Agenda 21
Agenda 21 was signed as a program of action for the 21st century during the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio. The basic design of Agenda 21 is to provide a model for sustainable development in the 21st century.
Homepage of the Agenda 21
Agricultural Policy
Agricultural policy includes all measures related to the formation of economic, legal and social relationships within the farming, forestry and fishery industries. In the EU, this falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the EC, i.e. the individual states have no political leeway. The agricultural policy of the EC is criticized worldwide and increasingly within Europe, due to its protectionist principles. (see protectionism).
Arab Thought Forum
The Arab Thought Forum (Al-Multaqa), established in Jerusalem in 1977, is an independent organization dedicated to addressing textual and policy questions related to the formation of a Palestinian state. In addition to the future status of Jerusalem, the issues of democracy and development are focal points of the forum.
Homepage of the Arab Thought Forum
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is an international organization currently consisting of 63 Asian nations and the OECD, which support development projects for Asian nations by means of subsidies and technical aid.
Homepage of the Asian Development Bank
Attac
The ATTAC organization (“Associon pour la Taxation des Transactions pour l'Aide aux Citoyens”, i.e. the association for the taxation of financial transactions in the interest of citizens) was originally introduced for the implentation of the Tobin Tax. Subsequently, the association has also taken on other issues related to the anti-globalization movement. The participants frequently take part in campaigns and demonstrations typically aligned to the left of the political spectrum. ATTAC criticizes the “neo-liberal ideology” currently dominant in the sphere of economic globalization.
Homepage of Attac
Balance
The state of global equilibrium that must be reached over the long term is increasingly endangered in many respects, namely on the global as well as the regional and local scale. This applies to the terrestrial ecosystem, the cycle of which is being disturbed by anthropogenic influences (i.e. emissions and clear cutting), as well as to society, which is suffering from unacceptable declines in living standards both regionally and worldwide. A similar situation presents itself regarding access to education and modern technology (cp. digital divide). Political power and influence must also be more equally distributed in order to prevent terrorism and “asymmetrical wars” from becoming part of everyday life.
Benchmark
In general, benchmarking procedures involve the analytical comparison of one’s own performance with the performance of another (e.g. competitors), whose example is used as a benchmark. The goal of this practice is to learn from the mistakes of others while at the same time adopting their “best practicesâ€, i.e. especially successful methods.
Bottom-Up Approach
In economics, politics and science, policies are considered bottom-up approaches if they centre the flow of information from the bottom towards the top rather than from the top down.
Brain Drain
The emigration of the intellectual elite is denoted as brain drain. Highly talented individuals leave their native country, typically a developing nation, for economic reasons or to pursue higher education, causing their native country to lose this intellectual potential.
Bretton Woods
The name commonly given to the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, held (July 1-22, 1944) at Bretton Woods, N.H. The conference resulted in the creation of the International Monetary Fund , to promote international monetary cooperation, and of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development . By Dec., 1945, the required number of governments had ratified the treaties creating the two organizations, and by the summer of 1946 they had begun operation.
Cairo Conference
In September 1994, 179 nations committed to the Programme of Action during the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo. The Programme was meant to provide a possibility for all people to have access to family planning and corresponding health care by 2015. Since the 1960's, policies on population were aimed purely on demographic goals, therefore in Cairo the concrete needs and welfare of the people were brought to the foreground. This was a radical change because the integration of population and development issues was successful in highlighting approaches geared toward sustainability. The Cairo Programme of Action emphasises that women should have an improved social, political and economic position in order to expect lasting achievements in family planning. (DSW Newsletter 6/03, German Foundation for Global Population)
The Clean Development Mechanism
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is part of the Kyoto Protocol (Art. 12). It envisions that industrial nations will contribute to the emissions reduction of a developing nation rather than the emissions reduction of their own nation (within the framework of a “CDM Project”).
Child Spacing
Child spacing designates the deliberate control of the time span between births (from the same mother) using contraceptive methods, motivated by health as well as economic reasons.
Co-Financing
In general, co-financing simply means cooperative financing, but in this case it refers to an especially sensible type of development aid. Developed nations contribute financial aid to developing nations in order to compensate them for complying with regulations, i.e. giving up short-term competitive advantages such as cheap child labor. In this manner, sustainable development is made possible for developing nations, which will provide worldwide benefits in the long term.
Corporate Governance
All management structures within economic enterprises and other organizations fall under the title of “corporate governance”.
This term refers to all properties relating to operational and organizational structure (e.g. directorate accountability and obligation of the executive board to submit reports), as well as managerial policy concepts or ethical guidelines (e.g. regarding child labor, see also corporate social responsibility).
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility is a concept for implementing sustainability within corporations by underlying the conviction that they bear some degree of social responsibility. Responsibilities include environmental protection, stable economic development, employment protection and consideration for local conditions.
Costs
Costs as a rule should match actual value, so that the buyer of products or the recipient of services can estimate its worth. Commonly costs arise (for example, pollution of the environment and the oceans) that are not reflected in the final cost. Therefore the system of pricing is distorted.
Coupling of Regimes
International institutions (i.e. organizations, mechanisms, treaties) are also referred to as regimes. A basic problem with international order is the extensive isolation of regimes. The problems of each regime cannot be adequately accounted for when there is more than one theme. Through a coupling of related regimes that are hard to penetrate and hard to sway, environmental political aspects can find an opening into the WTO System.
