Feed aggregator

Great progress has been achieved in the process of implementation of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project since the groundbreaking of the pipeline.

Die Sorge vor einer Energiekrise ist groß. Solidarität und regionale Kooperation sind die zentralen Komponenten von Europas neuer Sicherheitsarchitektur.

Un éditorial pour l’Opinion

Zur Diskussion und Planung von Entwicklung wie auch konkreter Maßnahmen in ländlichen Gebieten in Entwicklungsländern ist ein Rahmenkonzept nötig, das die Kommunikation aller beteiligten Sektoren sowie länderübergreifende Verallgemeinerungen zulässt. Der Schwerpunkt muss zugleich auf Armut, Wirtschaftswachstum und Strukturwandel liegen.
Dieser Beitrag stellt ein Modell vor, das diese Zwecke erfüllt. Ausgangspunkt ist das Modell der fünf ländlichen Welten (Five Rural Worlds, 5RW) der Organisation für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (OECD). Es stellt die ländliche Bevölkerung in den Mittelpunkt und klassifiziert sie anhand einer Mehrkriterienanalyse von Ressourcenausstattung, Wettbewerbsfähigkeit, Wachstumschancen und Erfordernissen insbesondere im Hinblick auf Armut und Ernährungssicherung. Folgende ländliche Welten (RWs) werden unterschieden: 1) große gewerbliche landwirtschaftliche Haushalte und Betriebe, 2) traditionelle Landbesitzer und Betriebe, 3) landwirtschaftliche Subsistenz-Haushalte und Kleinstbetriebe, 4) landlose ländliche Haushalte und Kleinstbetriebe, 5) dauerhaft arme ländliche Haushalte (ohne familieneigene Arbeitskräfte). Diese Einteilung mag grob und ungenau sein, reicht aber in vielen Fällen zur Klärung der Grundannahmen aus. Sie ist einfach genug, um strategische Maßnahmen in ländlichen Gebieten grundlegend und sektorübergreifend zu diskutieren.
Wir erweitern das OECD-Modell um Wechselwirkungen zwischen den RWs und zwischen diesen und der Außenwelt. Dadurch wird betont, dass ländliche Gebiete immer stärker in nationale und anderweitige Beziehungen eingebunden sind. So wird eine umfassende Debatte um diese Beziehungen und ihre Folgen möglich.
Das angepasste RW-Modell bietet mehrere Vorteile:

• Die ländliche Bevölkerung wird nach gemeinsamen Hemmnissen, Erfordernissen und Chancen einer begrenzten Zahl allgemeiner Gruppen zugeordnet.
• Es betont die zentrale Rolle von Land und landwirtschaftlicher Technologie/Produktivität als Ausgangspunkt für Armutsbekämpfung, Ernährungssicherung und Wachstumschancen. Dabei schließt es andere mögliche Lebensgrundlagen nicht aus.
• Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf den ländlichen Armen und ihrem heterogenen Entwicklungspotenzial innerhalb und außerhalb der Landwirtschaft, insbesondere durch die Unterscheidung landloser und dauerhaft Armer, die bei Maßnahmen in der Landwirtschaft häufig ausgeschlossen (oder sogar geschädigt) werden.
• Es lassen sich nicht nur die direkten strategischen Maßnahmen für einzelne Zielgruppen, sondern auch indirekte Zweitrundeneffekte durch Wechselwirkungen erörtern.
• Das Modell weist auf die immer engeren Beziehungen zwischen ländlichen Bereichen und der übrigen Welt hin.

Wir empfehlen das 5RW-Modell für die sektorübergreifende Planung der ländlichen Entwicklung in Entwicklungsländern sowie die multisektorielle Forschung, insbesondere im ländlichen Subsahara-Afrika (SSA). Wir sind uns bewusst, dass daneben auch die Perspektiven Gender und Umwelt einbezogen werden müssen. Diese lassen sich jedoch ohne Weiteres berücksichtigen.

Romanian police and prosecutors searched the National Public Radio headquarters amid suspicions that members of the board have been awarding contracts to relatives.

En Côte d'Ivoire, les actes «contre nature et impudique» sont répréhensibles par la loi. Une formule floue. Car si l'homosexualité n'est pas érigée en infraction dans le pays, comme le notait l'ONG Amnesty International dans un rapport datant de 2013, deux hommes surpris lors d'une relation sexuelle viennent d'écoper de 18 mois de prison.

read more

Brexit ou pas, la coopération entre le Royaume-Uni et la France dans le domaine militaire, et en particulier dans celui de l’armement, continue à aller de l’avant. C’est ce qu’ont tenu à souligner Jean-Yves Le Drian, le ministre français de la Défense, et son homlogue britannique, Michael Fallon, à l’occasion de la 6e conférence de […]

Cet article La coopération franco-britannique dans le domaine des missiles continue d’avancer est apparu en premier sur Zone Militaire.

Chaque semaine, l'agenda européen liste les principaux événements politiques à venir. A retenir pour la semaine du 21 au 27 novembre : les députés se retrouvent à Strasbourg pour une session plénière dédiée notamment au prix Lux.

L'opposant congolais Samy Badibanga a été nommé, jeudi, Premier ministre par le président Joseph Kabila, dans le cadre d'un accord politique entre la majorité et une frange minoritaire de l'opposition.

Un ex-ministre nigérien, Mohamed Moussa, a été désigné nouveau directeur général de l'Agence pour la sécurité

read more

La police sud-africaine enquête sur des liens suspects entre un Chinois qui reconnaît être impliqué dans des activités de braconnage et le ministre sud-africain de la Sécurité de l'Etat, a-t-on appris

read more

read more

Les Tunisiens plongent dans un passé doul

read more

Les migrants continuent cette année de prendre la mer en nombre depuis la Libye, mais l

read more

Sept migrants sont morts et une centaine portés disparus après un nouveau drame sur un canot pneumatique au large de la Libye, a annoncé jeudi Médecins sans frontières (MSF), qui a recueilli les

read more

Le président congolais Joseph Kabila a nommé jeudi le député de l'opposition Samy Badibanga au poste du Premier ministre dans le cadre d'un accord politique signé en octobre entre la majorité et une frange minoritaire de l'opposition en République démocratique du Congo.

read more

À un mois de la convention nationale d'investiture du Parti socialiste, bon nombre de députés de la majorité ont annoncé qu'ils ne se représenteraient pas aux prochaines élections législatives. Certains ministres ont rejoint leurs rangs.

Crimes against women rose during 2001-15 despite greater affluence and an improved sex ratio

By Geetika Dang, Vani S. Kulkarni and Raghav Gaiha
Nov 17 2016 (The Hindu)

If we go by the National Crime Records Bureau reports, incidence of serious crimes against women rose from 237 per day in 2001 to 313 per day in 2015. These crimes include rape, kidnapping and abduction, dowry deaths and cruelty by husbands and relatives. Minor girls, adolescent and old women are frequently victims of brutal rapes and murders. Of these crimes, 30 per cent were rapes (including intent to rape). Higher incidence of crimes during 2001-2015 coupled with low conviction rate of 21 per cent of cases reported suggests that women are more vulnerable to serious crimes.

“The three worst States in incidence of crimes in 2001—Delhi, Haryana and Assam—remained largely unchanged in 2015.” A scene in Delhi. PHOTO: RAMESH SHARMA

Women’s vulnerability varies enormously across States. Incidence of serious crimes was as high as 75 per lakh women in Delhi in 2015 as against approximately 5 per lakh women in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

There are huge gaps in incidence of crimes between the three worst and the three best States. The three worst States in 2001 — Delhi, Haryana and Assam — remained largely unchanged in 2015, with Assam replacing Haryana as the second worst State. The best performers, however, changed during this period. Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Sikkim displayed the lowest incidence of crimes in 2001 but the top two were replaced by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in 2015. However, across States, the overall concentration of serious crimes did not change significantly. For example, the three States (Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra) that accounted for 37 per cent of the crimes in 2001 were responsible for a slightly lower share of 34 per cent in 2015.

Factors behind inter-State variations

Here we focus on two related questions: (i) Why have crimes against women risen between 2001 and 2015? What are the factors associated with huge inter-State variation in these crimes in 2015? As answers to these questions lie in the interplay of affluence of a State, religion, demographics including female/male ratio, employment opportunities for women, their literacy, rural/urban population ratio, quality of governance in the State and media exposure, we carried out a detailed analysis that allows us to assess their individual and joint contributions to variation of serious crimes over time and across States.

Our analysis reveals the following effects. A 1 per cent increase in State GDP (per capita) is associated with a 0.42 per cent reduction in the incidence of serious crimes. It follows that greater affluence is accompanied by a reduction in such crimes. If alcoholism and substance abuse are lower among men, or if these addictions are better treated in more affluent States, sexual or physical assaults on women are less likely.

Another factor is the sex imbalance measured as the number of females per 1,000 males. The sex ratio norm is 950. India’s ratio was below this (944 in 2015). A one per cent increase in the sex ratio lowers serious crimes against women by 8 per cent. Indeed, a skewed sex rationmore than undermines the affluence effect. So, if Delhi and Haryana continue to be the worst States despite being affluent (relative to, say, Andhra Pradesh), it is largely because of the abysmally low sex ratio in these two States. While the sex ratio increased in several States but remained low (Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan), in others (Bihar, Maharashtra) it remained low and barely changed.

Other influential factors include female literacy and labour force participation. Female bargaining power depends on both their literacy and outside employment. However, the evidence also suggests a backlash in which male spouses — especially those who are unemployed — assert their superiority by retaliatory physical and sexual violence. Our analysis points to a favourable joint effect of female literacy and labour force participation, though the positive individual effects of female literacy and labour force participation are larger. If brutality in marriage becomes unbearable, exit options for women who are both literate and employed become more viable for them. Promoting both jointly is likely to be more effective in curbing domestic violence against women.

A somewhat surprising finding is that the higher the rural/urban population, the higher the incidence of serious crimes against women. A one per cent decline in the rural/urban population ratio is associated with a reduction of 0.4 per cent in the incidence of such crimes. Even though such crimes in urban areas have greater visibility in the media, the grim reality is that women in rural areas are more vulnerable. Despite likely under-reporting of such crimes, it is revealing that rural women more often seek remedial action against them. This, of course, doesn’t imply that they are more likely to succeed.

Although cultural norms and context take diverse forms — whether, for example, it is a matriarchal or patriarchal society — religion is one key dimension. Classifying the populations into Hindus and Muslims, we find that in both groups women are vulnerable to serious crimes but more so among the former. A one per cent increase in the share of the Hindus increases such crimes by 1.64 per cent — double the incidence among Muslims. That a greater frequency of wife-beating and dowry-related violence among Hindus — in extreme cases “bride burning” — still persists is worrying.

Exposure to media — captured through readership of newspapers in English and major Indian languages — has two effects: one is better reporting of crimes and perhaps, more importantly, a crime deterrence effect. It is difficult to separate the two and so the combined effect is that a one per cent increase in readership is associated with a 1.9 per cent reduction in such crimes. The Delhi gang rape case of 2012, for example, wouldn’t have sparked a national uproar and led to the speedy arrest of the perpetrators without sustained media activism.

Governance, a key determinant

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has emphasised that rape and other serious crimes against women are closely intertwined with inefficient policing and judicial systems, and callousness of society. So the quality of governance in States is key to understanding the huge variation in incidence of serious crimes against women. In a recent but ambitious study this year led by economist Sudipto Mundle, 19 States have been ranked on the basis of a composite indicator of governance in 2001 and 2012. This indicator combines five criteria — infrastructure, social services, fiscal performance, justice, law and order, and quality of the legislature. Even if some State rankings are intriguing because of the failure to take into account rampant political corruption, it is significant that the best five and the worst five performers remained largely unchanged during 2001-2012. Subject to this caveat and the fact that 2015 is not covered, using this measure of governance, we find that the incidence of serious crimes against women declines with better governance.

In conclusion, if the crimes against women rose despite greater affluence and a slight increase in the sex ratio during 2001-15, the answer must lie in likely deterioration of governance and persistence of low sex ratios in certain States. Illustrative cases include Bihar, Delhi and Maharashtra.

Geetika Dang is an independent researcher; Vani S. Kulkarni is with the Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania; Raghav Gaiha, is with the Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard School of Public Health & Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.

This story was originally published by THE HINDU, India

Following the agreement between EUROCONTROL and the European Defence Agency (EDA) signed in 2013, both organisations have started a close cooperation on the SESAR programme. In compliance with the initial agreement, the cooperative work has been updated by the two organisations for the years 2017-2018 in order to accommodate the tasks as defined in the SESAR 2020 programme.

The work programme makes EUROCONTROL’s expertise in civil-military ATM coordination available to EDA to facilitate EDA’s role regarding the coordination of military views in the context of the Single European Sky (SES) and its interface towards the EU institutions.

During the implementation of the previous joint work programme, the EDA-EUROCONTROL cooperation successfully contributed to the provision of harmonised military inputs to the 2015 ATM Master Plan update campaign, supported Member States bidding for EU co-financing in INEA calls and provided technical impact analysis on the SESAR deployment programme and EASA regulatory material under development.

“The needs of military aviation often go beyond the scope of civil aviation,” said Frank Brenner, Director General of EUROCONTROL. “To work effectively, European airspace management must address both military and civil airspace user needs with coordinated processes and consultation between civilian and military stakeholders. EUROCONTROL and EDA are working together to contribute to this process”.

“To preserve military access to all airspace, it remains essential that we develop harmonised low-cost interoperable SESAR solutions, including standardisation and certification processes, and that we provide common mitigation actions”, said Jorge Domecq, Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency. “Moreover the deployment phase of SESAR offers an opportunity for the military, to avail itself of funding to enhance their ATM technology, when appropriate. This has already been the case for INEA Call 2015, whereby 14 military projects submitted through EDA have been awarded funds adding up to a total of €53.5 million, which is roughly 10.5% of total funds awarded.”

EUROCONTROL and EDA have been working closely together since 2008 to ensure improved coordination and cooperation between civil and military air traffic, moving towards a Single European Sky for both military and civil air transport.

 

For further information, please contact:

Kyla Evans
Head of Corporate Communications
EUROCONTROL
Tel: +32 2 729 51 51
press@eurocontrol.int
www.eurocontrol.int

Eric Platteau
Head of Media & Communications
European Defence Agency
Tel: +32 2 504 28 23
eric.platteau@eda.europa.eu
www.eda.europa.eu