Innovation in Development

Negotiating Pro-poor Trade Policies

China, India and Brazil have shown that trade has an enormous potential for economic development. That said, the gains from trade are not distributed equally – and it is often the poor that miss out, both within and across countries. The geographical dispersion and international expansion of production chains continue to sideline the interests of least developed countries. The fastest growth, for example, is in trade within large, multinational corporations. This offers few economic benefits to those who are not part of global value chains. Least developed countries also have little say when global rules for trade are negotiated.

As a result, a set of pressing questions arises about the role of trade for development that we plan to address. How do intergovernmental organizations such as the World Trade Organization respond to the changing global landscape? What norms evolve in response to the growing demand to govern and regulate new issues like trade facilitation? What is the likely effect on trade relations with least developed countries? Are visions of a “pro-poor” trade policy converging or diverging between different actors?

Development in Fragile Contexts

Extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated in countries that fail to guarantee basic security and the rule of law, or to provide basic services to their citizens. There are therefore calls for aid to focus more on such fragile contexts. However, it is often difficult to use classical development tools in contexts with violence, poverty and volatile relations between the state, society and business. Under these circumstances, understanding how development links to security and vice-versa is critical.

We do not believe that the concepts of “fragility” and “stabilization” are useful when applied as blueprints for informing development and security policies. Governments should think about their engagement in fragile contexts as high-risk investments that need a good analysis of the local political, social and economic dimensions of fragility. More practically, we have convened discussions with civil society organizations – both African and transatlantic, to define common positions on some of the most pressing issues in global development and to promote the value of civil society for effective policymaking.