The Economic and Financial Crises in CEE and CIS: Gender Perspectives and Policy Choices

This paper looks at the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), where economies have been most dramatically hit by the global crisis and its impact is likely to be most long-lasting, especially among poor and vulnerable groups. Using poverty as the main axis, it looks at aspects of economic and social development in countries at similar poverty levels to identify the degree of fiscal space in each, as well as the different policy choices made. The paper argues that despite such economic fundamentals as increasing external debt, worsening current account imbalances, and demands for a balanced budget, governments have policy choices to make about how to protect different groups, especially the most vulnerable-including women

Live Enrolment for Identity Documents in Europe

Part 1: General E-Government and Open GovernmentInternational audienceDigital image alterations (morphing) of identity document photos is a major concern and may potentially allow citizens with malicious intent to enrol for identity document(s) later to be used also by another individual. Taking the photo in the application office – live enrolment – can address this issue. However, this is a break with tradition and entails a sizeable overhaul in the public sector, which can be reluctant to change and often lacks the necessary formal methods that ensure a smooth transition. The objective of this paper is to map the main barriers and drivers related to live enrolment based on theoretical research and interviews conducted with high-ranking officers at passport authorities in Estonia, Kosovo, Norway and Sweden. These countries have successfully switched to live enrolment. The main driver for live enrolment has been increased security; for Estonia, user convenience was important and was behind the decision of keeping alternative application processes for the citizens around. The absence of legacy systems makes it easier to implement public sector innovations, such as live enrolment. Behind the successful implementation is proper risk management, covering technological, political and organisational risks. Finally, the research results indicate varying experiences, obstacles, cultural differences and trade-offs, emphasizing the need to understand barriers and drivers in a contextualised way

PECULIARITIES OF FDI PERFORMANCE IN DEVELOPED, DEVELOPING AND UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRIES

The aim of this article is to evaluate impact of FDI on sustainable development indicators of differently developed countries during two periods of time: a time span before (2000−2007) and a time span embracing the global economic crisis period (2000–2009). Reviewed ample supply of relevant scientific literature made a presumption to arise that the impact of FDI differs in developed, developing and underdeveloped countries, i.e. depends on the level of development: developed countries benefit most, developing less and underdeveloped least. Countries are attributed to respective groups according to their level of development and indicators are chosen for investigation. The following indicators capable of reflecting FDI impact on enhancing wellbeing in unevenly developed countries are: GDP, exports, inflation, population, life expectancy at birth, primary school pupils, infant mortality, total health expenditure per capita, total tax rate, internet users, residential consumption of electricity , and differences between developed and underdeveloped countries in the field of economic, social, business environment are taken into account. Several other hypotheses have been formulated and FDI impact on sustainable development indicators has been estimated with the help of empirical research in order to test the initial presumption. Obtained results enabled to compare peculiarities of FDI performance during two periods of time