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Péninsule de Prevlaka, navire-école Jadran... La Croatie relance les vieilles querelles qui l'oppose au Monténégro, alors que Zagreb faisait preuve d'une grande bienveillance tant que Milo Đukanović était au pouvoir... Malgré l'implication directe de ce dernier dans le siège de Dubrovnik et l'occupation de Cavtat.

- Articles / Monténégro, Monitor (Monténégro), Histoire, Relations régionales, Croatie

Péninsule de Prevlaka, navire-école Jadran... La Croatie relance les vieilles querelles qui l'oppose au Monténégro, alors que Zagreb faisait preuve d'une grande bienveillance tant que Milo Đukanović était au pouvoir... Malgré l'implication directe de ce dernier dans le siège de Dubrovnik et l'occupation de Cavtat.

- Articles / Monténégro, Monitor (Monténégro), Histoire, Relations régionales, Croatie

A new report published on Tuesday (30 January) by three leading European firms sheds light on several quantum trends for 2024, pointing to steady growth of investments in Europe's quantum start-ups.

Der französische Premierminister Gabriel Attal und Abgeordnete aller politischen Richtungen haben Frankreichs Ablehnung des EU-Mercosur-Abkommens bekräftigt. Damit gehen sie auf die demonstrierenden Landwirte zu, die das Abkommen vehement ablehnen.

La vidéo publiée par la Commission pour marquer la Journée internationale de commémoration de l’Holocauste samedi a déclenché de fortes réactions négatives en Pologne, poussant l’exécutif de l’UE à supprimer le message posté sur les réseaux sociaux, que Varsovie a qualifié de trompeur.

Credit: Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

By Sayuri Cocco Okada
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jan 30 2024 (IPS)

Quadrupling in size since 1950, the working age population in Asia and the Pacific now accounts for 67.2 per cent of the total population in the region and is set to peak at 3.3 billion by the mid-2030s.

Now is the moment for Asia and the Pacific to harness this demographic window by investing in a more resilient working age population.

In Asia and the Pacific, the challenges loom large. Two in three workers are in informal employment. If they fall sick, lose a job, have a disability or become old, they have no employment safeguards or social protection to navigate such disruptions and life contingencies.

Half the region’s workforce survives on $5.5 a day, barely enough to lift them out of, or shield them from sliding into, poverty. Unpaid care and domestic workers, are particularly vulnerable as they lack access to income and social protection.

A more resilient workforce is an important step towards eliminating poverty. Effective social protection can mitigate the need of families to resort to measures such as taking a child out of school or selling livestock. Critical ingredients to foster more resilient populations include more comprehensive and inclusive social protection systems and enhanced access to decent employment.

Universal non-contributory social protection schemes can ensure that all persons have access to basic income security to weather disruptions across the lifecycle to enable an adequate standard of living.

Access to universal schemes would also mitigate the risk of the working age population falling into poverty, particularly informal workers, persons with disabilities, women or migrant workers.

ESCAP simulations show that the combined impact of investing in a universal child, disability, maternity and old age benefit can reduce poverty by up to 91.2 per cent at the $3.65 International Poverty Line, and on average decrease inequality by 8.8 per cent for 25 countries in the region, at a cost ranging between 5.1 per cent and 2.6 per cent of GDP.

Figure 1. Investment in universal non-contributory child, disability, maternity and old age benefit can reduce poverty for the total population

While non-contributory schemes ensure a basic level of income security, they should be complemented by job-related contributory schemes to provide more comprehensive and higher levels of income security. However, in two thirds of countries, fewer than half the workforce is contributing into a scheme.

Tackling this challenge requires addressing legal barriers and incentive structures, simplifying administrative procedures, strengthening enforcement measures, as well as enhancing awareness and representation of informal workers.

Some positive measures are being implemented, through the expansion of voluntary or mandatory contributory schemes, adjusting eligibility criteria or providing pension credits for caregivers.

By helping to match labour demand and supply, Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs) can support the working age population to find decent and productive work through public works, training, re-skilling or job-matching. ALMPs will be critical to smoothen the impacts of trends such as the green transition, population ageing and digitalisation, which will demand new skills whilst phasing out some existing ones.

A majority of studies on vocational and on-the-job training programmes identify increased employability and earnings for trainees throughout the region. In Viet Nam, for example, women who received job-training had a 12 percentage point higher wage than untrained women and men.

However, most countries spend on average only 0.2 per cent of GDP a year on ALMPs. There is a pressing need to invest in public employment programmes along with improving the quantity and quality of training schemes, and enhance collaboration with the private sector, whilst working towards formalising jobs and advancing the decent work agenda.

The impacts of the recent COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the fragility of hard-won development gains. Against the steady decline of extreme poverty over the past decades, in 2023, due to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis, 47 million people are expected to have fallen into extreme poverty.

Escalating frequency and intensity of climate change-related shocks will add further pressure on populations. Work-related contributory schemes such as unemployment insurance can act as an automatic stabiliser to build the first layer of resistance against these shocks.

However, unemployment benefits are available to a less than a quarter of the total workforce in the region. Well designed ALMPs can help people access employment opportunities, enhance productivity and increase earnings. When well-coordinated with social protection systems, such as in the case of Turkiye, they can help groups in vulnerable situations access training opportunities needed to re-engage in the labour market.

Other work-related social protection can also support mitigation measures, for example through directing public works programmes towards mangrove restoration or afforestation efforts.

Building the resilience of the working age population will be paramount to maintain and progress sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific. Through extending multipillar social protection systems across the lifecycle and ALMPs, countries are investing in a key group to build resilience to life contingencies, work transitions and climate change: a workforce that is able to override these disruptions and break through cycles of poverty.

Sayuri Cocco Okada is Social Affairs Officer at ESCAP.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado insisted Monday (29 January) that elections cannot proceed without her name on the ballot, as the United States announced it was reimposing some sanctions against the country following her disqualification.

Le système de justice pénale croate est submergé d’affaires de traite d’êtres humains, celles-ci représentant près de 15 % des affaires qui sont passées par l’ensemble du système pénitentiaire du pays en 2022, selon les données du ministère de la Justice, selon un quotidien croate.

L'euro sera désormais l'unique monnaie légale au Kosovo, alors que le dinar serbe avait toujours cours dans le nord du pays et les enclaves. Belgrade s'insurge contre la décision de la Banque centrale. L'Union européenne et les États-Unis s'inquiètent.

- Le fil de l'Info / Kosovo, dialogue Kosovo Serbie, Courrier des Balkans, Tensions Nord Kosovo, Economie, Relations régionales

Im Februar letzten Jahres ist in der Nähe vom süditalienischem Cutro ein Migrantenboot mit rund 200 Passagieren gesunken. Die zuständigen italienischen Frontex-Behörden bewerteten die Sichtung vor dem Untergang, als "nicht von besonderem Interesse".

En Allemagne, les récentes manifestations de masse contre l’extrême droite sont ignorées par l’AfD, qui reste impassible et considère qu’il s’agit d’un « ultime effort » désespéré pour influencer l’opinion publique à l’approche d’élections cruciales.

In today’s edition of the Capitals, find out more about the EU Commission removing a Holocaust remembrance video following Polish backlash, the AfD dismissing mass protests as a ‘last ditch effort’ to keep them from power, and so much more.

The United States vowed to take “all necessary actions” to defend American forces after a drone attack killed three US troops in Jordan, while Qatar said it hoped US retaliation would not damage regional security or undercut progress toward a new Gaza hostage-release deal.

Lors d’une interview lundi (29 janvier) sur RMC, la tête de liste du Rassemblement national pour les européennes, Jordan Bardella, a déclaré attendre du gouvernement de Gabriel Attal qu’il « renonce au Green Deal ». Pour l'opposition, c'est la preuve que le parti est climatosceptique.

Albania's Constitutional Court has ruled that the deal signed with Italy to allow the processing of migrants picked up in the Mediterranean by Italy in the northern coastal town of Shëngjin is in line with the constitution.

The UK will finally roll out post-Brexit border checks Wednesday (30 January) on food, plant and animal products imported from the EU, fanning fears of more price hikes, empty shelves and even Valentine's Day flower shortages.

Les autorités italiennes présentes dans la salle de surveillance de Frontex à Varsovie, en observant le bateau de migrants qui a coulé près de Cutro dans le sud de l’Italie en février, avaient jugé que ce dernier ne présentait « pas d’intérêt particulier », selon le rapport d’incident de Frontex.  

The controversial amnesty law to pardon separatist leaders and their supporters for unlawful actions that took place between 2012 and 2023 will be facing its final amendment debate in the Spanish parliament on Tuesday.

EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue Miroslav Lajcak has embarked on a mission to defuse tensions between Serbia and Kosovo following Kosovo’s announcement that it will only accept the euro within its borders, which began in Belgrade on Monday and will continue in Pristina on Tuesday, EU spokesperson Peter Stano has confirmed.

Croatia’s criminal justice system is swamped with human trafficking cases, representing nearly 15% of the cases that went through the country’s entire prison system in 2022, justice ministry data shows, Večernji List daily reported on Monday.