Agro-Industrial Development
Finanzspekulation und Nahrungsmittelpreise: Gefährden die Finanzmärkte die Welternährung?
Eine neue Studie von Professor Hans-Heinrich Bass für Foodwatch e. V. ist soeben als Heft Nummer 42 in der IWIM-Reihe "Globalisierung der Weltwirtschaft" erschienen (IWIM-Reihe "Globalisierung der Weltwirtschaft", Heft Nummer 42, November 2013, PDF).
Professor Bass geht in dieser Studie auf die Kontroversen über die Rolle der Finanzspekulation mit Nahrungsmitteln ein. Ein zentrales Problemfeld der Globalisierung der Weltwirtschaft wird debattiert. Es geht um die Frage, ob die Globalisierung der Finanzmärkte mit einer nachhaltigen Welternährung überhaupt vereinbar ist. Diese Kontroverse hat nicht nur die akademische Welt erreicht, sondern beeinflusst auch immer stärker die Finanzwelt und die Politik, nicht nur in der Bundesrepublik, sondern auch in der gesamten EU und in den USA. Es ist daher wichtig, die Studien zu dem Thema zu sichten und vor allem die methodischen Grundlagen zu überprüfen. Bisher ist dies noch nicht geschehen; die Studie betritt insofern Neuland. In der Studie von Professor Bass wird insbesondere auf die ökonometrischen Ansätze in den verschiedenen Studien eingegangen wie auch auf die Qualität der zugrundeliegenden Daten.
In der Studie von Professor Bass wird in mehreren Schritten das vorhandene Material geprüft: Zunächst wird das Thema der "Finanzialisierung" der Rohstoffmärkte erläutert, und dann werden die verfügbaren Daten geprüft; es folgt eine Analyse des generellen Einflusses der Finanzialisierung auf die Preisbildung, gefolgt von Analysen der Auswirkungen der Finanzialisierung auf Preisspitzen und Preisschwankungen. In weiteren Abschnitten der Studie geht es um die Transmissionsmechanismen des Preisgeschehens vom Terminmarkt auf die Spotmärkte. Auch der weitere Forschungsbedarf und der politische Handlungsbedarf werden diskutiert.
Die Studie wurde von Foodwatch e. V. (Link Foodwatch Deutschland: http://www.foodwatch.org/de/) bei Professor Bass in Auftrag gegeben. Beim Pressgespräch in Berlin waren der Autor (Professor Bass), der Auftraggeber (Thilo Bode für Foodwatch) und der Herausgeber der Studie (Professor Wohlmuth) anwesend. Professor Wohlmuth und Professor Bass haben in den letzten Jahren mehrere Projekte zu Themen der Globalisierung der Weltwirtschaft, der Welternährung und der Agroindustrie in Afrika gemeinsam bearbeitet (Link Agroindustrie-Projekte:http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/Agro-IndustrialDevelopment.htm). Professor Bass hat auch eine wichtige Studie über "Finanzmärkte als Hungerverursacher" für die Welthungerhilfe verfasst (Link zur Welthungerhilfe:http://www.welthungerhilfe.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Mediathek/Studie_Nahrungsmittelspekulation_Bass.pdf und weitere Inputs unter:http://www.welthungerhilfe.de/?id=1299).
Gedruckte Ausgaben der Studie von Professor Bass sind über Foodwatch Deutschland erhältlich: Martin Rücker, Leiter Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, Foodwatch e. V., Brunnenstr. 181, 10119 Berlin, Telefon: +49 (0)30 / 240 476-290 und Fax: +49 (0)30 / 240 476-26 und E-Mail: martin.ruecker@foodwatch.de
In this essay Back To John Maynard Keynes in Regulating International Commodity Markets Professor Karl Wohlmuth compares weak and strong forms of global governance of international raw materials markets. This is done by comparing the "transparency agenda" with the "structural reform agenda". John Maynard Keynes has worked for decades academically on commodity markets, on speculation and storage, on forward markets and buffer stocks, etc., but he has also gained practical experience on these markets by intensive commercial trading activity on various commodity markets. Based on this immense knowledge he has influenced fundamentally the Post-World War Two Agenda with the proposed International Clearing Union (ICU) and the proposed International Trade Organization (ITO). Both proposed organizations contain detailed provisions for establishing a world order on international commodity markets. He was very much concerned about the impact of price volatility of raw materials on global macroeconomics, and he was deeply convinced that appropriate regulations of international commodity markets and of national resource sectors would impact positively on peace, macroeconomic stability, employment and development. He was convinced that strong global governance must be based on simple, stable, effective, consensual and binding rules. On the basis of this Keynesian framework the "transparency agenda" is evaluated.
Now the "transparency agenda" with regard of international raw materials markets is so much debated, but it is a rather weak form of global governance, although it contains various proposals, voluntary agreements and codes of conduct. The "structural reform agenda" however represents a rather strong form of global governance of the global commodity markets and of the national resources sectors. It contains internationally binding agreements on investment, trade, exploration, production and use of resources, food security, and sustainable development. Also new global governance institutions are discussed based on the international public goods approach. In this essay the "transparency agenda" is discussed in great detail while the "structural reform agenda" is presented only in a short description in the Conclusions and Outlook section. The essay was published in the quarterly journal "Berichte" from the Research Institute of IWVWW e. V. in Berlin, the magazine of our partner institute (see Publications Karl Wohlmuth). A version of the essay will also be published in the IWIM Blue Series Discussion Papers (see IWIM Blue Series Discussion Papers). The "Structural Reform Agenda" needs a further elaboration in a follow-up paper.
Schwerpunktheft Afrika: Entwicklungspotential und Risiko
Im Schwerpunktheft Afrika der "Berichte" des Forschungsinstituts der Internationalen Wissenschaftlichen Vereinigung Weltwirtschaft und Weltpolitik (IWVWW) e. V. geht es um Entwicklungspotentiale und um Sicherheitsrisiken in Afrika beim internationalen Einsatz von Fachkräften. Nach dem auszugsweisen Abdruck der Rede des Bundespräsidenten Joachim Gauck auf der Sitzung der ständigen Vertreter der Afrikanischen Union in Addis Abeba/Äthiopien vom 18. März 2013 finden sich Beiträge über den Mali-Konflikt als Spätfolge libyscher Destabilisierungspolitik in den Sahara-Saaten und über Sicherheitsrisiken bei der internationalen Entsendung von Fachkräften nach Afrika. Der Beitrag des Bremer Professors Karl Wohlmuth geht auf Wissenschaft, Technik und Innovation als Triebkräfte der afrikanischen Entwicklung ein. Besonders thematisiert wird der Stellenwert von Wissenschaft, Technik und Innovation für die Förderung von Landwirtschaft, Agroindustrie und Agribusiness in Afrika.
Die beiden Institute kooperieren seit über 20 Jahren in vielfältiger Form (Link: http://www.iwvww.de/).
In various essays Professor Wohlmuth outlines the role of Science, Technology and innovation (STI) as drivers of African Development (Link on Publications: http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/publikationen/pub-wohlmuth.htm ). Considered are the major economic problems in Africa requesting significant STI inputs to be overcome (stagnation of agriculture, especially of cereals production; de-industrialization and low share of manufacturing in GDP; difficulties to transform trade structures at regional and global levels towards a higher value added content of exports). The African Union (AU) initiatives undertaken in this regard are characterized area by area. Main focus is on public interventions and on public-private partnerships to use STI infrastructure and STI policies more effectively. Three action levels are discussed to show how STI-based development can work towards value addition, employment creation and poverty reduction. The three action levels (building linkages between agriculture and agro-industry subsectors and STI infrastructure; incorporating STI inputs into agro-industrial value chains at all levels and ranks; and converting comparative advantages into competitive advantages by using specific STI inputs) are discussed in detail and matter in a new Agenda for African Development based on STI. The papers benefitted from consultancy work for UNIDO and participation and discussion at UNIDO/FAO/AU conferences in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Abuja, Nigeria (see also the project context of these researches: http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/Agro-IndustrialDevelopment.htm).
In a collaborative research project directed by Professor Hans H. Bass, Director of the Institute for Transport and Development/ITD, at Bremen University of Applied Sciences, the potentials of indigenous crops and fruits in West Africa for rural and urban domestic markets and for export markets are analyzed. Included in the research programme (covering Mali, Ghana and Nigeria) are the actual and potential value chains for indigenous fruits such as mangoes; the transformation of these fruits into sauces, syrups, and juices is studied and also the services needed for marketing these products in local, regional and international markets are investigated. The same type of value chain analysis is applied to products such as karate (shea) which is part of a complex agro-forestry eco-system with uses for cosmetic and pharmaceutical products; also cashew is included which is offering also huge potentials for processing in downstream industries such as in pharmacology. The research project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung/BMBF). The various phases of the research project are described in the Annual Report of ITD (see the Annual Report 2011/2012 of ITD/Institute for Transport and Development, Faculty Of Business And Economics, Hochschule Bremen/University Of Applied Sciences, Directors and Editors: Professors Hans-Heinrich Bass and Hans-Martin Niemeier; see Web Access: http://www.hs-bremen.de/internet/forschung/einrichtungen/itd/profil/itd_annual_report_final_version_100dpi.pdf).
Professor Karl Wohlmuth from the University of Bremen has contributed to this research project with an article on the role of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for promoting agriculture, agro-industries and agribusiness in Africa. As country cases Nigeria and Ghana were considered in the essay. See on the publication details:
Wohlmuth, Karl, 2013, Promoting agriculture, agro-industry and agribusiness in Africa. The role of science, technology and innovation (STI), pp. 22-28, in: Promoting the Production of Cashew, Shea, and Indigenous Fruits in West Africa, edited by Hans-Heinrich Bass, published in: Institute for Transport and Development, ITD Annual Report, Supplement 2, Bremen: Bremen University of Applied Sciences, March 2013; Web Access at SSOAR (Social Science Open Access Repository) under http://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/33846 and Persistent Identifier (PID): http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-338461; the study is also accessible at University of Bremen's e-lib in: http://elib.suub.uni-bremen.de/edocs/00103145-1.pdf. Professor Wohlmuth has researched since 2009 intensively on issues of STI policies and agro-industrial development in Africa (see Publications Karl Wohlmuth).
UNU-WIDER invites to its Annual Conference 2013 with the important theme "Learning to Compete: Industrial Development and Policy in Africa" (see the Link for paper submissions: http://www.wider.unu.edu/home/news/en_GB/call-for-papers-l2c/). It is an international conference held in the context of a collaborative research program (see the Link: http://www.wider.unu.edu/research/current-programme/en_GB/L2C-2010/).
Economics Professor Karl Wohlmuth works on similar lines. He has recently researched on strategies for converting comparative advantages into competitive advantages in Africa's agro-industry sectors (Link: http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/Agro-IndustrialDevelopment.htm). As a further project in this context, the planned volume 17 (for 2014) of the African Development Perspectives Yearbook will cover some of these issues under the umbrella title of Africa's Progress in Regional and Global Economic Integration (Links to the Yearbook Project: http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/african_developm_.htm and http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/africa/about.htm).
Also the book with the African Country Case Studies on Agro-industry Development which is related to the main document "Agribusiness for Africa's Prosperity" is now available as an E-Book. The Country Case Studies were conceived as background materials to the main document. The main document was published in English and in French. The three E-Books can be fully downloaded at:
http://www.unido.org/index.php?id=1001692
At this website also other information about the project can be found, especially the Seven Development Pillars.
The books are presented particularly to the benefit of the members of the 3ADI (Accelerated Agribusiness and Agro-industries Development Initiative) and of policy advisers to African governments, especially the ministries of industry and trade being responsible for new industrialization steps. The website of 3ADI contains further information about the Project:
http://www.3adi.org/Agribusiness_for_Africa_Prosperity
In a Video about the book "Agribusiness for Africa's Prosperity" UNIDO Director General Dr. Kandeh K. Yumkella discusses the importance of the study for Africa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C23tW_MjnFE.
Further information about the book is provided also in UNIDO's quarterly magazine Making It: http://www.3adi.org/agribusiness_making_it
Professor Karl Wohlmuth has contributed to the Project since February 2008 as a Consultant, Author and Editor. In the African Development Perspectives Yearbook these issues were given attention quite regularly. See details on the various issues of the Yearbook: http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/africa/africanyearbook.htm
Die zweite Auflage der UNIDO-Studie Agribusiness for Africa's Prosperity - Country Case Studies ist eben erschienen. In acht Länderfallstudien (Äthiopien, Mali, Sambia, Kamerun, Nigeria, Senegal, Kenia und Südafrika), die meist von afrikanischen Wissenschaftlern und Wissenschaftlerinnen dieser Länder erstellt wurden, werden die Entwicklungen von Agroindustrie und Agribusiness untersucht. Es werden auch Vorschläge für eine umfassende Politikreform mit dem Ziel der Stimulierung des Sektors gemacht. In zwei zusammenfassenden Kapiteln werden von Professor Karl Wohlmuth, IWIM, Universität Bremen und Dr. Patrick Kormawa, Direktor für die Region Westafrika der UNIDO die wesentlichen Ergebnisse der Länderfallstudien zusammengefasst. Die Determinanten der Entwicklung des Sektors und die Perspektiven einer Politikreform zur Förderung des Sektors stehen dabei im Vordergrund. In einem Index der Transformation des Sektors werden die Erfolge bzw. Hemmnisse bei der Entwicklung des Sektors dargestellt.
Der Bremer Wirtschaftsprofessor Karl Wohlmuth arbeitet seit Februar 2008 an dem Projekt der UNIDO "Value Addition to Africa's Industry" mit.
Der gesamte Bericht mit den Länderfallstudien kann eingesehen werden über den Link:
http://www.unido.org/fileadmin/user_media/Services/Agro-Industries/Agribusiness/AAP_CCS_v4.pdf
Diese Studie mit den Länderanalysen ist ein Hintergrundbericht zu der umfassenden Grundlagenstudie Agribusiness for Africa's Prosperity, die vom Generaldirektor der UNIDO, Dr. Kandeh Yumkella initiiert wurde. Auch diese Studie kann als E-Book in englischer und in französischer Sprache komplett eingesehen werden (vgl. Links unten).
Die Studie ist verfügbar als E-Book in englischer Sprache via:
und als E-Book in französischer Sprache via:
Diese drei Bücher sind gedacht als Inputs für die Politikreform in diesem Bereich in den afrikanischen Ländern und als Materialien für die Initiative 3ADI/Accelerated Agribusiness and Agro-industries Development Initiative (vgl. die relevanten Links zu dieser Initiative: http://www.3adi.org/ und http://www.3adi.org/tl_files/3ADIDocuments/Other%203ADI%20docs/briefing%20note%203adi%201103.pdf).
The second edition of an UNIDO Study with Country Cases on Developing Agribusiness and Promoting Agro-industries in Africa was just released. This is the background document to a major UNIDO Study on Agribusiness for Africa's Prosperity, published under the guidance of the General Director of UNIDO, Dr. Kandeh Yumkella. The Second Edition of the Report with African Country Cases contains eight chapters with case studies and two summarizing chapters by Professor Karl Wohlmuth from the University of Bremen and Dr. Patrick Kormawa, Director for the West Africa Region at UNIDO. The eight case studies, mainly done by African economists, contain evaluations of the ongoing structural changes in the sector and of the policy context for agribusiness development and agro-industry promotion. The synthesis is presented in chapters 1 and 10 while the country case studies are presented in the chapters 2 to 9. The synthesis chapters contain a Country Typology and an Overview for the Eight Cases as well as Lessons from the Cases and Recommendations for a New Industrial Policy which is linked better linked to agricultural development. A Transformation Index is presented covering 10 criteria for assessment.
A full download of the background study with the African country cases is possible via:
http://www.unido.org/fileadmin/user_media/Services/Agro-Industries/Agribusiness/AAP_CCS_v4.pdf
The main UNIDO Report on Agribusiness for Africa's Prosperity can be downloaded as an E-Book in English via:
and as an E-book in French via:
These books are policy inputs to the 3ADI (Accelerated Agribusiness and Agro-industries Development Initiative (see also the relevant links to http://www.3adi.org/ and to http://www.3adi.org/tl_files/3ADIDocuments/Other%203ADI%20docs/briefing%20note%203adi%201103.pdf).
IWIM was asked to inform its Africa networks about the forthcoming conference in Bremerhaven (see Link to the Organizers: http://klimahaus-bremerhaven.de/africa/). This is done by asserting that the conference is an important event, covering in Forum I important issues of land use, land grabbing and food security in Africa. Good governance and sustainability issues are discussed in Forum II. There are also two workshops I and II on urban climate adaptation projects in Africa and on improving land use, water and food security under climate change conditions in rural Africa. In two further Forums III and IV issues of Fighting poverty with sustainable economy and of Education for Sustainable Development are discussed.
IWIM is still researching on these issues (See the links to the projects: http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/Agro-IndustrialDevelopment.htm and http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/EconomicPoliciesInSudan.htm ,and see also the link to the work of the Research Group on African Development Perspectives Bremen: http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/africa/about.htm ). In the past major research projects on renewable energy economics and sustainability economics were executed (Links: http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/forschung/abgeschl.htm#Nachhaltiges and http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/forschung/abgeschl.htm#Energiebereich).