SUJAN PIYA'S BLOG

Publication: Making Value Chains Work Better for the Poor A toolbook for practitioners of Value Chain Analysis The toolbook is designed as a concise document aimed to provide value chain practitioners with an easy to follow set of tools for value chain analysis, focused on poverty reduction. Whilst there are a number of handbooks on Value Chain analysis already in existence, the aim of this toolbook is to bridge the gap between value chain analysis and pro-poor development. Hence the tools that are presented here are similar to those presented in other handbooks, but the main special feature of the toolbook is that within each of the tools there is a clear focus on how to apply the tool in order to analyze the impact of the value chain from the point of view of the poor.

The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 Switzerland tops the overall ranking in  The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 . The United States falls one place to second position, with weakening in its financial markets and macroeconomic stability. Singapore ,  Sweden and Denmark round out the top five. European economies continue to prevail in the top 10 with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands following suit. The United Kingdom, while remaining very competitive, has continued its fall from last year, moving down one more place this year to 13th, mainly attributable to continuing weakening of its financial markets. The rankings are calculated from both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum together with its network of Partner Institutes (leading research institutes and business organizations) in the countries covered by the Report. DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT  http://www.weforum.org...

Asian Development Outlook 2009: Rebalancing Asia’s Growth ADB News 22 September 2009 Resilient Asia Poised to Lead Recovery from Global Slowdown, Says ADB: HONG KONG, CHINA – Developing Asia is proving to be more resilient to the global downturn than was initially thought, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says in a new major report. The Update to ADB's flagship annual economic publication,Asian Development Outlook (2009), released today, forecasts economic expansion in developing Asia to come in at 3.9% in 2009, up from the 3.4% expected in March when the ADO 2009 was released. In 2010, the growth projection is likewise upgraded to 6.4% from 6.0%. Stronger growth in East Asia and South Asia underpinned the improved prospects.