Natural resources and conflict in Africa : the tragedy of endowment by Abiodun Alao, published by the University of Rochester Press in 2007, looks at the ways that ownership, management and control of land, minerals, water and other natural resources have been linked to conflicts in Africa. Chapter Six: Water and Conflict, includes discussion of the Okavango and other southern African river...
Evo Morales has jumped over yet another hurdle this weekend. He has managed to secure a new vote of confidence from among the social movements and grassroots that constitute the loose coalition that is his political platform. This backing is what he needs to further advance his drive to transform Bolivia into a socialist state. But this is also an unfortunate step further into a vicious cycle of ideological polarisation from which, Latin American history says, one can only leave through violence and the absolute rejection of the past....(read more)...
ELDIS has alerted us to A review of participatory tools for natural resource management by authors from the University of Zimbabwe, the Center for Integrated Area Studies, Kyoto University and CIFOR and published part of a special feature, Navigating Trade-offs: Working for Conservation and Development Outcomes, in the open access journal Ecology and Society in 2007. The article...
Family firms have long been excluded from the debate on good governance, since corporate governance is conventionally viewed as applicable only in the domain of public corporations. Yet only 15 percent of family-owned businesses survive until the third generation, indicating a great need for improved governance.
In his Feature Service article, Mr. A. Razak Dawood, Chairman of the Pakistan Business Council and the former Federal Commerce Minister of Pakistan, addresses crucial problems faced by family firms, such as inadequate focus on preserving their human and intellectual capital rather than just financial assets. He also talks about the ways in which governance in family firms can be improved, starting with the formulation of a statement outlining the purpose, values, and goals of...
Masters and doctoral graduate students from the University of Florida's Faculties of Natural Resources and Environment and Geography are in and out of HOORC’s Library until the end of June. Led by Professor Mike Binford, the students are working on integrated research projects about land use and land cover change, socio-economic and livelihood strategies, and governance and institutional...
Latin America is a laboratory of democratic governance and experimentation. As such, it is an important learning ground for other regions in the developing world. The challenge for donors is how to work with these weak democracies to harness their representative nature and their developmental potential. This means having to develop a deeper understanding of the political economy and context of the settings in which they are involved....(read more)...
HOORC's Library had a visit today from Ms Elizabeth Rihoy, of Resource Africa, Nairobi, who is in Botswana carrying out research about governance of community based natural resource management, and meeting with HOORC reseachers Joseph Mbaiwa and Lapolang Magole. One of Ms Rihoy's study sites is the Okavango Community Trust in Seronga. She has recently published, with Brian Maguranyanga, a...
The Commonwealth mini-Summit in London is the latest sign that reform of the international system is moving rapidly up the agenda. The Summit discussed reform of the UN, the Bretton Woods Institutions and global environmental governance. On all these, there is enthusiasm among Heads of Government for faster and better coordinated change....(read more)...
The Harry Oppenheimer Okavango Research Centre (HOORC) is growing. The University of Botswana is currently advertising the following academic positions for HOORC for both Botswana citizens and international candidates:
Vacancy No. HOORC1/2008 Associate Professor/Senior Research Fellow in Wildlife Ecology and ManagementVacancy No. HOORC2/2008 Associate Professor/Senior Research Fellow in...
In April, after several years of negotiation and discussion, the member states of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a governance reform package. The impetus for the reform was to ensure that the IMF maintains credibility and legitimacy with fast growing developing countries. It is, therefore, envisioned as a first step in a longer process of reform for the representation of developing countries in the IMF....(read more)...
As governance indicators have proliferated in recent years, so has their use and the controversy that surrounds them. As more and more voices are pointing out, existing indicators – many of them developed and launched in the 1990s – have a number of flaws. This is particularly disquieting at a time when governance is at the very top of the development agenda. ...(read more)...
Fishing on the Thamalakane River 2007
Integrating gender and livelihoods in a biodiversity project : a case study of the invisible stakeholders in the Okavango Delta Panhandle, a Master's thesis by Barbara Herrero Cangas for the University College London, looks at how women are participating in the fisheries co-management work of the BIOKAVANGO Project. Cangas' interviews with women who fish...
In a recent article published in the Journal of Democracy, Richard Joseph analyzes what he calls “frontier Africa” – the continent in flux where political and economic life “features an interplay of risk, reward, and uncertainty.” The 1990s created important openings for political and economic freedoms in many African countries. But most of these countries remain vulnerable “frontier” markets and democracies at best.
Joseph focuses in particular on one key weakness of African democracies that undermines not only political stability, but also sustained growth: the overwhelming power of the executive. Despite the introduction of formal elections, many African democracies persist in the old ways of seeing the government as a way of getting rich. Newly elected leaders tend to...
Spanish companies have begun committing to greater board independence and the unbundling of director elections because of a new corporate governance code that comes into effect this year. Though Spanish companies do not often disclose their efforts to recruit independent directors or detail their executive pay practices, more firms likely will seek to improve their governance in 2008.In 2006, a number of Spanish corporate governance experts--including the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV or National Stock Market Commission)--published the Código Unificado de Buen Gobierno (Unified Good Governance Code). In crafting the code, Spanish authorities were also influenced by the European Union, which is putting pressure on all member and prospective-member nations to have...
2008 is turning into another of those milestone years for aid. A cluster of high level meetings are focusing international attention on the challenges around effective development assistance. This presents familiar challenges: how to scale-up, align and harmonize aid to support achievement of the MDGs by 2015. But what is crucially different is the global context in which this must now be achieved. ...(read more)...
Sound corporate governance practices inspire investor and lender confidence, spur domestic and foreign investment, and improve corporate competitiveness. This IFC publication highlights key topics to consider in developing corporate governance codes for European Union candidate and potential candidate countries that will facilitate trade across borders or help attract investors.The objective is to build understanding and raise awareness of the European Union's corporate governance directives, regulations, best practices, and guidelines and to help countries access relevant information more efficiently.See full...
Italy is known for its exquisite food, wonderful monuments and sleek design. But it is not known for its corporate governance and even less so for the quality of its laws protecting minority investors. Controlling shareholders enjoy large benefits from their position. For this reason, it is particularly interesting to follow a corporate legal experiment taking place in Italy.To protect minority shareholders, a 2005 law made it mandatory for all publicly traded companies to reserve some board seats for lists not related to the controlling shareholder. This is a stronger version of a Securities and Exchange Commission proposal that would require US companies to include shareholder-nominated candidates for the board in the proxy voting material (so-called shareholders’ access to proxy)....
The UN Library's web log, UN Pulse, has alerted us to the fifth report on shared natural resources on Transboundary Aquifers, (A/CN.4/591). The report has been submitted for the consideration of the International Law Commission and presents draft articles on transboundary aquifers for consideration. You can find out more about the ILC's consideration from the online chapter on shared natural...
At Steel Partners, our slogan is: “Invest on the basis of value, not popularity.” Although Japan is not a popular place with foreign investors, as evidenced by the recent outflow of capital, we believe that tremendous value still exists, much as it did in 2000 when we began to investigate opportunities in the country.As a value investor, we seek undervalued companies and spend a great deal of time studying why their shares are trading at less than their true worth and what we believe these companies could do to eliminate this “value” gap. Our hope is that management will proactively take steps to close this gap so that the market will recognise the true value of the world-class companies and brands in our portfolio, including Nissin Cup Noodle, Sapporo beer and Brother office...
Invisible upkeep : local institutions and the democratisation of development in Botswana : a case study of village development committees in Ngamiland by HOORC researcher Barbara Ngwenya, looks at the influence of government institutions on local communities' use of natural resources in Botswana in the context of Village Development Committees' contribution to democratisation of development...
Today's increased focus on corporate governance means that boards of directors, managers, and others need advice in the development and evaluation of governance structures and processes. The demand for these services has been driven by corporate managers and boards interested in improving governance, satisfying shareholders and regulators, and preventing lawsuits. On the other side, judges, jurors, arbitrators, and mediators need governance experts to help them understand the nuances of governance practices and the way they relate to management.Arthur Levitt's landmark "Numbers Game" speech of September 1998 called for boards to engage independent professional and legal advisors. Levitt offered further insights on the governance challenges facing boards with "In Defense of Sarbanes...
AbstractThe research presented in the paper is aimed at examining the relationship between the level of corporate governance and the financial performance of listed companies in Poland. The corporate governance degree is expressed by the outcomes of a rating of 2003 performed by Polish Corporate Governance Forum. The attempted models are of ordered multinomial type. Endogenous variable represents the rating outcome (A-, B+, B, B-, and C+), while the exogenous variables include various financial indicators evaluated on the basis of the 2002 financial statements. The estimated ordered logit models show that the level of corporate governance of companies in Poland is associated with their ability to cope with the financial distress, as expressed by the degree of liquidity, profitability and...
Suppose you are concerned about children in Africa dying from preventable diseases. You want to donate money to a charity that is working to reduce the toll. But there are many charities doing that. How do you choose?The first thing that many people ask about charities is, “How much of my donation is spent on administration?” In the United States, that figure is readily available from Charity Navigator, a Web site that has five million users. But the information is taken from forms that the charities themselves complete and send to the tax authorities. No one checks the forms, and the proportions allocated to administration and program expenses are easily massaged with a little creative accounting. Worse still, that figure, even if accurate, tells you nothing about the charity’s...
A month ago, Kenya fell prey to a sudden burst of post-electoral violence that has left over 1000 dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. The intensity and scale of the violence have stunned the world.Of course, Kenya had lived through tense electoral periods before, and few people who know Africa were blind to the many difficulties the country continued to face. But things seemed to be going well recently. This year’s campaign was exceptionally peaceful, and millions of citizens voted on December 27 – at times walking and queuing for hours to cast their ballot.Perhaps more fundamentally, Kenya was unanimously seen as the “good student” of development, sometimes referred to as a symbol of an African renaissance. The “Kenya vision 2030 framework,” a set of ambitious...
AbstractI examine the proxy votes of AFL-CIO pension funds in director elections of 503 companies from 2003 to 2006. Using the 2005 AFL-CIO breakup as a source of exogenous variation in the union affiliations of workers across firms, I find that AFL-CIO affiliated shareholders are significantly more supportive of director nominees once the AFL-CIO no longer represents workers or represents significantly fewer workers at a given firm. Mutual funds and non-AFL-CIO labor union pension funds do not exhibit the same changes in voting behavior. This difference suggests that labor relations affect the voting patterns of some union shareholders. I also find that AFL-CIO funds are more likely to vote against directors of firms in which there is greater frequency of plant-level conflict between...
AbstractUsing a large hand-collected data set from 2001 to 2006, we find that activist hedge funds in the U.S. propose strategic, operational, and financial remedies and attain success or partial success in two-thirds of the cases. Hedge funds seldom seek control and in most cases are nonconfrontational. The abnormal return around the announcement of activism is approximately 7%, with no reversal during the subsequent year. Target firms experience increases in payout, operating performance, and higher CEO turnover after activism. Our analysis provides important new evidence on the mechanisms and effects of informed shareholder monitoring.See full...
State Bank of Pakistan Governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar has said that though Pakistan ranks first in South Asia in corporate governance, it still needs to catch up with the best global corporate practices implemented in more developed countries.Addressing the convocation and price distribution ceremony of the Institute of Bankers Pakistan, she said that good corporate governance is essential in the banking sector, which is connected with practically every economic activity in the country. She said that Pakistan’s banks and its corporate sector should learn from global experience, where lapse in corporate governance caused the meltdown of East Asian economies in the late 90’s, and of corporate giant Enron at the start of this century.She stated that taking cue from the lapses in governance,...
Perlis Mentri Besar-designate Datuk Dr Md Isa Sabu has promised more transparency in the state administration and pledged a "sincere and honest" way of governing.The Bintong assemblyman, who was part of a political impasse over the Menteri Besar post since Friday, also hinted a "total" change of the state leadership, administration and management.On getting more investments, Md Isa said the state government would seek expertise from Perlis' sons and daughters who work and live in Kuala Lumpur. Job opportunities among the youth and skilled was also a priority in his administration. All federal-level projects like the Northern Corridor Economic Region would continue under the new leadership and there was a need for equal distribution of opportunities, especially of state development...
Courion Corporation Rachel Weeks, 508-661-0467 rweeks@courion.com or For Courion Corporation fama PR Nikki Festa, 617-758-4175 courion@famapr.com Courion(R) Corporation, the provisioning experts for results-driven operations, today announced a strategic partnership with Michael Rasmussen, president of Corporate Integrity, (and formerly of Forrester Research, Inc.) to provide education and awareness around the topic ofGovernance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC), and the integral role of Identity and Access Management. As part of this partnership, Courion will host a webinar on Tuesday, March 18, "Identity Management (IdM): A Foundation for Governance, Risk, and Compliance."Who: Kurt Johnson, vice president of corporate development, Courion and Michael Rasmussen, president, Corporate Integrity...
Nigeria has had a chequered history of political transitions that were intermittently punctuated by long spell of military interregnums. 1999 signaled the beginning of yet another experiment at democratic governance. If one is to see military intervention as a sign of political instability, we can conveniently say there has been a semblance of uninterrupted political transition since then.The civilian class has also since then, been setting up self-assessment mechanisms to detect areas of mistakes and fraud with a view to correct them. With the conclusion of the 2003 general elections, efforts were made by the political establishment at electoral reforms to take care of anomalies detected. Yet, considering the controversy that trailed the recently concluded 2007 general elections,...