Hans W. Singer

Manufactured exports of developing countries and their terms of trade since 1965

A barge for receiving dredged materials and water comprising a hull defining a hold and overflow apparatus for discharging excess water from the hold; the overflow apparatus comprises a separate discharge passage having a discharge outlet below the water line of the barge, a port defining an overflow opening communicating the hull and the discharge passage at a fixed position above the predetermined level to which solids are to be collected in the hold and below the predetermined levels of water in the hold and in the discharge passage, and a control valve in the discharge outlet for regulating the water level in the discharge passage. The method of dredging comprises maintaining the water level as aforesaid to prevent aeration of overflowing water.

Food aid to developing countries: A survey

Abstract Food aid currently constitutes nearly 15% of official development assistance and hence has considerable potential as a stimulant to growth in LDCs. This paper reviews the evidence on the impact of food aid on growth and its associated factors. While recognizing that the use of food aid is influenced by a constellation of interests in recipient and donor countries, it identifies a set of guiding principles for maximizing the effectiveness of food aid. These include the need for food (relative to other development needs), its level of substitutability with commercial imports, its incorporation in a poverty-oriented development plan, its guaranteed availability and its complementarity with financial aid. Current food aid programmes recognize the relevance of some of these principles - e.g. the criteria of necessity - but ignore others — notably the need to situate food aid in a comprehensive plan for improving patterns of income distribution in LDCs.

Trade policy and growth of developing countries: some new data

Abstract The present study provides empirical evidence on trade policy and economic growth of developing countries. Our data indicate that adverse changes in world demand carried greater weight in determining export performance than changes in trade policy. The results presented confirm that high growth rates of export earnings occur only when external demand to strong. Low-income countries are shown to fare worse across all time periods, though there are regional variations. These are not due solely to differences in trade policy. Thus, an outward-oriented policy is not necessarily a valid policy recommendation for all conditions and all countries.

The IMF, the world bank and commodity prices: A case of shifting sands?

Abstract This paper examines some recent developments in the thinking of both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank regarding the macroeconomic determinants of commodity prices and the relative importance of secular and cyclical factors in explaining their recent behavior.

A future food aid regime: Implications of final act of the Uruguay round

Abstract The conclusion of the Uruguay Round and the setting up of the World Trade Organization provide a major opportunity for establishing a new food aid regime within a liberalizing global economy. The paper covers several related areas: it provides details of the food aid provisions of the Final Act of the Uruguay Round; it reviews projections of future food air requirements against current availabilities; it raises the basic question as to what constitutes food aid, including the large volume of transactions in the “grey area” between food aid, as currently statistically recorded, and commercial trade; and it makes proposals for a future food aid regime in terms of its main features, and how it should be administered.

The African food crisis and the role of food aid

Abstract Although not always as visible as the Ethiopian famine, there has been a food crisis in Africa for at least 25 years, characterized by a steady decline in per capita food production. This has largely been caused by insufficient foreign exchange earnings, aggravated by low world food prices and other global developments over which sub-Saharan Africa has had no control. There is an urgent need for an increase in regular food and non-food aid. Contrary to common belief, such aid can be used to stimulate local agricultural production. This article outlines seven major measures which could be applied to food aid to ensure that this happens.

Sub-Saharan Africa in depression: The impact on the welfare of children

Abstract This paper analyses the impact of the economic crisis on the welfare of children in Sub-Saharan Africa, an area which includes most of the least developed and most severely affected countries. These countries are characterized by: low levels of skilled personpower, dependency on their primary product exports, small industrial sectors, a lagging food production growth, a high proportion of rural population and a child dependency ratio that is virtually 1 to 1. The situations of Nigeria, Zambia and Tanzania are examined in detail. In Zambia where there is substantial evidence of worsening of the condition of children in the 1970s, the most urgent requirement is additional resources, particularly foreign exchange. Such is also the case with Tanzania, while Nigeria does have the resources to develop a more coherent economy and finance basic services adequately.

Introduction: Food policy, food aid and economic adjustment

Abstract In this introduction to Food Policys special issue the guest editors look at the various ways in which food policy, food aid and economic adjustment can interact to mutual advantage. As developing countries pursue economic adjustment strategies to compensate for the unprecedented world recession, concern is being expressed about the condition of poor people in low-income countries and the need for ‘adjustment with a human face’. With increasing amounts of aid resources being used for adjustment programmes, interest has grown that food aid should also be used more purposefully to support the adjustment process.

Toward a rational and equitable new international economic order: A case for negotiated structural changes

During 1973–74, oil prices rose three-and-a-half to four times, causing income and production in the developed countries to fall, with serious setbacks in those developing countries without oil. The increase in oil prices had meant a shift of about 2 per cent of global income to the oil-producing countries, the OPEC group, with about three-quarters of this coming from the developed countries and about a quarter from developing countries without oil, the non-OPEC group. This redistribution briefly raised hopes for some major changes in the global economic system and, for two or three years, there was even the beginning of some negotiations on the need for NIEO, a New International Economic Order. A working party was created in IDS to explore possibilities and proposals. This included 15 persons, including Barbara Ward (a Governor of IDS), Rob Wood of ODI, Paul Streeten of Queen Elizabeth House and 12 others, mostly from IDS. The proposals were given coherence and written up by Reg Green and Hans Singer of IDS.

Food aid: Pros and cons

Extreme poverty, drought and famine continue to afflict people in many parts of the world. Food aid has occupied a central role in the response to these problems, and there have been notable successes, yet there is doubt and criticism about the appropriateness of food aid. Is food aid doing more harm than good?