Issue No:  77/ August 2008

Last call for submissions for the 2008 Global Development Awards and Medals Competition! This year's theme is 'Natural Resources and Development.' Hurry up and apply now. The competition awards cash prizes, and a round trip airfare with all lodging expenses, for the 2009 GDN Annual Development Conference in Kuwait. Here, finalists will present their projects or papers before a panel of expert judges. The contest receives the largest number of applications for any competition for research on development. Submissions for fresh research proposals, completed research papers and proposals for enlarging on-going development, projects are accepted under the categories listed below.

The three categories of awards open for competition are:

• Japanese Award for Outstanding Research on Development: it's for applicants who have outstanding new research proposals that adds a unique dimension to research on any of the five topics listed below
• Medals for Research on Development: is offered for excellent completed research papers on any of the five topics listed below
• Japanese Award for the Most Innovative Development Project: is for exceptional on-going development projects that have given the maximum benefit to the local communities and need further financial assistance for expanding the project.

The focus of the research proposals/ papers must be on any one of the following five topics:

• The Governance and Political Economy of Natural Resource Management
• Exploitation of Natural Resources: Trends and Environmental Implications
• The Economics of Natural Resource Management
• Foreign Direct Investment and Natural Resources
• Societies and Natural Resource Management

Deadline: September 12th, 2008 for the development project; September 26th, 2008 for research proposals/papers.
For more information log onto http://www.gdnet.org/2008awards or email us at awards@gdnet.org

Members of the GDN Board of Directors and Senior Staff, who met in early July at New Haven, CT, USA, to review the progress of GDN's activities.

The preliminary findings from the pilot project of GDN's sixth Global Research Project - Development on the Move: Measuring and Optimizing Migration's Economic and Social Impact - , conducted in Jamaica, have now been released. Findings indicate that the main reason for migration from Jamaica is financial, with the largest number moving to the United States. Results also show a high level of returned migrants, the result of mainly short term labour contracts in the countries to which they relocated. Migration is shown to be financially beneficial for an individual migrant's entire household, whilst living abroad has made returned migrants more supportive of gender equality.

The pilot provided a series of potential policy suggestions for migration related legislation in Jamaica. Recommendations included adjusting immigration laws in the light of emerging trends, re-thinking Jamaica's approach to negotiating labour access, encouraging circular movement and mitigating negative social impacts.

The pilot project served to help test the research tools and methods developed for the main phase of the project. Currently, fieldwork for the main project is being conducted in five countries: Vietnam, Fiji, Macedonia, Colombia and Ghana. A further fieldwork stage is scheduled to start in Georgia.

Most of the teams have come to an agreement with their respective National Statistical Offices to provide them with up-to-date data on both migration and immigration in their country. Macedonia and Ghana have just finalized the training of their fieldworkers and are ready to begin collecting data. Macedonia will interview 1600 households and Ghana another 1200. Fieldwork in Colombia, with a total of 1200 households, will follow shortly. The sample group of households is the result of a similar weighting throughout the teams of migrants, returned-migrants, absent migrants and immigrants.

The Fijian and Vietnamese teams are about to complete their fieldwork and start collating their data. In order to make the final cross-country analysis possible, a unique template for all the teams has been created to enter their data from the field.

The current political situation in Georgia will slightly delay the entry of the team to the field. But extra time has been allocated to allow for this.

Finally, feedback on the projects launch workshops has also been received. GDN's President Dr Gobind Nankani attended the project launch workshop in Ghana in July 2008, whilst Chief Economist Dr George Mavrotas was present at the launch in Vietnam in June 2008. Both were impressed by the teams' commitment and engagement in the project as well as by the high quality of the discussions on migration with the projects participants.

For more information on Development on the Move, please visit:More>>

GDN opens new office wing at its Delhi headquarters.

EERC Call for papers
The Economics Education and Research Council (EERC), the Global Development Network's regional partner in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, is pleased to announce its Fall 2008 Research Grant Competition.

Proposals are solicited in the following five areas with relevance to current policy concerns in the CIS: --

• Enterprises and product markets
• Labor markets and social policy
• Macro, financial markets and open economy
• Public economics
• International trade and regional integration.

Deadline for applications: October 1st 2008. More information is available at: http://www.eerc.ru/

Bureau for Research and Analysis of Development (BREAD)
The Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), GDN's regional network partner in North America, will hold the 14th BREAD conference on Development Economics on September 26th - 27th, 2008 at The University of Chicago, Chicago Illinois, USA. More information is available at http://ipl.econ.duke.edu/bread/conferences/conf_2008.09.htm

The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA)
The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA), GDN's regional network partner in Latin America, will conduct it's annual meeting at the Instituto Nacional De Matemática Pura E Aplicada (IMPA), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 20th to 22nd, 2008. More information on the meeting is available at http://www.lacea.org/annualmeetings.htm

Economic Research Forum (ERF)
Economic Research Forum (ERF), GDN's regional network partner for the Middle East and North Africa, will hold its 15th annual conference in Sanaa, Yemen from 23rd-25th November 2008. More information is available at http://www.erf.org.eg/cms.php?id=events_details&news_id=20

African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)
The African Economic and Research Consortium (AERC), GDN's regional network partner in Sub - Saharan Africa, is holding its Bi-annual Research Workshop in Nairobi, Kenya from November 29th - December 5th 2008. For more information on this event go to http://www.aercafrica.org/html/calendar2.asp?eventid=79

Unite For Sight 6th Annual Global Health & Development Conference
Unite for Sight is calling for papers for the3 6th Annual Global Development and Health Conference on "Achieving Global Goals through Innovation." The Conference is to be held at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA from April 18th - 19th 2009. Deadline for the online submission of abstracts: September 15th 2008. For more information visit: http://www.uniteforsight.org/conference

3rd Global Warming and Climate Change International Conference
Alongside its normal program of lectures, The Working Group on Global Warming and Climate Change (WGGWCC) is inviting submissions from interested groups to present their programs and products at the 3rd Global Warming and Climate Change International Conference. The conference will be held in The Hyde Park Hotel, London, 26th and 30th September 2008. The deadline for proposals / requests for financial assistance is September 15th 2008.
More information is available at: http://wggwcc08.com/invitation.html or e-mail: conference@wggwcc08.us

PURC/World Bank International Training Program on Utility Regulation and Strategy
The Public Utility Research Center (PURC) at the University of Florida, is announcing the PURC/World Bank International Training Program on Utility Regulation and Strategy, scheduled for January 12-23, 2009 in Gainesville, Florida USA. This course is held each January and June.
More information is available at http://www.cba.ufl.edu/purc or email purcecon@cba.ufl.edu

New Journal from 3IE
3ie is pleased to announce the launch of a new journal, the 'Journal of Development Effectiveness.' The Journal will support evidence-based policy making to enhance development effectiveness by publishing high quality papers reporting evidence of the impact of projects, programs and policies in developing countries. Submissions of review papers covering a number of topics are particularly encouraged. Enquiries and submissions should be emailed to jdeff@3ieimpact.org. For more information and instructions for authors go to http://www.3ieimpact.org/page.php?pg=journal

Educational Research and Reviews (ERR)
Educational Research and Reviews (ERR) publishes high-quality, solicited and unsolicited articles, in English, in all areas of education including education policies and management. All articles published in ERR are peer reviewed. Original articles on basic and applied research, critical reviews, surveys, opinions, commentaries and essays will be considered for publication. Instruction for authors and other details are available at http://www.academicjournals.org/ERR. Prospective authors should send their manuscript(s) to err.acadjourn@gmail.com

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