International Civic Engagement

World Trade Indicators 2008 – Benchmarking Policy and Performance

From the World Bank:

A new database and ranking tool unveiled last week by the World Bank shows that in 2007 most developing countries continued to improve trade policies supporting greater integration. Data in the World Trade Indicators 2008 – Benchmarking Policy and Performance, produced by the World Bank Institute, also show that, over the past decade, countries with lower barriers tended to have stronger, more consistent trade and export performance.

Bloomberg Ties Globalization to New York City's Success

From the World Bank:

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg told World Bank Group employees in Washington Thursday that "the free, global movement of labor, capital, and ideas" was essential to his city's growth over the past 30 years and its comeback from 9/11, and an object lesson for cities everywhere.

Bloomberg praised the impact of immigrants on his city, where 3 million residents - 37 percent of the population - are foreign-born.

"Their ambition, hard work, and entrepreneurial drive continue to bring dynamic new life to our economy and a fresh new spirit to our city," Bloomberg said. "New Yorkers understand that. Even after 9/11, when it would have been understandable for us to become fearful about the rest of the world, we have continued to welcome immigrants at a history-making pace. And they have more than repaid us."

He said that other cities can reach toward New York's success by adopting what he called its four values: "harnessing the forces of immigration and globalization; tapping the power of innovation, instituting rigorous and accountable governance; and having the independence to take on entrenched interests when they stand in the way of progress."

New York, he said, is using innovative conditional cash credits (CCT) to help some of its poorest citizens climb out of poverty. CCTs, first introduced in Latin America with World Bank support, have become a global phenomenon. Under CCT's, the poor get direct cash if they meet certain education and health benchmarks.

The mayor said New York, along with more than 700 American cities, was taking an innovative approach to slow climate change by pledging to meet the carbon-reduction standards of the Kyoto protocol - in contrast to the U.S. government, which is the only major developed nation not to sign the document.

"Increasingly we're working in concert with one another, and adopting one another's best practices in areas ranging from 'greening' our streets to cleaning our air," Bloomberg said about New York's collaboration with other cities on climate change.

The Mayor, who was introduced by Bank President Robert Zoellick via a TV satellite link from London, where Zoellick is in meetings.

Praising Bloomberg for his "commitment to public service," Zoellick recalled that the Bank has had a relationship with him going back to 1986, when its Treasury purchased Bloomberg Terminals, the computers with which Bloomberg built his financial media business before being elected Mayor of New York City.

"They contributed tremendously to market efficiency, breaking the near monopoly that the dealers had - not only in information but analytics," Zoellick said.

After Bloomberg spoke and answered questions from the audience, Katherine Sierra, Vice President of Sustainable Development at the Bank, and Graeme Wheeler, Managing Director at the Bank, presented Bloomberg with a framed certificate attesting that the World Bank had purchased one ton of CO2 through the Scolel Té Project in Chiapas, Mexico, to offset the Mayor's trip to Washington.

The South Teaches the North How to Break Poverty Cycle

From the World Bank:

Development solutions usually travel North to South or South-South. But now one of the most successful ones has gone in a totally new direction from Mexico to the U.S.

To help some of its poorest people climb out of poverty traps that are often multi-generational, New York City is using Mexico's Oportunidades conditional cash transfer (CCT) program as a model tailored to new circumstances.

Some 5,100 families in the Bronx, Harlem and the Brownsville section of Brooklyn will participate in "Opportunity NYC“ the first CCT in the U.S. They'll get cash transfers ranging from $4,000 to $6,000 annually if they meet education, health, and employment targets.

Before "Opportunity NYC" was launched last December, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg led a team of his officials to Tepotzlan and Toluca in rural Mexico in April 2007 to see how Oportunidades worked and what made it so successful.

Read the full article.

Citing Global Economic Instability, UN Predicts 5 Million More Jobless This Year

[courtesy of the UN News Centre]

The United Nations labor agency predicts that economic turbulence resulting from credit market turmoil and rising oil prices could lead to another 5 million people becoming unemployed this year.

That is just one of the key findings the International Labor Office (ILO) released yesterday in its annual Global Employment Trends report, which analyses the impact of factors – ranging from population and economic growth to financial crises – on labor markets.

The report notes that the decrease in growth in developed economies owing to the credit market crisis and higher oil prices had so far been “compensated for in the rest of the world,” especially in Asia, which has witnessed strong economic and job growth.

However, an expected slowdown in growth during 2008 could increase the global unemployment rate to 6.1 per cent, resulting in an increase of at least 5 million unemployed worldwide, the report warns.

The forecast for this year differs from 2007, considered by ILO to be a “watershed year” in that it saw a stabilization of global labor markets with more people in work, some 45 million new jobs and only a small increase in the number of those unemployed, to a total of nearly 190 million worldwide.

“This year’s global jobs picture is one of contrasts and uncertainty,” said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. “While global growth is annually producing millions of new jobs, unemployment remains unacceptably high and may go to levels not seen before this year.”

He added that although more people are currently employed than ever before, more jobs does not necessarily mean decent jobs. “Too many people, if not unemployed, remain among the ranks of the working poor, the vulnerable or the discouraged.”

According to the ILO, an estimated 487 million workers – or 16.4 per cent of the total – still do not earn enough to surpass the $1 a day poverty line, and 1.3 billion workers (or 43.5 per cent) still live below $2 a day.

“What is apparent is that economic progress doesn’t automatically translate into new and decent jobs,” said Mr. Somavia, emphasizing that “labor market policies must be at the centre of macroeconomic policies to ensure that economic growth is inclusive and that development involves good, decent work.”

Decent work, as defined by the ILO, provides for opportunity and income; rights, voice and recognition; family stability; personal development; and fairness and gender equality.

Interactive Global Economic Data

From the World Bank:

After four years of robust GDP and trade growth, conditions in global financial markets have turned from favorable to less stable and less predictable. Global GDP growth eased to 3.6 percent in 2007 from 3.9 percent in the preceding year, and gains will moderate further in 2008, led by the high-income countries. Importantly, developing countries should provide a modicum of support for trade, such that more adverse global GDP outturns are avoided. Read more