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Planning for Development
- UNCTAD: Trade and Development Reports
The Róbinson Rojas Archive - Back to Trade and Development
Reports (series)
UNCTAD - Trade and
Development
Report, 1981–2011: Three Decades of Thinking Development
See also "UNCTAD
at 50. A short history"
Note
- Contents
- Acknowledgements - Foreword by the Secretary-General of UNCTAD
Part One
Trade and
Development Report, 1981–2011: Three Decades of Thinking
Development
1.
Introduction.
A recurrent aspect of the TDR has been its, frequently
implicit, discussion of the role of the State in economic
activity, in general, and in economic development,
in particular. The TDR has distinguished itself from
reports of other organizations in taking a prudent attitude
towards the merits of the free market. However,
it has never served as an agent in favour of an “antimarket”
ideology. Rather, it has aimed at promoting
well-targeted pragmatism in policy-making.
The
concern of the TDR has not been
“State vs. market”,
but effective policy vs. “market fundamentalism”.
Accordingly, it has tried to help developing countries
to create what is sometimes called a “developmental
state”. In this regard the TDR has remained consistent
over the 30 years of its existence.
2.
Interdependence
2.1 Defining interdependence
2.2 Applying the concept of interdependence
2.3 Evolution of issues related to interdependence
3.
Macroeconomics and finance
3.1 Theoretical underpinnings
3.1.1 The savings-investment relationship
3.1.2 Wages, employment and inflation
3.1.3 Implications for policy recommendations
3.2 Macroeconomic paradigm shift in the late 1970s and early 1980s
3.3 Monetary policy
3.4 Financial policy
3.5 Fiscal policy
3.6 Effects of macroeconomic policies in the North on the South
3.7 Imbalances, macroeconomic policy coordination and mercantilism
3.8 Incomes policies for employment creation and inflation control
4. Global
economic governance
4.1
Introduction
4.2 Governance of international trade and commodity markets
4.2.1 Multilateral trading system
4.2.2 Bilateral and regional trade arrangements
4.2.3 International commodity markets
4.3 The international monetary and financial system: a critique
4.3.1 Financial instability and the handling of financial and payments
difficulties
4.3.2 Problems of conditionality and policy surveillance
4.3.3 Exchange-rate disorder
4.4 Recommendations for reform of the international monetary and
financial system
4.4.1 Policy surveillance and coordination
4.4.2 Governance of international capital flows
4.4.3 Official financing
4.4.4 Management of financial and debt crises
4.4.5 Reform of the exchange-rate system
4.5 Coherence in global governance
5.
Development strategies: assessments and recommendations
5.1
Introduction
5.2 Lessons from three decades of development experience
5.2.1 Shortcomings of structural adjustment and the Washington
Consensus
5.2.2 The E ast Asian development experience
5.3 TDR recommendations for development
strategies
5.3.1 Domestic policies in support of industrialization and structural
change
5.3.2 Strategic integration
5.3.3 The problem of policy space
6.
Outlook
Notes -References
Part Two
Panel Discussion on “Thinking Development:
Three Decades of the Trade and Development Report”
Part Two of this publication
presents the contributions of the experts to this panel discussion.
The views expressed and the designation and terminology used in these
papers are those of
the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the UNCTAD
secretariat.
The last section of Part Two presents a brief summary of the
discussions.
Opening statement
by Anthony Mothae Maruping
Since its inception, UNCTAD evolved
from a negotiating
forum to a “development think tank”, and
the TDR has been the main outlet for disseminating
UNCTAD’ s generated ideas. In presenting the results
of the policy-oriented analysis as mandated by the
diverse Conferences, TDR has served as a document
laying ground for informed debate in intergovernmental
bodies, primarily in UNCTAD’ s Trade and
Development Board. It is also a publication accessible
to a broader audience as well as to expert opinion.
This remarkable attainment is worthy of celebration.
A befitting celebration with a “banquet of food for
thought” is what today’s event is all about.
Origins and evolving ideas of the TDR
Introductory remarks by Richard
Kozul-Wright
Statement by Rubens
Ricupero
Statement by Yιlmaz
Akyüz
The TDR approach to development strategies
Introductory remarks by Taffere
Tesfachew
Statement by Jayati
Ghosh
Statement by Rolph van der
Hoeven
Statement by Faizel I
smail
The macroeconomic reasoning in the TDR
Introductory remarks by Charles
Gore
Statement by Anthony P.
Thirlwall
Statement by Carlos
Fortin
Statement by Heiner
Flassbeck
Evolving issues in international economic
governance
Introductory remarks by Andrew Cornford
Statement by Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Statement by Arturo O’Connell
The way forward
Closing remarks by Alfredo Calcagno
If the TDR has become a useful
instrument for understanding
the development process and elaborating
development strategies, it is because it has provided
a pertinent critique of the approaches and policy
advice of other international institutions. In accordance
with UNCTAD’s mandate, the TDR has viewed
trade and development issues from the perspective
of developing and least developed countries. It has
enriched the debate on development by showing the
feasibility of alternative policies to those proposed
by the Washington-based institutions and the neoliberal
thinking and tried to break the uniformity of
the “pensée unique”, which has been so pervasive
among academia, the mass media and policymakers
since the early 1980s, when the TDR was launched.
Summary of the debate
The debate concentrated on three
issues: the way
in which the Trade and Development Report has
been used, the reasons why the Report often has
not received appropriate recognition, and ideas for
major possible themes for the Report to address in
the future.
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Editor: Róbinson Rojas Sandford
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