Publications

Thinking Strategically About Politics and Poverty

IDS working papers;101

What are the prospects that governments and political systems in developing countries will be pro-poor? This synthesis of a large research exercise offers a series of guidelines for thinking about specific cases. The most general guideline is 'don't be (so) gloomy'. Political analysis does not...

Mick Moore

Developing Countries and Multilateralism

Developing countries have joined the WTO in large numbers, in the expectation that its objectives of rule-based liberal trade will foster development. They will influence, and be affected by, the flurry of new negotiations scheduled for the turn of the millennium.

Regional Trade Agreements

Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) are fashionable. Many developing countries are, or are likely to become, involved In negotiating such arrangements. But do they advance or retard multilateralist and developmental objectives?

Agricultural Trade

The Uruguay Round began a process of reinforcing rules and liberalising trade in temperate agricultural goods. Developing countries in aggregate are likely to benefit eventually, but much work still has to be done and some states and socio-economic groups may face significant adjustment problems.

Trade Protection in the Textile and Clothing Industries

The textile and clothing trade is of major importance for developing countries, including the poorest, and it will undergo substantial change over the next decade. The comprehensive system of protectionism, with the quantitative restrictions of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) at its heart, is...

International Competition Policy

How far do global markets need global competition rules? The question is under review both in the WTO and in other fora, such as the OECD. Developing countries want to see tougher rules applied to multinational corporations (MNCs) and less anti-dumping, but not to be forced into adopting...

Intellectual Property Rights

The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) is the most comprehensive international agreement on intellectual property rights (IPRs), supplementing the basic World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Conventions with substantive obligations within WTO...

Trade in Service

Services trade and investment are increasingly important for developing countries. The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) set benchmarks and a framework for future liberalisation. So far the GATS process has not achieved significant additional liberalisation.

Trade and Enviromental Standards

During the next WTO Round there will be strong calls explicitly to integrate environmental issues into the trade agenda.

International Investment Treaties and Developing Countries

Negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) increasingly affect cross-border investment, as many current trade issues have an investment dimension. In consequence, the European Commission has included investment in its proposed list of agenda items for a comprehensive "Millennium Round".

Towards a Development Round

This Briefing "fills in the gaps" with analysis of the expanding remit of trade policy, the role of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU), the future of preferences, and the challenge of measuring the impact of trade policy on development and the relief of poverty.

Exploring Understandings of Institutions and Uncertainty: New Directions in Natural Resource Management

IDS discussion papers;372

The paper examines the nexus between institutions and uncertainty in natural resources management contexts. It argues that conventional understandings of institutions fail to focus on how institutions deal with the ever-increasing forms of uncertainty impinging on rural livelihoods.

Melissa Leach & 2 others