The shoe industry is one of the most globalised industries in the world. Shoes, and in particular plastic shoes that have been analysed in this study, have become a throwaway item for many people the world over. This study has been conducted in collaboration with six of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservtion's (SSNC) co-operation organisations in the Philippines, India, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Indonesia.

Since its founding 60 years ago, the People's Republic of China has been transformed from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. The journey has been fraught with twists and turns on a road paved with hardship, upheavals and reversals. It's been an important process, however, as any search for direction in the course of human development. And it's taught us valuable lessons about the entire process of a planned-to-market economy transformation.

The resource-based corruption and international greed that has typified so much of the West's interactions with African countries has now arrived in the tiny and impoverished West African country of Gabon. Only this time, the external predator, working in tandem with a venal, autocratic local ruler, isn't the West - it's China.

This report, the first of its kind, provides a snapshot of working conditions in Katanga in Chinese-run enterprises. It synthesizes the views, experiences, concerns and recommendations of Chinese and Congolese workers interviewed. The report is based on a survey carried out in 2008 by Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID) into working conditions in Chinese private mining companies in Katanga Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

In the past several years, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has bolstered its diplomatic presence and garnered international goodwill through its financing of infrastructure and natural resource development projects, assistance in the carrying out of such projects, and large economic investments in many developing countries. This report examines China’s economic impact in three regions — Africa, Latin America (Western Hemisphere), and Southeast Asia — with an emphasis on bilateral foreign assistance.

Among the stories covered in this week’s Emerging powers news roundup, Russia’s influence as an investment partner grows, China signs deals in Ethiopia, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau and African nations lure Indian businessmen.

China’s successful economic policies are specifically Chinese. But they are made up of universal elements.

Sixty years ago, as Mao Zedong declared the founding of a new communist nation, considered a pariah state. Today t is a world power with sweeping influence -- it is financing America's debt, snapping up access to natural resources in Africa and Latin America, and making its voice heard on major diplomatic issues.

V. R. Raghavan highlights that the growing output of studies and books on the implications of the power-shift to Asia has generally been based on the need to protect the interests of developed countries, but the latest edited volume by N.S. Sisodia, V. Krishnappa provides a refreshing contribution to the discourse by examining an Asian perspective on the global power shifts.

The second half of 2008 saw unfold one of the most significant financial crises in history that started in the United States and then spread to Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. The response was just as historic. To stave off regional and global recessions and restore stability and confidence in the market, northern governments are pursuing a massive and unprecedented program of government intervention, nationalizing banks, injecting massive subsidies into ailing institutions and re-regulating their financial sectors.

Major developing countries are again preparing to stand together on critical issues at the G20 heads of government meeting in Pittsburgh Sep 24-25. But Southern solidarity may need to move beyond the strategic common front presented at such summits to include a strengthening of continuing ties.

Interface is a new journal produced twice yearly by activists and academics around the world in response to the development and increased visibility of social movements in the last few years – and the immense amount of knowledge generated in this process. This knowledge is created across the globe, and in many contexts and a variety of ways, and it constitutes an incredibly valuable resource for the further development of social movements.

The International Journal for Transitional Justice invites submissions for its 2010 special issue titled “Transitional Justice on Trial: Evaluating its Impact” to be guest edited by Colleen Duggan, Senior Program Specialist with the Evaluation Unit of the International Development Research Centre, Canada.

In this week's Emerging powers in Africa watch, a weak economy drives Angola into the arms of the IMF as Luanda's elite works more closely with their Chinese counterparts in local and regional deals.

Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Wednesday he had blocked possible "unprocedural use" of IMF aid allocated to the country under a global assistance agreement for member states hit by a global crisis. Biti dismissed as "rubbish" reports in state media that he had written to the International Monetary Fund effectively rejecting over $500 million in IMF special drawing rights extended to Zimbabwe because Harare has external debts of about $5.7 billion.

This week’s emerging powers news casts a spotlight on domestic developments in China; such as privatization of state-owned enterprises, the governance system, law and order. Elsewhere, China, India and Brazil continue to expand their investment footprint and hunt for resources in Africa and beyond.

The World Bank and major non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are calling on leaders who will gather for next week's Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Pittsburgh not to forget the needs of the world's poorest countries, which have been severely affected by the last year's financial crisis.In a report released on Wednesday, the Bank said the global recession, whose repercussions are still being felt around the world, will have resulted in an additional 89 million people living in absolute poverty, or on less than 1.25 dollars a day, by the end of next year.

Two weeks ago, Global Voices Online reported the story of Januário Alves de Santana, a black man who had been beaten and punched by security guards of one of the largest international retailers in Brazil. He was waiting for his family in the car park of a supermarket when he was accused of trying to steal his own car, under the argument that, being black, he would not be able to afford a luxury car.

Zimbabwe's minerals sector could attract investments of up to $16 billion once a more conducive business environment is in place, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said. That could help boost gross domestic product by $3 billion per year, Tsvangirai said.

Africa registered 8,000 cases of the H1N1 A flu, called swine flu, 46 of which resulted in deaths, out of the the 164,152 cases reported throughout the world, a researcher with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Sénégal, Dr. Mang Coly, has disclosed. Coly said South Africa was one of the most affected countries in the continent with 5,877 cases of contamination, followed by Tanzania, with 96 cases, Mauritius , 69 cases, and Kenya, 85 cases.