Short-Term Labour Market Outlook and Key Challenges in G20 Countries

[Excerpt] The latest available forecasts from the IMF and the OECD point to a weak uptick in economic activity in 2013 and 2014. This will continue to hold back short-term employment growth and hinder progress towards the medium-term objective of restoring the employment to working-age population ratio prevailing before the crisis. Persistently high and mainly cyclical unemployment in several G20 countries is heightening the risks of labour market exclusion and structural unemployment. In over half of countries, the share of longterm unemployment in total unemployment remains above its pre-crisis level. Overall slower economic growth in emerging economies in the last 12 months is weighing on the growth of rewarding and productive formal employment and on the pace of decline in working poverty and underemployment. The situation calls for strong and well-designed employment, labour and social protection policies applied in conjunction with supportive macroeconomic policy mixes to address the underlying demand and supply conditions of each economy. Only a few emerging and advanced countries, applying different policy mixes, have sustained or raised employment levels and seen a decline in unemployment and underemployment. In a majority of G20 countries labour market conditions have either improved only marginally or not improved and deteriorated, at times significantly so. This bears heavily on the underlying strength of the recovery

Final report : CCIC Forum - From Principles to Practice: Improving Our Development Effectiveness as CSOs, Ottawa, May 26-27, 2011

French version available in IDRC Digital Library: Rapport final : Forum du CCCI - Des principes théoriques à la pratique : améliorer notre efficacité en matière de développement en tant qu'OSC, Ottawa, les 26 et 27 mai 2011Project objectives were to document traditional knowledge; provide scientific validation of medicinal plants; promote inclusion of traditional medicines within local health care strategies, and training on methods of conservation. This powerpoint presentation outlines botanical, phytomedical and medicinal products derived from indigenous knowledge, as part of the larger Itzama Project: Sustainable Indigenous Development based on the Ethnobotanical Garden and Traditional Medicine Concept. The Kekchi Maya are originally from the Verapaz region of Guatemala

Improvements to the Courses of Study for Elementary, Lower Secondary and Upper Secondary Schools

Foreword: Developments to Date ·············· 11. Educational Objectives and Previous Revisions to the Courses of Study · 72. The Underlying Ideas of the Current Courses of Study ··· 93. The Present State of Children and Current Issues ········· 154. Background Factors and Causes of Current Problem Issues ·················· 23(1) Society as a whole and change in families and communities ············ 23(2) Specific means of realizing the changes in the Courses of Study ······ 24(3) Putting conditions in place to ensure that teachers have enough time in whichto secure effective and efficient communication and interaction with children ··········· 275. The Basic Thinking underlying Revisions to the Courses of Study ········ 31(1) Revisions to the Courses of Study on the basis of the Revised FundamentalLaw of education···· 31(2) The shared nature of “zest for living” ····················· 32(3)The background to fundamental knowledge and skills ······················ 34(4) The development of the ability to think, to form judgments, and to engage inself-expression ······ 36(5) Ensuring that sufficient classroom time is made available foracademic ability to be thoroughly confirmed ·········· 39(6) Confirming study habits and raising the level of eagerness to study · 40(7) Strengthening guidance aimed at developing a rich and fruitful heart andmind and a healthy body ················ 416. The Basic Curriculum Framework ······· 45(1) The curriculum framework in elementary and lower secondary schools ··················· 45① The present state of teaching hours in elementary and lower secondary schoolsand an international comparison······· 45② The number of teaching hours in elementary schools ·················· 49③ The number of teaching hours in lower secondary schools············ 53ii(2) The curriculum and framework of upper secondary schools ············· 57① The common features and the diversity of upper secondary school education ······· 57② The number of teaching weeks in a year and teaching hours in a week ················· 59③ The desirable form of required subjects ············· 60(3) Utilizing Saturday in the context of a five-day school week ············· 64(4) A smooth transition between levels of schooling in line with the stage ofdevelopment of children ················ 65(5) The responsibility of individual schools and the significance of being localitybasedin terms of the design and implementation of the curriculum · 687. Main Improvement Headings in Educational Content ·· 77(1) Strengthening language activities ··· 78(2) Strengthening science education ····· 81(3) Strengthening education concerned with traditions and culture ········ 83(4) Strengthening moral education ······· 85(5) Strengthening experiential activities ······················· 89(6) Japanese language activities at elementary school level ··················· 92(7) Improvements to be made in a cross-sectional analysis of subjects fromthe perspective of responding to social change ······· 95Information education ····················· 95Environmental education················· 97Making things········· 98Career education···· 99Dietary education··100Safety education ····101A correct understanding of mental and physical growth and development ················1028. The Content of Each Subject and Subject Area ···········107(1) Kindergarten ········107(2) Elementary School, Lower Secondary School and Upper Secondary School·············111① Japanese Language ···················111② Social Studies, Geography and History, Civics ··118③ Arithmetic, Mathematics···········124④ Science ··········130⑤ Life Environment Studies ········136⑥ Music, Art (Music) ··················138iii⑦ Art and Handicraft, Fine Arts, Art (Fine Arts, Crafts Production) ······················142⑧ Art (Calligraphy) ·····················146⑨ Homemaking; Industrial Arts and Homemaking 148⑩ Physical Education, Health and Physical Education····················154⑪ Foreign Language ·····················159⑫ Information Study ···················163⑬ Subject Areas / Subjects for Specialist Education ·····················165⑭ Moral Education ·······················181⑮ Special Activities ····················184⑯ Period for Integrated Study ·······188(3) Special Supported Education (Special Education Needs) ················191① Specially supported schools ·····192② Specially supported education in kindergartens, elementary schools,lower secondary schools and upper secondary schools ·····················1959. Educational Measures to Secure Time for Teachers to Interact with Children ···············211(1) Improvement of the set number of educational personnel ···············211(2) Specific measures to secure time for teacher interaction with children ······················212(3) Various measures designed for effective and efficient instruction ····214(4) Improvements in the pattern of educational administration ·············21910. Taking Forward Liaison and Cooperation with Families and LocalCommunities; Expectations of Support from Firms and Universities ··223(1) Taking forward liaison and cooperation with families and communities ··················223(2) What is expected of firms and universities ·············224Annex 1. Standard School Hours in Elementary Schools ··227Annex 2. Standard School Hours in Lower Secondary Schools ··················229Annex 3. Subject Areas and Subjects in Upper Secondary Schools ············23

Mobile satellite services: International co-ordination, co-operation and competition

In the context of a discussion of international cooperation, coordination and competition regarding mobile satellite services, it is asserted that: there will be more than one civil mobile satellite service in the 1990's; competition between these separate mobile satellite systems is inevitable; no system should enjoy monopoly protection or subsidies; and coordination and cooperation are desirable and necessary, since the available L-band spectrum is in short supply

Global intelligence, co-operation versus accountability: new facets to an old problem

The most important recent change within the realm of intelligence and security services has been the expansion of intelligence co-operation. The growing connectivity between both foreign intelligence services and also domestic security services means that we might speak - not just of growing international co-operation - but perhaps even of global co-operation. This essay considers the complex interplay of intelligence and globalization since 1989. It argues that there is an obvious tension between a developing global style of co-operative activity and the traditional mechanisms of oversight, which have tended to be national. Accordingly, it moves on to discuss the recent efforts by national, regional and international systems of inquiry to examine issues that involve intelligence co-operation. It suggests that while formal committee-type mechanisms have limited purchase, they are not the only options for oversight in a globalized context

Semiotics and international co-operation

[Resumen] Las intervenciones de cooperación internacional llevadas a cabo en los países empobrecidos son hoy en día un texto concreto compuesto por Autores diferentes (como las ONG, los organismos internacionales y las asociaciones locales presentes en los sitios necesitados) cuyo propósito es conseguir un desarrollo real. Problema básico de la cooperación internacional siempre ha sido el de encontrar modalidades operativas eficaces para producir intervenciones que tengan sentido y verdadero valor en el mismo lugar de la acción y que sean a largo plazo. La semiótica permite, aprovechando su propio modelo de interpretación textual, formular una semántica de la intervención que consienta organizar intervenciones directas eficaces y dotadas de sentido: las intervenciones son en efecto enunciados de los que se pueden formular los preceptos lingüísticos de producción, las condiciones de enunciación, los procesos pragmáticos de interpretación de parte de los usuarios (lectores), el significado logrado y el proceso de producción en cadena de interpretantes que de ello se desprende. Asimismo pueden describirse las condiciones y los límites interpretativos para evitar usos incongruentes, ilícitos y aberrantes respecto a las mismas posibilidades interpretativas del enunciado, es decir desenlaces incompatibles o bien contradictorios con las propias finalidades de la intervención. La semiótica reconoce en ese texto insólito, del que consta la intervención para el desarrollo, su capacidad de examinar e intervenir en los asuntos más destacados del presente histórico, tal como es hoy día el conflicto teórico y social acerca de los modelos de desarrollo y de la relación entre desarrollo y bienestar, y recibe de una casuística totalmente nueva análisis empíricos que enriquecen su modelo general

Entrepreneurship in the Netherlands; SMEs and International co-operation

This is the seventh edition of the series 'Entrepreneurship in the Netherlands'. The series started in 1997 and is a joint publication of the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs and EIM Business & Policy Research. This edition deals with international cooperation of SMEs. The first Chapter by EIM describes characteristics of international cooperation: why, how and with what type of effects? Thereafter staff members of the Ministry sketch the aims and the ambition of policy instruments in the field. As practical illustrations three enterprises haven been portrayed. In addition to authors from EIM and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, three staff members working on internationalisation and entrepreneurship at the Nottingham University Business school in UK, reflect on the issues covered in this publication by presenting and commenting on ten myths that surround the internationalisation of smaller private firms.