{"id":6393,"date":"2015-07-23T07:06:12","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T07:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6393"},"modified":"2015-07-23T07:06:12","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T07:06:12","slug":"2015-the-year-of-3-key-conferences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2015\/07\/23\/2015-the-year-of-3-key-conferences\/","title":{"rendered":"2015 \u2013 the year of 3 key conferences"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are 3 UN conference this year; two of these you know all about:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. the September meeting to agree the SDGs and<\/li>\n
  2. the December meeting to try to sort out what to do about climate change.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The first is likely to be an easier ride than the second, though given the bloated<\/a> nature of what's on the table, it might not be too successful in the long run. \u00a0We shall see.<\/p>\n

    The third conference was held last week in Addis Ababa, and focused on what is the best balance for an economically developing country between taxes, borrowing, and aid.<\/p>\n

    The Economist discussed these issues last week in a leader: Beyond Aid<\/a> which shows you where it stands. \u00a0It notes:<\/p>\n

    \"Aid has its uses. \u00a0But it makes countries less accountable for spending decisions and, in the long run, undermines good governance<\/em>.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Whether you think aid is just a moral duty, something sadly necessary whilst countries get on their feet, a waste of money because of corruption, or just another lingering\u00a0colonial toe-hold that should be cut away, there is much in this article to think about \u2013 if you in the business of thinking. \u00a0The Economist piece ends:<\/p>\n

    \"Developing countries\u2019 biggest financing need is for infrastructure. \u00a0But the match between their huge unmet demand and sources of private capital needs to be improved. \u00a0To encourage a bigger market for infrastructure bonds, governments at Addis should urge development banks (such as the World Bank) to offer a wider, more standardised menu of credit guarantees. \u00a0Western agencies also ought to develop new financing mechanisms to help municipalities in emerging markets tap capital markets. \u00a0Given the rate of urbanisation in Africa and Asia, the difference between good and bad development will be largely determined by cities. \u00a0If the Addis conference can shift the spotlight away from aid and on to these questions, it will be a Cinderella that outshines its Ugly Sisters in Paris and New York<\/em>.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    According to the UN, the event was a success, as all such UN fests tend to be. \u00a0You can see the detail here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    There are 3 UN conference this year; two of these you know all about: the September meeting to agree the SDGs and the December meeting to try to sort out what to do about climate change. The first is likely...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}