International Development Research Centre

14.07.2004 La société minière qui remportera les enchères lui permettant d’exploiter le gisement de cuivre de Las Bambas, au Pérou (qui devrait être choisie le 23 juillet) ferait « mieux d’être prête à montrer aux familles [qui vivent là], à la communauté, aux communautés environnantes et au pays que la vie de la mine, de la prospection à l’après-fermeture, sera positive pour eux, leur environnement et leur économie », a prévenu Paul A. Warner, directeur chargé des relations avec la collectivité et des affaires institutionnelles du géant australien de la mine, BHP Billiton.

12.07.2004 Digging for precious minerals in precarious conditions - without safety equipment, proper tools or recognition from the state - is a way of life for some 13 million of the world’s poorest people engaged in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). Read one view on efforts to transform ASM into a formal activity that will be given its due as part of the private sector.

22.06.2004 Blunt measures of human prosperity - like Gross Domestic Product - gauge economic activity without distinguishing "good" activity from "bad." Alternative measures draw on broader sets of social, environmental and health indicators to better represent conditions on the ground. In Bhutan, one such index is charmingly known as Gross National Happiness. (Though some dispute the image of life in Bhutan projected in this article as mythologized.)

08.06.2004 Large-scale, centralized water management has gone as far as it can in many regions. There are no more big rivers to dam; aquifers are being mined to exhaustion; vast irrigation schemes have reached their limits. Factor in deepening distrust of big engineering projects, and a second option - better managing existing local supplies - looks brighter every day.

27.05.2004 "What I fear most are checkpoints," says Miki Kratsman, a photographer with the Israeli daily Haaretz. "It doesn't matter if it is an Israeli checkpoint or a Palestinian checkpoint. I just really get nervous." Kratzman spoke in Ottawa recently on the perils of the job and about enduring threats to press freedom.