Blog Contributor:
Mikiko Imai
Mikiko Imai is a Policy Manager at ONE’s Global Policy Team. Her expertise is on economic development, trade and investment issues, but as the only Japanese national in the team, she also follows the Japanese government’s development policies. Prior to joining ONE, she worked at a think-tank in Tokyo and conducted consultancy work for the Japanese government on economic development policies for Africa. Her previous work experience also includes the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva, various summer internships in finance, and volunteer work at UNHCR and ActionAid. She holds a BSc in Economics and MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics.
Jan 6th, 2010 5:30 PM UTC
By Mikiko Imai
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Earlier today, I heard an inspiring, passionate speech by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the direction of U.S. global development strategy and its role in U.S. foreign policy.
In an event hosted by the Center for Global Development, the Secretary addressed a packed room filled with people from the development community, media, and top government officials who included Dr. Raj Shah, the new USAID administrator, and Daniel Yohannes, the CEO of MCC.
She started her speech with remarks about her personal interest towards development and why it is important even when there are people struggling domestically. She has seen the transformative effects of U.S. development assistance at work in Indonesia, Nicaragua, South Africa and in the West Bank, to name a few.
Development is vital for the security, stability, rights and prosperity of our world. It is a strategic importance as well as a moral imperative of the U.S. Therefore, it is time to “elevate development as central to diplomacy” and “make the USAID the world’s premier development agency.” She recognized the problems of the U.S. aid practices in the past and emphasized the Administration’s new approach driven by clear reasoning and common sense. She outlined the new direction and focus of the U.S. development strategy as follows:
- To adopt a model of partnership with developing countries based on shared responsibility.
- To elevate development alongside defense and diplomacy, and to integrate the 3Ds so that they are mutually reinforcing.
- To coordinate across the different U.S. agencies that conduct development work to create a “whole of government” approach to development, and to restore capacity to USAID by bringing experts in-house, rather than as contractors.
- To target key sectors such as health, agriculture, education, energy and local governance issues rather than spreading limited resources too thinly across sectors.
- To strengthen investments in innovation, technology, and drivers of change, such as mobile banking in poor countries and innovations in agricultural crops.
- To focus on women and girls, proven to yield one of the best returns on investment – “giving a man a fish feeds the man for a day, teaching a man how to fish will feed the man for the rest of his life, but teaching a woman how to fish will feed the whole village.”
She concluded her remarks by her determination to make development “better than ever before.” During the questions and answers, she acknowledged that there are many obstacles in adopting this new approach, and asked for the community’s support to urge Congress and the public to understand and support a more robust, effective and efficient development assistance program.
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Dec 23rd, 2009 5:58 PM UTC
By Mikiko Imai
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Generalized System of Preferences — the largest U.S. trade preference program for developing countries, which allows producers in countries including the world’s poorest countries as well as emerging countries like Brazil and India to export approximately 4,800 goods in the U.S. free of duties — was extended last night for one-year. The extension of the program, which otherwise would have expired at the end of the month, was approved by the House last week, but was held up in the Senate over some unrelated issues. The Senate approved the one-year extension on 22 December.
Lawmakers have said they want to undertake major reform of all U.S. preferences programs next year, which is why they opted for a single-year extension. ONE will continue to engage in the reform discussions next year, and explore how the current Generalized System of Preferences could be reformed so that the program can be strengthened to increase the opportunity for the poorest countries while ensuring the gains that African countries have made under African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) are not undermined.
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Dec 2nd, 2009 7:58 PM UTC
By Mikiko Imai
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This week, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 153 members gathered in Geneva for a 3-day ministerial conference. While the Doha negotiations—trade talks launched in 2001 to try make trade rules fairer for poor countries—didn’t make it onto the official agenda, they were certainly on everyone’s mind. Prior to the meeting, developing countries had insisted that in order for the Doha Round to conclude by 2010, political statements must start turning into concrete engagements. But the meeting failed to make any real progress, ending with delegates merely reiterating that trade and the Doha Round were important to economic recovery and poverty reduction in poor countries across the globe.
But there were a few small signs of hope. There was wide recognition that to increase trade in developing countries, the focus should be on more than just increased market access. Delegates also stressed the importance of increased aid for trade, capacity-building, and the need for continued monitoring of these commitments to help generate real, sustainable results.
In related news, a group of 20 developing countries ranging from Nigeria, Zimbabwe to South Korea concluded an unprecedented market access agreement that would make over 70 percent of their tariff lines duty-free. Some have called this agreement a “watershed” moment for South-South trade.
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Nov 23rd, 2009 9:55 AM UTC
By Mikiko Imai
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Last Thursday, Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) introduced the New Partnership for Trade Development Act (H.R.4101), which extends duty-free access to the US market to all least developing countries (LDCs). Sub-Saharan African countries have been expressing concerns that they would be disadvantaged if preferences are extended to other LDCs – they have argued their apparel sectors would lose out to more globally competitive producers from Southeast Asian developing countries like Bangladesh and Cambodia. This legislation attempts to address this issue partially by subjecting the imports from non-African developing countries to a 50-percent duty-free cap on certain apparel goods which overlap with products that African countries currently export under the existing US preference programme, African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA). But the current benefits that African apparel industries receive will still be eroded under this legislation, with possible impacts on African economies and employment opportunities.
The legislation also creates a presidential-level mechanism that would be responsible for planning, developing and coordinating trade capacity building for developing countries to help them better take advantage of trade preferences.
Congress McDermott’s attempt to link market access issues with US government wide trade-related capacity building efforts is a welcome step forward. But there will still be concerns that the LDC-wide trade preferences will undo important successes achieved through AGOA. On top of this, under this legislation, non-LDC African countries like Kenya will be separated out of the preference programme from 2019, and undermine Africa’s efforts of regional integration. ONE will be keeping an eye on the development on the Capitol Hill, so that any slippage of the U.S. preferences to Africa will be mitigated by robust investments toward building a stronger trade-related capacity to allow sub-Saharan African countries to effectively compete with other more competitive developing countries.
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Oct 14th, 2009 12:40 PM UTC
By Mikiko Imai
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Apparently not, according to the new report from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The surge in global trade over the last two decades has failed to improve working conditions and living standards in many developing countries. Although trade has contributed to growth and development worldwide, many of the jobs created in developing countries have appeared in the informal sector. Informal sector jobs tend to be the most vulnerable, characterised by less job security, lower incomes and an absence of access to social benefits. Yet, in many African and South Asian countries, as much as 60 percent of the country’s labour force is employed by this sector. In turn, these vulnerable labour market conditions have prevented developing countries from fully benefiting from globalisation. The report warns that this situation is likely to worsen as a result of the global financial crisis.
What can we do about this? The WTO’s chief Pascal Lamy encourages putting in place proper domestic policies to create good jobs in developing countries. The report recommends a number of ways to make trade policies more closely aligned with job issues in developing countries, including better coordination between trade and labour policies, and implementing policies to encourage formalisation of employment. Rich country governments also need to support poorer country governments in doing so, and enhanced trade capacity building assistance is one way to do this.
You can read the report here.
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Oct 8th, 2009 6:58 PM UTC
By Mikiko Imai
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Here at ONE, we often talk about the fact that Africa’s share of world trade, at around 3.5%, is the smallest of any region in the world. This is concerning because this means that African countries have not been able to reap the opportunities of global trade. Trade and investment could spur economic growth that could in turn help countries work their way out of poverty, but sub-Saharan African countries face some of the world’s greatest challenges in accessing local, regional, and global markets.
William Easterly, Professor of Economics at New York University, introduces a fascinating collection of graphics which illustrates just how scarce the trade links between Africa and the rest of the world is. You can read his blog here.
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Oct 2nd, 2009 12:17 PM UTC
By Mikiko Imai
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The Corporate Council for Africa (CCA), a forum aimed at strengthening and facilitating the commercial relationship between the U.S. and the African continent, hosted its 7th biennial U.S.-Business Summit this week. Many African political and business leaders, including President Kikwete of Tanzania and President Kaberuka of the African Development Bank, gathered in Washington, DC for this important meeting. According to the head of CCA, Stephen Hayes, “the African continent continues to show potential as a leading foreign direct investment destination for American businesses, despite the economic downturn nations around the globe are currently experiencing.”
Yesterday, U.S. Secretary Hillary Clinton gave her remarks on how the Obama Administration sees Africa. She said that she “remains convinced that no place holds the opportunities of the future like Africa does. But that doesn’t mean that we can just expect it to happen. We have to work together.” So how does the Administration plan to work with African countries so that they can create the right conditions to spur economic development and improve the lives of African people? She said that the Administration is focussing on five key areas: trade, development, energy security, public-private partnerships, and good governance. She also emphasised the importance of food security in the continent, and the Administration’s high level commitment towards this agenda. It was a powerful speech, with the underlying message that Africa is important to the U.S. because the future of Africa matters to the U.S.’ own progress and prosperity.
Here’s the speech:
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