EU Neighbourhood policy: implications for public services and trade unions

The EU Neighbourhood policy creates pressures to liberalise and privatise public services. It affects 17 countries in North Africa, the Middle East and former Soviet Union

Decent Work and Women's Economic Empowerment: Good Policy and Practice

Women constitute half of humankind and 40% of the global workforce. They are a growing proportion of the overseas migrant labour force. As workers, entrepreneurs and service providers they contribute actively to social and economic development.Yet women's economic and human rights, their contributions and priorities have been largely overlooked. They are more likely to be unemployed than men, dominate the unprotected informal sector, are more likely than men to be in part-time formal employment in most high income regions, spend more time than men in unpaid care-work globally, have lower levels of productivity and earn less than men for work of equal value and are poorly represented in public and corporate economic decision-making. Women workers in rural and urban areas have also been hard hit by the current financial and economic crisis, volatile food prices, the energy crisis, export driven agriculture and subsidized imports. Women need to be fully engaged in efforts to shape responses to these interfacing crises, both in terms of influencing the design and assessing the impacts of recovery packages from a gender perspective, and have an equal voice with men at all levels of economic decision-making.Empowering women economically and making them central to solutions is a moral imperative. But it also makes good economic sense. A growing body of research shows that enhancing women's economic participation improves national economies, increases household productivity and living standards, enhances the well being of children with positive long term impacts and can increase women's agency and overall empowerment

Labor Rights and Labor Standards in International Trade

[Excerpt] This Article seeks to […] articulate a defense of enforceable international labor rights and labor standards as part of a trade, investment and development strategy that will benefit whole societies, not just their wealthy sectors. Part I of this Article lays out consensus labor rights and standards drawn from various sources, with examples reflecting concrete concerns that have arisen with the new era in global trade. Part II reviews the forums in which international labor rights claims can be made, with a discussion of the different oversight or enforcement mechanisms provided in these forums. The conclusion suggests next steps for labor rights advocates in the various forums, and recommends a new commitment to international labor rights and fair labor standards by employers, governments and trade unions caught up in the new global economy

Aging and demographic change in European societies : main trends and alternative policy options

This paper gives an overview on current demographic trends and projected population change in Europe and neighboring regions. The main focus of the analysis is on Western and Central Europe. Today this world region has a total population of 500 million. Available forecasts until the year 2050 project a decline of the population at working age, a subsequent decline of the (native) work force and aparallel increase in the number of retired people. The paper discusses policy options by demonstrating the impact of possible changes in labor force participation, higher retirement age and pro-active recruitment of migrant labor on population size and future labor force.Population Policies,Labor Markets,Demographics,Youth and Governance,International Migration

Analysis of the Legal Meaning of Article 27 of the UN CRPD: Key Challenges for Adapted Work Settings

The UN CRPD marks a shift of thinking in the disability sector; it lays down the premises for the enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities and it demands State parties to put into place proper structures and services to make sure the conditions for enjoyment of human rights are respected. From the experience of the UN Standard Rules, the United Nations have further elaborated on the current international treaty on disability, the UN CRPD, and further deepened its impact at international level. Adapted work settings, commonly known also as sheltered workshops, are not referred to in the UNCRPD. This requires clarifications for the thousands of people that benefit from their services and whose future looks therefore uncertain. This report focuses on the role of adapted work settings in the international framework provided by the UNCRPD; in particular, special attention has been given to Article 26 and 27, as they both deal with principles, measures and services offered by adapted work settings. The analysis was carried out starting from three main subjects: - what the Convention brought in general terms through its paradigm shift and the subsequent challenges for social services - the analysis of the current text of Article 26 and 27 and the links to the role of sheltered workshop matters - the history of the discussions around the inclusion of sheltered workshops in the UN CRPD. Article 26 dealing with issues concerning the “functioning” of the individual, renews the entitlement to habilitation and rehabilitation service, the latter considered as going beyond the medical sense of it, keeping a connotation of a non-permanent treatment. Article 27 concerns the right to work, which should lead to the possibility to gain a living and lead a life of dignity. Most sheltered workshops, that are providing rehabilitation and work related activities, seem, according to some, to be not fully compliant with either of the two articles as they provide rehabilitation-based activities on an on-going basis and offer work without fully guaranteeing conditions applying under the labour law. This concern emerged as well during the negotiation activities of the UN CRPD and was partly responsible for their exclusion from the current article on the right to work. However, the implementation of the Convention presents some challenges, especially when it comes to rights and obligations concerning overlapping fields of action, as may be the case for Article 26 and 27. Services like sheltered workshops may sometimes and very often fulfill more than one function for persons with disabilities, and thus their compliance to the UN CRPD articles is particularly sensitive. In the framework of a holistic approach to persons with disabilities, where disability itself is not the focus of attention, but everything is about the individual and the enjoyment of his rights, it is of utter importance to keep a good balance between the multitude of skills, personal choices, possibilities of individual development and society’s response. This report looks at the possible links existing between sheltered workshops and the UN CRPD in order to gain a view on the state of play and on future developments needed in the provision of work opportunities to persons with (intellectual) disabilities

Book Review

Reviewing Deborah Z. Cass, The Constitutionalization of the World Trade Organization: Legitimacy, Democracy, and Community in the International Trading System (Oxford University Press, 2005

Book Review

Reviewing Deborah Z. Cass, The Constitutionalization of the World Trade Organization: Legitimacy, Democracy, and Community in the International Trading System (Oxford University Press, 2005

The Impact of Equity Engagement Evaluating the Impact of Shareholder Engagement in Public Equity Investing

Over the last decade, growing numbers of investors have become increasingly concerned with the environmental and social impact of their investments across asset classes. This trend has recently been driven by new waves of "impact investors" proactively seeking measurable social and environmental impact in addition to financial returns, and by "responsible investors" making commitments to engage on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues through initiatives such as the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). At the same time, engaged shareholders have had long-standing experience using "the power of the proxy" and their voices as investors to hold companies accountable for the impacts they have on employees, stakeholders, communities, and ecosystems.While investor interest in shareholder engagement has grown, our understanding of the impacts associated with engagement activities remains largely anecdotal.In 2012, an important study on Total Portfolio Activation provided a new conceptual and analytical framework for investors to pursue environmental and social impact across all asset classes commonly found in a diversified investment portfolio. Building upon the insights of Total Portfolio Activation, the Impact of Equity Engagement (IE2) initiative seeks to deepen our understanding of the nature of impact in one specific asset class—public equities— where investors' engagement activities have generated meaningful social and environmental impacts.Given the large social and environmental footprints of publicly traded corporations and the persistently high allocation to public equities in most investor portfolios, public equity investing presents a major opportunity for impact investing. Yet impact investing, as currently practiced, has concentrated primarily on smallscale direct investments in private equity and debt, where many investors perceive that social and environmental impact can be more readily observed than in publicly traded companies where ownership is intermediated, diluted, and diffused through secondary capital markets.Indeed, the nature of impact within public equity investing remains poorly understood and insufficiently documented. Because of this, many investors may be overlooking readily available opportunities for generating impact within their existing investment portfolios.To address these misperceptions and missed opportunities, the IE2 initiative is developing a more rigorous framework for documenting the impact of engagement within the public equity asset class.

Population scenarios and policy implications for South Mediterranean countries, 2010-2050

Four population scenarios were derived describing changes in indicators of demographic behaviour should people come to live in different future political-economic contexts. Focus of this policy brief is on expected trends in (1) population growth at regional and national levels, (2) working age populations in view of demographic dividend potential for the economy, and (3) population of elderly persons in view of the future financial burden this group might impose on societies. Results show that different economic-political development scenarios do have large effects on population growth, at least up to 2030). This is due to the socalled population momentum effect in the relatively young age-structures of most SMCs. In the short term, up to 2030, and depending on which economic-political unfolds, SMCs expected to grow from 280 million people to a figure between 362 and 349 million people. Thus, in a period of about 20 years SMC populations are expected to grow with a figure between 69 and 83 million. In that same period, EU27 populations will grow with 21 million only from about 500 to 521 million people. Between 2030 and 2050, additional population growth is foreseen in SMCs, between 48 and 62 million people, while EU27 populations are expected to grow with only 4 million during that period. SMCs appear to vary widely regarding demographic transition profiles so that demographic dividend potentials also vary. For instance, Egypt has considerably demographic dividend potential ahead in the coming decades as working age population shares will rise from 63% (2010) to a peak level of about 68% by 2045. In Turkey though, the working age population share is already high (68%) and near the expected peak level of 69% (by 2025) after which a decline sets in. The window of opportunity -the period when working age population shares rise to peak levels and remain at a high level- is starting to close for Lebanon and Tunisia though levels will remain high up to 2035 after which a decline sets in due to ageing of these populations. Ageing implies an increase of the economic burden to economies as elderly generally do not contribute any longer to economies as they did during their working age years. Old-age dependency ratios, the share of elderly in relation to the working age population, are still low compared to EU27 ratios but will increase after 2035. Should SMCs remain politically, economically and environmentally fragile in the coming decades, these lower dependency ratios will impose a relatively higher social and financial burden to societies than the high dependency ratios in EU countries