This week the Prince Mahidol Awards conference will bring a global spotlight to the threat of emerging infectious diseases. The growing challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will feature prominently in these discussions. The timing could not be better, but we urgently need to see more action on the part of the UN Interagency Coordination Group on AMR and key intergovernmental agencies gathering in Bangkok. (more…)
Heading off Global Action on Access to Medicines in 2018
By Dr. Jorge Bermudez and Dr. Viroj Tangcharoensathien
At the dawn of 2018, political and health leaders must seize the growing momentum and opportunities to tackle the protracted challenges of access to medicines that undermine efforts to save lives and improve health as committed under the Agenda 2030 SDG by all UN member states. (more…)
There are several key social and environmental issues to watch out for in 2018 as they are close to reaching a tipping point, says this preview of the new year by the South Centre’s Executive Director Martin Khor. (more…)
As global health leaders warn that antibiotic resistance is leading to the end of modern medicine, the World Health Organization (WHO) issues guidelines to prohibit or restrict using antibiotics to feed animals reared for their meat. Urgent coordinated actions are needed to avoid the end of modern medicine. The author Martin Khor is the Executive Director of the South Centre. This article was also published by Inter Press Service (IPS) (more…)
Intellectual Property for the TwentyFirst-Century Economy
By Joseph E. Stiglitz , Dean Baker , Arjun Jayadev
Developing countries are increasingly pushing back against the intellectual property regime foisted on them by the advanced economies over the last 30 years. They are right to do so, because what matters is not only the production of knowledge, but also that it is used in ways that put the health and wellbeing of people ahead of corporate profits. (more…)
The Trump tax reform plan is likely to negatively affect developing countries
By Yuefen LI
The Trump administration has proposed a tax reform framework to the US Congress. Major components are a large reduction in the corporate tax rate, changes to the way US profits currently earned abroad are taxed, and how past profits parked abroad are treated if brought home. All these reforms if accepted by Congress, will most likely have adverse effects for developing countries, including by increasing capital flows from and reducing FDI to them. (more…)
Public-Private Partnerships as the Answer . . . What was the Question?
By Manuel F. Montes
In discussions at the UN about achieving Agenda 2030, it has become de rigueur to highlight the role of the private sector. It is often introduced as the discovery of the idea that private sector investment and financing is indispensable to achieving Agenda 2030. For developed country diplomats and their associated experts this new celebrity treatment appears to be an article of faith, at least during negotiations on economic matters in the UN. They are foisting a misleading Trumpian exaggeration that is technically harmful to development policymaking and to Agenda 2030. (more…)
Asian Financial Crisis: Lessons Learned and Unlearned
By Yılmaz Akyüz
Debates are taking place on whether there will be another financial crisis, whether in some part of the world or that is global in scope. Governments draw lessons from financial crises to adopt measures to prevent their recurrence. However, such measures are often designed to address the root causes of the last crisis but not the next one. More importantly, they can actually become the new sources of instability and crisis. (more…)
The Asian financial crisis started 20 years ago and the global financial crisis and recession 9 years back. When a new global financial crisis strikes, the developing countries will be more damaged than in the last crisis as they have become less resilient and more vulnerable. They thus need to prepare from being overwhelmed. (more…)
It’s been 20 years since the Asian financial crisis struck in July 1997. Since then there has been an even bigger global financial crisis, centred in the United States starting in 2008. Will there be another crisis in the near future? The Asian crisis began when speculators brought down the Thai baht, making fortunes in the process. Within months, the currencies of Indonesia, South Korea and Malaysia were also affected. The crisis was to turn the East Asian Miracle into an Asian Financial Nightmare. (more…)
By withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement, President Donald Trump abdicated not only leadership but membership of the community of nations cooperating to tackle climate change, the most serious crisis facing humanity. (more…)
