PCDForum Column #24, Release date December 5, 1991
by Janet Hunt
As do most aid giving countries, Australia maintains that poverty alleviation is the driving motivation behind many of its international trade and aid policies. In line with prevailing orthodox economic theory these policies view external trade as the driving force of economic growth, which in turn […]
PCDForum Column #12 Release Date April 15, 1991
by David C. Korten
In 1992, the governments of the world and thousands of
citizens organizations will assemble in Brazil for the UN
Conference on Environment and Development There they
will formalize agreements intended to resolve major
global environmental problems. Countless environmental
issues have been identified. Yet three fundamental questions, the answers to which […]
PCDForum Column #22 Release date December 1, 1991
by Sixto K. Roxas
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) around the world have become
increasingly assertive in challenging the conventional export-oriented,
industrial, foreign investment dependent development model favored by such
institutions as the World Bank and the IMF. Many Philippine NGOs, for example,
find this model poorly suited to the needs of a country […]
PCDForum Column #13 Release Date April 20, 1991
by Gustavo Esteva
January 20th, 1949 was a momentous day for human society. This was the day
that President Truman, in his inaugural address, called for "…a bold new
program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial
progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas."
In a […]
PCDForum Column #20 Release date December 1, 1991
by Donella Meadows
The fashionable solution to the economic woes of a community, state, bank, or nation, is to open its boundaries.
The idea is that a larger system, more capital, bigger
markets or the involvement of more parties will somehow
solve the problem. It would be wise, however, to look out
the […]
PCDForum Column #8 Release Date January 25, 1991
by Tony Quizon
In 1992, the United Nations will hold a world conference on environment and development
(UNCED) in
Brazil. An official International Facilitation Committee,
on which I represent the International Council of Voluntary Agencies, is planning for independent sector participation.
It is a timely event. The rapid breakdown of socio-political […]
PCDForum Column #18, Release Date August 15, 1991
by Paul Ekins
The prevailing prescriptions for resolving the global problems of poverty
and environmental devastation from the New International Economic Order of the
1970s, to the structural adjustment and Brundtland Commission prescriptions of
the 1980s are all variants on a single theme. Each is grounded in a faith,
embraced and propagated […]
PCDForum Column #17, Release Date August 15, 1991
by James Robertson
Citizen movements throughout the world are discovering the extent to which
our collective social and environmental crisis stems directly from outmoded
economic policies and perspectives seriously in conflict with the needs of a
democratic, post-European, sustainable one-world economy. This realization has
given birth to an international citizen coalition, the […]
PCDForum Column #15, Release Date July 1, 1991
by Luis Lopezllera Méndez
A crisis in the Middle East has produced the most recent, and one of the
most blatant, of a long series of shameful acts of the powerful–the Persian
Gulf War. In Latin America, where the Western democracies have long nurtured
those dictators willing to serve their economic […]
PCDForum Column #11 Release Date April 12, 1991
by David C. Korten
A few years ago a major multi-agency study of foreign aid
observed that from two-thirds to three-fourths of development projects funded by official foreign donors are judged
by the donor to be satisfactory at the time project implementation is completed and the donor withdraws. Only
rarely do donors […]