IFI policy-based loans disproportionately harm poor women, who often become “shock absorbers” for neoliberal economic reforms like trade liberalization, privatization of public enterprises, government retrenchment, social spending cutbacks, user fees for essential services and financial sector reforms. A new guide developed by Gender Acion gives tips for submitting a gender discrimination compalint to an IFI accountability mechanism.
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La Via Campesina, FIAN, Land Research Action Network and GRAIN, together with over 100 allied civil society organizations, are issuing a loud appeal to stop the current wave of land grabbing that is taking millions of hectares of farmland away from rural communities across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Their appeal coincides with the release of a new World Bank report that confirms the massive extent of the current land grab assault and puts forward seven "principles" to make these land deals socially acceptable.
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In an open letter to WTO Director General, Pascal Lamy, civil society organizations stated their concern about the persistent and obvious contradictions between the rhetoric of complementarity between human rights and trade liberalization (as it has been implemented so far), given the real outcomes of liberalization for people and communities around the world, especially in the developing countries.
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On January 1, 2010, the China-Asean Free Trade Area (Cafta) went into effect. Touted as the world’s biggest Free Trade Area, CAFTA is billed as having 1.7 million consumers, with a combined gross domestic product of $ 2 trillion and total trade of $ 1.3 trillion. Despite the official propaganda, the agreement will benefit China, but is likely to disadvantage the Asean Countries.
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INSouth embodies an understanding, from a South perspective, of the new and emerging issues in the international arena, and the challenges and opportunities they pose for the South.
There is clearly a "widespread schizophrenia" among Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the issue of "ambition" in the context of the Doha Round of trade negotiations, outgoing Ambassador Ujal Singh Bhatia of India told a meeting of the General Council Thursday.
Towards an International Tribunal on Economic Crimes
During the last 6 years, social movements and organisations from Latin America and Europe, connected through the Europe-Latin America bi-regional network Enlazando Alternativas, have repeatedly exposed how voluntary codes of conduct, which form part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) approach, have failed to tackle human rights and environmental abuses of Transnational Corporations (TNCs).
Over 15 fair trade lobby organisations have warned the East African Community leaders against signing the Framework Economic Partnerships Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union.
