WP 96 - An overview of women's work and employment in Belarus

*Management Summary* This report provides information on Belarus on behalf of the implementation of the DECISIONS FOR LIFE project in that country. The DECISIONS FOR LIFE project aims to raise awareness amongst young female workers about their employment opportunities and career possibilities, family building and the work-family balance. This report is part of the Inventories, to be made by the University of Amsterdam, for all 14 countries involved. It focuses on a gender analysis of work and employment. History (2.1.1). Belarus, severely hit by the German occupation, after the second 1945 emerged as emerged as one of the major manufacturing centres of the Soviet. It suffered heavily from the Chernobyl disaster. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, from 1994 on under president Lukashenko the country kept a command economy, though central planning disappeared. Its growth rates have been considerably throughout the 2000s, though the economy continues to be dependent on heavy discounts in oil and natural gas prices from Russia. Governance (2.1.2). Belarus is a republic with power concentrated in the presidency. The government’s human rights record remains very poor. The judiciary is not independent. Corruption continued to be a problem. Authorities harassed independent trade unions and dismissed their members. Women’s participation in politics and governance is low, except for the Chamber of Representatives. The law protects women well within the family context and protects the physical integrity of women to a relatively high degree. Prospects (2.1.3). Belarus’s economy has been moderately hit by the global economic crisis. The government had to accept loans from the IMF, Russia and China. It undertook some steps to open up the country for foreign investors. In 2009, the country’s GDP fell slightly and real wages by 1 to 5%. Energy-intensive and inefficient production may become the largest hindrance for recovery. Communication (2.2). The coverage of fixed telephone connections has recently increased, but coverage of cellular telephone connections is with over 0.9 cell phones per inhabitant much higher. By 2008, the share Internet users was with 321 per 1,000 of the population rather high, but the government is growingly restricting access to the Internet. Nearly all households have a TV set. The government censored the media and repeatedly harassed and arrested independent journalists The sectoral labour market structure (2.3.1). The sectoral labour market structure is difficult to trace. State employees constitute about 80% of the working population. With nearly 68%, women’s Labour Participation Rate (LPR) in 2008 was 91% of men’s. Official unemployment is low and decreasing, in particular for women. Since 1995, considerable wage increases have been allowed in Belarus, largely outpacing increases in labour productivity. Legislation (2.4.1). Belarus has ratified the eight core ILO Labour Conventions. Yet, the Trade Union Law 2000 and presidential decrees contain serious violations of trade union rights. Specific regulations and benefits for women, including maternity benefits and paid leave on childcare, are comparatively good. Labour relations and wage-setting (2.4.2). The independent trade union movement in Belarus is small. The law provides for the right to organize and bargain collectively; however, government authorities and managers of state-owned enterprises routinely interfered with union activities. ILO recommendations to improve the situation are not acted upon. The statutory minimum wage (2.5.1). In December 2009 the monthly minimum wage, set by law, was BYR 229,700, or 23% of the country’s average monthly wage. Inequality and poverty (2.5.2). Directly after independence, inequality and poverty started to increase, but since 2000 the share under the official poverty line fell rapidly till 6% in 2007. However, this poverty line is set quite low, and depending on other yardsticks poverty in 2007 is estimated at 13 to 43%. Income inequality developed simultaneously with poverty, and is currently at low-to-medium level in international perspective. Population and fertility (2.6.1). Since the 1980s Belarus is in a demographic crisis, with reduced fertility rates and high death. Between 1999 and 2009 the population decreased by over 6%. The total fertility rate, less than 1.3 children per woman, is quite low; the adolescent fertility rate is with 22 per 1,000 low. Health (2.6.2). In 2007 there were an estimated 13,000 persons with HIV/AIDS in Belarus, which is below the regional level. The levels of public awareness of HIV/AIDS seem rather low. The life expectancy at birth for women is recently increasing. The Belarusian health care system aims to provide the entire population with universal access to care and health care benefits are extensive. Women’s labour market share (2.6.3). Women make up half of the country’s labour force. In 2009 women made up majorities in wholesale and retail, restaurants and hotels, education, and public administration et cetera, and in the occupational groups professionals and clerks. At the level of legislators, senior officials and managers, the female share of 45% is high in international perspective. Literacy (2.7.1). The adult literacy rate –-those age 15 and over that can read and write—in 1999-2006 was 98.9%, with hardly a gender gap: 99.0% for men and 98.8% for women. In 2007 the literacy rate for 15-24-year-olds stood at 99.8% for females and 99.7% for males. Education of girls (2.7.2). In 2006, the combined gross enrollment rate in education was nearly 100%, divided in 99% for females and 100% for males. Net enrollment in primary education was for 2005 set at 87.9% for girls and 90.8% for boys. In 2007 women to men parity in secondary education was 102%. With 45% gross enrollment in tertiary education in 2007 and women to men parity reaching 141%, women’s participation at this level of education is high. Female skill levels (2.7.3). Women in the employed population have on average a slightly higher educational level than their male colleagues. More women employed are educated at tertiary level, with women to parity at 118%. We estimate the current size of the target group of DECISIONS FOR LIFE for Ukraine at about 95,000 girls and young women 15-29 of age working in urban areas in (the Belarusian equivalent of) commercial services. Wages (2.8.1). We found for 2008 a considerable gender pay gap, totaling 25%. The pay gap seems to have grown in particular between 1996 and 2004. Women in Belarus have profited considerably less than men from their better education. Moreover, horizontal segregation has taken place with women leaving well-paid sub-sectors of manufacturing like the ICT sector , while many of them entered low-wage jobs like in education and health. The “glass ceiling“ obviously widely remains in place. Working conditions (2.8.2). Especially men in heavy manufacturing still seem often exposed to bad health and safety conditions, though the incidence of reported occupational injuries and casualities is rapidly decreasing. Unfortunately, working hours cannot be detailed by industry and gender.

On the integrability of the SU(N) Hubbard model

We exhibit explicitly the intertwiner operator for the monodromy matrices of the recent proposed SU(N) Hubbard model [5]. This produces a new family of non-additive R-matrices and generalizes an earlier result by Shastry [2].Comment: 4 page

Dynamics of excited clusters of β-alanine in the gas phase

We present a theoretical study of excited clusters of β-alanine molecules in the gas phase: (β-ala)n, n=2-5. Classical molecular dynamics simulations performed for different internal excitation energies showed a thermal decomposition dependence with the cluster size. We also present an assessment study performed with different families of density functionals using the dimer, (β-ala)2 as a benchmark system. M06-2X provides the best agreement for the relative energies of 20 isomers in comparison with the reference values computed with the MP2 method. The stability and reactivity of several cluster sizes have been investigated with this functional in combination with the 6-311++G(d,p) basis se

Use of perborate in the bleaching of ethanolamine pulp from olive wood

In this work, we studied the influence of the bleacher concentration(2.5-5.5%), temperature (60-80 ºC) and time (60-180 min) on the reagent (perborate) consumption by dry pulp, various properties of the bleached pulp (yield, kappa number, brightness and viscosity/kappa numberratio), and some physical properties of paper sheets obtainedfrom it (tear index, burst index, stretch and breakinglength). The pulp was previously obtained by ethanolamine-soda-anthraquinone cooking of olive wood. A face-centred composite factor design was used to derive equations relating the pulp properties to the operational variables with a view to identifying the optimum operating conditions. The equations thus obtained reproduced the experimental results with errors less than 10% in all cases.The most suitable operating conditions were found to be alow temperature (60 ºC), a long time (180 min) and a highperborate concentration (5,5%). Because the pulp brightness achieved never exceeded 63% -not even under themost drastic conditions-, the process should not be used with one-step bleaching sequences

Examining the use self-perceived by university teachers about ict resources: Measurement and comparative analysis in a one-way ANOVA design

The growing rise of information and communication technologies (ICT) in all areas of society demands that university professors have an adequate level of digital literacy, so that they can contribute effectively to the training of their students and respond to the demands of the job. The objective of this research is to know and compare the use by university teachers of different ICT resources, in their teaching, evaluation, and research (UTIC-EEI model, its acronym in Spanish), depending on the area of knowledge to which they belong (science and engineering-architecture, health sciences, art-humanities, and social-legal Sciences), in order to be able to take measures to effectively address the digital shortcomings of teachers. An ex post facto study is carried out, with a quantitative methodology utilising a survey technique, with a sample of 867 Spanish university teachers, with a descriptive and inferential analysis via ANOVA for multiple comparisons. The results showed a medium-high use by teachers of ICT resources in four areas, with there being a superior use in the teaching and research dimensions compared to the evaluation dimension in each area of knowledge. These data underline the need to continue training teachers to make excellent instrumental use of specific ICT resources in each area of knowledge

Centennial-scale vegetation and North Atlantic Oscillation changes during the Late Holocene in the southern Iberia

High-reso CE to lution pollen analysis, charcoal, non-pollen palynomorphs and magnetic susceptibility have been analyzed in the sediment record of a peat bog in Sierra Nevada in southern Iberia. The study of these proxies provided the reconstruction of vegetation, climate, fire and human activity of the last ∼4500 cal yr BP. A progressive trend towards aridification during the late Holocene is observed in this record. This trend is interrupted by millennial- and centennial-scale variability of relatively more humid and arid periods. Arid conditions are recorded between ∼4000 and 3100 cal yr BP, being characterized by a decline in arboreal pollen and with a spike in magnetic susceptibility. This is followed by a relatively humid period from ∼3100 to 1600 cal yr BP, coinciding partially with the Iberian-Roman Humid Period, and is indicated by the increase of Pinus and the decrease in xerophytic taxa. The last 1500 cal yr BP are characterized by several centennial-scale climatic oscillations. Generally arid conditions from ∼450 to 1300 CE, depicted by a decrease in Pinus and an increase in Artemisia, comprise the Dark Ages and the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Since ∼ 1300 to 1850 CE pronounced oscillations occur between relatively humid and arid conditions. Four periods depicted by relatively higher Pinus coinciding with the beginning and end of the Little Ice Age are interrupted by three arid events characterized by an increase in Artemisia. These alternating arid and humid shifts could be explained by centennial-scale changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation and solar activity

Baryonic Resonances from Baryon Decuplet-Meson Octet Interactions and the Exotic Resonance S=1, I=1, J^P=3/2-

Using the lowest order chiral Lagrangian we study s-wave interactions of the baryon decuplet with the octet of pseudoscalar mesons. We find two bound states in the flavour SU(3) limit corresponding to the octet and decuplet representations. These are found to split into eight different trajectories in the complex plane when the SU(3) symmetry is broken gradually. Finally, we are able to provide a reasonable description for a good number of 4-star 3/2- resonances listed by the Particle Data Group. In particular, the Xi(1820), the Lambda(1520) and the Sigma(1670) states are well reproduced. We predict a few other resonances and also evaluate the couplings of the observed resonances to the various channels from the residues at the poles of the scattering matrix from where partial decay widths into different channels can be evaluated.Comment: Talk given at 10th International Conference on the Structure of Baryons (Baryon 2004) at Palaiseau (France), 25-29 October 200

A charter for sustainable tourism after COVID-19

The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease is highly infectious and contagious. The long-term consequences for individuals are as yet unknown, while the long-term effects on the international community will be dramatic. COVID-19 has changed the world forever in every imaginable respect and has impacted heavily on the international travel, tourism demand, and hospitality industry, which is one of the world's largest employers and is highly sensitive to significant shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic. It is essential to investigate how the industry will recover after COVID-19 and how the industry can be made sustainable in a dramatically changed world. This paper presents a charter for tourism, travel, and hospitality after COVID-19 as a contribution to the industry