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MEPs have approved new rules to harmonise the enforcement of EU sanctions across member states.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

The development and adoption of innovations are important for economic growth, enhancing well-being and for a more sustainable management of land and natural resources. Globally, improvements in agricultural development have been achieved through the adoption of innovations targeting productivity, sustainability, resilience or product quality of farmers and other food system actors such as processors and consumers. The need to drive innovations among African smallholder farmers has never been more urgent. Africa has a  rapidly growing population, insufficient food production, high rural poverty and land degradation, which is exacerbated by climate and environmental changes and extreme weather events. Fostering new farming practices and innovation adoption among female and male  smallholder farmers, including marginalised groups requires addressing the economic, environmental and socio-cultural dimensions of development and contribute to social justice and gender equity. This is not a self-evident process as some innovations have contributed to adverse environmental or social effects, resulting in low adoption rates and unsuccessful scaling of innovations.

The development and adoption of innovations are important for economic growth, enhancing well-being and for a more sustainable management of land and natural resources. Globally, improvements in agricultural development have been achieved through the adoption of innovations targeting productivity, sustainability, resilience or product quality of farmers and other food system actors such as processors and consumers. The need to drive innovations among African smallholder farmers has never been more urgent. Africa has a  rapidly growing population, insufficient food production, high rural poverty and land degradation, which is exacerbated by climate and environmental changes and extreme weather events. Fostering new farming practices and innovation adoption among female and male  smallholder farmers, including marginalised groups requires addressing the economic, environmental and socio-cultural dimensions of development and contribute to social justice and gender equity. This is not a self-evident process as some innovations have contributed to adverse environmental or social effects, resulting in low adoption rates and unsuccessful scaling of innovations.

The development and adoption of innovations are important for economic growth, enhancing well-being and for a more sustainable management of land and natural resources. Globally, improvements in agricultural development have been achieved through the adoption of innovations targeting productivity, sustainability, resilience or product quality of farmers and other food system actors such as processors and consumers. The need to drive innovations among African smallholder farmers has never been more urgent. Africa has a  rapidly growing population, insufficient food production, high rural poverty and land degradation, which is exacerbated by climate and environmental changes and extreme weather events. Fostering new farming practices and innovation adoption among female and male  smallholder farmers, including marginalised groups requires addressing the economic, environmental and socio-cultural dimensions of development and contribute to social justice and gender equity. This is not a self-evident process as some innovations have contributed to adverse environmental or social effects, resulting in low adoption rates and unsuccessful scaling of innovations.

On Tuesday, MEPs adopted a proposal by the Conference of Presidents (EP President Metsola and political group leaders) for Parliament’s 2025 calendar.

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On Tuesday, MEPs adopted a proposal by the Conference of Presidents (EP President Metsola and political group leaders) for Parliament’s 2025 calendar.

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On Tuesday, MEPs adopted a proposal by the Conference of Presidents (EP President Metsola and political group leaders) for Parliament’s 2025 calendar.

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Eight years on, the EU Commission is to recommend on Tuesday that member states open accession talks with Bosnia and Herzegovina after the country took "impressive steps" to meet the bloc's standards, Ursula von der Leyen said.

L’ancien Premier ministre roumain et leader du groupe Renew Europe au Parlement européen Dacian Cioloș sera la tête de liste du parti qu’il a fondé en 2022, REPER, pour les élections européennes de juin.

The present collection of short papers is an experimental, explorative and introspective German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) project on international and transnational cooperation for development and sustainability. It is the product of internal brainstorming discussions at IDOS in mid-2022 that aspired to conduct a preliminary, exemplary mapping of the use of “transnational lenses” and their understandings across various work strands at the institute. This might lead to new questions in our work, or it might simply be an attempt to look at our topics of interest with a different perspective. 

The present collection of short papers is an experimental, explorative and introspective German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) project on international and transnational cooperation for development and sustainability. It is the product of internal brainstorming discussions at IDOS in mid-2022 that aspired to conduct a preliminary, exemplary mapping of the use of “transnational lenses” and their understandings across various work strands at the institute. This might lead to new questions in our work, or it might simply be an attempt to look at our topics of interest with a different perspective. 

The present collection of short papers is an experimental, explorative and introspective German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) project on international and transnational cooperation for development and sustainability. It is the product of internal brainstorming discussions at IDOS in mid-2022 that aspired to conduct a preliminary, exemplary mapping of the use of “transnational lenses” and their understandings across various work strands at the institute. This might lead to new questions in our work, or it might simply be an attempt to look at our topics of interest with a different perspective. 

EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides addressed for the first time the concerns among EU lawmakers and health stakeholders about a planned €1 billion cut in the EU's main funding programme for health, saying a comprehensive assessment was still needed. 

Credit: Pixabay/surajitsinghasisir
 
Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/born-baby-mother-black-and-white-7620488/

By Sayuri Cocco Okada
BANGKOK, Thailand, Mar 12 2024 (IPS)

Maternity protection is a human right enshrined in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Income security for newborn mothers ensures their mental and physical wellbeing and contributes to the healthy development of their infants.

Though 41 countries in Asia and the Pacific have instituted statutory maternity leave benefits, just over one in three newborn mothers is actually receiving a maternity benefit. Many countries still fall short of the ILO recommended 18 weeks duration, with only 14 countries meeting this standard.

There persists a vast gap between aspiration and effective protection for newborn mothers.

Almost two-thirds of women of reproductive age in Asia and the Pacific are outside the labour force and thus do not qualify for work-related contributory maternity benefits. Even for working women, social protection remains elusive.

Contributory schemes and their accompanying income security are out of reach for female informal workers, ranging from 97.3 per cent of total female employment in Afghanistan to just over one quarter in Australia (Figure 1).

Figure 1. A large proportion of women are in informal employment in countries across Asia and the Pacific

Source: ESCAP SDG Gateway Data Explorer

Working women who may be eligible often do not meet qualifying criteria for schemes, such as number of years contributing into a scheme, due to breaks taken in their careers to attend to care duties.

There is increasing recognition that the right to minimum income security during maternity should apply to all new parents- not only working mothers- regardless of their employment status. Few countries however provide universal non-contributory maternity benefits to safeguard income security for all newborn mothers.

The newly launched and publicly available maternity module of the ESCAP SPOT Simulator enables policy makers to observe the economic value and price tag of different maternity benefits in 27 countries.

It demonstrates that introducing universal non-contributory maternity benefits at a basic benefit level for a duration of 18 weeks can ensure that a majority of newborn mothers do not have to raise their infants in poverty.

In the Maldives and Uzbekistan, it would lift every newborn mother over the national and respective international poverty lines and reduce poverty by at least half for newborn mothers in 10 countries (See Figure 2).

Figure 2. Universal non-contributory maternity benefits can have a significant poverty reduction impact

Source: ESCAP SPOT Simulator

By making these benefits universal and non-contributory, it would guarantee coverage of the high proportion of female informal worker and other mothers who were hitherto excluded. All for costs ranging between only 0.1 per cent and 0.4 per cent of GDP.

As outlined in the ESCAP-ILO primer on how to design maternity and paternity leave policies, three features underscore the capacity of governments to realise the right to maternity protection and achieve its full potential.

Benefits should be collectively financed, such as through social insurance or taxes, rather than employer liability; of an adequate duration to enable mothers to recover from pregnancy and birth as well as care for their infants, without negatively impacting on their return to work; and at a minimum, provide a level of benefit to ensure that mother and their newborn child can stay healthy and out of poverty.

Extending maternity benefits of an adequate level and duration to all newborn mothers is a first step. We would do well to remember that maternity does not operate in a vacuum. Caring for an infant is not only the domain of mothers and it is vital to promote the participation of fathers in childcare to bond and co-parent their newborn.

The incremental rise in paid paternity leave and duration in the region signal that countries are increasingly acknowledging the need to balance care responsibilities and increase engagement of fathers. Promoting the role of fathers in childcare helps to normalise this shared responsibility, although uptake is still low.

Raising a child entails a continuum of care that spans pre-pregnancy, antenatal care, birth and breastfeeding to early childhood, universal childcare and universal primary education. Maternity benefits are at the initial stage in this continuum of care and should be coordinated to ensure seamless social protection is afforded to parents and families throughout this period.

This week, governments and stakeholders are gathering in New York for the 68th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women to reflect on pathways to women’s empowerment by addressing poverty and advancing more gender-responsive social protection systems.

Investments in maternity benefits are fundamental to safeguard the wellbeing of mothers and support a continuum of care for parents and children. At a fraction of GDP, universal tax financed maternity benefits are an effective instrument to guarantee all mothers are free from poverty at this critical stage of motherhood and infant

Sayuri Cocco Okada is Social Affairs Officer, ESCAP

Footnote:
Maternity protection is a human right enshrined in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Income security for newborn mothers ensures their mental and physical wellbeing and contributes to the healthy development of their infants. Though 41 countries in Asia and the Pacific have instituted statutory maternity leave benefits, just over one in three newborn mothers is actually receiving a maternity benefit. Many countries still fall short of the ILO recommended 18 weeks duration, with only 14 countries meeting this standard. There persists a vast gap between aspiration and effective protection for newborn mothers.

This article addresses the theme which will be discussed at the 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (https://www.unwomen.org/en/how-we-work/commission-on-the-status-of-women).

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Der Europäische Datenschutzbeauftragte (EDSB) äußerte sich am Dienstag (12. März) enttäuscht über einen Vertrag über künstliche Intelligenz (KI), der diese Woche in Straßburg verhandelt wurde. Er sei weit von seinem ursprünglichen Ziel abgewichen.

Le parti Oui, Bulgarie!, membre de la majorité au pouvoir dans le pays, a décidé de demander à devenir membre du Parti populaire européen (PPE).

EU-Staatsanwältin Laura Kövesi ist zu einem der heißen Themen im kroatischen Wahlkampf geworden. Grund dafür ist der jüngste Streit zwischen der Europäischen Staatsanwaltschaft (EPPO) und der Regierung von Andrej Plenković.

Az izraeli támadások következtében az elmúlt 24 órában 67 palesztin vesztette életét a Gázai övezetben, kezdetét véve a muszlim világ számára fontos ramadán böjti időszaknak. A Gázát uraló Hamász terrorszervezet felszólította a palesztinokat, hogy ellenálljanak az izraeli erőknek ebben az időszakban is.

A gázai egészségügyi minisztérium jelentése szerint a támadások miatt már több mint 31,112 ember vesztette életét a háború kezdete óta Gázában. A minisztérium nem tesz különbséget civilek és katonák között, és állítása szerint a halottak kétharmada nő és gyermek.

A minisztérium hangsúlyozza, hogy az öt hónapja tartó konfliktus miatt Gáza 2,3 millió lakosának mintegy 80 százaléka kénytelen volt elhagyni otthonát, és százezrek szembesülnek az éhezés veszélyével.

A jeruzsálemi al-Aksza mecsetben hétfőn délben jelentős mértékben kevesebb hívő gyűlt össze, mint a korábbi években. A mecset bejáratait izraeli erők védték, és biztonsági okokra hivatkozva néhány hívőt nem engedtek be. Az al-Aksza mecset iszlám harmadik legszentebb helye, míg a mecsetnek otthont adó Templom-hegy a zsidók számára is kulcsfontosságú kegyhely a Sziklamecset miatt. Ez a hely régóta fókuszban áll az izraeli-palesztin konfliktusban.

The post Sorscsapás a ramadán alatt: 67 áldozat Gázában appeared first on Biztonságpiac.

The European Parliament’s Environment Committee (ENVI) on Monday evening (11 March) adopted a draft report on the EU’s first soil law, taking the first step towards healthy soils by 2050 by requiring countries to improve the ecological status of their soils within six to ten years. 

Considérés comme des « irrécupérables », ils mourraient de faim et de froid dans des dortoirs insalubres. 15 000 seraient morts ainsi, mais la Roumanie refuse toujours de reconnaître les crimes commis contre les enfants placés en institution sous le régime communiste.

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