CIPE Development Blog

The instability in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, leading to the influx of internally displaced persons into the surrounding areas, has been dominating the news from that region. Yet even in the midst of difficulties, there are some positive developments worth highlighting. CIPE’s work with women in the Mardan district is one such example.

District Mardan of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) has a significant position in the region in terms of trade and business. There exists an untapped potential for the promotion and development of trade and industry. However, due to lack of entrepreneurial skill and professional training, the ability of local businesses to flourish and contribute to the economic development is hindered.

The business environment for women in Mardan reflects the complex interplay of many factors, which fall into two basic categories. The first category is made up of social, cultural, traditional and religious elements. The second category is induced by the factors of the first component, taking the form of constitutional structures, policy documents, regulatory arrangements and institutional mechanisms. However, women in Mardan do not have access to basic technical training to optimize their potential and generate sources of income.

Under the Business Support Organization (BSO) grant program, CIPE in partnership with the Mardan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) last year established a training and resource center with the capacity to develop entrepreneurial, business and computer skills for its women members. Read the rest of this entry »

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posted by Huzaifa Shabbir Hussain on July 2nd, 2009
Posted in South Asia | No Comments »

Every single cow in Tanzania has an owner. Every plot of arable, grazable, usable and sometimes unusable land has a public or private owner with certain land-use rights. Every single village in Tanzania has a recordkeeping office that maintains some symbolic representation of who owns which cows, who owns what plots of land, and who owns other assorted income-generating necessities of some not-immediately replaceable value. Every single village has a adjudication process for settling disputes over who owns what in each village.

In the first of USAID’s 2009 Summer Seminars, Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) Founder and President Hernando de Soto spoke about how ILD works with the poor around the world to verify the existence of such records, offices, and processes, and linked the financial crisis in developed markets to the struggle of countries such as Tanzania that wish to eradicate poverty. The challenge for both developed and developing markets, is about the lack of standardization.

Considering that often the first time assets and owners in developing countries are identified on paper is in court documents, de Soto explained that each village court has its own separate method of documentation. Financial institutions similarly have created proprietary systems for documenting and managing derivatives. Without standardized methods of appropriate documentation, de Soto argued, hard economic times will continue - for the poor and for financial markets. Read the rest of this entry »

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posted by Oscar Abello on July 1st, 2009
Posted in Global | No Comments »

How the events unfold in Honduras will reshape the role of the Organization of American States in Inter-American affairs within the next couple of years. In the last year, the Organization’s Permanent Council, General Assembly and its Secretary General remained rather quiet in the face of rigged elections in Nicaragua, attacks on media outlets in Venezuela, Ecuador, or Peru by their governments, or actions by some branches of government - specially the executive - in the Western Hemisphere to alter the structure of checks and balances in their countries. These actions clearly undermined the rule of law and the principles of (liberal) democracy that the organization and its members agreed to defend and promote.

In Honduras, President Zelaya effectively shrugged off decisions from the Supreme Court and Congress. Both declared the ballot he proposed for June 28 illegal. The ballot would have called for a Constitutional Assembly in the November general elections. Despite the Court’s and Congress’ decision, Zelaya pushed ahead and turned it into a survey through decree. An OAS’s Permanent Council resolution (CP/RES. 952 1699/09) called for all political and social actors to respect the rule of law prior to the events on Sunday June 28. Zelaya’s persistence undermined Honduras’ rule of law. The President’s removal from his country by the military equates a coup even though it has received wide support from Hondurans, the business community, and allegedly took place following the constitutional order Zelaya violated.  

OAS’s Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza will visit Honduras before the end of the week, most likely accompanied by an ad hoc committee probably appointed during the General Assembly Special Session. President Zelaya also announced that he will return to the country. The interim government led by Roberto Micheletti affirmed that Isulza is welcome, but Zelaya will be put behind bars if he arrives in Honduras.

Zelaya return to office in the next months seems unlikely as he lacks local support. Only if he fully agrees to abide by the rule of law and Honduras’ constitution he will be able to finish his term. Once Zelaya is back in power or shares it with Micheletti, the OAS and its governing bodies will need to respond with stronger positions and preemptively to face threats to democracy and the rule of law in the Western Hemisphere. That means condemning actions by the governments of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, Bolivia, Ecuador, or any other government in the region that undermines democracy, the rule of law, and constitutional order. If the OAS continues to remain silent in the occurrence of these challenges, it will lose the reduced credibility it has among the democratic regimes of the region.

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posted by Jorge Godoy Coy on July 1st, 2009
Posted in Latin America and the Caribbean | 1 Comment »

Breaking news from Nepal, courtesy of the BBC: In an effort to fight corruption at the international airport, the Nepalese government is now issuing pants without pockets to airport employees. While I applaud the practicality and simplicity of the proposed solution, I have to question whether the mere loss of pockets will stop airport employees from hassling travelers for bribes. CIPE has seen worldwide that the largest cause of reduced corruption is a change in citizen mindset. Without local desire to stand up for a new set of principles, anti-corruption efforts often go unnoticed.

Tribhuvan Airport corruption is unique in one factor - bribery may be rampant, but only among Nepalese travelers. Foreigners are, surprisingly, left largely alone in recognition of (a) the tips many Westerners give to those helping them with luggage and the like and (b) the huge role that international tourism plays in Nepal’s economy.

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posted by Brooke Millis on June 30th, 2009
Posted in South Asia | No Comments »

The theme of this photo contest brings to mind Tashabos, Efham, and a number of other CIPE partner programs that deserve to be showcased - spread the word!

As part of the initiative to promote gender equality in education, UNESCO Bangkok - along with the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI), East Asia and Pacific (EAP) and South Asia (SA) - is pleased to invite entries for the Photo Contest 2009 on the theme of: Reversing Realities: Seeking Gender Equality in Education.

The 13 winning photos will be announced at the end of September 2009. The winners will receive official certificates of merit. The winning photographs will also be featured in the UNESCO Bangkok and UNGEI (EAP and SA) combined “Gender in Education Calendar 2010”, which is to be distributed widely throughout Asia and beyond. The winning photographs will also be posted on the organizers’ respective websites.

All entries must be received at the UNESCO Bangkok office by 31 July 2009.

See for details: http://www.ungei.org/infobycountry/thailand_2115.html

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posted by Anna Nadgrodkiewicz on June 26th, 2009
Posted in Global | 1 Comment »

The Economist reports that President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela is contemplating another move to curb what he sees as the “excesses” of the media. The latest target is Globovisión, a 24-hour news channel that for now faces increasing pressures but shortly may end up with a government-imposed closing.

Globovisión is the last remaining national channel that is critical of the government. It was one of four such channels that during Venezuela’s political conflict of 2002-04, to varying degrees, egged on an opposition that was determined to oust Mr Chávez.

Yet some believe that this move could have the opposite effect:

Some officials think that shutting down Globovisión would be a big mistake. It commands less than 10% of the audience (partly because it is free-to-air only in Caracas and Valencia). The damage to Mr Chávez’s “revolution”, these officials say in private, would outweigh the benefits.

Curiously, the official justification for the anti-Globovisión legal assault coming in a form of unexpected tax fines, investigations, and night-time raids is the one in which the government portrays itself as the victim of media:

The president claims his popularity would reach 80% (rather than its current 50% or so) were it not for “media lies”. Globovisión must mend its ways, he insists. “Its time is running out”.

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posted by Anna Nadgrodkiewicz on June 25th, 2009
Posted in Latin America and the Caribbean | No Comments »

That we are all equally human, we should all have equal rights of some sort, the argument goes; equal opportunity, equal outcomes, equal by some measure. Michaela Wrong’s It’s Our Turn to Eat provides a living, detailed, vibrant story of human beings conspiring to deny equal rights for all - embodied by Kenya’s corrupt politicians and the inherited system of political patronage at the heart of Kenya’s recent electoral violence. This story was the subject of Monday’s event hosted by the Cato Institute, featuring Wrong, with comments by the former Vice Chairman and Co-Founder of Transparency International, Frank Vogl.

The story provided harrowing testimony to human equality, by reminding us that people of all races are equally capable of extraordinary courage, and extraordinary crime.

“John Githongo sees a certain racism in the lower standards for governance that the international donor community holds for African governments, and I have come to agree with him,” Wrong said. Githongo is the main protagonist of It’s Our Turn to Eat, and had been permanent secretary for governance and ethics in the Office of the President of Kenya. Appointed by the newly and democratically elected President Mwai Kibaki in 2002, Githongo was effectively Kenya’s first anti-corruption czar. The book tells the story of the immediate resistance Githongo encountered as the new government simply took the old system of ethnic patronage inherited from British colonizers and turned it to favor their own ethnic group that had been locked out of power, first under the British and again under Kenya’s first two presidents, Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi. Read the rest of this entry »

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posted by Oscar Abello on June 22nd, 2009
Posted in Africa, Global | No Comments »

It has been nearly month since CIPE’s ChamberL.I.N.K.S. program participants have gone back to their own chambers and associations.  When they met in Washington their minds were buzzing with new ideas and approaches to improve their own organizations.  They eagerly shared their experiences gained at local chambers of commerce in the U.S. with one another and with the CIPE staff.  Through their discussion they came to commit themselves to work to change their own chambers of commerce and associations  from the inside out - improving membership services, broadening their organizations’ reach and scope, performing more effective advocacy,  and becoming the premier business organization in their area.

But now that they are back at their own organizations, transformed by the experiences here in the United States, they are facing resistance from their own colleagues on implementing their new ideas en mass.  So they have begun by taking baby steps towards change, choosing those new programs that cost the least and promise visible results - perhaps by holding a new member orientation or a weekly coffee catch-up for members to improve communication and gain feedback on chamber initiatives.  The point is that these young chamber and association professionals are not disheartened by their colleagues timid response to their new ideas, they are taking action where they can in the present and laying the groundwork for real reform in the future.

When I receive their emails that tell me the details of the challenges they face in reforming their chambers and associations I can not help but notice there is always a sense of optimism that comes through.  You can read between the lines - if we can change just one small thing, greater changes will soon follow.  In the line of work CIPE is in that is all any of us can hope for.

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posted by Eric Hontz on June 22nd, 2009
Posted in Global | No Comments »

To many in Iran this was supposed to be an election of firsts: the first time candidates engaged in vigorous debates on television, the first time a candidate’s wife became such a dynamic voice in a campaign, and what many were hoping - the first time an incumbent President was elected out of office. During the two-week campaign season, there was a buzz and excitement about the elections not seen in years. The urban elite had grown disillusioned with Iranian politics after witnessing the limits of change under reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who ruled from 1997 until 2005. Voter malaise set in as they came to view the presidential elections as only a nominal change in leadership with power ultimately in the hands of the clerical establishment.

However, the widespread repercussions of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s populist, hard-line policies proved that, to a certain degree, elections do matter. With increased repression at home, a reeling economy, and an excessively confrontational stance on the world stage, many segments of Iranian society were ready for change. Their hopes were personified in Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was a veteran of the 1979 Revolution, but had stayed out of politics for the last 20 years. In the final days of the campaign, millions of Iranians took to the streets, many sporting green ribbons that became a symbol for Mousavi, and many declaring their determination to vote for the first time. It seemed odd that a bland technocrat such as Mousavi, who was Prime Minister from 1980 to 1989 and responsible for the purging of political dissidents, would become the voice for the reformist camp. Yet it is precisely because of Mousavi’s competent management of the economy during the Iran-Iraq war and his ability to bridge the conservative-liberal divide through a return to the true principles of the Revolution, that he was seen as a viable candidate.  With a surge of support among women, youth, and the urban middle class (groups that would normally stay home on election day but felt they had a large stake in this election) it looked like Mousavi had a real chance of defeating Ahmadinejad. The excitement led to record turnout of 85 percent, a factor that should have allowed for a Mousavi victory or at the very least for a second-round runoff. But like all things in Iran’s opaque political structure, the outcome proved to be unpredictable. Read the rest of this entry »

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posted by daphne mccurdy on June 19th, 2009
Posted in Middle East and North Africa | No Comments »

Recent unrest in Peru, where thousands of Amazonian Indians blocked roads and seized hydroelectric plants and oil and gas pumping stations, prompted the government of President Alan García to have armed police confront the protesters. Numerous protesters and police were killed and injured in this bloody manifestation of a deeper underlying problem: unresolved property rights issues.

A year ago, the government issued decrees that allowed for development of “unproductive” land in Peru’s vast Amazon jungle. These laws were passed outside of the Congress and had not been properly consulted with key stakeholders – Indians who inhabit the land in question. The Economist reports that around 70 percent of the jungle has now been either granted or offered as concessions for oil and gas exploration. Indians, who claim much of it as communal or private property, have been trying to force the repeal the decrees.

This situation leaves many in Peru wary of a repeat of the Shining Path’s terrorist violence in the 1980s and 1990s. And it brings to mind The Other Path, Hernando de Soto’s renowned book on the underlying institutional causes of that movement, which are very similar to the roots of the current unrest. It all comes down to the costs of the absence of good law on property rights. The Economist highlights that:

“Mr García argues that the Indians should not be allowed to block investment in oil and gas that he hopes will turn the country into an oil exporter, benefiting all Peruvians. AIDESEP [an umbrella-group that organized the protests] counters that his decrees ride roughshod over the property rights of the Indians. (…) Force is not the answer. Instead of bluster, Mr García should be offering Peru proper consultation and vigorous debate about these issues.”

That debate should aim to make property rights and their surrounding legal framework deliver for all. In that respect, de Soto’s response is as relevant today as when The Other Path was first published over 20 years ago. Only well-defined and secure property rights for all can prevent the government from arbitrarily choosing winners and losers – an act that inevitably leads to social conflict, not economic development:

“The absence of a legal system of efficient property rights is detrimental to all. (…) The law, then, allows citizens to specialize because it enforces property rights, promotes reliable contracts which enable these rights to be organized and transferred, and attributes liability when it is not established by a contract. These three elements are essential if a society is to make the best use of its citizens’ initiatives and labor and of its material resources.”

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posted by Anna Nadgrodkiewicz on June 19th, 2009
Posted in Latin America and the Caribbean | No Comments »

The results are in! The Democracy Video Challenge, a worldwide online competition, asked young video makers to complete the phrase, “Democracy is…” through three-minute videos. More than 900 people from 95 countries submitted their entries. A jury co-chaired by Hernando de Soto (Institute for Liberty and Democracy) and Michael Apted (Directors Guild of America) selected the 18 finalists. Then the six winners - one from each region of the world - were chosen by through an online vote. Their videos are truly innovative and inspiring so make sure to take a look. Congratulations to the winners!

Chansa Tembo from Zambia (Sub-Saharan Africa)

Aissa Peñafiel from the Philippines (East Asia and Pacific)

Lukasz Szozda from Poland (Europe)

Rodin Hamidi from the United Arab Emirates (Near East and North Africa)

Tsering Choden from Nepal (South and Central Asia)

Anna Christa dos Santos from Brazil (Western Hemisphere)

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posted by Anna Nadgrodkiewicz on June 18th, 2009
Posted in Global | No Comments »

The complexities of operating in a global economy create challenges for companies striving to operate in a socially responsible way, especially in developing countries. Many have found that if the notion of corporate citizenship remains limited to philanthropy, companies fail to take full advantage of their core competencies. In contrast, emphasizing key business expertise to engage more effectively with local communities can provide unique opportunities to make a difference at a grassroots level.

In this Feature Service article, CIPE interviews Laurel Vogelsang, associate director for corporate responsibility at Eli Lilly and Company on how the principles of good corporate citizenship can be an integral part of a successful business strategy. Lilly is the world’s 10th-largest pharmaceutical producer and Vogelsang emphasizes that striving to be a good corporate citizen benefits the company as well as the end recipients of assistance.

She says, “The benefits to Lilly include the improvement of the business environment by emphasizing the interdependence between business and society and demonstrating this connection via patient-based programs. (…) Companies operating in developing markets should try to find opportunities to engage with local communities and to have a holistic approach to global development needs.”

Article at a Glance

• Corporate social responsibility, or corporate citizenship, is a constantly evolving concept.

• Good corporate citizenship utilizes a company’s core competencies to benefit the community as much as to sustain the corporation.

• Relationships built on shared goals, not just philanthropy, contribute to community sustainability and corporate profitability.

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posted by Anna Nadgrodkiewicz on June 17th, 2009
Posted in Feature Service articles, Global | No Comments »

Following years of negotiations with the EU on issues from protectionism to IP infringement Russia finally looked poised to enter the WTO by the end of this year.  This was, of course, until the predictably unpredictable leaders of the Russian government announced that they would only enter the WTO as a “customs union” of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan.  News reports from the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal contain the shocked reactions of many of the EU and US negotiators to the announcement from Mr. Putin.

From FT:

Mr Putin’s announcement that Russia was scrapping talks as an individual nation came days after senior EU and US trade officials held top-level talks at the St Petersburg investment forum in which Russian officials said they were committed to ironing out differences to ensure Russia’s soonest possible entry.

… a [EU trade commission] spokesman added that during the talks in St Petersburg “the Russian side said it was committed to WTO accession by the end of the year. But should the basic parameters of these negotiations be changed this would create a new situation.”

Belarus, Russia, and Kazakhstan, although sharing a common historical and cultural heritage, are each at a different threshold of economic development.  It has taken Russia 16 year of on-again/off-again negotiations to reach agreement, but with two additional partners now joining a new bid it looks as if the negotiations are back to square one.  I would say the chances of Russia joining the WTO this year are unlikely - or - to borrow a Russian phrase they will enter the WTO когда рак на горе свистнет (when a lobster whistles on a mountain).

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posted by Eric Hontz on June 16th, 2009
Posted in Eurasia, Global | No Comments »

“There are no winners or losers in this election, the only winner is democracy and the biggest victor is Lebanon.”

Those were the words of Saad Hariri, son of former slain Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who spoke after the much-anticipated parliamentary elections of June 7 that saw the Western-backed March 14 bloc retain power after facing strong opposition from the Hezbollah-led opposition coalition, March 8. For a country as tiny as Lebanon, the importance of the election is disproportionately large. The country of 4 million desperately needs a batch of elected officials who can inject fresh ideas into a confessional system continually mired in paralyzing stalemates. Under Lebanon’s sectarian national unity system, the parliament is divided equally between Muslims and Christians with a determined number of seats per district reserved for specific sects such as Sunnis, Shias, Druze, Alawites, and the largest bloc, Maronites. Because of Lebanon’s complex division of powers, it’s difficult for any one party to have a monopoly, which often leads to a stalemate since practically every member retains a veto say.

Nevertheless, the election that inspired unprecedented voter turnout has potential to breed new hope for a country whose political system, while no longer under Syrian control, is known for its fragility and sectarian tensions. As the general director of CIPE partner the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS) Ousamma Safa alluded in the Economist, the once “shaky equilibrium” seems to now be in a better position to effect change. The election provides an important opportunity to place Lebanon on a positive trajectory toward greater reform as glimmers of a new, pro-reform political culture have started to emerge. The September 2008 electoral law that governed these elections (versus the 2000 electoral law that was passed at the height of Syrian power in Lebanon and that governed the last 2005 elections)  contains small but important measures  such as the establishment of a Supervisory Commision that could lay the groundwork for more significant reform in the future. However, the lack of preprinted ballots, potential difficulties adjudicating electoral disputes, and sparse political competition underscore critical flaws that exist in the electoral process. Read the rest of this entry »

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posted by Jonathan H. Apikian on June 15th, 2009
Posted in Middle East and North Africa | No Comments »

Sometimes the worst form of violence doesn’t reveal itself until the bullets stop flying. Fatu Bonah had helped support her family for years on her husband’s fertile land. She was his second of four wives. There are two systems of marriage in Liberia; a civil marriage system administered through clergy who strictly recognize monogamy, and a customary system that allows men to take multiple wives. Under customary law, the additional wives become their husband’s legal property. Under the rule of dictator Charles Taylor, bullets flew often:

After watching the murder of her husband and his three other wives by Charles Taylor’s rebels, Fatu Bonah and her seven children fled into the dense forest to hide. “The rebels burned down our home and when I returned my in-laws had taken the land,” she says. “I went to the town chief, who tried to resolve it, but the family refused, saying they had already taken over the land.” (From the Inter Press Service News Agency)

In a land founded by freed slaves, and where the current president’s nickname is “The Iron Lady,” the women are accustomed to fighting for freedom, in all its forms. The same story reports that in 2003 the Association of the Female Lawyers of Liberia (AFELL) successully advocated for reforms recognizing inheritance rights for all wives and their children in situations like Bonah’s. One estimate, cited in the article, counts one third of Liberia’s 3.5 million people as disinherited women and children.

Today, AFELL continues to support those millions by tracking the new law’s implementation, as it encounters resistance from patriarchal institutions that are entrenched, yet younger than their beneficiaries typically admit:

“What our work is now is to bring this law back to the people,” says Deweh Gray, AFELL’s determined president. “The challenges are great because people had this life for over a century and getting them to, especially the male folks, to accept this change, what they see as a radical change in their lives is a difficult thing. ”

By taking on these political, social, and cultural battles AFELL is building gender-neutral institutions for property as only locally based organizations can. Property rights institutions literally double their leavening effect upon entrepreneurs, when they do not exclude half the human race. Such institutions are key to keeping the bullets from flying as they once did, and sometimes still do.

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posted by Oscar Abello on June 12th, 2009
Posted in Africa, Global | No Comments »

The Middle East Youth Initiative has recently published “Missed by the Boom, Hurt by the Bust: Making Markets Work for Young People in the Middle East,” a report highlighting the challenges the region faces with providing job opportunities for its growing youth population. The report demonstrates that even during the “boom” years of 2002-2008 young people in the region were afflicted by high unemployment rates. The current economic slump – which coincides with demographic pressures of historically high levels of young job seekers – has only made things worse, raising even more concerns about the future.

“Young people continue to struggle in attaining job-relevant skills and high quality education. They continue to wait for good jobs, enduring long spells of unemployment or spending their most productive years trapped in informal jobs that fail to prepare them for better positions. In turn, young men and women increasingly delay marriage and family formation, unable to meet the costs associated with these life stages. Moreover, since outcomes in these spheres are interdependent, failure in one transition spills over into others, resulting in a debilitating state of waithood, when young people are left waiting to achieve a full state of adulthood.”

Over 25 percent of firms in MENA report the lack of skills among prospective young workers as a major constraint on business growth. In a functioning market economy, employers can signal what skills they need and value, which in turn provides incentives for the youth to acquire those skills. In MENA, however, wage scales offering higher pay in scarce government jobs, coupled with very rigid labor laws, skew those incentives.

The report concludes that “for policy makers, a vital lesson of the oil boom years is that improvements in the macro environment alone will not erase the deep inequities that define the older and younger generations. (…) Without a sound microeconomic foundation—one in which institutions generate the right signals and incentives—the benefits of macroeconomic and trade reforms, as has been demonstrated during these last few years, are limited.” Yet more than just education, employment, or housing policies need to be reformed to help the youth. A redefining of MENA’s long-standing social contract requires a broader and more open public policy discourse that empowers the voices of youth and other excluded groups – and engages the private sector on key reform issues.

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posted by Anna Nadgrodkiewicz on June 11th, 2009
Posted in Middle East and North Africa | 1 Comment »

In April 1992, CIPE sponsored its first program in the Middle East by holding a privatization conference in Ankara, Turkey. The decision to hold the conference in Turkey was perhaps a symbolic one, since Turkey has often been at the forefront of modernization in the region, both politically and economically. Fueled by the forces of globalization, the Turkish government embarked on an economic liberalization agenda as early as 1980. However for decades the Turkish economy was beset by high inflation and fiscal irresponsibility that resulted in three financial crises between 1994 and 2001. The victory of the Justice and Development party (AKP) in 2002 finally provided the strong, focused leadership needed to address the fundamental deficiencies of the economy. Supported by the IMF and prodded by the possibility of European Union (EU) membership, the AKP showed an unprecedented commitment to reform, which included sanitizing the banking sector, establishing new regulatory institutions, and strengthening the autonomy of the central bank. By overhauling economic governance structures, the government helped to achieve macro stability: between 2002 and 2007 the Turkish economy experienced an average annual growth rate of 7.5 percent, a drop in the rate of inflation from 60 percent to about 9 percent, almost a doubling of per capita income, and an influx of foreign direct investment (yearly average inflows of FDI increased from $1bn in 2000 to $22bn in 2007).

Throughout this reform process, CIPE has supported vibrant Turkish think-tanks and NGOs as they strengthen Turkey’s burgeoning democratic infrastructure. Projects have included working with:

• The Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), to study perceptions of corruption within Turkish society and to form a civil society coalition of business associations, labor unions, academics, and media to advocate anti-corruption policy proposals.
• The Association for Liberal Thinking (ALT), to provide much-needed information services to Turkish parliamentarians on issues of market economy and economic and democratic reform.
• The Center for Society and Economy (TEE), to promote a grassroots model of economic development by encouraging local leaders to develop their own economic development strategies.
• The Center for the Research of Societal Problems (TOSAM), to organize a series of leadership and citizenship training seminars in Southeastern Turkey (Diyarbakir, Batman, Mardin, Batman, Sanli Urfa, Adiyamin, and Sirrt) for Kurdish business people, local community leaders, and youth.
• The Association for Liberal Thinking (ALT), to bring together Islamic thinkers, academics, business people, and media to debate the compatibility of Islam and market economic principles within Turkish society at a major conference as well as at a series of seminars in various universities.
• The Anatolian Young Leaders Association, to help young women entrepreneurs identify solutions to common obstacles facing their entrepreneurial advancement through a 3-month training program.
• The Ekonomistler Platformu (EKP), to enhance the ability of region-based enterprises and business associations through an economic policy summit and through the launch of an on-line business association resource center specific to the Turkish business community.

Read the rest of this entry »

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posted by daphne mccurdy on June 10th, 2009
Posted in Middle East and North Africa | No Comments »

On May 27-29, the 4th International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training took place in Dakar, Senegal. Called eLearning Africa for short, it is the largest such event on the Continent, this year gathering 1,315 participants from 85 countries and featuring 336 speakers and chairpersons from approximately 50 countries. I was very glad to have an opportunity to meet many of them and to share the CIPE Development Institute portal at the event’s best practice and demonstration session.

The conference focused on elearning and its application in the African context and provided a platform for exchanging ideas, solutions, and content. It was a really exciting place to be and learn about initiatives ranging from an online network of the African Virtual University, through educational radio programs for rural women, to the new distance learning possibilities created by the prevalence of cell phones. The participants from all over Africa clearly saw the promise of technology and were eager to use its latest innovations.

Yet the key underlying issue that emerged from many of the conference debates was that technology in and of itself is not enough to transform a country’s educational system. Equally important are the ways in which education – through elearning or otherwise – can contribute to sustained economic growth and development. Read the rest of this entry »

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posted by Anna Nadgrodkiewicz on June 9th, 2009
Posted in Africa | No Comments »

For many households around the world, living paycheck-to-paycheck is a luxury out of reach. When household income is $2 a day or less, very rarely does it come in regular increments. Such households must be creative in how they manage to put food on the table every night and pay for other assorted necessities. A glimpse of their balance sheets or assets won’t provide sense of their financial creativity. The turnover in cash flows from savings to loans and back again doesn’t register; there are far more transactions per day that don’t ultimately end up on a balance sheet. Not that anyone has time to write things down - until recently.

A quartet of co-authors actually did manage to write everything down—every wage earned, every payment, every deposit, every loan, every financial transaction. Using interviews with over 250 households twice a month for about a year each, the quartet constructed detailed financial diaries documenting what life is like on $2 day. The first and most important conclusion was that when these households do receive income, very rarely is it ever spent as soon as it is earned. Human creativity reaches a high watermark in how these households use mostly informal financing to smooth out consumption for daily needs, insure against risk, and save for major expenses.

….even for the poorest households, a surprising amount of income gets managed in this way–diverted into savings or used to pay down loans. In the process, a host of different methods are pressed into use: storing savings at home, with others, and with banking institutions; joining savings clubs, savings-and-loan clubs, and insurance clubs; and borrowing from neighbors, relatives, employers, moneylenders, or financial institutions. At any one time, the average poor household has a fistful of financial relationships on the go. (Collins, D., Morduch, J., Rutherford, S., Ruthven, O. Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.)

Read the rest of this entry »

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posted by Oscar Abello on June 8th, 2009
Posted in Global | No Comments »

Last week, CIPE’s partner in Venezuela, the Center for the Divulgation of Economic Information (CEDICE) celebrated its 25th anniversary with a true show of intellectual force. Present at their two-day celebratory event entitled: “The Latin American Challenge: Liberty, Democracy, Property Rights and Combating Poverty,” were the renowned Peruvian author, Mario Vargas Llosa, writer Alvaro Vargas Llosa, former Mexican Foreign Minister, Jorge Castañeda, former President of Bolivia, Jorge Quiroga, and many other political and intellectual luminaries from the region.

The event presented a sharp contrast to the increasing infringement of political liberties being imposed by the Venezuelan government. Venezuela’s Minister of Education shut down a CEDICE-Cato Institute educational seminar held the week before at a local university. In addition, both Mario and Alvaro Vargas Llosa were detained for several hours at the Caracas Maiquetia airport upon their arrival and were told not to speak about politics during their visit.

The government clearly felt that it must somehow respond to the ideas being presented at the CEDICE conference. President Chávez called for a four day marathon of his “Alo Presidente” television program in order to counteract the visibility of CEDICE’s event. He also conducted a parallel conference with the government’s intellectual supporters several blocks away from the CEDICE event. The press coverage of CEDICE’s event was extensive by both television and printed press. That also placed the event in stark relief to the government’s imposition of draconian media control laws, its shutting down of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) and its current efforts to shutter the last remaining independent broadcaster in the country, Globovisión.

CEDICE should be commended on the occasion of its 25th anniversary for its many years of service in promoting democratic principles in Venezuela. This conference represented a courageous effort to keep democratic dialogue alive in the country and to maintain the important role that independent civil society institutions play in Venezuelan society.

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posted by John Zemko on June 5th, 2009
Posted in Latin America and the Caribbean | No Comments »

Private sector engagement in conflict resolution is increasingly relevant as many fragile democracies are struggling to break the vicious circle of socio-economic underdevelopment and the resulting political instability. In this Feature Service article, CIPE’s Abdulwahab Alkebsi and Aleksandr Shkolnikov discuss the role of the private sector in conflict resolution using the example of Kenya. The violence that followed December 2007 elections was widely blamed on ethnic tensions. Yet, the underlying reasons were more than that: ethnic tensions were the manifestation of deep-running democratic governance failures and unequal access to economic opportunity.

Alkebsi and Shkolnikov emphasize the role that the private sector can play – and in the case of Kenya did play – in ending the crisis that threatened the future of the nation. They point out that by focusing on tangible outcomes, such as providing jobs, creating wealth, delivering goods and services, and promoting stability, the private sector can move countries away from political bickering to the design and implementation of concrete policy priorities and visible improvements in citizen’s quality of life.

Article at a Glance

• The roots of Kenya’s post-electoral violence go beyond ethnic divisions – they have much to do with a lack of effective political representation and broad economic opportunities.

• The private sector in post-conflict settings has an important role to play in brokering peace agreements.

• Building the institutions of representative democratic governance and a stable, competitive market economy is a key element of conflict prevention.

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posted by Anna Nadgrodkiewicz on June 5th, 2009
Posted in Africa, Feature Service articles | No Comments »

ATMs and refugee/IDP camps are not usually two things I think about in the same context. Apparently, I should have been thinking more creatively. According to this article in India’s The Hindu (read down to the second half of the article), the Government of Sri Lanka has had to open bank branches and even ATMs for IDPs in the country’s northern region. In the wake of the end of hostilities, and despite the refugees’ increasingly tenuous humanitarian situation, there has been demand for banking services – from people who had literally been carrying their savings in their clothes and suitcases as they fled fighting between the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka. According to The Hindu, in the first few days of the temporary bank branches’ opening, on average 5 million rupees (about $43,500) was deposited each day, with 12 million rupees (about $104,400) deposited on the first day alone. One individual deposited 3.4 million rupees (nearly $30,000). The demand for ATM services has been such that the temporary branches are already issuing ATM cards, and Internet-based money transfer services are being offered as well.

 

I find this interesting for a number of reasons. One, that these Tamil civilians have such a degree of trust in the Government of Sri Lanka that they would entrust their life savings to these banks evinces a certain degree of trust in the government generally. Against the horrific experiences that everyone in Sri Lanka has undergone over the past two and a half decades of conflict, this is a positive development. Regardless of where an individual’s sympathies were placed (with the LTTE or the government), those who have made the deposits have made it clear that they are looking into the future from a very practical standpoint. Read the rest of this entry »

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posted by Johanna Fernando on June 4th, 2009
Posted in Global, South Asia | 1 Comment »

The iconic images of people enthusiastically tearing down the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 have become a symbol of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. But it is important to remember that this momentous event was preceded by an equally significant – if somewhat less photogenic – occurrence: elections held in Poland exactly 20 years ago today. They were the outcome of the “Round Table” negotiations between Poland’s communist government and the Solidarity movement and brought a crushing defeat to the regime. Although the elections were not entirely free, Solidarity easily won all 161 seats it was allowed to contest in the Lower House of the Parliament (Sejm) and it took 99 out of 100 seats in the freely contested Upper House (Senat). Subsequently, the first non-communist government in the region since WWII was formed under Solidarity’s leadership.

These events marked the beginning of a democratic transition in Eastern Europe. Yet that transition required much more than just holding elections: institutions of democratic governance had to be built and, crucially, institutions of market economy had to be put in place to ensure the survival of the new and fragile democracies. That is precisely where CIPE was able to help. In 1989, CIPE began to work with one of its first partners in a former communist country, the Krakow Industrial Society – Poland’s first private business association, to encourage, educate, and aid private entrepreneurs. Read the rest of this entry »

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posted by Anna Nadgrodkiewicz on June 4th, 2009
Posted in Eastern Europe, Global | No Comments »

Political power couples have long been a fixture limited to Western politics… until now. As the presidential elections of June 12 approach in Iran, the world is slowly turning its attention to the increasingly popular Zahra Rahnavard, wife of the main pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. Thousands could hardly contain themselves at an energetic campaign rally in Tehran this week but the deafening cheers were not for presidential hopeful Mousavi, who was elsewhere campaigning — they were for his wife. Approaching the podium before an estimated 12,000 people, Rahnavard articulately communicated her demands for women’s rights and economic reform with zeal as she backed her husband’s bid for president. Seldom has the region seen a candidate break the mold in Iranian politics and so comfortably put his wife at the forefront of his campaign — a first since the revolution of 1979. But Rahnavard’s popularity is not in vain; she has a prolific academic background, holding a PhD from Tehran’s Al-Zahra university where she was chancellor for eight years, and served as an adviser to the reform-minded former president Mohammad Khatami. As the nation seeks a solution to the floundering economy and rising unemployment, Iranians are enthused about Mousavi’s run and many admit it’s because of his wife who has taken a lead role in winning over reformists and women voters alike.

With the crowd of young voters clamoring for change at the rally, only falling short of screaming out “Yes We Can,” Rahnavard is inspiring a new generation that one day will take a leading role toward economic empowerment and reform. Whether she will attain the position to exert the influence of her strong public profile like her peers around the world remains to be seen.

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posted by Jonathan H. Apikian on June 3rd, 2009
Posted in Middle East and North Africa | No Comments »

In recent weeks, Guatemala’s political institutions have been dealt a harsh blow by accusations pertaining to the murder of a prominent lawyer, Rodrigo Rosenburg.  The controversy surrounds a posthumously released video recorded by Rosenburg, declaring that if he was murdered, President Alvaro Colom and his advisors were the ones responsible.  In the video, Rosenburg expressed suspicion that he might be murdered for representing Khalil Musa, a prominent businessman who was murdered along with his daughter in March.

President Colom has vehemently denied the claims, but the damage done by the speculation is undeniable.  More than 35,000 signatures have been collected by a group of lawyers demanding that Colom’s political immunity be revoked so that he can be tried for the murder, and thousands have taken to the streets in demonstrations on both sides of the controversy.  Those protesting against Colom, predominantly from the middle and high socioeconomic classes, have demanded “justice,” an end to immunity, and for Colom to step down.  Demonstrators in support of the president have come mainly from the rural areas, were largely transported by the official party (the National Union of Hope, UNE) and according to critics, may have been paid for their presence.

What is clear is that the allegations of murder have polarized and threatened to destabilize a fragile democracy, in a country that emerged from a 36-year-long civil war in 1996.  The country has been deeply scarred by civil conflict between the indigenous Mayan populations, making up half of the population and many not speaking Spanish, and the Guatemalan government. Read the rest of this entry »

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posted by Kim Ayers on June 2nd, 2009
Posted in Latin America and the Caribbean | No Comments »