Latin America and the Caribbean Blog at ODI

Andes face glacial meltdown

Guy Edwards — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 13:31:40 +0100

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 ...

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

Enrique Mendizabal — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:34:56 +0100

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. ...

Food Crisis: implications and opportunities for Latin America

Ana Ramirez — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:53:13 +0100

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 ...

‘Mankind’s poverty as a consequence of the wealth of the land?’*

Guy Edwards — Sat, 17 May 2008 18:38:49 +0100

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

government, this summit is an ideal opportunity to turn rhetoric into reality.

That’s where the Foreign and ...

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

Guy Edwards — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:42:38 +0100

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 ...

Including the affected state: Peru's earthquake response and the cluster approach

Ana Ramirez — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:07:28 +0100

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 ...

El desafío de ser un país normal

Enrique Mendizabal — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:24:36 +0000

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 ...

New Latin American trade and poverty programme launches today

Enrique Mendizabal — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 15:23:56 +0100

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 ...

Chavez Inc Expands to London

Lauren Phillips — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:05:12 +0100

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.

Tough Times Ahead for Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

Aaron Goldfarb — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 15:39:58 +0100

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 ...

China’s Growing Presence in Latin America

Aaron Goldfarb — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:15:01 +0100

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 ...

They weren’t shouting 'GOOOOOOOOL' …

Guest Blogger — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 17:22:02 +0100

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.

What Kirchner and Clinton have in common

Lauren Phillips — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 10:44:34 +0100

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.

World Bank releases governance indicators for Latin America and other regions

Lauren Phillips — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:14:24 +0100

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....

US Medical Ship Tries to Mend Broken Relations with Latin America

Lauren Phillips — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:34:43 +0100

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.

The de-politicisation of humanitarianism in Colombia is essential in order to avoid further tragedies like the one witnessed last week

Samir Elhawary — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 11:07:09 +0100

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 ...

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

Aaron Goldfarb — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:48:30 +0100

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, ...

Watch video of student protesters in Venezuelan National Assembly

Penelope Anthias — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:52:04 +0100

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

Venezuela – Off the Rails or an Innovative Financier?

Lauren Phillips — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:14:10 +0100

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 ...

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

Enrique Mendizabal — Sun, 20 May 2007 21:04:24 +0100

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...

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

Guest Blogger — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:52:06 +0100

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 ...

Engaging regionally: Five questions for donors

Enrique Mendizabal — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:21:09 +0100

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 ...

Biofuels, corn prices and food security in Mexico (by Sitna Quiroz)

Guest Blogger — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 14:36:28 +0100

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

Migrant money outstrips aid and investment

Laura Jarque — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:01:22 +0100

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 ...

The Juntos programme in Peru: an innovative approach to tackling childhood poverty and vulnerability?

Penelope Anthias — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 23:07:38 +0000

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 ...

Inviting Posts from Guest Bloggers...

Lauren Phillips — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 08:45:35 +0000

The Overseas Development Institute invites you to contribute to our Latin America and Caribbean Blog! This blog is written by ODI researchers and provides a forum for discussion and debate on politics and development in Latin America and the Caribbean from contributors all over the world. We also provide information about events, publications or web resources on Latin America. We are particularly keen to encourage the participation of those of you in the region, and welcome your comments, which can be in English or Spanish, as well as your posts. So if you have a specific issue or news story you’d like ...

The boom in counter-hegemonic news channels - the case of Telesur in Venezuela (ISA, 4th March)

Penelope Anthias — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 15:58:29 +0000

To those who, like myself, had assumed that Telesur was merely an outlet for pro-Chavez propaganda, this talk by James Painter of the BBC World Service revealed some surprising and some not-so-surprising facts about this Caracas-based pan-Latin American TV network. In fact, Telesur is not owned exclusively by Venezuela, but a joint project in which a number of Latin American governments are stakeholders - although it is all paid for by Venezuela’s oil wealth. Claiming to provide an alternative to CNN and other Western media, it follows the example of other ‘counter-hegemonic’ news channels like Al-Jazeera, which ...

The Politics of Economic Integration: Where does Peru stand in the global context? (LSE, February 26th 2007)

Penelope Anthias — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 12:35:25 +0000

In this conference organised by LSE’s Peruvian Society, speakers reflected on how the new political map of Latin America is influencing Peru’s integration into transnational markets and what this tells us about the opportunities and challenges facing developing countries when interacting in the global economy. Speakers were Dr. Ricardo Luna (Peruvian Ambassador in the UK), Dr. John Crabtree (Centre for Latin American Studies, Oxford University) and Mr. Richard Ralph (former British Ambassador in Peru (2003-2006) and current chairman of a UK mining company working in Peru). The conference was chaired by LSE’s Dr Evan Killick....

What impact will China's growth have on Latin American countries?

Penelope Anthias — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 15:19:06 +0000

There has been a surge of recent interest in China’s impact on developing countries, but far more of this discussion has focused on Africa than on Latin America. This is partly because the consequences of China's growth for Latin America are likely to be both more complex and less direct. Unlike Africa, the Latin American resource sector is dominated by large state-owned companies and how these will interact with new Chinese investment is hard to predict. A more developed infrastructure also means China will have less of a competitive advantage in the race to exploit Latin America’s natural resources. In Latin America, there are likely to be both winners and losers, as a recent report by the

Will he or won’t he? Correa’s game of chicken with Ecuadorian default

Lauren Phillips — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:22:05 +0000

Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s new president, has been playing a game of chicken with the international capital markets. Earlier this week the government announced that it would utilise a 30 day grace period to repay interest on its bonds – in effect, defaulting. Yesterday, however, the government surprised the markets by making the payment on time. Predictably, the response in the bond markets has been volatility: first a massive selling off of Ecuadorian debt, then a rally. All of this follows on a campaign promise by Correa to restructure the country’s debt.

There are ...