Trade and Development

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The World Bank 2007 Global Monitoring Report subtitled "Confronting the Challenges of Gender Equality and Fragile States" was published on April 13, 2007. The report monitors how countries are progressing with respect to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and assesses the contributions of developing countries, developed countries, and international financial institutions toward meeting universally agreed development commitments. Fourth in a series of annual reports leading up to 2015, this year's report reviews key developments of the past year, emerging priorities, and an assessment of performance drawing on numerous indicators. The report highlights two key thematic areas: gender equality and empowerment of women (the third MDG) and the special problems of fragile states, where extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated. The report is available here.
Order the publication

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Services Trade and Development: The Experience of Zambia, Aaditya Mattoo and Lucy Payton, a Palgrave Macmillan / World Bank publication, May 2007
Services are critical to Zambia's overall economic performance and the well-being of its people, and the constraints on service sector development due to small markets and limited endowments could be alleviated by greater regional and global integration. International negotiations can be harnessed to deliver much-needed reform, but there is also a danger that unbridled mercantilism could produce outcomes that are antithetical to development. A key rationale for this volume was to ensure that policy makers and trade negotiators in a least developed country like Zambia are fully informed about both the opportunities for expanding trade in services - unilaterally, regionally, multilaterally - and the domestic pre-conditions for successful services liberalization.