International Economic Relations

This division is concerned with today’s daunting problems of underdevelopment, poverty, external debt, the challenges of neo-liberal development programmes, relations with multilateral institutions, marginalization, environmental degradation, and others.

The research activities of the division are informed by the realities of contemporary globalization and its impact on the development of Third World countries.

We understand development as structural transformation, meaning the economic growth of national economies, coupled with the material improvement in the lives of their citizens as demonstrated in increased equity and drastic reduction in the poverty level.

We accept the definition of globalization as the process through which an increasingly free flow of ideas, people, goods, services and capital leads to the integration of economies and societies.

We are thus broadly interested in the development impact of global economic integration, the appropriateness of market-led policies and the role of multilateral institutions, global trade regime, technology transfer, south-south cooperation and the dynamics mix of the challenges of domestic and the external factors in international economic relations and development..