News and Analysis: 22-26 Mar 10 | EmergingFrontierMarkets.com

Based in: Manila, Philippines

Posted on Fri, 26 Mar 10:

Millions to go dark for Earth Hour on Sat: Icons incl the Great Pyramids, the Eiffel Tower and China's Forbidden City will be plunged into darkness on Sat, 8:30 pm, as millions take part in 'Earth Hour', a rolling grassroots movement aimed at tackling climate change. Now in its 4th yr, the global campaign promises to be the biggest ever, organizers said, w/ thousands of cities and towns in 125 nations pledging to take part, despite last yr's failed climate talks, Ag. France-Presse (courtesy Times of India), 26 Mar 10 (Earth Hour | Columbia and Yale U--Global environment index downgrades US, China, 27 Jan 10 | Rankings)

Poverty's researcher: A few yrs ago, an MIT economist found a problem that threatened to stump her. In one of India's rural villages, w/ one of the worst child mortality rates in the world, parents were spurning health clinics' offer of free immunizations vs deadly diseases such as measles and tuberculosis. Only 2% of local children were being immunized by age 2. Since this economist specializes in finding unorthodox ways to help the world's poor, she concocted an experiment w/ collaborators, along w/ officials from a local nongovernmental org, Technology Review, Jan-Feb '10

Social safety nets--Lessons from rich and poor nations: As the global recession threatens to hamstring the pace of poverty reduction everywhere, many nations hope to cushion the blow through fiscal stimulus. There are many reasons why a stimulus that favors poorer people is more likely to have a stronger impact than one that does not. Increasingly, both rich and poor nations’ welfare reform efforts have also tried to highlight the notion of 'co-responsibility' - helping people to escape poverty now while also taking actions that reduce dependency on welfare in the long run. And the 2 stars of social protection are targeted cash transfers and relief work schemes, World Bank, 25 Apr 09 (Conditional cash transfers as social safety net, 12 Feb 09)

Posted on Thu, 25 Mar 10:

Dubai offers Dubai World $9.5 billion in new funds: Dubai will support Dubai World’s debt restructuring w/ $9.5 bil. as the state-owned holding co. asks creditors to wait up to 8 yrs to get all their money back. Dubai World is seeking to renegotiate $23.5 bil. in debt w/ creditors. It said in Nov it would seek to delay repaying debt until May, sparking a plunge in developing-nation stocks and doubling the cost to protect vs a default by Dubai. The emirate is not alone in struggling to finance itself in the current global financial turmoil. Greece is engulfed in a fiscal crisis as it tries to cut the largest budget deficit in the EU, Bloomberg, 25 Mar 10

L Chandy, G Gertz, and K Dervis: How the G20 may help the world's poor--Faced w/ a sputtering global econ recovery, an incomplete intl financial regulatory system, and governance gaps in multilateral institutions, the G20 looks set to have a busy yr. Given this crowded agenda, the decision of Korean Pres Lee, current G20 chair, to include development as an 'integral part' of G20’s mission is particularly laudable. In asserting ownership of intl development policy, the G20 is usurping the G7, which traditionally spearheaded this agenda. How might the G20 tackle development differently from the G7?, ask Inst researchers and vice-pres, Brookings Inst, 15 Mar 10

Posted on Wed, 24 Mar 10:

Anoop Singh: More Asian geese ready to fly--Like geese flying in formation, the successive waves of Asian nations achieving econ takeoff and emerging or developed market status, has been likened to those migratory birds in flight. The 'flying geese paradigm' was 1st conceived of by a Japanese economist in the '30s as a way of explaining East Asian industrial development. But it is little known in the West, despite its fame in the economist's home nation. If we accept the paradigm, it is already possible to spot the next tier of geese ready to take wing, says IMF Asia-Pac dept dir, IMF (Web log), 22 Mar 10 (Post-crisis, developing Asia looks to harness growth)

Allan Meltzer: Market failure or govt failure?--The market is not perfect. It is run by humans who make mistakes. But the same humans run govt where they make different, often more costly, mistakes for which the public pays. Would bankers have made so many errors if there had never been a too-big-to-fail policy? Not all bankers overinvested in mortgages, but some got up to dance, believing that they would profit and the rest of us would pay to prevent failures. Has the govt learned from its mistakes by closing Fannie and Freddie and agreeing to put any housing subsidy on the budget?, asks Amer Enterp Inst economist, Wall St Journal (courtesy AEI), 19 Mar 10

Posted on Tue, 23 Mar 10:

Emerging economies already back on the cross-border acquisition trail: The extent to which emerging economies have broken clear of recession much quicker than mature economies has been highlighted by research into recent cross-border deal activity. Acc to the latest 'Emerging Markets Intl Acquisition Tracker', trade buyers in emerging economies are already back on the cross-border acquisition trail, yet the no. of deals instigated by buyers in mature economies is still in decline, KPMG, 8 Mar 10

Bank examines impact of conflict, closure regime on Palestinian women: A new report documents the socio-econ impact of the ongoing conflict and comprehensive closure regime on the Palestinian pop. Based on data for 2000 to '07, it examines how Palestinian women have coped w/ the impact of a dramatic retreat of males from the labor market. Some have been able to take, or remain longer in, salaried positions in the public and services sector. Many more have been forced to take on menial and unprotected work. It stressed that only sustained lifting of econ restrictions by Israel will reverse negative trends, World Bank, 16 Feb 10 (Econ and social devt in West Bank/ Gaza continues to be a Bank priority, 11 Mar)

Jeffrey Sachs: How to tame the budget deficit--The budget is the main arena in which a nation as a whole decides on the allocation of resources. What we spend money on - and what we don't - reflects what we value as a nation. But making those choices isn't at all simple. One side of the political divide wants to cut taxes and shrink existing public services (incl support for the poor) in the name of cutting wasteful govt programs and insisting that the poor solve their own problems. The other side wants to increase public spending on social and econ needs - the poor and unemployed, infrastructure, educ and the environment - even as it remains unclear on how to fund the outlays, says Columbia Earth Inst dir, Time, 4 Feb 10

Posted on Mon, 22 Mar 10:

880 million people lack access to clean water - Red Cross: The society estimated that 2.7 bil. people, incl 980 mil. children, currently lacked access to proper sanitation facilities. 'Access to clean water, sanitation and health education should not be all about luck, depending on where you were born. It is a human right that should be given to everyone, rich or poor,' the Red Cross said today, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (courtesy Earth Times), 22 Mar 10 (World Water Day)

Health - Improving policy coherence for development: The cost of treating disease is vastly greater than the cost of controlling or preventing disease. In a time of global recession, the disparity in health outcomes between mature and developing nations will most likely widen. The rapid expansion in trade, foreign investment and intl travel mean that infectious diseases can have adverse effects not only on health but also on econ growth and security. Although aid from donor nations helps to drive development, mutually supportive policies across a wide range of issues - econ, social and environmental - are essential for combating the spread of disease, maintaining a healthy workforce and ultimately reducing poverty, OECD, Oct '09 (Private health insurance for the poor in developing nations?, Aug '05) [pdf]

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