According to this paper, environmental risks arise largely from unsustainable development policies related to the use of water and land resources, transportation and energy. The health impacts of environmental pollution and ecosystem degradation disproportionately affect the disadvantaged and vulnerable socioeconomic groups, such as children, the rural and urban poor, and informal-sector workers. Economic, institutional, political and social factors present barriers to more sustainable environment and health policies, while macroeconomic considerations tend to be the major drivers of policy-making on the continent. Health ministry policies are generally focused on health care services and may not systematically address the related broader environment and development agendas. Environment ministries are often newer entities, and lack the power or resources to steer government investments towards sustainable development. African countries need to be able to monitor, prevent or mitigate risks that might develop into full-scale environmental and health crises.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
At an informal meeting between the World Health Organization and a number of countries, held on 20 January 2010, the importance of having a fully realised framework for handling pandemic influenza was discussed. The meeting made progress on virus and benefit sharing, but it needed to cover pandemic risk response as well as pandemic risk assessment, said the Indonesian delegate. There was also some discussion on the way to handle virus and benefit sharing. India wanted assurance that the WHO does not commit to terms and conditions that might get set as precedents and upset the balance between virus and benefit sharing. Japan said that the agreement should focus on voluntary, not mandatory, benefit sharing but that states should do more to contribute as much as they can in terms of financial and technical resources to countries that need them. Sangeeta Shashikant of the Third World Network said, 'the inequity of a system that delivers vaccines to developed countries but requires developing countries to rely on ad hoc measures such as donations is apparent.'
The author notes that, given the magnitude of Western debt and the need to reduce it at a rate that does not disrupt any signs of growth, 2010 may well be the most benign year for development between now and 2015. He believes that the big cuts will come in 2011 onwards and makes ten predictions that may help inform development decisions during 2010. 1. China's view will become the bellwether of all development agreements. 2. ‘Minilateralism' is the wave of the future. 3. Copenhagen will energise, not demoralise, those fighting for climate issues to be higher up the agenda. 4. The Commonwealth will become more important in development. 5. USAID will become more relevant to international development. 6. Food and nutrition will slowly slip from the top table of the development agenda. 7. Africa will get back onto the international agenda, albeit briefly. 8. Economics will change, but only at the margins. 9. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) will undergo evolution not revolution. 10. People power in development will move into a new age.
Finding financing to develop medicines for under-researched diseases, regulatory harmonisation and pandemic influenza preparedness topped the agenda at the World Health Organization's (WHO) Executive Board meeting, held from 18–23 January 2010. Its recommendations will be sent to the annual WHO member decision-making World Health Assembly, which meets in May 2010. Regulatory harmonisation, such as streamlining processes for ensuring drug safety, is one of the major recommendations of the Expert Working Group to increase efficiency in the research and development system. Strengthening regulation is also one of the activities the WHO secretariat has said it is undertaking as part of the implementation of its global strategy, which requires a 'strengthening of the WHO prequalification programme'. Drug regulation may become a key discussion point on public health and intellectual property this year, according to sources. And there is recent concern from several members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that the threat of pandemics, specifically the flu epidemics, may have been exaggerated 'in order to promote … patented drugs and vaccines'.
Macroeconomic stability, monetary and financial integration are crucial for successful regional cooperation and integration. Both processes make decisive contributions to the creation of a conducive environment for economic growth, promotion of trade and boosting of investor confidence, hence the importance of pursuing prudent fiscal, monetary, exchange rate and debt policies at the national level and of harmonising these policies at the subregional and regional levels. Arguably, these policies should be situated within the socio-political, technological and international development setting of the countries, and indeed of the continent at large. The strengthening and deepening of the financial sector, including the establishment of vibrant capital markets, will also greatly facilitate the flow of funds and help anchor macroeconomic policies. Moreover, strong national and subregional capital markets would play a catalytic role in attracting foreign direct investment and promoting cross-border investment flows. This report also provides a brief ‘progress report’ on the developments in Africa’s regional integration.
Leaders of the industrialised nations that attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2009 have produced a revised draft agreement, which they hope will break a deadlock between rich and developing countries that threatens to scuttle the talks. The new draft has stronger emission targets, more robust language supporting poverty eradication and clarifies the importance of the science of climate change in the accord. It also recognises the equal right of all nations to ‘access to atmospheric space.’ The accord states that only developing countries that accept financial support for their reduction projects have to accept international monitoring and verification of their reductions. In the draft, all nations would agree to cut emissions globally by 50% below 1990 levels as. Industrialised countries would agree to reduce their emissions ‘individually or jointly’ by 80% by 2050. The draft accord also commits developing countries to emission reductions, but only in the context of future development.
The Economic Report on Africa 2009 is organized into two parts. Part I examines global economic developments and their implication for Africa, analyses recent economic and social trends and highlights emerging development challenges to the continent in 2008. Part II is devoted to the issue of regional value chain development and starts with a discussion in chapter 4 of the need to address challenges to developing African agriculture in the context of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) of the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AU/NEPAD). The report focuses on the question of how to enhance structural transformation of African agriculture through systematic efforts to develop regionally integrated value chains and markets for selected strategic food and agricultural commodities. Finally, the report urges African governments to operationalise commitments to develop agriculture, and suggests strategies that promote viable value chains at the national and regional levels.
The aim of this paper is to enable African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to understand how trade policy related to the environment has been introduced in economic partnership agreements (EPAs), and how those policies might impact sustainable development in ACP countries. Some of the issues for ACPs examined by the paper include a discussion of the difficulties of managing and coordinating the various regional groupings in the negotiations, the potential complementarities and conflicts with other existing international agreements (multilateral environmental agreements and WTO agreements), the challenges related to the implementation of new environmental standards, and the settlement of disputes as well as the strengthening of environmental capacities. The main conclusion of the paper is that the incorporation of environmental provisions within the EPAs may present some benefits to ACP countries. However, ACP countries will need appropriate packages of technical assistance, capacity building, and environmental cooperation to meet this new environmental agenda in their trade agreements.
The High-Level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation, which was held from 1–3 December in Nairobi, Kenya, encouraged developing countries – with support from developed countries and international organisations – to take concrete steps to make their cooperative efforts work better in tackling the serious challenges they faced in achieving socio-economic advancement. The conference highlighted the growing political and economic ties within the developing world as countries of the global South assumed leading roles in handling global issues ranging from economic recovery to food security and climate change. By adopting the final text of the Conference – known formally as the Nairobi Outcome Document – the participants recognised the increasing power of South-South cooperation over the past few decades. The document urges United Nations funds, programmes and specialised agencies to take concrete measures to support South-South cooperation.
The recent successful renewal of the mandate of the World Intellectual Property Organization Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) has inspired attempts to push discussion on biodiversity out of other fora. The World Trade Organization TRIPS discussions and the November 2009 meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity specifically dedicated to traditional knowledge heard proposal that all legal issues related to traditional knowledge should be dealt with by the World Intellectual Property Organization.