Intellectual property rights such as patents can reduce access to knowledge in genetics, health, agriculture, education, and information technology, particularly for people in developing countries. Global Intellectual Property Rights shows how the new global rules of intellectual property have been the product of the strategic behavior of multinationals, rather than democratic dialogue. The final section of the book suggests strategies aimed at developing more flexible standard for poor countries, and for keeping knowledge in the intellectual commons.

Matt Houngnikpo examines how domestic conflict, economic stagnation, political instability, poverty, and underdevelopment have plagued Africa for decades. He argues that a reversal of the political, economic, and social plight of Africa lies in better policies, good governance, and, more importantly, a new type of African leader and citizen.

For a large proportion of the electorate, national politics misses the real issues. As a result, membership of campaigning organizations has soared whilst party numbers have declined. This work distils the principles and priorities of many of the leading voluntary groups into a strong and coherent programme of political aims and actions. The problem can be measured as a "sustainability gap" - between official policies and achievements and actual democratic participation, environmental restoration and the eradication of poverty. With examples and short case studies, the book translates the gap into practical and realistic recommendations for progress.

This volume provides a critical examination of the uses and abuses of indigenous knowledge. The contributors focus on a series of interrelated issues in their interrogation of indigenous knowledge and its specific applications within the localized contexts of particular Asian societies and regional cultures.In particular they explore: the problems of translation and mistranslation in the local-global transference of traditional practices and representations of resource management; the match and mismatch of practical reasoning in indigenous subsistence regimes and their depictions by outsiders; and the developmental and political consequences of contemporary ethnic and regional claims rooted in an ideology of "traditional" indigenous knowledge.

'Poverty in Plenty breaks new ground in two ways. It is the first national Human Development Report to focus on an industrialised country and it is the first to be produced by a non-governmental organisation While problems of poverty and deprivation are less extreme in countries such as the UK than in some other parts of the world, the human development message is still highly relevant. There are many people who suffer through inadequate housing, insufficient means to guarantee a nutritious diet and the absence of secure, rewarding and remunerative employment' From the Foreward by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Human Development Report Office, United Nations Development Programme 'The economics that dominates Britain loosely known as globilisation is a kind of religion which dictates that the worship of money should take preference over common buman values like the sharing of wealth and the right to a decent life. This report reveals the power of traditional economics over our society, and the way in which the lives of our grandmothers and grandfathers, men and women, girls and boys have been damaged and impoverished. I highly recommend it' Ann Pettifor, Director, Jubilee 2000 UK The UK's performance on poverty and deprivation ranks 16th out of 18 industrialised countries ? People living in Glasgow Shettleston are 3.8 times more likely to die before they are 65 years old than those living in Wokingham In industrialised countries, wealth and affluence are widely perceived to be growing, although not at the same rate for everyone. But economic growth is not the same as genuine human development. Poverty in Plenty applies accepted measures of human poverty education, health and employment to the UK, and assesses how our food and housing policies contribute to a sustainable way of life. It draws on the work of leading research institutes and campaigning groups to determine the real state of society in the UK. Using a range of indicators to measure livelihoods and well-being, the report shows how widespread poverty is and highlights the vast geographical disparities in levels of poverty that exist within the UK. It goes on to set out what urgently needs to be done to address the sobering trends revealed and describes effective policies that will allow us to improve the current situation. The findings are of vital importance to those working on social issues in the public and voluntary sectors, and to students and general readers wanting the truth behind the public statistics. Jane Seymour is an independent researcher and writer on health and environment issues. Originally published in 2000

Cocoa & Chocolate, charts the economic consequences of the addition of chocolate to Western diets, and the consequent boom in cocoa sales, over 150 years. While the cocoa boom might have been expected to transform the economic conditions of the cocoa producers from rural poverty into prosperity, it somehow failed to achieve this.
This pioneering study examines all aspects of the history of cocoa and chocolate and the effect of these commodities globally. William Gervase Clarence-Smith looks at the effects of increased production of cocoa on the environment and on land distribution, at the coercion of labour to work the plantations, at the manufacture of chocolate, at taxation and at consumption.

eBook available with sample pages: 020346186X

This six-volume set is divided into four sets of readings. The first set locates development as a critical concept within the social sciences. The second set examines the causes and consequences of development as a great transformation. Key topics include: the transformation of peasant economies; agribusiness; rural-urban relations; markets; industrialization; workers; trade; and aid and structural adjustment. The third set of readings considers the politics of development, looking in turn at states, civil societies, NGOs, corruption and resistance. The final readings looks at visions of development, including alternative visions of (post) development. It also considers four key challenges for development theory and practice: these relate to capabilities, ethics, sustainability and regulation.

The Straits of Malacca is one of the most important stretches of water in the world. Through its sea lanes have passed the ships of the major trading nations of the world. European colonialism from the 17th century onwards in the form of sailing ships gave it and the surrounding region significant geostrategic importance. Throughout the 20th century, the economic growth of South East Asia, built on trade and economic development, has continued to reinforce the importance of the Straits. This book is a study of the environment and development of the Straits. Taking an integrative approach, the book argues that the region has an underlying unity which political divisions (between Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore) disguise. It emphasizes three major elements: first, the historical geography of the region highlights its role as a sea-corridor which both connected the markets of India and China. Secondly, contemporary patterns of economic development and trade have continued to build the importance of the region. Thirdly, major environmental problems now threaten the sea and the coast: from pollution to traffic to tourism.

Environmental management is a global phenomenon, embracing all businesses in all countries, whether or not there already exists an organised response to managing environmental impacts. Today, there are gross inequalities between the world's richest and poorest nations in terms of income distribution, consumption patterns, access to resources and environmental impact. Yet both the developed north and the developing south are committed, at least in words, to achieving sustainable development. Public awareness of environmental issues in the North has been rising in recent years and further degradation is now largely minimized through more stringent regulatory regimes, voluntary agreements and growing consumer and stakeholder pressure on corporations. Still, the north is continuing to lead an environmentally unsustainable lifestyle as environmental improvements are nullified by overall increases in consumption levels. In the south, a billion people still do not have access to the most basic needs. Poor countries need to accelerate their consumption growth if they are to ensure that the lives of their people are enriched. However, with rapid economic growth and corresponding increases in consumption now under way, their environmental impact is soon to become substantially greater. In a world that strives towards stemming global crises such as climate change, the path already taken by the rich and high-growth economies over the past century cannot be repeated by the south if the desired objective is to create a future that is truly sustainable. Growing Pains examines environmental management in the south from a number of perspectives. It is designed to stimulate the discussion about the role that corporations and national and international organizations play in sustainable development. It does not offer panaceas, as each country has its own problems and opportunities; and, after almost 50 years of failed panacea-oriented economic development policy transfer from the north to the south, it is time to abandon hope for universal solutions and instead look to individual approaches that work. The book is divided into five themes: globalization; the role of business; a focus on national strategies; trade and the environment; and the organizational and structural challenges of sustainable development. With contributions from an outstanding collection of authors in both the developed and developing worlds including UNIDO; the Thailand Environment Institute, Arthur D. Little, Inc., Shell Peru; IUCN, the Russian Academy of Sciences and IIED, this important and unique new book presents a body of work that will provide essential reading for businesses working in developing countries, environmental and developmental NGOs and researchers engaged in the debate and sharing of best practice in this increasingly critical subject area.

Environmental management is a global phenomenon, embracing all businesses in all countries, whether or not there already exists an organised response to managing environmental impacts. Today, there are gross inequalities between the world's richest and poorest nations in terms of income distribution, consumption patterns, access to resources and environmental impact. Yet both the developed north and the developing south are committed, at least in words, to achieving sustainable development. Public awareness of environmental issues in the North has been rising in recent years and further degradation is now largely minimized through more stringent regulatory regimes, voluntary agreements and growing consumer and stakeholder pressure on corporations. Still, the north is continuing to lead an environmentally unsustainable lifestyle as environmental improvements are nullified by overall increases in consumption levels. In the south, a billion people still do not have access to the most basic needs. Poor countries need to accelerate their consumption growth if they are to ensure that the lives of their people are enriched. However, with rapid economic growth and corresponding increases in consumption now under way, their environmental impact is soon to become substantially greater. In a world that strives towards stemming global crises such as climate change, the path already taken by the rich and high-growth economies over the past century cannot be repeated by the south if the desired objective is to create a future that is truly sustainable. Growing Pains examines environmental management in the south from a number of perspectives. It is designed to stimulate the discussion about the role that corporations and national and international organizations play in sustainable development. It does not offer panaceas, as each country has its own problems and opportunities; and, after almost 50 years of failed panacea-oriented economic development policy transfer from the north to the south, it is time to abandon hope for universal solutions and instead look to individual approaches that work. The book is divided into five themes: globalization; the role of business; a focus on national strategies; trade and the environment; and the organizational and structural challenges of sustainable development. With contributions from an outstanding collection of authors in both the developed and developing worlds including UNIDO; the Thailand Environment Institute, Arthur D. Little, Inc., Shell Peru; IUCN, the Russian Academy of Sciences and IIED, this important and unique new book presents a body of work that will provide essential reading for businesses working in developing countries, environmental and developmental NGOs and researchers engaged in the debate and sharing of best practice in this increasingly critical subject area.

The series Religion and Society (RS) contributes to the exploration of religions as social systems- both in Western and non-Western societies; in particular, it examines religions in their differentiation from, and intersection with, other cultural systems, such as art, economy, law and politics. Due attention is given to paradigmatic case or comparative studies that exhibit a clear theoretical orientation with the empirical and historical data of religion and such aspects of religion as ritual, the religious imagination, constructions of tradition, iconography, or media. In addition, the formation of religious communities, their construction of identity, and their relation to society and the wider public are key issues of this series.

The subject of migration has traditionally been analysed through the lens of economic factors. The importance of adopting a gender sensitive perspective to academic work is now generally appreciated. This text contains chapters from a range of contributors who apply such a perspective to the study of migration in the countries of the developed world. Each chapter demonstrates how migration is highly gendered, with the experiences of women and men often varying markedly in different migration situations. This volume covers a range of migration issues and draws out the importance of gender issues in each area, including: dual career households; regional migration patterns; emigration from Ireland and Hong Kong; elderly migration; the migration decision-making process; and the costs and benefits attached to migration. Approaching the subject from a variety of academic traditions including geography, sociology and social policy, the volume combines both an analysis of factual data and qualitative analysis of interview material to show the importance of studying migration through gender sensitive eyes.

A deepening crisis in accountability in developing democracies has triggered much debate on accountability and the mechanisms needed for overcoming deficiencies of democracy. This book analyzes a wide variety of contemporary efforts to reform accountability systems in developing countries. It makes an original contribution to the debate by dealing with a variety of novel approaches to accountability and it combines these approaches in both a systematic and analytic fashion. The book also includes case study material on successful accountability initiatives.

This book examines the Brazilian political process in the period of 2003-2020: the governments led by the Workers' Party and their reformist policies, the deep political crisis that led to the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and the rise of Bolsonaro neofascism. The author maintains that the Party and ideological conflicts present in the Brazilian politics are linked to the class distributive conflicts present in the Brazilian society. Defeated for the fourth consecutive time in the presidential election, the political parties representing the international capital and segments of the bourgeoisie and of the middle class, abandoned the rules of the democratic game to end the Workers' Party government cycle. They paved the way for the rise of neofascism.

Nearly one half of the world's urban population lives in poverty and about 800 million people occupy substandard housing. This "housing crisis" has continued unabated despite over 20 years of research and policy. At the forefront of new policy initiatives, confirmed by recent conferences such as Habitat II in Istanbul, is an inititiative to afford greater priority to finance, yet, with the expediation that the provision of small quantities of finance to low-income households will bring real improvements to the quality and quantity of housing provision. This book explores the linkages between formal and informal housing finance drawing upon the lessons of NGO and micro-finance practices. Both public and private formal finance institutions have experienced great difficulty in lending below a middle-income client group, and are often reluctant to lend for the purpose of housing at all. This failure of formal finance to filter down to low-income households, and in particular to women, has led various NGOs and community groups to create and adopt innovative finance programmes, such as informal savings banks and credit rotating schemes. The authors critically assesses the impact of these

This unique study from the OECD Development Centre presents a comprehensive review by independent experts of the relationships and division of responsibility between the 22 member governments of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), and NGOs from these donor countries, working in international development. Additional chapters cover the roles of the European Union and the World Bank. Among other themes, the book looks at two very significant issues. First, at the way in which an overemphasis on evaluation may be leading NGOs to focus purely on measuring their output, thus choosing activities which are easily accountable. Second, it examines the important impacts of the evolution in the funding relationship between governments and NGOs - from matching grants to contracts - where NGOs must increasingly compete for contracts.

"International Perspectives on Voluntary Action" presents a new perspective on the third sector. Rather than considering non-governmental organizations separately from voluntary agencies, it explores the similarities, differences and growing connections between them in both Northern and Southern contexts.Contributions by eminent authors in the field consider the differences in scale and priority that exist between the different types of third sector organizations in different settings, as well as the common challenges of accountability, legitimacy, effectiveness and governance.New models of learning and communication, including Southern ideas such as micro credit provision, are also examined; as are continuing barriers.Articulate and up-to-date, "International Perspectives on Voluntary Action" includes contributions on: Building NGO Legitimacy, Citizen Organizations as Policy Entrepreneurs; Voluntary Sector Governance in Britain and North America; Evaluating NGO Development Interventions; and Social Learning in North-South Coalitions.

We hear plenty of accounts of development failure, but what about success - how do we explain development policies that last the course, survive regime changes, and advance human and social development? This book draws on case studies of social, economic and political governance policies from Latin America, Africa and Asia to examine the circumstances in which governments and societies produce policies that overcome initial opposition and meet their aims.

This book situates ethnic heterogeneity in the larger discussion of the welfare state and its redistributive outcomes, poverty and inequality. By using comprehensive, longitudinal data covering 1980 to 2010 from 17 high income countries, this analysis helps achieve a major milestone in comparative welfare state research both conceptually and methodologically. Conceptually, it elevates the relevance of growing ethnic heterogeneity in thinking about how politics and economics of the welfare state operate, collectively impacting the magnitudes of poverty and inequality. Methodologically, the analysis conducted in this book provides broader empirical tests for the many propositions and discourses found in the literature based largely on anecdotal evidence, case studies, and unjustifiably limited quantitative data. The innovative oeprationalization of the multidimensional character of both welfare state policies and ethnic heterogeneity help broaden the analytical frameworks of comparative welfare state research.

The outcome is a major advance in the way we understand the causes and redistributive consequences of the welfare state, in which ethno-racial, religious, and especially immigration heterogeneity can play a crucial role. A thorough and insightful analysis presented in this book helps students, researchers, and policymakers better understand the ethnic heterogeneity connections of the welfare state and redistribution, together with a comparative perspective of the changing faces of ethnic heterogeneity, welfare state policies, and poverty and inequality in high income countries.

The most comprehensive survey of sport and sustainability ever published Addresses a topic of growing importance - every sport organisation needs to understand its environmental and social responsibilities Structured around the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, the gold standard blueprint for sustainable development Each section contains chapters on theory, measurement, and real-world application, making this an indispensable tool for students, researchers and practitioners International team of authors

It may seem a strange match--AI and crop irrigation or AI and the Serengeti lions but researchers in Artifical Intelligence envision expert systems as a new technology for capturing the knowledge and reasoning process of experts in agriculture, wildlife management, and many other fields. These computer programs have a relevance for developing nations that desire to close the gap between themselves and the richer nations of the world. Despite the value and appeal of expert systems for economic and technological development, Schoenhoff discloses how this technology reflects the Western preoccupation with literacy and rationality. When expert systems are introduced into developing nations, they must interact with persons who reason and articulate their knowledge in ways unfamiliar to high-tech cultures. Knowledge, particularly in poor and and traditional communities, may be expressed in proverbs rather than propositions or in folklore rather than formulas. Drawing upon diverse disicplines, the author explores whether such indigenous knowledge can be incorporated into the formal language and artificial rationality of the computer-and the imperative for working toward this incorporation.

This series aims to concern itself with the theoretical, empirical and applied research into the macro and micro accounting issues of developing countries, including the relevance to the Third World of international accounting standards. It is our hope that we can raise the level of interest in the specific problems of accounting in developing countries and raise the awareness of the real issues, so that accounting in the Third World will not just be seen as a matter of copying what is done in the industrialized countries. It is our hope that through an increasing awareness of the issues, the accounting practices advocated and the training made available will become relevant to actual needs, and will make a real contribution to the development process.

Democratization in the Third World addresses many current issues of development, democratization and civil society in countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America against the background of theoretical introductions and comparisons with the Swedish historical experience of democratisations. The authors, from seven different continents, examine civil society and its relation to the state throughout the world and assess prospects for sustainable democratization.

Recent debt crises and consequent dislocations and distress in the under-developed world have shown that development strategies of last forty years were misconceived. No under-developed country during this peroid could become an industrially advanced country, inspite of a big development industry orchestrated by World Bank. This results from the fact that main-stream economic theory ignores international and national constraints and their interactions with the dynamics of technological transformation. These constraints distort relative prices in underdeveloped countries and make their balanced self sustaining development economically non-feasible. This book develops a completely articulated theory of economic interconnections to deal with under-developed country's situation.

This comprehensive second edition provides an up-to-date introduction to the nature of ecological degradation in a world of dramatic environmental change.

eBook available with sample pages: 020301961X