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GRM NEWS |
GRM Group Conference Papers
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Papers from the GRM Group Conference held in London in October have now been released. An exciting range of development topics were covered, so the opening paragraph of each paper has been included below. To open the whole document, simply click the title. |
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Comparing Three Young Extension Services: Macedonia (Sida), the Macedonian Agricultural Advisory Support Programme; Kyrgyzstan (WB, SDC), the Rural Advisory Services Component of ASSP; Serbia (Sida), Integrated Milk and Dairy Development Project
by Nico van Wageningen, Jeremy Groome and Mikaela Högberg
Young extension services, - as we have called the rural advisory services in Kyrgyzstan (KGZ) and Macedonia (MKD) and the extension components of a dairy production related project in Serbia (SCG) - that wish to improve their performance, will wonder how much they can learn from each other. Are they at a comparable stage of transition, moving towards a similar institutional or professional set-up? How do they cope with decentralisation, leadership, cost-participation requirements and staff motivation? How do they become increasingly responsive to farmers’ needs and how do they innovate, plan and monitor? |
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Keynote Address:
The Quest for Human Security: Cohesion, Dialogue and Moral Imagination
by Professor Kevin Clements
The Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies
The University of Queensland, Brisbane Australia
“In the 21st century, all states and their collective institutions must advance the cause of larger freedom—by ensuring freedom from want, freedom from fear and freedom to live in dignity. In an increasingly interconnected world, progress in the areas of development, security and human rights must go hand in hand. There will be no development without security and no security without development. And both development and security also depend on respect for human rights and the rule of law.” Kofi Annan, 2005, In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All |
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Law and Governance in Transition Economies: Indonesia - Indonesia Australia Legal Development Facility; Vietnam - Capacity Building for Effective Governance; Pacific - Pacific Media and Communications Facility
by James Montgomerie, Stewart Fenwick and Shelagh Pepper of
the Melbourne Development Institute (MDI)
This paper will address aspects of law reform and governance in three transition countries and the Pacific, making reference to three AusAID projects currently managed by Melbourne Development Institute, and a former ADB project in Mongolia. Australia’s aid programme focuses on the Asia Pacific region, particularly Indonesia, PNG and the Pacific. Within this region it focuses on countries that would generally be regarded as being in transition, whether post-conflict transition, or economic transition. This paper focuses on the transitions in: 1) Indonesia as it moves from autocracy and Javanese hegemony to a decentralised and democratic regime; 2) Vietnam, moving from a centrally planned economy to a socialist oriented market economy; and 3) Several Pacific nations, particularly the Solomon Islands and Fiji still experiencing postconflict transitions. The paper also touches on the legal and economic transitions of Mongolia in the late 1990s. |
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Prevention of HIV/ AIDS in Transition Economies: The Central Asia HIV/ AIDS Programme
by Larisa Bashmakova
Senior Regional Consultant, Central Asia HIV/AIDS Programme
GRM is carrying out three programmes aimed at combating HIV/ AIDS: the second phase of a project in Indonesia, a project in China’s Xingjian Province, and a new regional programme for three Central Asian states: the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. With swathes of barren and mountainous landscape - more than 90 per cent of the Kyrgyz and Tajik territories are covered by mountains, while major parts of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are covered by steppes and deserts - average population density stands at 14 persons per square kilometre. China and Indonesia, by contrast, have high population density being the first and fourth most populous states in the world. Yet all these regions have experienced a dramatic increase in the prevalence of HIV/ AIDS, which is connected to intravenous drug use. |
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Sustainability of Development Interventions in a Transition Environment: Mozambique:
Family Sector Livestock Development Project; Southern Africa Newcastle Disease Control Project
by Nick Clinch, Regional Manager, GRM International and
Robyn Alders, Team Leader, Southern Africa Newcastle Disease Control Project
Since the end of its crippling 15 year civil war in 1992 and the holding of successful democratic elections in 1994, Mozambique has transformed its approach to economic development and achieved impressive macroeconomic performance, with low and stable inflation, falling interest rates, and some of the highest economic growth rates in Africa. Mozambique is considered a major success story in war-to-peace transition in sub-Saharan Africa encompassing demobilisation, resettlement of almost five million displaced persons and refugees, democratic elections, and the installation of a new government. Legal and regulatory reforms continue, making the country increasingly attractive to domestic and foreign investors with the simplification of procedures for business registration and operations, including small informal rural businesses. Fiscal reforms, including the introduction of a value-added tax and reform of the customs service, have improved the government’s revenue collection abilities. |
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One of the most significant economic, social and cultural phenomena of the past fifty years has been the strong and sustained rise of tourism. The World Tourism Organisation International (WTO) estimates that tourism has grown annually in arrivals by 7% and expenditure by 11% over the period 1950-2000 (WTO, 2002). Domestic tourism growth rates have been greater. Developing countries received US$177 billion in tourism receipts in 2004, which was the primary source of foreign exchange earnings in 46 of the 49 Least Developed Countries (WTO, 2005). For more than fifty of the world’s poorest countries tourism is ranked first, second or third in terms of their economies, and tourism is the only service industry to show a positive balance of trade with flows from first world countries to developing countries, exceeding those in the opposite direction by more than $1 billion (WTO, 2005). However, tourism has not been accorded a substantial role in the majority of poverty-reduction strategies or national development plans drawn up with the support of developmental aid organisations, who often overlook the fact that it represents one of the largest and most diversified economic activities. |
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