During 2008, many events took place in preparation for Doha Conference. The current international context offers a unique historical opportunity for a change to take place. The challenge to neoliberal model is no longer coming only from the margins and civil society voices. With a financial crisis of great proportions at the center of the debate, even mainstream conservative voices in politics are now claiming that there may have been too much liberalization in the global economy as we face greater instabilities and inequalities.
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Myriam Vander Stichele, SOMO, argues that the call made by the World Trade Organisation and some European leaders to finalise the Doha round at the same time of financial reform talks (so-called Bretton Woods II) completely ignores that this would impose on the South exactly the same recipe of deregulation and liberalisation of financial services that caused the crisis in the first place. In fact, Free Trade Agreements already signed by both nations in both the North and the South are already likely to make increasing regulation of the financial sector difficult, if not impossible.
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The entire world is in crisis, a crisis with multiple dimensions. There is a food crisis, an energy crisis, a climate crisis and a financial crisis. The solutions put forth by Power – more free trade, more GMOs, etc. – purposefully ignore the fact that the crisis is a product of the capitalist system and of neoliberalism, and they will only worsen its impacts. To find real solutions we need to look toward Food Sovereignty as put forth by La Via Campesina.
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What if HIV/AIDS was just another chronic disease instead of a widespread epidemic? This could be the case if the world community takes serious action, according to Human Rights Watch and other activists. But today, the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on HIV/AIDS is nowhere near being realised.
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The European Union is promoting "association agreements" or "cooperation agreements" with Latin American countries. These agreements appear weaker and more flexible than the equivalent agreements that the USA is signing with countries in the region. But behind this affable facade the EU is tough: it is insisting that the countries agree to extend periodically what has been agreed and to undertake an undefined number of legal, administrative, economic, technical and social reforms, the objective of which is to grant European countries ever more favourable conditions in all aspects of national life.
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Representatives of African civil society and social movements meeting in Nairobi, Kenya for the Pan-African Preparatory meeting to the IV International Forum on Democracy and Cooperation from 15 to 16 May 2008 examined gaps in international democracy and cooperation with an aim to develop innovative concepts and models that will lead to a Southern driven paradigm shift in global development.
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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.
Trade and Regional Integration
/Economy and Financial Affairs
- Wed Sep 03 2008
Coming together to aid the poor
In what is turning out to be hard-fought negotiations between rich and poor nations, more than 1,000 government and civil society delegates are gathered in the Ghanaian capital to agree the best ways to deliver and administer aid.
Source:
IPS
Trade and Regional Integration
- Fri Aug 01 2008
Developing countries' call to reassess Doha priorities after talks fail
In particular, they said that one major failure was that development issues, concerns and perspectives were not taken into account at the various meetings.
Source:
Third World Network
