Showing posts for "Governance"
A view is seen of the Nigeria stock exchange building in the central business district in Lagos, April 10, 2013 (Akintunde Akinleye/Courtesy Reuters).
The African growth story continues as investors pour into Africa. Investment is booming and interest in the continent is surging as capital seeks regions still able to flourish despite the broader global economy’s fight to return to robust—or at least decent—health.
The Arizona-Mexico border fence near Naco, Arizona on March 29, 2013 (Samantha Sais/Courtesy Reuters).
Last week a federal judge ruled that mentally disabled immigrants facing deportation have a right to representation in immigration proceedings, and ordered immigration courts in Arizona, California, and Washington to provide legal representation for mentally disabled immigrants if they cannot represent themselves.
A man waits for tourists to visit his souvenir shop in Carthage, near Tunis, Tunisia on February 10, 2013 (Zoubeir Souissi/Courtesy Reuters).
Examining the economic fallout of the Arab uprisings is critical as societies struggle to move past the upheaval and fight for a measure of stability and security. Unemployment rates in the region have climbed in the last two years: Egypt’s official unemployment rate is now 13 percent, with nearly 80 percent of the jobless holding either high school or university degrees. Unofficial figures put that rate much higher. Growth barely hit two percent in 2012, well under half its rate before the uprisings. In Tunisia growth is declining while frustration and hopelessness grow. Official unemployment shows the jobless rate reached 19 percent in May 2012, up six points in two years. As a Brookings Institution paper noted, “youth, between 15 and 30 years old, make about one-third of the labor force and three-quarters of the unemployed.” Their unemployment rate tops 30 percent.
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Professor, Columbia University, of the U.S., attends a session at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on January 26, 2012 (Christian Hartmann/Courtesy Reuters).
Last night I had the privilege of hosting Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz at a roundtable at CFR. His wide-ranging remarks addressed many challenges at the nexus of poverty, inequality, and global economic governance, but one discussion stood out because it echoed and amplified a serious concern I’ve heard raised in a number of other fora over the past few months.
Plaintiff Esther Kiobel (L) joins a protest against Royal Dutch Shell Petroleum in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on October 1, 2012 (Gary Cameron/Courtesy Reuters).
On Tuesday the Supreme Court ruled that victims of torture, arbitrary executions, and other human rights abuses in foreign countries could not seek justice in U.S. courts. The ruling in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum halted a widely watched case brought by a group of Nigerians, which alleged that in the 1990s Shell Oil was complicit in the torture and murder of protesters at the company’s operations in the impoverished but oil rich Ogoni region. The Supreme Court held unanimously that the “presumption against extraterritoriality” applies to Alien Tort Statute cases, meaning that foreigners cannot use U.S. courts to seek justice against foreigners for crimes committed on the soil and in the territory of foreign nations.
An Egyptian protester holds a loaf of state subsidized bread during a demonstration against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation visit, in front of the General-Prosecutor's office in Cairo, April 3, 2013 (Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Courtesy Reuters).
This week a team from the International Monetary Fund is in Cairo yet again, attempting to reach agreement with the Egyptian government on a $4.8 billion loan to plug Egypt’s increasingly serious external financing gap and budget deficit. Egypt’s foreign currency reserves—in precipitous decline as the Central Bank continues to prop up the exchange rate in efforts to avoid skyrocketing costs for wheat and other staple imports—have dropped from more than $36 billion in early 2011 to less than $14 billion at the end of March. Egypt’s budget deficit now stands at nearly 11 percent of GDP.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) exchanges documents with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during a signing ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow, March 22, 2013 (Sergei Karpukhin/Courtesy Reuters).
In an interview and op-ed last week, CFR fellow Joshua Kurlantzick analyzes the setbacks facing democracy as autocratic powers such as China and Russia advance their own political philosophies in the developing world. As he argues in the interview: Read more »
China's newly elected Premier Li Keqiang (L) shakes hands with Wen Jiabao as China's President Xi Jinping and other delegates clap during the fifth plenary meeting of the first session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, March 15, 2013 (Courtesy Reuters).
In two recent pieces, CFR fellows weigh political and economic developments in a pair of emerging giants: China and Mexico. In an excerpt on TheAtlantic.com from his recently released book, Democracy in Retreat, CFR fellow Joshua Kurlantzick analyzes the appeal to developing countries of China’s development model. As he writes: Read more »
A civil society activist wearing a mask with the face of Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovich takes part in a street protest against the participation of Ukraine in the Eurasian Customs Union held outside the Presidential administration building in Kiev, December 17, 2012 (Anatolii Stepanov/Courtesy Reuters).
Last month, the Council on Foreign Relations introduced a new feature, Ask CFR Experts, that invites the public to submit questions to CFR scholars. In today’s answer, CFR’s Terra Lawson-Remer proposes ways for international organizations to bolster civil society groups in developing countries. As she explains: Read more »
AIDS activists protest against the slow roll-out of antiretroviral drugs by the South African government in Cape Town on November 4, 2004 (Mike Hutchings/Courtesy Reuters).
Emerging Voices features regular contributions from scholars and practitioners highlighting new research, thinking, and approaches to development challenges. This article is from Julie Fisher, a current associate and retired program officer of the Kettering Foundation whose book, Importing Democracy: The Role of NGOs in South Africa, Tajikstan and Argentina, will be released by the end of March. Here, she discusses how democratization NGOs can bolster civil society and government accountability by strengthening a country’s loyal opposition.
The Development Channel highlights big debates, promising approaches, and new research and thinkers addressing opportunity and exclusion in the global economy.
For more on what the United States and others can do to foster open, prosperous, and stable societies, visit CSM&D.
In spite of the global economic turbulence of recent years, many countries in the global south are experiencing rapid growth….
As my colleague Isobel Coleman wrote last week, Saudi Arabia has just leaped a small hurdle towards gender equality: announcing…
The African growth story continues as investors pour into Africa. Investment is booming and interest in the continent is surging…
Emerging Voices features regular contributions from scholars and practitioners highlighting new research, thinking, and approaches to development challenges. This article…
On the new Ask CFR Experts feature today, I consider the question of whether the United States should continue economic aid to…
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