and accountability of humanitarian response processes through the implementation of the cluster approach. Approved by the IASC in 2005, it seeks to concentrate expertise, coordinate action and foster partnerships by grouping humanitarian organisations of the same field under the leadership of ...   more »

View Article  El desafío de ser un país normal

 Por Antonio Cicioni, director del Programa de Instituciones Políticas de CIPPEC (Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento)

 

Las elecciones presidenciales argentinas del 28 de octubre son, antes que nada, un motivo para celebrar. Se trata de la sexta elección consecutiva desde la restauración de la democracia en 1983, algo que no deja de ser auspicioso si se tiene en cuenta las décadas de violencia y gobiernos dictatoriales que caracterizaron a la Argentina del siglo XX. La democracia logró incluso sobrevivir a la trágica crisis de 2001, que sumió en la pobreza ...   more »

View Article  New Latin American trade and poverty programme launches today

Comercio y Pobreza en Latinoamérica (COPLA) aims to use research based evidence to strengthen and promote an improved dialogue between policymakers, researchers and those institutions that represent the poor to incorporate new issues into the policy debate.

 

 A couple of years ago, when the Free Trade Agreement between the US and Peru was still being negotiated, a friend who had worked in the Peruvian Ministry of Trade and had been involved in the negotiations told me that studies about the effects of the agreement on poverty had been commissioned but not been made public. Why? Because they ...   more »

View Article  Chavez Inc Expands to London
Amid announcements that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is seeking indefinite terms for the presidency and thereby further undermining what remains of Venezuelan democracy, comes more moves to shore up support from leftist / anti-American leaders the world over… this time, very close to home, in London.   more »
View Article  Tough Times Ahead for Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

Tough Times Ahead for Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

Aaron Goldfarb 8 August 2007

After presiding over an impressive fifth year of economic expansion in Argentina, President Nestor Kirchner could have easily won a second term in the upcoming October elections. Instead, Kirchner is stepping aside to let his wife, Cristina Fernandez, seek the presidency. Cristina, who has often been compared to Hilary Clinton, has been a leading figure in the Senate for the past four years. Though her approval rating is not as high as her husband’s, Cristina (as she likes to be known) is still heavily favoured ...   more »

View Article  China’s Growing Presence in Latin America

Costa Rica switched diplomatic relations from Taiwan to Mainland China earlier this month, citing economic reasons as the deciding factor. Costa Rica’s realignment is a small example of how Chinese "checkbook diplomacy" is reshaping Latin American politics. By financing multi-billion dollar infrastructure and public works projects in Latin America, China is receiving contracts for raw materials and foodstuffs that will feed the appetite of its ever expanding economy. On his 2005 tour, President Hu Jintao spoke of a US$100 billion investment in South American infrastructure over the next ten years. Clearly, China is laying the path for a long-lasting presence ...   more »

View Article  They weren’t shouting 'GOOOOOOOOL' …
The stadium shook as the passionate crowd seemed to unite in one resounding voice at the US-Argentina Copa America soccer match in Maracaibo on June 28. A chant was taking hold, and it grew louder and louder as people joined in, clapping and stomping their feet at the same time.   more »
View Article  What Kirchner and Clinton have in common
Argentine president Nestor Kirchner announced this month that he would not run for re-election in order to put forward his wife, Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, as a presidential candidate. Unlike the wives of Juan Peron, Kirchner is an accomplished politician who has served both in the lower house of Congress and now the Senate. Many are comparing her to Hillary Clinton – both are lawyers, both were involved in policy making during their husbands presidency and both are notable politicians in their own right.   more »
View Article  World Bank releases governance indicators for Latin America and other regions

The World Bank released its annual “governance indicators” yesterday – a set of six variables which is designed to measure governance globally.  The project has many critics, broadly falling into two camps – those that oppose the idea on principle and argue that the World Bank should not be in the business of rating countries on governance or any other metric, and those that find fault with the indicators methodology, which could accurately be described as a “kitchen sink” approach to measuring corruption, political stability and other categories of governance with surveys and other imprecise metrics....   more »

View Article  US Medical Ship Tries to Mend Broken Relations with Latin America
After US President George W. Bush’s long trip to Latin America this spring, the US has announced a number of very small humanitarian and aid initiatives for the region which appear like buy-offs to the uninitiated. Dedicating just $20 million (the cost of a single day of the continuing Iraqi war), the US has put a large hospital ship off the coast of several Central American cities in an effort to buy popularity. One can’t help but notice how much this mini-mission has in common with the itinerant Cuban doctors working in Venezuela.    more »
View Article  The de-politicisation of humanitarianism in Colombia is essential in order to avoid further tragedies like the one witnessed last week

In December 2005, Switzerland, France and Spain put forth a proposal to negotiate a humanitarian exchange between hostages kidnapped by the guerrilla group FARC-EP and members of the group being held in prisons by the Colombian government. The proposal sets out a period of 45 days for discussions to be held and the exchange carried out, during which security guarantees would be provided through the ICRC and the UN. But since the proposal was made, neither party have been able to come to an agreement. This has been due to the FARC’s insistence on the demilitarisation of two municipalities ...   more »

View Article  Mexico and Central America Angered by the Defeat of US Immigration Bill

     The bill that proposed a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States now lays dead on the Senate floor, where it will likely stay until after the 2008 presidential election.  Latin American leaders expressed their disappointment, with Mexican President Felipe Calderon calling the Senate’s defeat of the bill, “a grave error” and Salvadorian President Elias Antonio Saca labelling the bill’s demise, “a pity”.  Yet a much more incensed tone arose from the Latin American press.  An op-ed in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada placed responsibility on the shoulders of President Bush, ...   more »

View Article  Watch video of student protesters in Venezuelan National Assembly

Last week, after 11-days of street protests, Venezuelan students opposing Chavez’ decision not to renew the license of the private television channel RCTV were allowed to speak in the National Assembly, an unprecedented event that was also broadcast on Venezuelan television. This video posted on Youtube shows student leader Douglas Barrios giving an impassioned speech in defence of democratic rights, as well as at one point stripping off his red T-shirt. Even if you don’t speak Spanish, it’s worth watching for the expressions of members of Congress and the pro-Chavez students, who far outnumber the protesters.

 

Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Hw91wKfN2g

View Article  Venezuela – Off the Rails or an Innovative Financier?

Chavez is getting ever bolder.  As he consolidates all instruments of state power into his hands, undermining Venezuelan democracy in the process (as commented on previous posts on this blog), he has also struck out in a new direction in the international realm: independence from the international financial system. 

Chavez’s government announced during the first week of May that it planned to withdraw its membership from the International Monetary Fund, a first for a major emerging market country.  The announcement created a momentary panic amongst financial analysts because many of Venezuela’s sovereign bonds contain clauses which stipulate ...   more »

View Article  It is not money or experts what Latin America needs: think partners

When DFID withdrew their bilateral programmes in Honduras, Peru and Bolivia, civil society was fast to point out that, among other things, there were many poor Latin Americans who needed urgent assistance. DFID should have stayed to look after them. There are other reasons too for supporting DFID’s direct involvement in Latin American countries. DFID left a space in policy debate that was not filled by other donors (or by the government) and many of the progressive ideas it had supported have suffered to remain in the policy and research agendas.

 

ODI’s mid-term evaluation of DFID’s RAP...   more »

View Article  Postcard from another Mexico: a glimpse into the Zapatistas’ alternative world of politics and development (by Sandip Hazareesingh)

On Sunday 1 April 2007, the Zapatistas launched the second phase of the movement known as La Otra Campana (The Other Campaign).

 

La Otra was originally initiated in January 2006 in the wake of the Zapatista National Liberation Army’s (EZLN) new strategy spelt out in a document famously known as La Sexta (Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle). This proclaimed the need to open a space for the millions of ‘otros y otras’, i.e. the most marginalised sections of the Mexican population – indigenous Indians, maquiladora (sweatshop) workers, the low-paid, women workers in both the country and the ...   more »

View Article  Engaging regionally: Five questions for donors

Working at the regional level poses a series of challenges for donors. DFID’s Regional Assistance Plan (RAP) in Latin America aims to influence regional policy by working with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, two of the main IFI’s in the region. Without a bilateral programme (except in Nicaragua) DFID faces organisational and contextual challenges which pose a series of fundamental questions -addressed in an ODI evaluation of the RAP. Their answers could potentially inform a process of regional strategy design; but also of global thinking about donors as part of a network of partners and ...   more »

View Article  Biofuels, corn prices and food security in Mexico (by Sitna Quiroz)
Recent announcements from President Bush on prioritising the biofuels agenda have fuelled the debate on the possible implications for developing countries and one of the main concerns is the impact it will have on food security. This issue is of special concern for Mexico, which experienced its first shock in the rise of food prices in January, when the price of tortillas more than doubled. Facing popular discontent, the government’s immediate solution was to authorize the import of 650,000 tons of corn free of tariffs from the US and intervene in the regulation of prices until May, when the new harvests in the North of Mexico are    more »
View Article  Migrant money outstrips aid and investment

The volume of remittances hit the headlines last week on the BBC and One World websites.  The BBC reported that remittances to Latin America are now $62bn, more than aid and foreign direct investment combined. 

This figure has attracted the interest of development policymakers. How, they ask, can remittances be harnessed as an effective development tool? The answer is as yet unknown. What we do know is that the majority of migrants send home small amounts, around $100 to $150 a month.  Charges are incurred per transaction meaning remittances are big business.  One current line of inquiry is what governments ...   more »

View Article  The Juntos programme in Peru: an innovative approach to tackling childhood poverty and vulnerability?
To date, the Juntos programme has been the most ambitious and innovative government attempt at tackling childhood poverty in Peru, a country where two out of three children live below the poverty line and many lack access to basic services. Strange then, that the programme has received so little attention; in fact, debates on child protection in Peru have been more preoccupied with how to punish child molesters and kidnappers and fathers who evade child support than with the state’s responsibility for child well-being. However, according to a recent report to which ODI researchers contributed, Juntos has made ...   more »
Login
User name:
Password:
Remember me 
www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from LAC Group at ODI. Make your own badge here.
BloGalaxia Global Voices Online - The world is talking. Are you listening? Subscribe with Bloglines

Rate Me on BlogHop.com!
the best pretty good okay pretty bad the worst help?