The road from conflict to peace and from destruction to development is far from smooth. In fact, research shows that half of all countries that have been ravaged by conflict are at war again within a decade. Transition Financing: Building a Better Response, part of the OECD’s Conflict and Fragility series of books, examines how the international community can help countries move from resolving conflicts to a lasting peace, grounded in what the authors describe as “sustainable development”. It involves a transition to greater national ownership and a greater capacity to ensure public safety and welfare.

The best intentions in the world will not be enough to undo the damage done by the global economic crisis to the hopes of fully achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. With just five years left to that target date, the 2010 edition of the OECD’s Development Co-operation Report alerts readers to the probable shortfalls in aid expected in 2010, as compared with commitments made in 2005 at the Gleneagles G8 and UN Millennium +5 summits. Since the report was published, new OECD data estimate a shortfall of $18 billion in 2010 compared with the 2005 pledges, largely because of reductions in gross national income among donor countries. Africa will be most affected, because some European donors who give large shares of their official development assistance to that continent will not meet their ambitious targets.

With the crisis still unfolding, can governments meet their agreed development aid targets? Total net official development assistance (ODA) from donor countries in the OECD Development Assistance Committee came to $119.6 billion in 2009, which is a real increase of 0.7% from 2008. If debt forgiveness is excluded, the real increase jumps to 6.8%. In fact, development aid rose by some 30% in real terms between 2004 and 2009, and continued to grow during the crisis, unlike other financial flows to developing countries, which have fallen sharply. Nonetheless, more aid effort is needed.

The Caisse des Dépôts, a publicly-led longterm investment group, which has entered a partnership with the OECD focusing on the role of long-term investors, has founded, together with three other European public financial institutions–Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, KfW Bankengruppe and the European Investment Bank–the Long-Term Investors Club. What is it all about?

Before the global recession, most of Africa was booming. At last. Can it bounce back?

Biotechnology has steadily evolved to become a potential motor of environmentally sustainable production and a proven source of a diverse range of innovations in agriculture, industry and medicine. Could we be at the dawn of a new bioeconomy? Public policies will influence the answer.

Could fish farming help secure the food supply of the future? Yes, but there are challenges.

Now for sustaining growth–; –as China sets the pace; Greening Greece; Soundbites; Economy; Aid shortfall; Chile's new president; Tax watch; Plus ça change...

Development aid for water supply and sanitation projects has risen in recent years after a decline in the late 1990s. Considering the importance of safe water, perhaps it hasn’t risen far enough. In 2007-08, OECD Development Assistance Committee countries committed on average $5.1 billion in bilateral annual aid to the water supply and sanitation sector, 50% up on 2003-04 in real terms. When combined with aid from multilateral agencies, the total was $6.6 billion. Over the 2003-08 period, bilateral aid to water increased by an annual average of 15%, while multilateral aid rose 3% annually. Still, for DAC countries, aid to the water supply and sanitation sector rose to just 7% of all aid commitments in 2007-08, only slightly up from 6% in 2003-04.

World agriculture faces an enormous challenge over the next 40 years: to produce almost 50% more food up to 2030 and double production by 2050. With pressure from increasing urbanisation, industrialisation and climate change also rising, proper water management will be vital.

Agriculture not only contributes to climate change and is affected by it, it also forms part of the solution. Coherent and effective policies are needed.

Can global agriculture and food systems provide for the predicted 9 billion people living in the world in 2050? Predictions of global famine are not new, but recent setbacks in the fight to eradicate hunger have brought agriculture back to centre stage in international discussions.

Ensuring Environmental Compliance: Trends and Good Practices

Despite their progress in developing green laws and policies, OECD countries are noton track to achieve some of their key environmental goals and commitments.

Gadgets and Gigawatts: Policies for Energy Efficient Electronics

Most people would be able to count between 20 and 30 electronic gadgets scattered around their own homes, from televisions to battery chargers. By 2010, there will be over 3.5 billion mobile phonesubscribers around the world, 2 billion TVs in use and 1 billion personal computers.

“The Chinese government rightly advocates firm opposition to trade and investment protectionism, as emphatically stated by Premier Wen Jiabao on several occasions in the past few weeks. As it did a decade ago during the Asian crisis, China has set itself firmly against inward retrenchment in the face of economic downturn. We celebrate this commitment at OECD.

Humanity has few stranger monuments than the moai of Easter Island. Weighing up to 270 tonnes, these huge figures, like the pyramids of ancient Egypt, are all that’s left of what must once have been a creative and complex society–but a society that also used its resources unsustainably, effectively destroying the ecosystem base of its island home.

The global economic crisis has focused minds on restoring growth. But does growth necessarily mean progress? What about factors which growth depends on, such as the environment or happiness? Measuring true progress demands new indicators and a major global project to develop them is now underway.

The UN Climate Change Conference in Bali in early December 2007 may have raised new hopes of progress, but as everyone knows, dealing with climate change will require more than just political goodwill. Providing for abundant, affordable, clean energy will require considerable investment in new power generation–more than US$11 trillion to 2030, based on an estimate in the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2006.

Welcome to this special online focus on climate change, in view of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, 3-14 in December. "Ambitious policies to tackle climate change should lead to a structural shift in the economy – away from carbon-intensive activities. So the question that remains is: how can this transition be managed in an economically efficient and socially responsible manner? We should not exaggerate the cost of change. Action is affordable."

Your energy focus covers the renewable question well (No. 258-259, December 2006). But what if the renewable promise became a broken one? It might, if mindsets don’t change. Thanks to technological advances and climate change fears, energy has pushed to the front stage again. Governments have been slower to move. Also, as Vaclav Smil’s article shows, the current energy system is based on high-energy density sources, like oil and coal, supplying nationwide energy grids (“21st century energy: Some sobering thoughts”).