Following submission to the Governing Body in March 2012, the ILO Action Plan for 2010-15: Phase II Aligned with Programme and Budget 2012-13 reproduces the gender-related strategies and indicators of outcomes in the P&B 2012-13 and links them to the corresponding conclusions contained in the 2009 ILC Resolution on Gender Equality.
Action plans are used by ILO to operationalize its 1999 policy on gender equality, which identified mainstreaming as the strategy to promote equality between women and men. The Action Plan 2010-15 uses a results-based approach and is aligned with the Organization’s Strategic Policy Framework 2010-15 and its three biennial programmes and budgets that fall in that six-year period.
World Health Organization Clinical & Policy Guidelines 2013
A health-care provider is likely to be the first professional contact for survivors of intimate partner violence or sexual assault. Evidence suggests that women who have been subjected to violence seek health care more often than non-abused women, even if they do not disclose the associated violence. They also identify health-care providers as the professionals they would most trust with disclosure of abuse.
These guidelines are an unprecedented effort to equip healthcare providers with evidence-based guidance as to how to respond to intimate partner violence and sexual violence against women.
They also provide advice for policy makers, encouraging better coordination and funding of services, and greater attention to responding to sexual violence and partner violence within training programmes for health care providers.
Position paper calls for freedom from violence, equality in capabilities and resources, and women’s voice to be the cornerstones of a stand-alone gender equality goal
Drawing global attention to the persistent factors that block the achievement of gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment worldwide, UN Women has launched a call to galvanize the gender equality agenda and ensure concrete action that will enable women and girls to truly live as equal citizens everywhere. In a position paper released today, UN Women offers clear direction on policies that are necessary to usher meaningful and lasting transformation, so that women’s and girls’ rights can be universally secured.
The call for a transformative framework to achieve gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment comes in the midst of a global conversation about the legacy and next steps after the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) — eight internationally agreed goals with a timeline of 2015, which have been the blueprint for action to reduce poverty since the year 2000. Intergovernmental and UN-led processes are currently under way to inform and design a post-2015 development agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Significant differences in price levels for food, beverages and tobacco across Europe in 2012
Price levels for food, beverages and tobacco vary considerably across the EU Member States. In 2012, the prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages in Denmark were 143 % of the EU average, while in Poland they were 61 % of the EU average. Alcohol was priced in Finland at 175 % of the EU average, but at 67 % in Bulgaria. For tobacco the highest prices were observed in Ireland (199% of the EU average), while the lowest were recorded in Hungary (52%).
These are some of the findings of Eurostat's most recent survey on food, beverages and tobacco prices, carried out in 2012 within the Eurostat-OECD Purchasing Power Parities (PPP) Programme. The survey covered a total of approximately 500 comparable products, enabling all countries to price a sufficient number of products representative of their consumption pattern.
Following a shallow recession in 2012, a modest recovery is forecast for 2013, with baseline growth expected to reach 2 percent. So far, industrial production has strengthened in February and March, but indicators do not yet point to a solid recovery in domestic demand. Nonetheless, the baseline growth forecast remains feasible, provided that public infrastructure works and foreign investment projects accelerate as planned. The weak external environment and difficult liquidity conditions for the domestic private sector present important downside risks.
Inflation is expected to moderate to 2.5 percent in 2013, as the effects of energy price hikes wear off and food prices decline. Cost side pressures are limited, with nominal wage growth of 0.2 percent in 2012, and 1.2 percent in early 2013. The current account widened to 3.9 percent of GDP in 2012, with the impact of weaker trade partly offset by high private transfers. Private financial flows, particularly FDI flows, have been modest, but public sector net external borrowing has helped build up reserves, which remain adequate.
Weaker revenues and the start of the arrears clearance process widened the 2012 cash deficit to 3.8 percent of GDP. Keeping the cash deficit contained required expenditure compression beyond the ceilings established in the supplementary budget, and the adjustment fell mainly on capital expenditure. Central government debt rose to 33.8 percent of GDP at end-2012.
The deficit for the first quarter of 2013, at 2.4 percent of projected 2013 GDP, already represents two thirds of the annual target of 3.5 percent of GDP. The revenue outturn was dominated by large VAT refunds, in accordance with the authorities’ commitment to clear arrears. On the expenditure side, subsidies and other transfers rose substantially relative to the same quarter of the previous year. While this appears to be an intra-annual reallocation of expenditure, further expenditure compression will likely be needed to meet the deficit target. The authorities were not considering a supplementary budget at the time of the discussions, noting that on current revenue trends the required adjustment could be accommodated within normal buffers.
Substantial net domestic issuance in 2012 as well as in the first quarter of 2013 has helped finance the higher deficits. In line with previous IMF advice, the Treasury has continuously sought to lengthen debt maturities. As a result, longer dated securities currently make up 25 percent of the total debt stock, up from 5 percent at end-2011.
Banking sector indicators suggest that the system is in overall sound shape, but non-performing loans (NPLs) are increasing. As of December 2012, the capital adequacy ratio stood at 17.1 percent, and over 29 percent of total assets were highly liquid. Deposits provide the main funding source. The NPL ratio rose to 11.7 percent in February 2013, but provisions exceed NPLs.
After steadily decelerating in 2012, credit growth is expected to remain subdued in 2013. Loan growth declined from 5.2 percent (year-on-year) in December 2012 to 4.4 percent in February 2013, even as deposit growth accelerated from 4.4 percent to 5.1 percent.
The absence of pressures on the exchange rate allowed the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia (NBRM) to lower the policy rate by 25 basis points to 3.5 percent in January 2013, and to gradually reduce its stock of outstanding central bank bills (its main sterilization instrument) over the last six months. In addition, in order to stimulate private credit growth, the NBRM lowered reserve requirements by the amount of new loans to domestic net exporters and electricity producers, effective January 1, 2013.
Adoption of amendments to the banking law early this year closed some long standing gaps in the crisis management framework. The amendments ensure that the NBRM is able to impose fit-and-proper requirements on bank management and owners, and pave the way for the central bank to widen the class of collateral that banks may use to access liquidity support.
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Source: International monetary Fund
