Under one of the 60 or so agreements of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM Agreement), WTO member countries are prohibited from providing government or state subsidies to exporters. When most of the WTO agreements were finalised back in 1994, however, the world's richest countries obtained an exception for their export credit agencies (ECAs) -- the organisations that use taxpayers' money to provide various financial services to private corporations from their home country to assist them in doing business abroad.

The July issue of IDRC's Lasting Impacts is entitled "Innovations in Research". among the topics discussed: Three decades of work by the Nairobi-based World Agroforestry Centre (WAC) has turned a traditional practice — growing trees and shrubs alongside crops — into a science-based discipline. That science, agroforestry, is now recognized around the world for its potential to provide food, fodder, increase crop yields and incomes, protect watersheds, provide energy, prevent land degradation, and more.

Gabon presents fertile ground for Chinese investment in extractive industries, though the development of this relationship is a lengthy process and is much diversified across Gabon and the economy’s main sectors of interest to China, writes Johanna Jansson. Jansson suggests the observer of yet another African economy to come within range of China’s investment radar should take note of the diversity also present within the ranks of Chinese corporate actors, whose level of responsible conduct presents no general trend.

Reform of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) is becoming more urgent as controversy over Zimbabwe's diamond sales pushes the international initiative designed to stem the flow of conflict diamonds towards paralysis. At the KPCS meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel, on 21-24 June, Zimbabwe dominated proceedings, and delegates were given a rude reminder of the growing disillusionment when diamond business magnate Martin Rapaport embarked on a three-day hunger strike to protest against "corrupt governments [that] have turned the KP on its head; instead of eliminating human rights violations the KP is legitimizing them".

A major report that reveals how vulnerable the internet as we know it is, has just been published in French and Spanish by two global civil society organisations. The annual report, called Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch), was in November by the Association for Progressive Communications and Dutch-funder Hivos. GISWatch 2009 is entitled Access to online information and knowledge – advancing human rights and democracy.

Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa was detained for almost three hours at Germany’s Munich airport on Thursday, when he was on his way to attend the European Union-Zimbabwe talks in Brussels, Belgium. Chinamasa was part of a three-member ministerial delegation that flew to Brussels via Germany. The other two are head of delegation Energy Minister, Elton Mangoma and International Cooperation Minister, Priscilla Mishairabwi-Mushonga.

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has reiterated that country's long-held view and called for international financial institutions to be overhauled to give developing economies a greater say. Addressing a session of the Group of 20 (G-20) in Toronto at the weekend, Mr Zuma said it was time for the group’s leaders to take the initiative with regard to the reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Saturday that his country would never be able to repay the 'historical debts' it owes Africa, and proposed a relations hip between Brazil and Africa that transcends trade and commerce. President Lula, who spoke as the first Brazil-ECOWAS summit got underway on the Island of Sal in Cape Verde, said conditions must be built to ensure the transfer of technology to Africa ''so that they can produce what we are producing''.

In this week's roundup of emerging powers news, inviting Africans to G8 meeting termed as " just window-dressing", Nigeria's First Bank eyes equity stake in Chinese Bank, the effect of a strong Yuan on Kenyan consumers, and ICBC loan for Gibe Project draws controversy.

Ever since the World Commission on Dams report, there’s been some reluctance to use hydropower as a source of clean and cheap energy, writes Saliem Fakir. But as the demand for electricity surges across the continent, Fakir asks whether – in the absence of practical, clean alternatives – Africa should reconsider hydro projects to help power its development.

The struggle for peace and security in Somalia, a country bereft of stable governance for more than two decades, has been severely prolonged by the external agencies and donors that form global the aid industry, writes Rasna Warah. Warah takes a look at what lies beyond the smoke screen of collection boxes and celebrity appeals – a distant reality from stolen food supplies and guerrilla warfare.

The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) has escaped drastic cuts despite a tough austerity budget, but in a new report the National Audit Office has told the government it should get better value for aid to overseas primary education, and take "a tougher, clearer stance" on costs and performance. Andrew Mitchell, the new development minister, said there would be a spending review.

Africa's continued struggle for political and economic independence in many ways mirrors the very own struggles of communities in the U.S. that are now being tabled at the 2010 U.S. Social Forum in Detroit. Africa advocates and progressive foreign policy observers were pitching that message Thursday in introducing the "From Detroit to Dakar 2010" project, even as leaders of the powerful G8/G20 nations geared up for their meeting this weekend in Toronto, Canada next door.

UNHCR and other leading agencies in the protection of internally displaced people (IDP) have launched a new handbook that will help field workers to more effectively protect the rights of IDPs around the world. The ground-breaking "Handbook for the Protection of Internally Displaced Persons" was presented at a ceremony in Geneva organized by the Global Protection Cluster, an inter-agency working group.

At the Gleneagles G8 Summit in 2005, the G8 countries committed themselves to providing Africa with $25 billion additional dollars by 2010. Three reports have emerged in the last short time assessing the actual achievements. According to the Muskoka Accountability report, released this week by the G8 itself, the commitment has fallen short by at least $7 billion. The report is so self-serving and opaque that it's frankly impossible to divine the exact figure, but even taking it at its best, it means that the G8 will fall short by almost 30%, says Stephen Lewis.

Rich countries were set to figure out how to catch up on their missed aid promises and find new ways to help the world's poorest nations at a time when their own budgets are squeezed. The Group of Eight (G8) nations meet in Huntsville, Ontario, north of Toronto, short by an estimated $18 billion on a 2005 pledge to raise their combined aid to the poorest countries by at least $50 billion.

In this week's roundup of emerging powers news, India’s complacency leads to Chinese takeover of huge Ethiopian rail project, Airtel Enters into Strategic Partnership with Oglivy Africa, UNCTAD’s Economic Development in Africa Report 2010 “South-South Cooperation is launched, and Chinese tuition offers solutions for Africans.

The European Union is facing shortages of 14 critical raw materials needed for mobile phones and emerging technologies like solar panels and synthetic fuels, according to a study by the European Commission. The commission is ringing the alarm bell on raw materials as China again plans to tighten its control over its rare earth minerals by allowing just a handful of state companies to oversee the mining of the scarce elements that are vital to some of the world’s greenest technologies.

The Intersessional Meeting of the Kimberley Process (KP), presided over by Israel as Chair of the KP, concluded on June 24th. On the agenda of the meeting were a number of initiatives relating to the on-going work of the KP and to the consolidation of the process such the creation of an office for administration and support and the establishment of a Working Group on Trade Facilitation. The center of attention, however, was the KP minimum standards implementation in the Marange diamond fields in Zimbabwe.

Louis Michel, the Belgian former EU development commissioner and current prominent Liberal MEP has shocked his home nation and its one-time central African subjects by calling King Leopold II, the Congo's colonial master responsible for between 3 million and 10 million deaths, a "visionary hero."