In Brief

• Pages: 4-5

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Chart it

IMF Data Mapper, a new interactive data visualization tool, allows web visitors to select and compare key data across countries, groups, and regions. At the click of a mouse, Data Mapper displays selected data from the IMF's World Economic Outlook (WEO) in chart and map formats. The Mapper-launched October 17, the same day the IMF publicly released the WEO-contains key indicators and data from the latest WEO. Data Mapper can be accessed from the IMF's Internet home page at www.imf.org.

Fast is best

Banning air-freighted organic farm products on environmental grounds might impoverish vulnerable populations, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) warned. The UN agency said proposals by some Northern Hemisphere ecological groups to sideline organic produce imported by air would not mitigate the effects of climate change. A ban might, however, ruin third-world growers and exporters, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, UNCTAD said.

"Increasing demand from Europe is a major reason for the growth of organic production in Africa," the agency stated. "The fresh fruit and vegetable segment is particularly dependent on air freight, without which African perishable products would not be able to get to the European market on time." Trade in air-freighted products provides large economic gains to farmers whose ecological footprint is tiny compared with those in the developed world, UNCTAD declared.

The agency said trade is a dynamic way to share the wealth derived from carbon usage. Moreover, the environment benefits from organic farms' improved capacity to sequester carbon, greater biodiversity of farm species, improved water quality and soil structure, and lower energy use.

Continental connections

All of Africa's capitals and major cities will be interconnected by broadband information technology (IT) links by 2012 if agreements reached at a recent IT summit meeting are fulfilled. The UN International Telecommunications Union and the African Development Bank sealed a deal to establish the pan-continental broadband links during an IT summit meeting in Kigali, Rwanda.

The October 28-30 summit was attended by global development institutions, IT companies, 5 African heads of state, and more than 50 IT ministers. Delegates were told that the first phase of a pan-African information...