Exchange with the members of the blog, live from the 3rd edition of the European Development Days, Europe’s first meeting of development cooperation practitioners and decision-makers that will take place in Strasbourg on the 15-17 November. On this occasion, laptop computer will be available on the French Presidency stand so you will be able to participate to the debate. The members present in Strasbourg will come to the stand to react in live to your comments. Come and share your thoughts on the topic.

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The failure of the recent WTO Ministerial to achieve its objective of agreeing on modalities for negotiations in agriculture and NAMA is a setback for the Doha Round. The latest in a series of failed attempts, the breakdown of the July talks has led to concerns about the demise of the entire Round. A recent Financial Times editorial even coined the unfortunate but catchy phrase, “dead as a Doha”.

Does this latest setback really mean the end of the Round?

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I come back from Kenya. AFD and other donors including the World Bank and EIB are financing a large-scale public geothermal investment program that will supply most of Kenya’s future power generating capacity. The power generation mix that will fuel Kenya’s rapidly growing economy over the next decade will be carbon-poor.

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For many years now, academics have debated whether regional trade agreements are ‘building blocks’ or ’stumbling blocks’ for development and free trade. Regionalism has recently returned to the forefront of attention, as the slow progress in the Doha Round of negotiations has led many countries to increasingly pursue regional agendas.

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For those of us who work in the humanitarian world, the dawn of the twenty-first century has dealt us a difficult hand. As the expert practitioners in the game of preparing and planning for sudden, unpredictable events, we at the World Food Programme, the world’s largest humanitarian agency, have become the recognised experts in emergency response.

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Refusing the fate of underdevelopment for the twenty-first century, the international community has given itself a series of eight ambitious targets to meet by 2015. They range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education.

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