Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP

September 2010

Download Responsibility to the poor: A new agenda for changed times (790 kilobyte PDF)

In a publication launched by the Foreign Policy Centre entitled 'Responsibility to the poor: A new agenda for changed times', the former UK Secretary of State for International Development, Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP, outlines why justice not charity needs to underpin the fight against global inequality and poverty. FPC Co-President Baroness Jay provides the foreword.

• The Guardian Poverty Matters blog article about this report

in 'US Strategy in Africa' Ed. D.Francis

Josephine Osikena

Download 'Geopolitics beyond Washington?' by Josephine Osikena (310 kilobyte PDF)

The US Government launched Africa Command (AFRICOM) on 1 October 2008. But how relevant is AFRICOM for Africans and Africa? To what extent is Africa's response to AFRICOM and broader US strategic interests, influenced and challenged by Africa's alliances with new global centres of power beyond Washington, who have competing motives and approaches to development and security? What are the implications of all this for US policy-makers?

This new article by FPC Democracy and Development director Josephine Osikena, published in 'US Strategy in Africa: Africom, Terrorism and Security Challenges' edited by Prof David J Francis of Bradford University, explores the challenges associated with AFRICOM's predominant focus on the militarisation of African security, by surveying examples of African partnerships with non-OECD actors, including: Brazil in the sphere of social development; India in terms of self-determination, sovereignty and global governance; China with regard to economic growth, particularly in the areas of commodities and infrastructural development; and finally, the emerging role that Africa has begun to play regarding food security in the Middle East.

In conclusion, the article raises a number of questions for US policymakers to consider, including: how, in a changing world with the rise of new centres of power, might US-Africa policy better connect with African people and African governments? How might a more informed and coherent US approach better serve Africa's own development and security agendas, as well as secure strategic US interests on the continent? And, indeed, it asks if this is even possible.

• Purchase 'US Strategy in Africa' by Prof David J Francis
• More from the Routledge Global Security Studies series
• University of Bradford - Department of Peace Studies

Josephine Osikena

2009

Download Women & Children First: Leadership and the HIV & AIDS Crisis (470 kilobyte PDF)

Throughout 2008, the Foreign Policy Centre, with the support of Abbott, hosted a series of three expert roundtable discussions. The series brought together small groups of experts and specialists from government, the media, academia, the medical profession, local and international civil society, public bodies and institutions, the private sector and representatives from the diplomatic community in London. Together they explored the challenges faced by women and children, who often experience the effects of the HIV & AIDS epidemic more severely than men, particularly in Africa south of the Sahara. The areas of discussion included: building sustainable healthcare systems, child survival and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission and overcoming the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV & AIDS.

This new FPC report brings together some of the key findings and conclusions drawn from the roundtables, as well as from the relevant literature, and makes some concrete recommendations for action.

• Women and Children First launch event

In association with Coca-Cola Great Britain

Download the background paper (140 kilobyte PDF)

This is an initial background paper to accompany the FPC project on Corporate Social Responsibility in Emerging Markets in association with Coca-Cola Great Britain.

• Marketplace Practices and CSR in Emerging Markets event
• Corporate Social Responsibility in Emerging Markets event
• Labour Standards and CSR in Emerging Markets event

Josephine Osikena

Hill & Knowlton

January 2007

Download the report (190 kilobyte PDF)

by Josephine Osikena

The Foreign Policy Centre recently hosted a seminar and reception entitled: "Redefining Multilateralism: The Commonwealth as a Catalyst for Change?" The event was addressed by John Battle MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Overseas Development and Rt Hon Donald McKinnon, Secretary General of the Commonwealth.

In May 2006 the Prime Minister argued that:

"There is a "hopeless mismatch" between the global challenges we face and the global institutions available to confront them,[…] now is the moment for reconciliation in the international community around a unifying agenda for global action."

Today there are a number of obstacles to promoting international co-operation. From the indefinite suspension of the Doha Development Round, to developing a reformed United Nations system which meets the challenges of the 21st century and beyond. We witness the crisis in the International Monetary Fund and the growing irrelevance of the Work Bank in meeting today's global development concerns.

This discussion paper is a response to some of those challenges, and is intended to provoke debate about how to respond to new ideas about multilateralism

The event and paper was kindly sponsored by Hill and Knowlton.

Maxine Molyneux, Phoebe Griffith, Josephine Osikena

Barrow Cadbury Trust, WAITS

2006 Hard copy: £4.95, plus £1 p+p.

Download Understanding Women's Social Capital (1.24 megabyte PDF)

2005 Global Exchange Forum Report

Greg Austin, Claude Misson

October 2005

Download Leeds Manifesto (200 kilobyte PDF)

The EU has promised to double aid to Africa in the next five years to complement a new effort by the eight richest countries to promote the welfare, prosperity and security of ordinary Africans. In the last year, EU aid ministers have been offered thousands of pages of advice on how to spend this money. There is a fear that they may double the size of existing aid bureaucracies in Brussels and at home to deliver the increases. African countries will certainly face problems absorbing a doubling of aid if it is delivered through traditional aid mechanisms. This short manifesto is a plea to EU Aid Ministers to take a strategic approach to spending the new money in ways that actually enable more individual Africans to take the lead in transforming their own economic and social systems.

Philip Fiske de Gouveia, Philip Fiske de Gouveia

May 2005

Download the report (150 kilobyte PDF)

A new momentum is building behind development efforts in Africa. The work of the UK Commission for Africa, for example, appears to be symptomatic of a renewed global interest in the world's poorest continent. Historically, the media has played a fundamental role in democratisation and economic growth across the world, yet its significance is routinely downplayed by development strategists.

In 'An African Al-Jazeera? Mass Media and the African Renaissance', Philip Fiske de Gouveia examines how the media can facilitate much needed change across the African continent, and outlines a number of UK-specific policy recommendations. The report addresses a variety of key questions including: What role can and should the media play as part of political and economic advances in Africa? Can and should Africa shrug off its perceived information dependence on the West? Should the creation of an indigenous pan-African broadcaster be a development priority?

Further information 

Edited by Phoebe Griffith, Jack Thurston

November 2004

Download the report (860 kilobyte PDF)

Free trade has the potential to change lives in both developed and developing countries and lies at the heart of the globalisation debate. Yet it continues to be one of the most politically charged issues of the 21st century, while an international consensus remains elusive.

Further information 

Malcolm Cook

November 2004

Download the report (100 kilobyte PDF)

South-East Asian expert Dr Malcolm Cook argues that Indonesia is at a turning point of democratisation. In this policy brief he makes the case that new president Susilo Yudhoyono must receive the full backing of the international community, including the UK and EU, to implement vital reforms and secure Indonesia's status as a model for Islamic democracy.

Dr Greg Austin, Ben Koppelman

July 2004

Download the report (490 kilobyte PDF)

The unfolding of the Darfur crisis since January 2003 shows that the United Nations, the USA, the UK and the EU have not lived up to their promises for more effective conflict prevention or their obligations to monitor, prevent and punish the crime of genocide. The lessons of failure to prevent the Rwanda genocide have not been fully institutionalised. This paper lays out the sort of measures that need to be taken in such cases and that could have been taken much earlier in the Darfur case. Policy must focus on the perpetrators. The start point has to be measures personally targeted against them. Early measures for preventing imminent genocide must also include contingency planning for multinational military intervention as a means of bolstering diplomatic pressure.

• To view a full list of Dr Austin's publications click here

John J. Audley, Hans Anker

German Marshall Fund

2004

Download the report (420 kilobyte PDF)

The Foreign Policy Centre were partners in the German Marshall Fund's report examining attitudes towards trade, globalisation and development in France, Germany, the US and the UK.

• German Marshall Fund
• Click here for the article

Phoebe Griffith (Ed.)

Sciences Po, Nestle

September 2003

Download the report (40 kilobyte PDF)

In recent years the devastating impact of Western protectionism on the world's poorest countries has been publicised as never before. But whilst the issue has been raised in the public consciousness, progress at the negotiation table has remained blocked. The interests of the poorest countries have been subsumed in battles between large trading powers and the richest countries have proved unwilling to agree to reform out of fear that they will be overwhelmed by the more dynamic developing countries.

In this report a group of prominent trade experts (including Patrick Messerlin, Stephen Byers, Stephany Griffith-Jones, Chris Haskins, Harriet Lamb, Philippe Legrain, Herbert Obberhaensli and Jack Thurston) move beyond the blame game to set out the practicalities of reaching a deal that will be palatable to rich and poor countries alike.

"Rethinking Fair Trade is fantastic. It is a clean way of addressing the de facto two-tier system developing in the WTO" Bill Antholis, German Marshall Fund

Phoebe Griffith (Ed), Marina Ottaway, Alex de Waal, Ezra Mbogori, Greg Mills, Ayisi Makatiani, Christoper Kolade

CDC Capital Partners

May 2003 Hard copy: £2.95, plus £1 p+p. Buy it on CentralBooks.co.uk

This powerful collection of essays by leading African thinkers and practitioners addresses the impact of Globalisation on the continent- from the explosion of NGO's and their impact on civil society to the use of information technology as a tool for development.

This fascinating study on Africa raises a challenge to current thinking on Africa: does Africa really need democracy in order to move 'forward'? Are Western NGOs in Africa doing more harm than good?

"Identifies and illuminates the key ways in which the rich world continues to hamper Africa's development" Richard Dowden, Royal Africa Society

Niels Christiansen, Justin Forsyth, Sally Keeble MP, H.E. Prof George Kirya

Nestle

November 2002

Download the report (60 kilobyte PDF)

The Foreign Policy Centre took stock of this year's eventful debate about Africa's future with the 2002 Labour Party Conference Fringe Event: 'Africa - is the West just walking by?'

Many have claimed that the consolidation of the New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), the launch of the African Union and the commitment to the Millennium Development Goals are setting the path for a new beginning on the continent. But the West's engagement with these initiatives has been mixed, ranging from the Tony Blair's stirring description of Africa as a 'scar on the conscience of the West' to the G8's lukewarm response to the proposals put forward by African leaders themselves.

The event was a rare opportunity for a free and open debate among those who can make a difference.

Michael Edwards

July 2000

Is the rise of the NGO movement a powerful democratising force or a damaging threat to political representation? NGO campaigns - from debt relief to land mines - have enjoyed unprecedented success. But since the battle of Seattle, NGO-bashing has become a favourite pastime - as government officials, business and the media question the right of 'armchair radicals' to speak for the world's poor. Michael Edwards argues that we need to move beyond the blame-game over the failures of international governance and work our what the new rules of the road are. His innovative reform proposals set out a reform agenda for NGO accountability and show how international organisations can become more effective and inclusive by channelling NGO energies democratically and to the genuine benefit of those excluded from global progress.

This project was supported by NCVO

"Compelling and succinct" Peter Hain, Minister of State, FCO
"Timely and thought-provoking … balanced, objective and written with great sense and flashes of humour" David Bryer, Director, Oxfam
"A smart and insightful account of the changing role of NGOs … a series of excellent policy recommendations" David Held, LSE