Revista Mensual y Gratuita
Nº83, julio 2010
Development
Europe: Transformation-Oriented Rather Than Restoration-Oriented Adjustment
In the European crisis, not only the facts that bring about uncertainty and insecurity swirl in a whirlwind: so do the ideas and the perception of what is actually going on. Hegemonic thinking has been surpassed by other approaches and interpretations that dive underneath the apparent in an attempt to understand the rationale of the way of functioning that led to the fall, and come up with effective solutions. The challenge lies in knowing how to integrate such diversity of contributions into a whole that works, that successfully addresses the emergency and is, at the same time, capable of sowing the seeds that may cause a new Europe to germinate. The basic choice is whether to establish restoration-oriented adjustment or a transformation-oriented adjustment. What does each one of them consist in? What do they aim at? What might their consequences be?
A Future for Small Businesses: Scale and Values of Sustainable Development
Small businesses play a key role in our society although they operate in a context of severe restrictions, many of which are associated with their small scale that does not allow them to deploy more effective management and access better opportunities. Until not long ago it was believed that this situation was inevitable: nowadays, this is no longer so. At present, there is modern business engineering that allows integrating into medium sized economic organizations small production that was until now scattered. Which are those business engineering tools? How to get organized in order to profit from them? Which support do we rely on so as to encourage and manage that leap in scale? How can we ensure that we are not launching to the market socially, economically and environmentally irresponsible players and work so that they become carriers of sustainable development values?
Keys to Reduce Inequality
The relationships between wealth generation and distribution, and the review of the determining factors of inequality and social spending help us draw a set of conclusions regarding the distribution gap. If the prevailing view in a country is the one that deems it a priority to carry out structural reforms involving redistributions of key assets, the government is more than likely to tend to give preference to political fights to the detriment of efforts to improve the design and implementation of social policies that only pay off after persistent long-term actions. If, conversely, we are capable of separating political-electoral times from the periods devoted to exercising governance via efficient and effective policies, the economic, social and institutional conditions can be created to ensure the achievement of sustainable economic growth in the long term.
Global Unbridled Excess: Consequences and Options
Global unbridled excess generates highly disruptive explosions and drives our countries’ development away from organic economic growth. Some recommend strengthening regulations, while others, impacting on the course and systemic way of functioning. Rather than taming a crisis, we should avoid it by taking care of the environment and abating the inequalities prevailing among and within countries. If the pre-existing dynamics is merely reconstructed, those who have been worst hit by the crisis will be the ones worst hit by the "reconstruction".
Global Unbridled Excess: Its Roots
This is the first of three articles about the “global unbridled excess”; it analyzes its roots and the social and economic dynamics it generates. It points out that the correlation of social forces, ensuing strategic decisions, and certain circumstantial factors determine a course and a certain way of functioning. Within this context, there appear a diversity of democratic traps that enervate the systemic functioning and contribute to the creation of the conditions leading to global unbridled excess and, from there, to the huge international crisis, foreseeable for some, unexpected for others. The second article will focus on the consequences of the global unbridled excess,, and the third one, on the choices to address it.
Abating Rural Poverty in the 2010s
The agricultural base remains the key source of solutions to rural poverty, yet it is supplemented with other solutions that seek to add value to small agricultural production and, more broadly, to the entire range of non-agricultural capabilities of the rural population. It is necessary to integrate already existing services with a new battery of tools such as, among others, inclusive rural venture developers, angel investor networks applying resources and management to high-social and environmental impact rural ventures, local investment funds to support small rural producers, programs that fund rural innovation. These new tools aim at overcoming the circumstances that block the development of small rural production: the scale in which they operate, the knowledge gap, the initiative debilitated by the conditions of extreme scarcity, access to contacts and markets, the cultural change toward responsible efficacy.
Abating Unemployment to Emerge Strengthened from the Crisis
Unemployment has grown significantly with the global crisis, and abating it is critical to attain a sustainable way out of the crisis. We postulate that unemployment can and must be solved as we come out of the crisis rather than after. Otherwise, we could be adopting a way out that might end up reproducing the circumstances that led us to the crisis. There exist resources and instruments that are capable of abating unemployment, yet it is necessary to cause the determination and initiatives of diverse players to converge. The focal point is to ensure economic and social capital formation at the bottom of the pyramid by encouraging the prominent role the unemployed themselves and their communities can play.
Inclusive Venture Developers
The disadvantaged sectors of the population not only require assistance to cover their basic needs; they also need that the conditions be created so that they can mobilize as producers. A way of achieving this is through inclusive ventures, new economic players who seek to combine equity with efficacy and responsibility. Who can help set them up? What is their approach and work methodology? How do they spot opportunities and get organized in order to seize them?
Inclusive ventures to abate inequality and poverty
Although it may entail confronting none too few challenges, it is possible to set up promising, productive ventures that benefit poor communities based on an appropriate ownership structure, a well-selected strategic partner, excellent management, and modern business engineering. Inclusive ventures are part of the search for new ways to shape economic activities; they represent the sort of economic player who aims to combine equality with efficiency and responsibility.
G-20: Facing Collapse but few transformations
The G-20 countries fear that if the stimulus policies are abandoned too soon, it might be hard to ensure a sustainable recovery. But, in fact, sustainability will not be secured by merely extending the economic recovery measures a little bit longer but by preventing the reproduction of the circumstances that led to the crisis. The choice the G-20 and the rest of the countries are faced with is not between maintaining the same recovery strategies or wasting the effort already made, but between maintaining an effort that may end up recreating circumstances that are very similar to the ones that originated the crisis or having the effort reoriented in order to transform the current economic dynamics. The short and mid-term effort no longer can only be reactivation-oriented; it should also be transformative.
What's new
Ways to Donate
10/12/2009
Adjusting the course: Getting out of the crisis towards sustainable development
Opinion Sur Collection
21/10/2009
New E-books
Introducing three new additions to our collection
23/09/2009
Getting out of the Crisis towards a sustainable development
STORM: The ways of the crisis and the ways out of it
International Crisis: Adjusting the Course and Improving the Systemic Functioning
Opinión Sur Presentation
9/09/2009
Working Session: Microcredit in the XXI Century
Catalyzing Interventions to Enhance the Impact of Microcredit Programs
17/09/2008
