1. Growth is expected to gather pace and to further broaden towards domestic demand. Growth of about 3½ percent in 2014 appears achievable. Employment growth and increased public wages and pensions will support consumption, while investment will be bolstered by large public sector infrastructure projects. Dynamic exports reflect both stronger external demand as well as higher capacity in the free trade zones. In that light, the lower-than-expected inflation rate does not signal a softening of domestic demand, but largely the transmission of food and import price shocks.
2. External risks are squarely on the downside. Surges in global financial market volatility related to the normalization of monetary policy in the U.S. have limited channels of transmission to the Macedonian economy. Similarly, tensions surrounding Russia and Ukraine have limited direct spillovers. However, commodity price shocks, particularly to oil, could widen the current account deficit, further weakening the foreign exchange reserve position. Finally, slower growth in advanced economies in Europe is a key risk, both to the near term outlook as well as over the medium term.
Fiscal Policy
3. In the short run, fiscal policy should be geared toward meeting the 3.5 percent of GDP deficit target. Private demand is firm, reinforcing the case for gradually withdrawing fiscal stimulus. Containing the central government fiscal deficit will be important to keep debt on a sustainable path. Revenue outturn through the first quarter suggests some downside risks to the annual objective, which to some extent reflect one-off factors. Absent an acceleration in revenues, meeting the deficit target may require expenditure compression. The effect on growth of lower spending will be partially mitigated by the positive impact on employment and investment from large infrastructure works implemented outside the central government budget, by the public enterprise for state roads (PESR).
When women have secure rights to their land, they are better able to provide for their family’s needs – especially those of their children. Studies show the linkages when women have secure rights to land:
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Family nutrition and health improves;
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Women become less vulnerable to contracting HIV/AIDS;
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HIV-positive women may be better able to cope with the consequences of AIDS;
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Women may be less likely to be victims of domestic violence;
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Children are more likely to receive an education and stay in school longer;
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Women may have better access to micro-credit;
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Women’s participation in household decision-making increases.
Women produce nearly half of the food grown in the developing world. Often, they do not have secure rights to the land they farm and are denied equal rights to access, inherit, or own it. As a result, these women are at an increased risk of losing their source of food, income, and shelter should they lose their only link to the land they till: husbands, fathers, or brothers taken by illness, violence, or migration.
Some 4,000 years ago, King Hammurabi had the laws of his domain between the Tigris and Euphrates carved in stone and placed in front of his palace. The laws were written in the plain language of the people, not in the arcane idiom of the priests, so that everybody could understand them. They were not engraved on clay, so they could not be changed at will, and they were not hidden, so that all were able to access them and learn, for example, that even judges had a duty to adhere to the rules in their decisions.Thus were created the basic principles of accountability. Much more recently, only 200 years ago, La Declaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyenstated (Art. XIV) that every citizen has the right to check the need to pay taxes and that society has the right to hold every public agent accountable (Art.XV).
Means and Ends – Social Watch Report 2014
Gender Roundtable What are the key gender justice issues today?
Извор: WUNRN – 14.07.2014
By Aruna Rao - 25 March 2014
Dalit women on the outskirts of Chakrapanpur Village in Uttar Pradesh display their job cards. Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the goal is to increase women’s access to guaranteed wage employment. Photo by: Leena Patel/UN Women
Strategizing about the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals and shaping priorities from a “20 years after Beijing” review are well underway. These discussions now also include a focus on the role of social norms, values and attitudes in shaping women’s and girls’ access to resources, their ability to voice interests and priorities, take action to improve their welfare and create new futures.
Girls may want to go to secondary school but their parents may not believe that investment will benefit them since girls will have to marry and leave the family. Women may not want to abort a female fetus but husbands and in-laws may force them to do it. Families may delay the decision to seek medical help from a nearby clinic for a women’s health emergency because it costs too much and they don’t prioritize her welfare. The double burden on women’s time (productive and reproductive work) remains fairly intact around the world from agricultural workers in Mozambique to the senior women in the American foreign policy establishment like Anne-Marie Slaughter. Women’s sexual subordination to men in many contexts means they have given up their rights; consequently, that undermines the value of their consent or their voice in public decision-making and politics.
The findings show that social media includes tools for action and seems more effective when combined with other media:
What value does social media add to governance programmes?
"Working in collaboration, students from the London School of Economics (LSE) Master of Public Administration (MPA) programme and BBC Media Action examined the value that social media brings to governance programming aimed at influencing engagement and civic participation."
This briefing highlights the findings resulting from a literature review and analysis of BBC Media Action data from Palestinian Territories and Bangladesh on the use of social media and civic participation - published in a study undertaken by LSE students between October 2012 and March 2013 and entitled "Social Media and Civic Participation: Literature Review and Empirical Evidence from Bangladesh and Palestinian Territories."
