Global Economy

Microfinance Surging

Product Number: 
VST114

The number of "microborrowers" worldwide increased by 17 percent in 2006, according to data from the Microcredit Summit Campaign, continuing double-digit annual growth that averaged some 29 percent

Notes: 
  1. Worldwatch calculations based on data in Sam Daley-Harris, State of the Microcredit Summit Cam­paign Report 2007 (Washington, DC: Microcredit Summit Campaign), p. 22. Growth rate calculation excludes new borrowers from microfinance institutions (MFIs) that are reporting for the first time.
  2. Growth in borrowers from ibid.; growth in global loan portfolio from Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX), "Trend Lines 2004-06 MFI Benchmarks," MIX database, at www.themix.org, viewed 16 June 2008. The Microcredit Summit Campaign compiles participant data from more than 4,000 microfinance institutions worldwide; MIX compiles participant and financial data from 340 MFIs.
  3. Maria Otero, "Commentary: Microfinance at the Crossroads," Forbes.com, 19 May 2008.
  4. MIX, "2006 MFI Benchmarks," MIX database, www.themix.org, viewed 24 June 2008.
  5. Ibid.
  6. MIX, op. cit. note 2.
  7. Ibid.
  8. Number of borrowers from Daley-Harris, op. cit. note 1; loan portfolio and average loan balance from MIX, op. cit. note 2.
  9. Daley-Harris, op. cit. note 1.
  10. Xavier Reille and Sarah Forster, Foreign Capital Investment in Microfinance: Balancing Social and Financial Returns, CGAP Focus Note No. 44 (Washington, DC: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, February 2008), p. 1.
  11. Ibid., p. 15.
  12. Ibid.
  13. Ibid., p. 3.
  14. Ibid., pp. 3-4.
  15. Reille and Forster, op. cit. note 10, p. 16.
  16. Otero, op. cit. note 3.
  17. "Compartamos IPO: Microfinance Doing Good, or the Undoing of Microfinance?" Microcredit Summit E-News, July 2007.
  18. "The Banco Compartamos Initial Public Offering," Insight (Boston: Accion International, June 2007), p. 1.
  19. Richard Rosenberg, CGAP Reflections on the Compartamos Initial Public Offering: A Case Study on Microfinance Interest Rates and Profits (Washington, DC: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, June 2007).
  20. Ibid.
  21. "Remarks by Mohammed Yunus, Managing Director, Grameen Bank," Microcredit Summit E-News, July 2007.
  22. Rosenberg, op. cit. note 19.
  23. Ibid.
  24. Daley-Harris, op. cit. note 1, p. 30.
  25. Gautam Ivatury and Ignacio Mas, The Early Experience with Branchless Banking, Focus Note No. 46 (Washington, DC: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, April 2008), p. 2.
  26. Ibid.
  27. Ibid.
  28. Worldwatch calculation based on 133 million from Daley-Harris, op. cit. note 1, and on $2 per day from World Bank, "Understanding Poverty," at web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/0,,contentMDK:20153855~menuPK:373757~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:336992,00.html, viewed 3 July 2008.
  29. Malika Anand and Richard Rosenberg, Are We Overestimating Demand for Microloans? CGAP Brief (Washington: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, April 2008).
  30. Ibid.
  31. Microcredit Summit Campaign, at www.microcreditsummit.org, viewed 3 July 2008.
  32. David Lascelles, "Microfinance Banana Skins," Micro­Banking Bulletin, spring 2008, pp. 1-2.
  33. Ibid.
Included Trends: 
Microcredit Clients Worldwide, 1997-2006;Growth in Microloans and Microsavings, 2004-2006;Selected Microfinance Indicators, by Region, 2006

Jobs in Renewable Energy Expanding

Product Number: 
VST113

Driven by the gathering sense of a climate crisis, the notion of "green jobs"-especially in the renewable energy sector-is now receiving unprecedented attention.

Notes: 
  1. Michael Renner, Sean Sweeney, and Jill Kubit, Green Jobs: Towards Sustainable Work in a Low-Carbon World, Commissioned by the United Nations Environment Programme for its joint Green Jobs Initiative with the International Labour Organization and the International Trade Union Confederation, forthcoming (preliminary version available at www.unep.org/labour_environment/features/greenjobs.asp).
  2. Ibid.
  3. Ibid.
  4. China from James Kynge, "China Plans to Close Down 25,800 Coal Mines This Year," Financial Times, 11 January 1999, and from Erik Eckholm, "Dangerous Coal Mines Take Human Toll in China," New York Times, 19 June 2000; U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Employment, Hours, and Earnings, database; Uwe Fritsche et al., Das Energiewende-Szenario 2020 (Berlin: Öko-Institut, 1996); U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Trade Unions Sustain­able Development Advisory Committee, A Fair and Just Transition-Research Report for Greening the Workplace (London: 2005), p. 28; South Africa from International Labour Organization, LABORSTA Labour Statistics Database, viewed 26 October 2007.
  5. U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Review 2006 (Washington, DC: 2007); U.S. Department of Labor, op. cit. note 4.
  6. Marlene Kratzat et al., Erneuerbare Energien: Brutto­beschäftigung 2006 (Stuttgart, Berlin, and Osna­brück: Zentrum für Sonnenenergie und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg, Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, and Gesellschaft für wirts­chaftliche Strukturforschung, 2007).
  7. Theo Bühler, Herbert Klemisch, and Krischan Ostenrath, Ausbildung und Arbeit für erneuerbare Energien. Statusbericht 2007 (Bonn: Wissenschaft­sladen Bonn, 2007), p. 4.
  8. Joaquín Nieto Sáinz, Employment Estimates for the Renewable Energy Industry 2007 (Madrid: ISTAS and Comisiones Obreras, 2008).
  9. "Employment," Danish Wind Industry Association, at www.windpower.org/composite-1456.htm, viewed 17 October 2007.
  10. Roger Bezdek, Renewable Energy and Energy Effici­ency: Economic Drivers for the 21st Century (Boulder, CO: American Solar Energy Society, 2007).
  11. Suzlon takeover of REpower from Eric Reguly, "Germany's Green Example Could Be Revolutionary," The Global and Mail (Toronto), 28 September 2007.
  12. Greenpeace International and Global Wind Energy Council, Global Wind Energy Outlook 2006 (Amsterdam and Brussels: 2006), p. 12; Raman Thothathri, "The Wind Brought Jobs and Prosperity," New Energy, November 1999.
  13. Suzlon Energy, "Factsheet," at www.suzlon.com/FactSheet.html?cp=1_4, and "Global Footprint," at www.suzlon.com/Global%20Footprint.html?cp=1_7, both viewed 17 June 2008.
  14. Worldwatch Institute, "Powering China's Development: The Role of Renewable Energy," at www.worldwatch.org/node/5496.
  15. Li Junfeng, Deputy Director General of the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission in Beijing, and General Secretary of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association, discussion with Yingling Liu, World­watch Institute, 12 November 2007.
  16. Ibid.
  17. Arne Jacobson and Daniel M. Kammen, "Engineering, Institutions, and the Public Interest: Evaluating Product Quality in the Kenyan Solar Photovoltaics Industry," Energy Policy, vol. 35 (2007), pp. 2960-68; Arne Jacobson, "Research for Results: Interdisciplinary Research on Solar Electrification in Kenya," University of California at Berkeley, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, undated, at iis-db.stanford.edu/evnts/3920/Jacobson_6nov.pdf.
  18. Dipal Chandra Barua, Grameen Shakti: Pioneering and Expanding Green Energy Revolution to Rural Bangla­desh (Dhaka, Bangladesh: Grameen Bank Bhaban, 2008).
  19. Worldwatch Institute, Biofuels for Transport: Global Potential and Implications for Sustainable Energy and Agriculture (London: Earthscan, 2007), pp. 124-25; John Rumsey and Jonathan Wheatley, "Poor Practices Taint Brazil's Ethanol Exports," Financial Times, 20 May 2008.
  20. Malaysian Palm Oil Council, "The Palm Oil," at www.mpoc.org.my/main_palmoil_01.asp.
  21. "Trilemmas-Carbon Emissions, Renewable Energy and the Palm Oil Industry," Singapore Institute of International Affairs, at www.siiaonline.org/news_highlights?wid=171&func=viewSubmissions&sid=1389.
  22. Rachel Smolker et al., The Real Cost of Agrofuels: Food, Forest and the Climate (Amsterdam: Global Forest Coalition, 2007); Richard Doornbosch and Ronald Steenblik, Biofuels: Is the Cure Worse than the Disease? prepared for OECD Round Table on Sustainable Development, Paris, 11-12 September 2007.
  23. Worldwatch Institute, op. cit. note 19, pp. 124, 126.
  24. Oxfam International, "Bio-fuelling Poverty," Oxfam Briefing Note (Oxford, UK: 1 November 2007).
  25. International Labour Organization, "Indonesian Plantation Workers Still Face Lack of Labour Rights," press release (Jakarta: 26 August 2005).
  26. Friends of the Earth, LifeMosaic, and Sawit Watch, Losing Ground. The Human Rights Impacts of Oil Palm Plantation Expansion in Indonesia (London, Edin­burgh, and Bogor: 2008), p. 77.
  27. Ibid., p. 78.
  28. John P. Holdren, Final Report to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation from the Woods Hole Research Center, Phase I of a Project on Linking Climate Policy with Development Strategy in Brazil, China, and India (Woods Hole, MA: Woods Hole Research Center, 2007), pp. 198, 319.
  29. Ibid.
  30. Ibid.
  31. Greenpeace and Global Wind Energy Council, op. cit. note 12.
  32. Ibid.
  33. European Photovoltaic Industry Association and Greenpeace International, Solar Generation IV - 2007 (Brussels and Amsterdam: 2007).
  34. Ibid.
Included Trends: 
Estimated Worldwide Employment in Renewable Energy, 2006;Global Wind Power Employment Projections, Three Scenarios, 2010–2050;Global Solar PV Employment Projections, Three Scenarios, 2010–2030

Informal Economy Thrives in Cities

Product Number: 
VST040

For many poor people in urban areas, the
primary means of economic survival is the production
or sale of goods or services through
semi-legal or illegal ventures, known as the

Notes: 
1. Martha Alter Chen, “Rethinking the Informal Economy:
Linkages with the Formal Economy and the
Formal Regulatory Environment,” EGDI and UNUWIDER,
April 2005, p. 11.
156 Vital Signs 2007–2008 www.worldwatch.org
Notes
2. Ibid., p. 13; “The Global Workforce: A Statistical
Picture,” Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing
and Organizing, at wiego.org/stat_picture.
3. “La Informalidad No Cede Terreno y Cobija a más
de la Mitad de los Trabajadores Colombianos,” El
Tiempo, 19 February 2007.
4. Norman V. Loayza, The Economics of the Informal
Sector: A Simple Model and Some Empirical Evidence
from Latin America (Washington, DC: World Bank,
1997), p. 47.
5. Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism
Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else
(New York: Basic Books, 2000), p. 30.
6. Vincent Palmade and Andrea Anayiotos, “Rising
Informality,” Public Policy for the Private Sector, Note
No. 298, August 2005.
7. Friedrich Schneider, The Size of the Shadow
Economies of 145 Countries All Over the World: First
Results Over the Period 1999–2003 (Bonn, Germany:
Institute for the Study of Labor, December 2004).
8. Palmade and Anayiotos, op. cit. note 6.
9. Kai N. Lee, “An Urbanizing World,” in Worldwatch
Institute, State of The World 2007 (New York: W. W.
Norton & Company, 2007), p. 5.
10. Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook:
India, at www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
print/in.html.
11. Diego Palma, La Informalidad, Lo Popular y el Cambio
Social (Lima, Peru: Centro de Estudios y Promoción
del Desarrollo, 1987), pp. 17–18; de Soto, op. cit.
note 5.
12. Hernando de Soto and Francis Cheneval, eds., Realizing
Property Rights (Italy: Buffer&Rub, 2006), p. 21.
13. Ibid., p. 26.
14. Ibid., p. 51.
15. Carlos Ramon Ponze Monteza, Gamarra: Formación
Estructura y Perspectivas (Lima, Peru: Fundación
Friedrich Ebert, 1994), p. 66.
16. Palma, op. cit. note 11, p. 22.
17. Fernando Escalante Gonzalbo, “La Nueva Política,”
Cronica, 27 April 2005.
18. Lee, op. cit. note 9, p. 5.
19. Chen, op. cit. note 1, p. 19.
20. John Lancaster, “Next Stop, Squalor,” Smithsonian,
March 2007.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. De Soto, op. cit. note 5, p. 33.
24. Chen, op. cit. note 1, p. 11.
25. Debraj Ray, Development Economics (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1998), p. 347.
26. Lancaster, op. cit. note 20.
27. Ibid.
28. De Soto, op. cit. note 5, p. 49.
29. Karol Boudreaux, “Property Rights and Resource
Conflict in the Sudan,” in de Soto and Cheneval,
op. cit. note 12, p . 72; Juan Pablo Viqueira, Encrucijadas
Chiapanecas (Mexico: Tusquets/COLMEX,
2002).
30. Celia W. Dugger, “In Bangalore, India, a Cuddle
with Your Baby Requires a Bribe,” New York Times,
30 August 2005.
31. Ibid.
32. De Soto, op. cit. note 5, p. 32.
33. Alexandra C. Horst, 2007 International Property
Rights Index (Washington, DC: Property Rights
Alliance, 2007), p. 32.
Included Trends: 
Informal Economy as Share of Gross Domestic Product, by Region or Country, 1999/2000 and 2002/2003

Global Economic Growth Continues at Expense of Ecological Systems

Product Number: 
VST102

Notes: 

1. International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Economic Outlook Database (Washington, DC: October 2007). Note the 2007 figure is a preliminary estimate from October 2007 and is subject to change. These figures represent inflation-adjusted IMF data.

2. Ibid.

3. IMF, World Economic Outlook 2007:Globalization and Inequality (Washington, DC: October 2007), p. xi. Note: unless otherwise specified, all further analysis is based on PPP terms.

4. IMF, op. cit. note 1.

5. Ibid.

6. IMF, op. cit. note 3, p. 69.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. IMF, op. cit. note 1. Note: A recent World Bank analysis of the global economy in 2005 provided a downward revision of China’s GDP, determining that in PPP terms China’s GDP was 40 percent smaller. These data, however, are limited to 2005 and are not compatible with this broader IMF data set, so they have not been incorporated here. For more information on the revision, see World Bank, “2005 International Comparison Program Preliminary Global Report Compares Size of Economies,” press release (Washington, DC: 17 December 2007).

10. IMF, op. cit. note 1.

11. IMF, op. cit. note 3, pp. 83–86.

12. Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley, “As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes,” New York Times, 26 August 2007.

13. Ibid.

14. Sulfur dioxide from ibid.; carbon dioxide from Eric Martinot and Li Junfeng, Powering China’s Development: The Role of Renewable Energy (Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 2007), p. 10.

15. IMF, op. cit. note 1.

16. Ibid.; IMF, op. cit. note 3, pp. 11, 76–77.

17. IMF, op. cit. note 1.

18. IMF, op. cit. note 3, p. 83.

19. IMF, op. cit. note 1; IMF, op. cit. note 3, pp. 95–97.

20. IMF, op. cit. note 1.

21. Ibid.; U.S. Bureau of the Census, International Data Base, electronic database, Suitland, MD: updated 16 July 2007.

22. IMF, op. cit. note 1; Census Bureau, op. cit. note 21.

23. IMF, op. cit. note 1; Census Bureau, op. cit. note 21.

24. U.N. Environment Programme, Global Environmental Outlook–4: Environment for Development (Nairobi: 2007), p. 234.

25. Nicholas Stern, The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2007); Frank Ackerman, “Debating Climate Economics: The Stern Review vs. Its Critics,” report to Friends of the Earth–UK (Medford, MA: Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University, July 2007), p. 2.

26. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2005); Global Footprint Network, National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts, 2006 edition (Oakland, CA: 2006); World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Zoological Society of London, and Global Footprint Network, Living Planet Report 2006 (Gland, Switzerland: WWF, 2006).

27. Global Footprint Network, op. cit. note 26.

28. “China Plans to Set Up Green GDP System in 3–5 Years,” China Daily, 12 March 2004; “Blind Pursuit of GDP To Be Abandoned,” China Daily, 5 March 2004.

29. Chris Buckley, “China Silences Green GDP Study, Report Says,” Reuters, 23 July 2007.

30. Ibid.; Kahn and Yardley, op. cit. note 12.

31. John Talberth, Clifford Cobb, and Noah Slattery, The Genuine Progress Indicator 2006, A Tool for Sustainable Development (Oakland, CA: Redefining Progress, 2006).

32. Ibid.

33. Yifat Susskind, “11 Solutions to Halting the Environmental Crisis,” AlterNet, 31 October 2007; Prem Tinsulanonda, President of The Privy Council, “Sufficiency Economy: His Majesty’s Philosophy for Development,” speech, Leadership Forum 2001, Bangkok, Thailand, 15 March 2001.

Included Trends: 
Gross World Product, 1970-2007; Growth of Gross World Product, 1971-2007; Gross World Product Per Person, 1970-2007; Humanity's Ecological Footprint, 1961-2003; GDP and GPI Per Person, United States, 1950-2004
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