Suchergebnisse

O artigo analisa a relação entre a distribuição de recursos sociais em uma comunidade, o comportamento eleitoral de seus eleitores e a adoção, pelos seus líderes políticos, de políticas sociais reformistas. Com a promulgação da Constituição de 1988, muitos centros urbanos brasileiros melhoraram a qualidade de suas políticas sociais, redirecionaram os gastos públicos para beneficiar os mais pobres e democratizaram o processo através do qual as prioridades sobre os gastos são decididas. No entanto, tais mudanças ocorreram de forma diferente nos espaços urbanos. Através da análise dos resultados das eleições municipais de 2000 em Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre e Salvador, o artigo demonstra que os recursos sociais, particularmente graus de extrema pobreza e níveis agregados de conhecimento político do eleitor, têm papel determinante na decisão de uma dada comunidade sobre como usar suas oportunidades eleitorais para pressionar por reformas nas políticas públicas locais, tal como propugna a teoria da democracia. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: eleições municipais, clientelismo, conhecimento político, política pública local. SOCIO-ECONOMIC RESOURCES, SOCIO-CULTURAL CAPITAL, AND POLITICAL SOPHISTICATION AS DETERMINANTS OF URBAN POLICYMAKING IN BRAZIL This article investigates the relationship between a community's distribution of social resources, its voters' electoral behavior, and the extent to which its political leaders have adopted social policy reforms. Following the adoption of the 1988 Constitution, many urban centers in Brazil improved the quality of their social policies, retargeted expenditures to the benefit of the disadvantaged, and democratized the process by which public policy spending priorities are set. Nevertheless, such improvements are uneven across urban settings. Through an analysis of the 2000 municipal elections in Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, and Salvador, the article demonstrates that social resources – especially rates of extreme poverty and aggregate levels of political knowledge – play a decisive role in whether a given community 285 will use its electoral opportunities to demand policy reform in ways that are consistent with democratic theory. KEY WORD: municipal elections, clientelism, political knowledge, local public policy. RESSOURCES SOCIO-ECONOMIQUES, CAPITAL SOCIOCULTUREL ET CONNAISSANCE POLITIQUE EN TANT QUE FACTEURS DETERMINANTS POUR LA FORMULATION DES POLITIQUES PUBLIQUES LOCALES AU BRÉSIL L'article analyse la relation entre la distribution des ressources sociales dans une communauté, le comportement électoral de ses électeurs et l'adoption par ses dirigeants politiques de politiques sociales réformistes. Avec la promulgation de la Constitution de 1988, plusieurs centres urbains brésiliens ont amélioré la qualité de leurs politiques sociales, réorienté les dépenses publiques afin d'en faire bénéficier les plus pauvres et démocratisé le processus de décision des priorités concernant les dépenses. Cependant, de tels changements ont eu lieu de manière différente dans les espaces urbains. Avec l'analyse des résultats des élections municipales de 2000 à Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre et Salvador, l'article montre que les ressources sociales, en particulier à un degré de pauvreté extrême et à des niveaux agrégés de connaissance politique des électeurs, ont un rôle déterminant dans la décision d'une communauté donnée sur la façon d'utiliser ses opportunités électorales pour faire pression afin d'obtenir des réformes politiques publiques au niveau local, tel que le défend la théorie de la démocratie. MOTS-CLES: élections municipales, clientélisme, connaissance politique, politique publique locale. Publicação Online do Caderno CRH: http://www.cadernocrh.ufba.br

Neste artigo, discutem-se as possibilidades de inserção do jovem de baixa renda no mercado de trabalho formal, tendo como referência a sua relação com a escolaridade e as condições de vida, a partir de pesquisa realizada na Vila São Rafael, em Belo Horizonte. Busca-se enfocar as situações vivenciadas por esses jovens na busca para ingressar no mundo do trabalho, considerando fatores como pobreza, nível de escolaridade e segregação espacial. Reconhece-se que, embora a educação seja uma alavanca importante para o acesso ao emprego, estudar não é passaporte para entrada automática no mercado de trabalho, especialmente para os jovens de condições socioeconômicas mais baixas, e a falta de estudos aprofunda ainda mais as dificuldades de inserção. Os resultados demonstram os dilemas desses jovens, divididos entre os projetos de conquistar um emprego, dar continuidade aos estudos e contribuir para a renda familiar, ao mesmo tempo em que são pressionados a obter melhor qualificação profissional. Palavras-Chave: jovens, escolaridade, mercado de trabalho, favela, Belo Horizonte. YOUTH AND LABOR MARKET: a case study in periphery of a great metropolis In this article, the author discusses the possibilities of insertion of young people with low income on formal labor markets, controlling for education and life conditions, based on a research made on Vila São Rafael, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The author focuses situations experienced by these young people in their search for jobs, considering factors like poverty, education level and spatial segregation. The argument is that, although education is an important to reach a good job, it is not an automatic passport to enter the labor market, especially for those young people who come from lower socioeconomic conditions; in their case the lack of studies merely deepens their difficulties of insertion. Results show these young people's dilemmas, parted between their projects of getting good jobs, keep studying and contributing to family income, at the same time that they are pressured to get better professional qualifications. Key Words: youth, education, labor market, slum, Belo Horizonte. LES JEUNES ET LE MARCHE DU TRAVAIL: etude de cas dans la peripherie d'une grande ville Cet article présente l'analyse des possibilités d'insertion des jeunes de milieux défavorisés dans le marché du travail formel, à partir de références telles que leur rapport à la scolarité et à leurs conditions de vie et d'une enquête réalisée à Vila São Rafael dans la ville de Belo Horizonte. On essaie de montrer quelles sont les situations vécues par ces jeunes, qui essaient d'entrer dans le monde du travail, en prenant en considération des facteurs comme la pauvreté, le niveau de scolarité et de ségrégation dans l'espace du travail. Il s'avère que, même si l'éducation est un levier important pour accéder à un emploi, étudier ne constitue pas un passeport d'entrée automatique dans le marché du travail et ce d'autant plus pour les jeunes dont les conditions socio-économiques sont plus faibles, mais le manque d'études approfondit encore plus les difficultés d'insertion. Les résultats montrent les dilemnes de ces jeunes, partagés entre leurs projets de conquête du marché, la continuation de leurs études et la contribution aux revenus familiaux, alors qu'ils souffrent en même temps de pressions pour conquérir une meilleure qualification professionnelle. Mots-Clés: jeunes, scolarité, marché du travail, bidonville, Belo Horizonte. Publicação Online do Caderno CRH: http://www.cadernocrh.ufba.br

Since the first Human Development Report (HDRs) was published in 1990, the Human Development (HD) paradigm has become a relevant conceptual framework as well as an intrinsic instrument to measure human progress. Yet, critics on the Reports for oversimplifying development have been pointed out as they do not take into account the myriad complex social, cultural, political and historical aspects of a country or a particular society. The United Nations Human Development Programme (UNDP) has however tried to tackle this critique throughout the elaboration of the National Human Development Reports. These reports respond to more local approaches to analyse most pressing issues within national contexts emphasizing on subjects urging particular attention. The insights and statistical data provided within, are indeed becoming important information tools for policy-making and decision taking at a local and regional levels. They represent a sort of route-map to start- up new action plans and policies which could be useful in facing urgent problems concerning inequality, poverty, repression, injustice, among others. Despite the effort made by the Reports to tackle development constraints in more wider terms, the whole HD problematique has not really been undertaken holistically through a multidimensional view. For this reason the Human-Scale Development approach is introduced as an evaluative tool, in order to assess the HD policies entailed within the National Human Development Reports (NHDRs). The main objective is thus, to identify deprivations and potentialities of the very specific proposals (i.e. policies) in order to re-address human development strategies towards real multidimensional political actions. Considering this framework as a most accurate one to tackle social, environmental, economic, institutional, cultural and spiritual human interactions. Therefore, to reach this goal, this research exposes the development notion through a historical route and tracking down the origins of the human development notion. However, further revision on its philosophical and theoretical bases were needed to complete this search, and various debates emerged from these findings. The characterization of the two theories depicted in this work, namely; Human Development (HD) and the Human-Scale Development approach is necessary to identify differences and coincidences, and thereafter proceed to propose a new space of theoretical interaction to widen the HD paradigm. This, with the only aim of ameliorating its operationalization but overall, to achieve a type of development acknowledging real positive changes in people's quality of life. In any case, the main objective is to contribute with conceptual and methodological insights and with the proposal of new ideas in order to move forward in the building of possible Sustainable Human Development strategies within the political sphere. But always understanding the "sustainable" feature as systemic, holistic, and integral principle. Lastly, an evaluation exercise is hence conducted using the last Brazilian National Human Development Report as a case study. The policies within are scrutinized in order to explore new possibilities in the elaboration of HD policies, incorporating a more humanist perception proper from the integral sustainability attributes. The outcomes of this policy assessment intend to identify how other possible participatory schemes can take place in policy-making processes aiming for development models which respond to cultural and social values coherent with the communities and societies entailed. ; Postprint (published version)

Since the first Human Development Report (HDRs) was published in 1990, the Human Development (HD) paradigm has become a relevant conceptual framework as well as an intrinsic instrument to measure human progress. Yet, critics on the Reports for oversimplifying development have been pointed out as they do not take into account the myriad complex social, cultural, political and historical aspects of a country or a particular society. The United Nations Human Development Programme (UNDP) has however tried to tackle this critique throughout the elaboration of the National Human Development Reports. These reports respond to more local approaches to analyse most pressing issues within national contexts emphasizing on subjects urging particular attention. The insights and statistical data provided within, are indeed becoming important information tools for policy-making and decision taking at a local and regional levels. They represent a sort of route-map to start- up new action plans and policies which could be useful in facing urgent problems concerning inequality, poverty, repression, injustice, among others. Despite the effort made by the Reports to tackle development constraints in more wider terms, the whole HD problematique has not really been undertaken holistically through a multidimensional view. For this reason the Human-Scale Development approach is introduced as an evaluative tool, in order to assess the HD policies entailed within the National Human Development Reports (NHDRs). The main objective is thus, to identify deprivations and potentialities of the very specific proposals (i.e. policies) in order to re-address human development strategies towards real multidimensional political actions. Considering this framework as a most accurate one to tackle social, environmental, economic, institutional, cultural and spiritual human interactions. Therefore, to reach this goal, this research exposes the development notion through a historical route and tracking down the origins of the human development notion. However, further revision on its philosophical and theoretical bases were needed to complete this search, and various debates emerged from these findings. The characterization of the two theories depicted in this work, namely; Human Development (HD) and the Human-Scale Development approach is necessary to identify differences and coincidences, and thereafter proceed to propose a new space of theoretical interaction to widen the HD paradigm. This, with the only aim of ameliorating its operationalization but overall, to achieve a type of development acknowledging real positive changes in people's quality of life. In any case, the main objective is to contribute with conceptual and methodological insights and with the proposal of new ideas in order to move forward in the building of possible Sustainable Human Development strategies within the political sphere. But always understanding the "sustainable" feature as systemic, holistic, and integral principle. Lastly, an evaluation exercise is hence conducted using the last Brazilian National Human Development Report as a case study. The policies within are scrutinized in order to explore new possibilities in the elaboration of HD policies, incorporating a more humanist perception proper from the integral sustainability attributes. The outcomes of this policy assessment intend to identify how other possible participatory schemes can take place in policy-making processes aiming for development models which respond to cultural and social values coherent with the communities and societies entailed. ; Postprint (published version)

At the beginning of the new millennium, looking through national / international perspectives and analysing different projections and conclusions, investigation of future, interrogation of systems and ourselves will be useful. It is necessary to talk about the past and the future in a global perspective when the world population is more than 6 billion and expected to increase around another 2 billion in the next 25 years. Natural resources are limited instead of increased population in the world around. However the growth of technology and communication level, there are so many hazard factors in the life for many developing countries. Simply maintaining current levels of food availability will require rapid production increases without destroying natural resources. Having a good nutritional status for all human societies, everybody must have to think "us" as instead of "myself". The world has expanded beyond the global village to include the global market where there is ever‐increasing mobility of capital, labour and goods, in the recent years. Globalisation is not only a question of size, but also of kind: it is inextricably linked to privatisation. It stimulated major economic restructuring in both developed and developing countries, and has greatly changed the balance of public and private sectors. Mostly agricultural production for export is seen as one of the driving forces of development. Harmonisation through the setting of international regulations and standards still needs considerable efforts. So that potential benefits and defects, the outcomes of globalisations are mixed and also demographic and production relationship correlations are changed dramatically. In the world natural food and water sources have been reduced, when population increased speedily and environments pollution has become dramatic. In spite of urbanisation the majorities are in rural areas. The information revolutions and scientific / technological challenges also created a major difference between developed and developing countries. Genetically modified organisms and foods are the most important question at this time in the world. Again the differences about sharing chance of the sources between rich and poor countries are another important inequity. "Food insecurity" means that "lacking access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food and are therefore not consuming enough for an active and healthy life". There are so many reasons for the unavailability of food, inadequate purchasing power or inappropriate utilisation at household level. The linkages between demographic motivations, poverty and environmental degradation, their relationships and implications according to the development programs and planning will try to be discussed in this article. Nutritional and energy requirements, some nutritional deficiencies, reflections on the commercial life, food security programs, and better information systems on "Food Insecurity and Vulnerability (FIVIMS)", "National Nutrition Country Profiles (NFC)", farseeing of UN's, Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) will be summarised. Also it is planned to make small statistical tour on the national and international past, status, and near future on problems and expected reflections, some of the solution offers are improving strategies and increasing consciousness to consumers, developments of health ‐ agriculture — education politics will be summarised. Governmental responsibilities and financial supports will try to be discussed. Finding food, improving life, preparing a better world must be a primer responsibility for all countries, governments, sectors and for everybody in this millennium.

Urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is often associated with the urbanization of poverty, and with the extensive development of informal settlements. This thesis examines how Geographic Information Technology (GIT) could be used to improve the ability of local governments in SSA manage such settlements. Three themes are at the core of this research: the evolution of thinking in the field of urban planning and management and the role of GIT as a planning support tool are discussed together with some problems of the land and housing supply in SSA countries. A review of these themes reveals strong linkages between conceptual and procedural developments in developed countries and those of SSA, often without adequate regard for the specific cultural and societal conditions in the recipient countries thereby contributing substantially to the likelihood of policy failure. The research framework incorporates elements of spatial data modelling relevant to analysing informal urban development and decision making for intervening in informal settlements. It also considers the context within which planning takes place, particularly the characteristics of key actors involved in planning processes at strategic and local levels. The empirical work is based on case studies at two spatial levels in the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's largest city. The city-wide level is directed at strategic information and decision making related to informal development using a digital topographic database, aerial photography and SPOT satellite imagery to produce generalised data related to land use, topography, settlement expansion and densification processes. The analysis shows that the rate of expansion of informal settlements is increasing and that densification processes are also ongoing in all settlements, including those with the highest densities, but that the knowledge of such processes under local professionals is limited to the more centrally located settlements. Using the improved data, the value of using a GIS based multi-criteria evaluation procedure to select informal settlements for policy interventions aimed at altering their further development is demonstrated. The second spatial level concerns individual settlements or communities in which spatial information for settlement upgrading and some aspects of daily management are examined. GIT methods are applied to create large scale image mosaics that could be used in a variety of ways at settlement level, some of which have been explored both through a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods. The use of such tools is examined in 3 settlements Keko Mwanga, Hanna Nassif and Tabata. The analysis reveals considerable potential for utilising GIS based products at the community level in planning and administration. The implications of these findings for the development of a prototype methodology for managing informal settlements in Dar es Salaam are considered. Concepts for spatial information support at both spatial levels are developed. These involve a variety of GIT users in Dar es Salaam, but are primarily directed at the needs of the local government and settlement level actors. Several suggestions are made concerning further work required at both levels. These include improvements to the MCE approach, the development of urban growth models that could aid in the understanding and prediction of new growth areas, the development of effective land management instruments at settlement level and investigations that would lead to the creation of a sustainable local spatial data infrastructure to support decentralised urban planning and management.

In a classical Walrassian framework of smoothly functioning markets and comparative static analysis, the beneficial effects of trade liberalisation are well known. In the real world, production decisions develop along time. They are fringed with uncertainty, and subject to unfulfilled expectations. Depending upon demand elasticity, such phenomena lead to converging or diverging cobwebs. Yet, even if demand is inelastic, diverging cobwebs are rarely observed, because there exist also many return strings which call systems back in the vicinity of (unstable) equilibrium. Among the latter, as already noticed by Knut Wicksell in the 1930's, attitudes toward risk and investment functions play a large role. In effect, introducing such mechanisms into a dynamic market equilibrium leads to "chaotic motion", a now well documented mathematical being, with very specific characteristics. In this context, market price fluctuations no longer occur because of the "hand of God", from completely external sources, such as climatic events. They are endogenous, generated by the market itself. While external risk is subject to the "law of large number", thus allowing for the benefit of risk pooling through insurance mechanisms, endogenous is not. In particular, any effort to lower individual decision maker exposition to risk affects the values of the key model parameters, such as supply elasticity, thus changing the risk regime itself. Now, while many studies (especially by Hertel et al) have been undertaken in order to elicit the consequences of external risk for the magnitude and distribution of the trade liberalisation benefits, the endogenous risk case has generally been benignly ignored by the world research community. The present paper aims at filling this gap. To this end, a GTAP model along that line is developed, with and without agricultural liberalisation. It is shown that, after a while, the tendency to divergence is smoothed out by risk considerations. Yet, because of a greater price uncertainty, over 60 years, long run world growth is significantly affected by liberalisation. Increased price volatility plays the role of a negative technical progress, which offset the benefits from a more efficient use of comparative advantage. Distributional effects are discussed, both between regions and within. Results suggest that liberalisation is not likely to reduce poverty, quite the contrary, because rich are less risk averse than poor, and thus, can accumulate more reinsvestible benefits. However, richest nations do not benefit in the whole, because of the investment slowing down mechanism outlined above. Efforts have been done to test the model, taking opportunity of its dynamic character, which allows for the comparison between "predicted" and "actual" series. Although results in this respect can still be very much improved, price regimes from this model are compared with a few actual long run observed series, and found to be similar. The paper briefly discuss the difficulty of such comparisons, which, because of the "sensitivity to initial condition", cannot be reduced to the simple point per point measurement of the discrepancy between "predicted" and "observed". Series must be characterized by global indices, such as moments or Fourrier spectrums. Most of these results very much contradict common wisdom. This is why they are interesting. More research is thus needed to specify the deep sources of this outcome and their political significance.

This wiiw report reviews the economic situation in the new EU member states, in the countries of Southeast Europe, in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine as well as in China. For each country, it provides a forecast relating to GDP growth, inflation, unemployment and current accounts in 2004 and 2005. The report is supplemented by an analysis of the challenges posed by European integration. The signs of a robust economic upswing in most countries of Central and Eastern Europe are overwhelming. Industrial output, construction, foreign trade and quarterly GDP figures confirm this development. The economic recovery in the 'old EU' (EU-15) has bolstered improvements in the business climate of Central and Eastern Europe. Moreover, in most of the countries in the region, economic growth has outstripped that in the EU-15; it is thus more in line with the comparatively positive growth figures recorded by the global economy as a whole. Central and Eastern Europe, together with Russia, Ukraine and China (the latter country has been included for the first time in our report), create every impression of having integrated fully into the global economy and added to its dynamics. That notwithstanding, if we disregard China, the other countries' contribution to global value-added is minimal. The major new feature is that (in addition to Cyprus and Malta) eight countries in Central and Eastern Europe joined the European Union on 1 May 2004 the so-called New Member States (NMS-8) - the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. A challenge to the enlarged Union's (EU-25) decision-making ability looms large. In the next two years the EU-25 will have to agree on a common financial perspective for the period 2007-2013. Enlargement has substantially widened income disparities within the EU; advancing towards cohesion has thus become a much more arduous undertaking. Enlargement of the euro zone poses another challenge. Of the NMS-8, only Estonia and Lithuania currently meet all the Maastricht convergence criteria. A brief study of foreign trade data reveals that in the Baltic States, foreign trade deficits are very high for goods even more so than for services. The NMS in Central Europe have a much better track record in this respect - or at least, they have re established their good record by recently introducing a series of currency depreciations. In many respects, the South-East European countries awaiting EU membership are heterogeneous. Three of them, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania, have acquired candidate status; their economies are characterized by relatively high growth. Economic recovery is also visible in West Balkan countries, in spite of political and structural problems. High growth in many of the low-income transition countries should not divert attention away from the shortcomings that still persist to a varying degree. Financial relations between the different types of economic agents are still unsound; the business infrastructure is not fully developed in terms of legislation, public administration and the judiciary system; high unemployment and the lack of social security are a seedbed for poverty, widespread petty crime and political instability. Finally, despite high GDP growth, structural distortions still characterize both Russia and Ukraine, whose economies continue to rely heavily on exports of crude oil as well as raw materials and semi-finished goods.

Since 1986, Vietnam has moved from a centrally planned towards a market-oriented system through several major economic and trade reforms. First positive results of the reform process became visible in the early 1990s when poverty declined significantly. The Vietnamese agricultural sector has also experienced high growth and impressive export achievements. The country changed from a food importer to one of the major exporters worldwide. The question arises to what extent support policies contributed to this growth, especially of the agricultural sector. To answer this question, domestic and trade policies in the agricultural sector are analysed and the market price support (MPS) and producer support estimates (PSEs) are calculated. To account for the special conditions in Vietnam, adjustments for country- and commodity-specific factors like transportation costs, marketing margins and the quality difference of exportables (or importables) at the border and domestically are included. Selected agricultural commodities for MPS and PSE calculation comprise rice, coffee, tea, rubber, pepper, sugar, groundnut, cashew nut and pig meat. Their shares in total output exceed 70% allowing for a generalization of the calculated PSEs, thus roughly representing the whole agricultural sector. The finding is that most agricultural products were taxed in the mid 1980s until the mid 1990s. This was mainly due to the dominance and monopoly position of the state-owned sector, restrictive trade policies like import and export quotas and licenses, and distorted markets and prices in the country. The domestic reform process and the opening of the economy since the early 1990s, however, impacted on the gaps between the domestic and international prices. Thus, since the mid 1990s, the net support of agriculture became positive and increased - but still reaching only rather moderate levels. This study of Vietnam is the third comprehensive review conducted within an IFPRI project on understanding and assessing domestic and trade policies in the agricultural sector in developing countries. The data are meant to deliver a basis for further trade-related research to be conducted in the future. ; Seit 1986 hat sich Vietnam infolge mehrerer größerer Wirtschafts- und Handelsreformen von einem zentral geplanten hin zu einem marktorientierten System entwickelt. Die ersten positiven Ergebnisse des Reformprozesses wurden Anfang der neunziger Jahre sichtbar, als die Armutszahlen deutlich zurückgingen. Zudem verzeichnete der vietnamesische Agrarsektor ein hohes Wachstum und beeindruckende Exporterfolge. Das Land wandelte sich von einem Nahrungsmittelimporteur zu einem der größten Exporteure weltweit. Es stellt sich die Frage, inwieweit politische Stützungsmaßnahmen zu diesem Wachstum, speziell im Agrarsektor, beitrugen. Zur Beantwortung dieser Frage werden innen- und handelspolitische Maßnahmen, die auf den Agrarsektor abzielen, untersucht und die Marktpreisstützung (MPS) sowie Produzentensubventionsäquivalente (PSEs) berechnet. Um den speziellen Bedingungen in Vietnam Rechnung zu tragen, werden Anpassungen für landes- und produktspezifische Faktoren vorgenommen, z.B. für Transportkosten, Marketingmargen und die Qualitätsunterschiede der Export- oder Importprodukte an der Grenze und im Inland. Zur Berechnung der MPS und PSEs wurden folgende Agrarerzeugnisse ausgewählt: Reis, Kaffee, Tee, Kautschuk, Pfeffer, Zucker, Erdnüsse, Cashewnüsse und Schweinefleisch. Da der Anteil dieser Produkte an der Gesamtproduktion mehr als 70% beträgt, lässt sich eine Verallgemeinerung der errechneten PSEs vornehmen, welche somit den gesamten Agrarsektor repräsentieren. Das Ergebnis zeigt, dass die meisten Agrarprodukte während der achtziger bis Mitte der neunziger Jahre besteuert wurden. Dies lag im Wesentlichen an der Dominanz und Monopolstellung des staatlichen Sektors, an einer restriktiven Handelspolitik durch Import- und Exportquoten und Lizenzen sowie an verzerrten Märkten und Preisen im Land. Der inländische Reformprozess und die Öffnung der Wirtschaft Anfang der neunziger Jahre beeinflussten jedoch die Diskrepanz zwischen Inlandspreisen und internationalen Preisen. So nahm seit Mitte der neunziger Jahre die Netto-Agrarunterstützung steigende positive Werte an, die sich allerdings immer noch auf vergleichsweise niedrigem Niveau bewegten. Diese umfassende Untersuchung von Vietnam ist die dritte Studie, die innerhalb eines IFPRI-Projektes vorgenommen wurde, und zum besseren Verständnis und zur Einschätzung innen- und handelspolitischer Maßnahmen im Agrarsektor in Entwicklungsländern beitragen soll. Die Studie ist auch als Datenbasis für künftige handelsbezogene Forschung zu verstehen.

Bibliography: leaves 79-84. ; Background: While there is a lot of literature available on the negative effects of orphanhood on children, litle attention has been paid to children in the period before their parents die when they are living with a sick parent. This study seeks to focus on such children to gain greater understanding of their situation. Aim: To describe the problems and coping strategies of children living with and caring for their terminally ill parents. Design: This study is a cross-sectional descriptive survey. Setting: A rural district in a middle-income country. Main outcome measures: Demography of households, symptoms of the sick parent, attributes of child carers, how children deal with specified symptoms of their parent's illness, greatest perceived hardships faced, type and quantity of help from outside sources and extended family. Results: Thirty five households were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Households were found to be poor with difficulty accessing services. Most parents had symptoms consistent with AIDS and over 30% died within two months of the interview. Pain ranked as the most troublesome symptom. One hundred children aged four to eighteen were involved to some extent in the care of their sick parents. Male children were the main carers in 40% of households. The children generally dealt appropriately with the parents' symptoms and correcdy identified what pills they were taking and what the pills were for. Seventy one percent of carers believed that their parent would get better. The children identified their greatest hardships as hunger (43%), lack of money for school (29%) and parent's illness (19%). Sixty nine percent asked for material support and the same number reguested financial support for schooling. Support frum relatives was mostly provided by grandmothers and aunts. Five provided food, five cared for the sick person and three helped with child care. Ten of the 35 households were never visited by relatives staying outside the homestead. From the wider community, neighbours were the most supportive group practically, helping with food and nursing. Church groups were active in praying with families but most did not help materially or practically. Eight families received support from local non-governmental organisations and only two were visited by the Department of Welfare. Conclusions: Poverty was the overriding issue negatively impacting on the families. It prevented adequate access to health care, nutrition and schooling. Poor infrastructure and government services further compounded these problems as well as preventing access to water, sanitation, education and government grants. Children were often found to be caring for their parents with little external support and would benefit from training as well as supervision and counselling from trained health workers. The children's role as carers frequently interfered with school attendance yet many of their teachers were unaware of their home circumstances and did little to support them. Teachers' awareness of the social problems facing learners needs to be raised. Support by the extended family and community is often superficial and generally targets the sick parent while ignoring the children. Greater attention needs to be paid to the psychological and matenal needs of the children in these vulnerable families.

In this paper there will be made an attempt for a comparative political and economic evaluation of the European Monetary Union with the criterionof regional inequalities of the European Union. The national and the regional inequalities of the European Union will be analyzed under the framework of the policies of the European Monetary Union. Initially we will examine the regional dimension of the european unification on the basis of the European Union with 15 member-states(EU15).As criteria we select the different levels of economic development of the member-states examining the regional inequalities on a national level.On this basis we observ that the member states converge creating the "hard core of Europe" and the member states diverge from the average level of the development of the European Union determining the countries of "community cohesion". Next we apply the previous criteria to the EU27, in other words it is useful to research the inequalities of the levels of economic development, which result in the European Union, if all the other candidate countries would be able to be taken within the EU of 15 as is today.In the EU of 27 with the basis of per capita GNP exist three groups of countries instead of two as exist today. The first group consists of the present member states of the E15,except for Spain,Greece and Portugal of which the GNP per capita exceeds by 20% the new weighted average of the EU27. the second group consists of the present member states of community cohesion ,i.e. Spain greece and Portugal plus Cyprus,Czechia,and Malta with per capita GNP between 68%(Czechia)and 95%(Spain) of the averege of the EU27. The third group consists of the remaining eight candidate countries with GNP per capita below 40% of the average of the EU27,with the exemption of Slovakia and Hungaria of which the GNP per capita lies between 56%-58% of the average of the EU27. Therefore,the expected expansion with the complex inequalities will result in a big challenge for the European regional policy, and the policy of the economic and social cohesion. First,the expansion will more than double the population of the European Union that lives in regions with GNP per capita below of the 75%of the present average of the EU.This number will raise from 71 million at the present to 174 million of people or different stated from 19% of the total of 15 to 36% of the total of EU27. Second the scale and the size of regional inequalities will be increased. Therefore in 1998 for the less development regions of the EU 15 the per capita GNP was on average 65%of the average of the EU15.With the expansion the GNP per capita of the less development regions of the candidate countries was on the 37% of the average of EU15. Therefore, the co-existence of the poor and rich regions within the eu 27 will make the regional inequalities more complex in this part of the Union which consists of poor countries.We make possibly find ourselves in a new allocation of poverty. Finally,we will attempt to achieve the necessary interventions between the EU15 and the EU27, researching the modern problems of the EU under the expected expansion of the European Union.

SUMARIO / SUMMARY 1.- Editorial Jornadas de reflexión sobre la obra geográfica de Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas Journeys of reflection on Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas geographical work Trinca Fighera, Delfina 2.- Artículos / Papers Desarrollo histórico del sistema urbano venezolano: modelos de organización The historical development of the venezuelan urban system: models of development Amaya Hernández, Carlos Andrés La variable ambiental urbana: nociones generales y ámbitos de aplicación en Venezuela The urban environment variable: general notions and models of application in Venezuela Pérez Maldonado, Alberto Venezuela: migración neta y delimitación de áreas de atracción y repulsión en el curso del siglo XX Net migration and delimitation of areas of population atraction and repulsion in the course of the twentieth century in Venezuela Ramos Ojeda, Oswaldo Calidad de vida y capacidades humanas Quality of life and human capabilities Camargo Mora, María Gabriela Dimensión territorial de la pobreza Territorial dimension of poverty Muñoz Lagos, Carlos A. La educación: ¿Instrumento para mejorar la calidad de vida? Education: tool for the enhancement of the quality of life Boada Jiménez, Ceres Isabel Riesgos sobre la salud asociados a las actividades agrícolas. Un caso de estudio de la geografía rural Risks associated with agricultural activities. A study case of rural geography Sandia Rondón, Luis Alfonso; Cabeza Díaz, Miguel; Arandia, Jhonny; Bianchi B., Guillermo Ingreso petrolero y redistribución política y espacial del poder y los recursos en Venezuela Oil income and political and spatial redistribution of power and economic resources in Venezuela Rojas Salazar, Andrés José 3.- Notas y Documentos / Notes and Documents Vigencia de los estudios de regionalización Validity of regionalization studies Gutiérrez Escalona, Orlando Los estudios políticos territoriales dentro de la geografía política Territorial political studies inside political geography Méndez Vergara, Elías Antonio; Valbuena Gómez, Jóvito La geografía urbana en Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas Urban geography in Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas Amaya Hernández, Carlos Andrés Obra cartográfica de Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas en el occidente de Venezuela Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas´s cartographic work in western Venezuela Rivas Dávila, Antonio Trabajos especiales de grado tutoriados o asesorados por Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas entre 1966 y 1988. Escuela de Geografía Special graduation papers tutored and addvised by Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas between 1966 and 1988. Geography School Boada Jiménez, Ceres Isabel; Delgado de Bravo, María Teresa; Amaya Hernández, Carlos Andrés Bio-bibliografía de Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas Bio-bibliography of Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas Boada Jiménez, Ceres Isabel; Delgado de Bravo, María Teresa La concepción de subdesarrollo en Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas The conception of underdevelopment in Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas Trinca Fighera, Delfina La erudición del silencio o la pasión geográfica de Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas silence erudition or the geographic passion Rojas López, José Jesús 4.- Bibliografía Crítica / Books Review Chaves Vargas, Luis Fernando: Pensamiento geográfico de un maestro: obras inéditas del Dr. Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas Chaves Vargas, Luis Fernando: Geographic thinking of master: unpublished writers of the Dr. Luis Fernando Chaves Vargas Reseñado por: Delgado de Bravo, María Teresa Chaves Vargas, Luis Fernando: Geografía Social de Venezuela Chaves Vargas, Luis Fernando: Social geography of Venezuela Reseñando por: Boada Jiménez, Ceres Isabel Índice Acumulado Accumulated Index ; 325-327 ; melias@ula.ve ; semestral ; Nivel analítico

The South African economy is currently characterised by high levels of unemployment, abject poverty, high illiteracy, low productivity and low international competitiveness. It is also struggling to attract and retain foreign direct investment and portfolio investments. Amidst this situation, the formal sector is also continuously shedding jobs. Furthermore, the formal sector absorption capacity is steadily declining as is apparent over the past three decades, where formal the absorption capacity declined from approximately 75 per cent to about three per cent currently. Related to this is the fact that although the South African economy is growing, even at the currently low levels, it seems to be one that can be described as 'jobless growth'. Hence, currently unemployed individuals and future job seekers will be more and more dependent on 'creating employment for themselves' than to merely be able to find a job in the formal sector of the economy. The need thus exists to create a situation where the entrepreneurial flair of individuals must be developed, supported and encouraged. In other words, the need for building capacity to encourage small business development, especially within the previously disadvantaged groups in South Africa, is of paramount importance to the development and long-term survival of the South African economy. Issues such as the absence or limited availability of social safety nets in South Africa, reinforces the dire need for self-employment, growth and development. This will also largely decrease the state of dependency of a large percentage of people, either unemployed or potentially unemployed. Furthermore, the development of entrepreneurial behaviour will lead to the extension of labour market skills and will also combat the possible obsoleteness of current skills due prolonged periods of unemployment. The SME sector is continuously considered as one of the most viable means to create employment and well-being in the South African economy. A business in general, whether micro, small or medium, which produces goods and services that are in demand, will have the over-arching aim of generating income for its owners or operators. It is therefore easy to understand that it is the initiative of a person or persons that leads to the creation of a formal entity and it is the amalgamation of all the individual entities, big or small, that determines the state, nature and direction of a country's economy. South Africa is no different in this scenario. The South African government also realises that SMEs are the logical 'kick-start' mechanism to job creation and future prosperity in the country, therefore the attitude of government has changed significantly towards allowing new opportunities for entrepreneurs. The main concern is that the majority of small businesses do not remain competitive for long enough to pass on the benefits to their respective communities and the economy in general. The main purpose of the paper will be to place the South African regional economy in perspective. Secondly, to provide a better understanding of SME operations in the South Africa regional milieu, especially in ascertaining to what extent an enabling environment is created for SME business entrepreneurs to flourish and prosper. Thirdly, will be the aim to identify where the pit-falls are and which type of constructive support can be developed to assist small business entrepreneurs in their endeavour to set up a formal business and to continue it as a successful going concern.

The aim of the thesis is - to assess equity in the provision, financing and utilization of health services in the study counties, after the launching of the Chinese health reform, in relation to income and health status, - to assess equity in utilization, financial barriers to care and poverty impact and the association of financial variables; alternative health insurance systerns and out-of-pocket financing and the association of non-financial variables; gender, age, education, occupation and geographical distance to health facilities. The data collection was carried out from 1993 to 1996. Retrospective, cross-sectional and panel data were collected in an expenditure review, a household survey (n=5756) and a provider survey (n=1064). The health expenditure review was designed as a natural experiment with 'twin' counties, one insurance-based and one out-of-pocket funded. The data sources were health accounts and interviews with officials in two of the counties. The household and provider surveys were based on multi-stage sampling. The provider survey involved health staff at county hospitals, township hospitals and village health stations and included curative, preventative and traditional medicine. Triangulation of methods and perspectives improved validity. The analysis was based on quantitative methods, including multivariate analysis. The study has shown that after the launching of the Chinese health reform (around 1985), the mix of health services shifted to less preventative and more curative services and a higher proportion of tertiary curative services. This was more pronounced in the insurance-based county. The majority of clinical doctors confirmed moral hazard by admitting that they alter prescriptions with consideration to the patients' financial status. A high level of inequity in illness, health care utilization, financing and financial difficulties was observed. Inequity in utilization was related to income, health insurance coverage and age. Registration at birth is a precondition for equal access. A gender bias was found in the high number of unregistered girls in five of the six counties, actual number of girls under 18 years at home exceeded the number reported in pregnancy histories by 22%. The elderly (8. 1% of the population) utilized a disproportionally small share (4%) of inpatient services. The ratio of negative pregnancy outcomes (miscarriage or still birth) increased by 170% from 1985-89 to 1990-95, while utilization of hospital delivery and qualified delivery supervision decreased. More than 90% of CMS (Cooperative Medical System) participants had qualified delivery supervision. The risk of adverse outcomes was 4.5 times higher for out-of-pocket paying mothers than for mothers with health insurance. CMS was associated with better health, three times less risk of illness with a duration of at least one month, five times less risk of financial difficulties and half the risk of care-induced debt. Other health insurance systerns were associated with higher costs, without reducing barriers to care or improving health. It is suggested that equity has ethical, political and fiscal aspects. The decreasing share of public financing of health services signals a need to involve the Ministry of Finance in discussions how to ensure adequate levels of public funding for rural health care. Professional norms and ethics need to be revived with the objective of creating a health system with quality-oriented incentives and improved equity.

In this paper it will be made an attempt for a comparative political and economy evaluation of the European Integration with the criterion of regional inequalities of the european Union. The problem of the European Integration will be analyzed on the basis of national and regional inequalities of the European Union. Initially we will examine the regional dimension of the European unification on the asis of the European Union with 15 member-states (EU15). As criteria we select the different levels of economic development of the member-states examining the regional inequalities at national level. On this basis we obsserve that the member states converge creating the "hard core of Europe" and the member states diverge from the average level of the development of the European Union so that determining the countries of "community cohesion". Next we apply the previous criteria to the EU27,in other words it is useful to research the inequalities of the levels of economic development,which rrresult in the European Union,if all the others candidate countries would be able to be taken within the EI of 15 as is today. In the EU of 27 with the basis of per capita GNP exist three groups of countries instead of two as exist today. The first group it consists of the present member-states of the EU15,except Spain,Greece and Portugal of which the GNP per capita exceeds by 20% the new weighted average of the EU27. The second group it consists of the present member states of community cohesion, i.e. Spain Greece and Portugal plus Cyprus,Czechia, and Malta with percapita GNP between 68%(Czechia) and 95% (Spain) of the average of the EU27. The third group it consists of the remaining eight (8) candidate countries with GNP per capita below of the 40% of the average of the EU27, with the exemption of Slovakia and Hungary og which the GNP per capita lies between 56%-58% of the average of the EU27. Therefore, the expected expansion with the complex inequalities, will result a big challenge for the European regional policy, and the policy of the economic and social cohesion. First, the expansion will make more than double the population of the European Union that lives with GNP per capita below of the 75% of the present average of the EU.This number will raise from 71 million at the present to 174 million of people or different stated from 19% of the total of EU15 to 36% of the total of EU27. Second, the scale and the size of regional inequalities will be increased. Therefore, in the 1998 for the less developed regionsn the EU15 the per capita GNPwas an average of the EU15. With the expansion, the GNP per capita of the less developed regions of the candidata countries was on the 37% of the average of EU15. Therefore the co-existence of the poor and rich regions within the EU27 will make the regional inequalities more complex in this part of the Union which consists of poor countries. We may possibly will find ourselves in a new allocation of poverty. Finally, we will attempt to achieve the necessary interventions between the EU15 and the EU27, researching the modern problems of the EU under the expected expansion of the European Union.