At the core of the questions facing Ministers at the Conference is whether governments are ready to launch a wider process of negotiations-a new round-and if so, what should its content be. Developing countries, more important in size and sophistication than ever before, are now pivotal to the success of the world trading system. How, then, can their interests be taken into account to strengthen the multilateral system?

A major section of the draft Doha Ministerial Declaration deals with “Market Access for Non-Agricultural Products”, or in short, “industrial tariffs.” Paragraph 16 of the “Harbinson draft” (27 October) has Ministers agreeing to negotiations to reduce or eliminating tariffs in industrial products, with product coverage to be “comprehensive and without a priori exclusions.” An earlier draft (26 September) had allowed “less than full reciprocity” for developing countries, but this was dropped in the present text. Business sources in the US cheered the striking off of the phrase as they felt it would have “skewed tariff negotiations in favour of developing countries,” according to a news report from “Inside US Trade”.

The transatlantic slave trade saw the greatest deportation in history. From the mid 15th century to the closing decades of the 19th century tens of millions of Africans were brutally wrenched from their villages and transported to the plantations and mines of the Americas and West Indies. The impact of this unprecedented movement is still burdening the descendants of these stolen people, and the continent that was their home.

Mt Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania could lose its entire icecap by 2015, symbolising that global climate change "may be felt first and hardest by the environment and people of Africa", the environmental lobby group Greenpeace reported this week.

The Association for Women's Rights in Development presents The 9th International Forum on WOMEN'S RIGHTS and DEVELOPMENT: RE-INVENTING GLOBALIZATION October 3-6, 2002 Guadalajara, Mexico. How can we re-invent globalization to further the rights of all women? The 9th international AWID Forum will take an innovative approach to this central question. We'll go beyond the all too familiar critique of globalization to examine what we really see as alternatives and how we translate these alternative visions into realities. Deadline for Submission 31 December, 2001.

RSF protested the closure of two private newspapers, the daily "Diario de Bissau" and the weekly "Gazeta de Noticias". "The independent press has been in the authorities' sights since Mr. Yala's election to the presidency of Guinea-Bissau in January 2000," stated Robert Mard, the organisation's secretary-general.

Developing countries have won a breakthrough deal on relaxing drug patents at the World Trade Organisation's Doha meeting. Campaigners hope it will bring down the cost of remedies for treating diseases killing millions of poor people every year.

Weapons, from handguns to fighter jets, are a profitable business. Generous government contracts, huge profit margins, and inevitable cost over-runs ensure spectacular dividends for weapons producers. Conflicts burning throughout the world guarantee plenty of buyers. After a post-cold war decline, global weapons purchases rose in 2000 to $800 billion. In the aftermath of the September 11 tragedies, arms production and sales worldwide will likely continue their upward trajectory--encouraged by national policies and supported by multilateral economic institutions.

The Bush administration has opportunistically draped its call for the launch of a new trade round in the rhetoric of the fight against terrorism. So far it appears that gambit has failed to work, with many developing countries opposed to the outlines of a new round as laid out in the revised October 27 Draft Ministerial Declaration. Particularly galling to Southern members was the failure to include brackets indicating disputed language around text that failed to present alternative or competing perspectives from Southern members.

A two-day hearing on racism in the media held before the Parliamentary Communications Committee has concluded with an agreement on the need for transformation. Industry insiders however warned against using legislation to resolve widespread complaints by blacks of racial stereotyping and control of advertising revenue by white owned media.

Trade ministers at the WTO summit in Doha, Qatar should abandon threats of sanctions against countries trying to obtain medicines for health emergencies such as HIV/AIDS, Human Rights Watch has said.

A new book from IDS, edited by Michael Edwards and John Gaventa and published by Earthscan, explores campaigns to reform the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; the Jubilee 2000 campaign to end Third World Debt; the movement against Free Trade; the Landmine campaign and several other human rights, social justice and environmental campaigns that have spanned international borders. Earthscan, 2001.

Can the flow of private capital be a substitute for aid? Is the commitment of G7 finance ministers to UN development targets at odds with the vigorous manner in which the IMF is promoting capital account liberalistaion (CAL) – the removal of restrictions on the movement of capital across national boundaries? Will CAL block governments from undertaking pro-poor initiatives?

When unsound southern banks go bust the impact can be devastating. The costs are usually borne by depositors and taxpayers - rarely by those who own and manage errant banks. How can more prudential monitoring and earlier intervention improve bank regulation? Would US-style regulatory mechanisms work in the south?

Entrepreneurship is thriving in Africa. Throughout the continent poor people start up and run tiny businesses – micro-enterprises - in the unregulated informal sector. Why are aid agencies, governments and financial institutions not improving their access to credit? Why isn’t more being done to give small and medium enterprises (SMEs) increased access to credit facilities?

Location : Berlin, Germany
Closing Date : 30 Nov 2001
Posted on : 2 Nov 2001

HomeBeats is a multimedia journey through time, from Africa, the Caribbean and Asia, to the making of modern Britain. The first cd-rom on racism and the black presence in Britain, it fuses music, graphics, video, text and animation into a stunning voyage of personal and historical discovery for every user. Through a series of fully interlinked sections - Memories, Places, People, Visions, Images - HomeBeats makes the links between past and present accessible to young people in a way possible in no other medium. It covers the history of the struggle for racial justice, tracing the connections between slavery, the colonial experience and modern day racism.

The New York Times profiles how the debate over the patents on AIDS drugs will be "a major bone of contention" at the World Trade Organization meeting in Doha, Qatar, this week.

A new study for the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs by the UK-based Institute of Development Studies contains case studies on financing mechanisms for biodiversity conservation, climate change abatement, peace and security, HIV/AIDS research and financial stability.

The hope that that US President George W. Bush might announce more debt relief and aid for Africa, especially for the fight against Aids, has evaporated.