Economic growth, job creation, and development are central to the decade of transformation (2015-25) and long-term security for the people of Afghanistan. The Bank and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GoIRA) recognize that agriculture and rural development are a key to inclusive growth, and hence need renewed vigor and strategic long-term investments. Further, the Bank and the GoIRA acknowledge that increases in agricultural productivity and market access for smallholders are critical for rural development, job creation, and food security in Afghanistan. Sections two and three of this report describe the agricultural sector and its current and potential roles in the Afghan economy, and present the rationale for choosing certain areas and subsectors for a selective 'first mover' strategy to achieve early gains. Section four outlines the constraints and potential in each of the three value chains proposed for the selective strategy, irrigated wheat, intensive livestock production, and horticulture. Section five describes cross-cutting constraints and how best to address them, and Section six proposes measures to help the rural poor who will not benefit much from the first-mover strategy. Section seven summarizes the recommendations of the review and their expected results for jobs and incomes.
Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth has slowed to a nine year low of 6.5 percent for FY2011-12, from 8.4 percent in the two previous years. The slowdown was most pronounced in the industrial sector, and more specifically in manufacturing and mining. In the quarter ending in June 2012, industrial output growth as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) has been negative. The contraction was particularly pronounced in the production of capital goods, which is in line with falling investment demand on the expenditure side of the National Accounts. The current account deficit reached a record 4.2 percent of GDP in FY2011-12, because of decelerating export growth and high crude prices. Merchandise exports grew by 41 percent in September 2011, but their growth slowed to 2 percent by August 2012 (measured as 12-months cumulative exports compared with the same 12 months of the previous year). Inflation reached 7.6 percent in August 2012. This represents a marked slowdown since September 2011, but there has been an uptick in food prices in recent months. Also, higher domestic prices for fuel, which are necessary to rein in spending on subsidies, will contribute to inflationary pressure. Inflation is therefore expected to reach 8 percent at end-March 2013. Real GDP growth is forecast to reach around 6.0 percent in FY2012-13, after 5.3 percent growth Q4 of FY2011-12 and 5.5 percent growth in Q1 of FY2012-13. The slowdown is at least partly caused by structural problems. These include power shortages, which are partly caused by the financial difficulties facing the electricity sector as discussed in the special topic section of this update, the corruption scandals that have hit the mining and telecom sectors, investor uncertainty because of pending changes in legislation (mining, taxes, land acquisition), and the tightening constraints of land and infrastructure. Tighter macroeconomic policies, slow growth in the core Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, and worries about another global recession also weigh on growth. Important signals to revive domestic growth drivers to lift sentiment more than produce instant efficiency gains could come from reforms recently announced and, more importantly, the reform of direct taxes, the implementation of the long-delayed Goods and Services Tax (GST), and passage of the land acquisition and mining bills. This update also looks closely at two important topics for medium- and long-term growth, namely India's Right to Education (RTE) Act, which aims to shape elementary education, and the financial difficulties in the Indian power sector.
Although the link between improved infrastructure services and economic growth is uncertain, it is clear that reforms aimed at creating competition and regulating natural monopolies establish an environment conducive to private sector participation, incentives for companies to strive for efficiency savings that can ultimately be passed on to consumers, and greater provision of services (such as faster roll-out of infrastructure or innovative solutions to service delivery for customers not connected to an existing network). In determining the form that infrastructure restructuring might undertake or the design of a regulatory agency, policymakers can generally benefit from a review of the experiences of other countries. A key element of any decision making process should be a review of how the various types of reform will affect the efficiency of the sector and whether they will increase private financing of its significant investment needs.
The Philippine Economic Update (PEU) provides an update on key economic and social developments, as well as policies over the past six months. It also presents findings from recent World Bank studies on the Philippines. It places them in a longer term and global context, and assesses the implications of these developments and policies on the outlook for the Philippines. Its coverage ranges from the macro-economy and financial markets to indicators of human welfare and development. It is intended for a wide audience, including policymakers, business leaders, financial market participants, and the community of analysts and professionals engaged in the Philippines. Poverty reduction is expected to continue if the country is able to maintain the relatively high economic growth and the more positive job trends in recent years, despite recent shocks to agriculture. Recent trends show an improvement in the country's growth-poverty elasticity, which means growth is becoming more inclusive. However, the recent increase in the underemployment rate and weak agricultural output in 2016 will need to be countered by sustained increase in per capita income growth and a continued focus on supporting the structurally poor through effective social protection programs. Under these assumptions, extreme poverty is projected to further decrease from nine percent in 2014 to 6.8 percent in 2018.
The Malaysian economy maintained a vigorous pace in the first nine months of 2012 despite external headwinds. Continuing a trend in the past two years, Malaysia's stronger-than-expected Gross Domestic Product, or GDP growth in the first nine months of 2012 was driven by rapid expansion of domestic demand while external demand (and export-oriented industries) stagnated due to continuing global uncertainty. Malaysia's low participation of women in labor markets is linked to a pattern whereby women do not return to work after marriage and childbearing. Education alone is not sufficient to close gender gaps as social norms and formal institutions continue to affect the choices of all women. In the long-term, norms need to evolve for gender gaps to be bridged; in the meantime measures can be put in place to help men and women balance responsibilities. Changing prevailing social norms takes time. In the medium-term, supportive measures at all stages of the life-cycle can be put in place, ranging from flexi-work arrangements and expanded childcare options, to incentives for more female participation in 'non-female' educational fields and job types. While current initiatives to leverage on women's talent are laudable, other policy options must be explored, evaluated, and tailored, to enable Malaysian women to fully contribute to Malaysia's transformation towards a high-income, inclusive and sustainable economy.
IntroductionThe Report that the AIB has decided to publish starting from this year aims at presenting, even if synthetically, the main characteristics of an overview of Italian libraries, each time pointing out the questions, tendencies and some of the events that are of most interest to those who are interested in the development of the library service in our country.When it is proposed to describe a national picture of the situation of the libraries of the various types (public, university, state, scholastic, ecclesiastic, private, etc.) one finds oneself before the almost total absence of comparable and trustworthy organic information. Using the various sources available, it is possible to estimate with a certain approximation that the over 15,000 Italian libraries (in which approximately 20,000 people work) possess almost 200 million documents, that they acquire annually almost 7 million books, that their annual users are little less than 10 million and the loans made are around 65 million. It is believed that in the year 2001 the running costs exceeded 1000 billion lire, of which a little more than 10% were destined to the purchase of documents.LegislationThe year 2001 was rich in new details with regard to the sector of legislation for libraries. This was also due to the effect of the constitutional reforms and the new scenarios relative to the responsibilities and federalist arrangement of the State.Regulations of particular importance for libraries and indirectly linked to the overall institutional situation are those contained in the law of 28 December 2001, no. 448 (finance law 2002). This prescribes that the management of services aimed at the improvement of the public use and development of the artistic patrimony (and therefore also of the state libraries) can be entrusted to subjects other than those of the state. It also introduces an art. 113 bis in the sole text of the laws on the organization of local bodies (legislative decree 18 August 2000, no. 267), on the basis of which "local public services without industrial importance are managed through direct entrusting to: a) institutions; b) special businesses, including consortiums; c) joint-stock companies" and only as a residual solution (paragraph 2) "is economic management permitted when, due to the small dimensions or the characteristics of the service, it is not opportune to proceed to entrusting it to subjects as described in paragraph 1". Awaited on many sides as the chance to respond to a number of the age-old problems that have afflicted the sector of state public libraries for decades, the new organization regulations of the Ministry for cultural and artistic heritage, issued with the Presidential Decree of 29 December 2000, no. 441, actually only indicate, without solving, some fundamental questions that regard the sector, postponing their settlement, without any time limits, to subsequent second degree regulations.As regards the more strictly library themes of interest, the necessity to solve the problems of the legal deposit drove the AIB to revive the bill proposal, which had already been discussed and had arrived at the threshold of final approval in Parliament in the 13th legislature.During the year 2001, moreover, the European Parliament and the European Union Council finally approved the Directive 2001/29/CE, that aims at integrating the laws of the member countries regarding reproduction rights, rights of communication of works to the public and distribution rights, in reference to those works, on every kind of medium, including digital medium, subject to authors' rights. Art. 5 provides the faculty of member states to order exceptions and limitations to the above mentioned rights, to guarantee the right balance between authors' rights and other social interests. This article furthermore contains the "exceptions" that are to the advantage of libraries or of didactics and scientific research.Cooperation and consortiumsThe last two years have shown considerable progress in the field of cooperation activities, confirming also in Italy the current tendencies at international level. These developments generally - but with different nuances - regard various types of libraries and involve different sectors of activity, from those already established (such as cataloguing and purchases) to emerging activities, more directly linked with the diffusion of Internet (management and development of digital resources, etc.).Access to information and the development of electronic collections are surely the areas that are most involved in the new cooperation initiatives. The university sector is that which demonstrates most vitality in this area, but a certain recent enterprise of state and public libraries should be noted. The initiatives promoted by two large university computer consortiums should also be mentioned: the Cilea and Caspur.The CiBit project for digitalisation, archiving and networking, with a special research interface for Italian literature texts should be noted.In Italian universities, as in other developed countries, the idea of creating alternative models of academic electronic publishing is being increasingly encouraged: in this field mention must be made of the initiative of the University of Florence with the Firenze University Press project.On-line cataloguesThe catalogues of Italian libraries available through Internet number 420. For the year 2001 growth stabilized around 15% and mainly regarded the local body systems, the libraries of which cover municipal or provincial areas.The Italian university OPACs (On line Public Access Catalog) form approximately 40% of the total.National Library Service (SBN) and national projectsIn the last two years the SBN network has been established as the largest public network of libraries in Italy, both due to the number of libraries participating and to the considerable increase in the information in the catalogue: at the end of the year 2001 the libraries numbered approximately 1400, the size of the national collective catalogue was 5,500,000 titles (corresponding to approximately 12 million localizations, that is mentions of the presence of the works in the participating libraries). Daily hits, also as a result of the availability on Internet of the catalogue, are currently on average 160,000 on weekdays, with high points on some days of over 200,000 hits.Other cooperation projects are underway in the field of antique books and manuscripts.The Anagrafe delle biblioteche italiane (Registry of Italian libraries) data base, it too available for consultation on Internet, provides an instrument of general information on the patrimonies, services to the public and specializations of approximately 12,500 libraries.But it is "SBN on line" that has really marked a further step forward towards the improvement of the services: from a single access point, with identical modalities, users can consult catalogues of different institutions (libraries, archives, museums); they can compile a bibliography according to their own specific requirements by integrating information sources; they can also locate documents and ask for them on loan or in reproduced form.Formation, occupation and professionItaly also considers university formation as the basis for the initial preparation of librarians. In the nineties especially, the degree course in Preservation of Cultural Heritage was a source of considerable attraction among young people and in the year 2000/01 it ended up having over 23,000 students registered in the 17 universities offering the course as well as almost 3,000 registered in various related diploma courses (Operators of Cultural Heritage), for a total of 26,339 students. As a whole this is a small sector with respect to all university education (1.6% of the total of students, 2% of those enrolled, 0.6% of those graduated or having obtained diplomas), but a large group with respect to the degree or diploma "arts" group into which it is statistically inserted (16% of those registered, 23% of those enrolled and 7% of those graduated or having obtained diplomas).In the year 2000/01, the first year of the "3+2" university reform, among the 42 first level degree classes, that in Sciences of Cultural Heritage is at the 12th place as regards number of enrolled (9079) and is generally in the first place among the characteristic courses in the Arts Faculty (in the order Arts, Sciences and technologies of figurative arts, of music, entertainment and fashion, Philosophy, Historical Sciences). Sixty-six percent of the students in the degree courses in the archive-library field are female.As a whole the number of students registered is certainly greatly increased with the new courses (9079 enrolled in 2001/02 as against the 5920 of the previous year, +53%). The current offer is of 71 courses in 41 universities: among these, 9 (in a like number of universities) are specifically dedicated to the formation of librarians and archivists, while 33, 2 of which by distance-learning, have a general nature (18 with a specialization for librarians and archivists), and 29 regard other specific sectors (artistic, archaeological, musical, etc., heritage ). Overall, there are therefore at least 27 courses aimed at the formation of librarians, in 26 universities and with locations in 25 different cities.Those who graduated in Cultural Heritage have up to now obtained rapid and effective insertion into the world of work, initially above all with assistance initiatives or contract jobs but also with permanent employment, demonstrating among other things their capacity to temporarily or permanently exploit employment opportunities even in related fields (publishing, multimedia production, Web services, communications, etc.).Generally speaking, the offer of long-term employment in public administration is about 180 positions per year. The main employers are the local bodies, with 64%, followed by the Universities with 27%. Absent for years now is the Ministry for Cultural Heritage (except for two small competitions in 1998 and 1999); some offers come from the sector of research (institutions of the CNR and other bodies, for 7% in the three-year period under consideration), and exceptionally from other public bodies.From the point of view of geographic distribution, the vast majority of the jobs offered is in the North (72%, as against 11% in the Centre and 17% in the South and in the islands), and the percentage exceeds 80% for places in the local bodies: about half of the jobs offered by Italian local bodies are in the region of Lombardy; this is followed at a great distance by Emilia Romagna and then the Veneto region. In the universities, the distribution is a little less unbalanced, again with Lombardy in the first place but with a good offer also in regions of the Centre (Lazio) or of the South (Campania, Puglia).The offer of contract employment or with assistance positions is very active, both through competitions and screening for contract jobs in public administrations and through the search for assistants by service companies, mainly in the field of cataloguing, and of library structures: we can consider that through these forms of selection approximately 300 persons per year find temporary employment.The Italian Libraries Association and the Professional RegisterAn indicator of the dynamism of the profession is given also by the activity of the Italian Libraries Association (AIB) which, during the year 2000 extended to include all twenty Italian regions and considerably increased its number of members: 4407 members (+2% with respect to the previous year). This shows a much larger and clearer growth than that of employment in the sector, which therefore testifies to a greater group thrust, of "self-recognition" and identification, while a considerable number of occasional registrations remain: these are not renewed with any continuity.Since 1998, the AIB manages the Italian Professional Register of librarians, a private register that was established along the lines indicated by the European directives on the recognition of professional titles and by the bills on the unrecognised professions presented in the last legislatures but not yet approved. On 31 December 2001 the Register had 566 qualified librarians enrolled, 160 of which enrolled during the last year.The following persons co-operated to this work: Giovanni Solimine (Introduction); Luca Bellingeri, Gianni Lazzari (Law); Anna Maria Mandillo (Law, SBN and national projects); Gabriele Mazzitelli, Serafina Spinelli (Academic library systems); Tommaso Giordano (Cooperation and consortia); Antonella De Robbio (Italian OPACs); Vanni Bertini (Automation systems in Italy); Alberto Petrucciani (Training, employment and profession). ; Hanno collaborato alla redazione del Rapporto: Giovanni Solimine (Introduzione); Luca Bellingeri, Gianni Lazzari (Legislazione); Anna Maria Mandillo (Legislazione, SBN e progetti nazionali); Gabriele Mazzitelli, Serafina Spinelli (Sistemi bibliotecari di ateneo); Tommaso Giordano (Cooperazione e consorzi); Antonella De Robbio (OPAC italiani); Vanni Bertini (Sistemi di automazione in Italia); Alberto Petrucciani (Formazione, occupazione e professione).
Introduction: Tradition and Change: Many of the well established Western European pharmaceutical wholesalers are companies with strong local traditions and roots dating back for several decades and more. GEHE Pharma Handel GmbH, one of the top pharmaceutical wholesalers in Germany, was celebrating its 175th birthday in 2010. AAH Pharmaceuticals Ltd., the UK's leading distributor of pharmaceutical and healthcare products, was established in 1923, and Herba Chemosan Apotheker-AG, Austria's largest pharmaceutical service and trading company, was established in 1916 as a cooperative from pharmacists for pharmacists. But having years to add does not equal getting old, as we will see in the course of this study. The times of transformation free eras have long gone, stability is not the norm anymore and the challenges being faced today are completely different. The globalisation of markets and competition has forced and still 'is forcing firms to make dramatic improvements not only to compete and prosper but also to merely survive'. For many reasons, which will be detailed throughout this study, pharmaceutical wholesalers across Europe have been facing the need for improvements to secure sustainability and growth. In addition, 'there has been significant consolidation of pharmaceutical wholesalers in Europe … affecting not only the distribution of market share but also the strategic orientation of the surviving firms'. Healthcare in Transition: Not only within the European Union but also across the entire OECD countries, healthcare is one of the largest industries with a dominant position in terms of job creation and a dynamic force in terms of innovation. Despite significant achievements in the health status of populations, concerns prevail on how resources are used in healthcare and how to guarantee an efficient and effective use of modern medicine. The weight of healthcare expenses in relation to GDP has increased the demand to harmonise internationally different definitions and improve the cross-national comparability of data on healthcare expenses. Consequently, the OECD has developed the 'System of Health Accounts'. This manual provides a common framework and supports the international comparison of healthcare data across countries and over time. A combination of medical progress, demographic changes and shifting social expectations are the major drivers of increasing health expenditures in developed countries. Within the EU-15, spending for healthcare has a significant share in percent of GDP. In 2005, the average healthcare spending in the EU-15 was 8.3% of GDP, leading to an increased dominance of expense controls (Figure 1:Total spending on healthcare in % of GDP (2006)). The pharmaceutical market is an integrated part of the overall healthcare market and driven by innovation and milestone improvements as is the overall healthcare market. The pharmaceutical market is the major reference market for the pharmaceutical wholesale industry. The standing and weight of the pharmaceutical market is expressed in the pharmaceutical quota. The pharmaceutical quota reflects the ratio of pharmaceutical expenses in comparison to the overall expenses for healthcare (Figure 2: Pharmaceutical expenditure in % of total health expenditure (2006)). Pharmaceutical expenditure varies significantly across Europe with a record share of 31.9% of total health expenditure in Hungary. The focus on pharmaceutical spending has become of growing importance, as governments are increasingly facing budget problems in financing healthcare activities for their citizens. The prices of established medicines are generally declining over their life cycle but pharmaceutical spending is triggered by non-cyclical trends, such as increasing life expectancy in industrialised nations and the introduction of new and innovative medicines at increased costs. The global pharmaceutical market will continue to grow and drugs will still be perceived as an efficient method of treatment compared with other types of medical care (Figure 3: Life expectancy in years at birth (2008)). Total spending on healthcare in relation to GDP and life expectancy is still relatively low in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). However, the higher share of spending in pharmaceuticals can be interpreted as reduced spending on other forms of treatment and thereby increasing the importance of pharmaceuticals. Reduced average life expectancy in CEE shows that there is still a need to draw level with the rest of Europe. These trends will ultimately support the growth of pharmaceutical markets but further increase the pressure on local governments to finance additional healthcare. Research Objectives: Pharmaceutical wholesale distribution is an unknown area for the general public, and very often for other players in the healthcare market and politicians too. Little is known about this vital business-to-business link between pharmaceutical production at the beginning and dispensing of drugs at the end of the supply chain. Pharmaceutical wholesale distribution has a long-history in Europe and repeatedly proved to be the most efficient bridge between production and point of sale (PoS) or point of dispensing (PoD). Within the last years, the topic of changes in European healthcare has become of ever growing importance. The pace of change has increased exponentially in some countries. In a functioning healthcare system, pharmaceutical wholesalers are fully embedded and thus significantly affected by a changing environment. Risks and opportunities go hand in hand while governments are changing their policies in healthcare spending, pharmaceutical manufacturers are changing their mode of operating and patients and consumers are changing their ways of receiving or buying pharmaceuticals. The aim of this master thesis is to highlight the role of pharmaceutical full-line wholesalers, to give detailed analyses of an ever-changing healthcare world and map out the most relevant threats and opportunities for European full-line pharmaceutical wholesalers. Structure: This master thesis comprises of five chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to European healthcare and explains the purpose of this thesis. Chapter 2 focuses on the definition of full-line pharmaceutical wholesalers, the specific functions they hold within the pharmaceutical supply chain, and the value added they provide. Chapter 3 investigates the major trends leading to a changing healthcare environment, evaluating the effects of changing demographic compositions, governments' needs to restrict healthcare spending and the consequences on pharmaceutical wholesalers. Chapter 4 deals with opportunities of growth to sustain the success of European pharmaceutical wholesalers in the long run: strategies for liberalising markets, the creation of value added services, vertical integration and the need to grow outside Europe are on display. Chapter 5, finally, summarises the findings of the master thesis. Data Source: Data for the analysis is mainly based on European drivers of healthcare systems. Analysis on national and corporate level has been included where applicable. Global research data, with a special focus on Brazil, Russia, China and India, has been analysed for the purpose of evaluating growth strategies for pharmaceutical wholesalers outside Europe. The reviewed literature has been published by first-in-class experts in healthcare such as IMS Health, the world's leading provider of market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, GIRP, the umbrella organisation of pharmaceutical full-line wholesalers in Europe, OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and high-ranking consulting corporations such as Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and The Boston Consulting Group. A diverse set of sources was used to provide a comprehensive analysis on changing healthcare markets and the threats and opportunities for pharmaceutical wholesalers.Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents: 1.INTRODUCTION9 1.1TRADITION AND CHANGE9 1.2HEALTHCARE IN TRANSITION10 1.3RESEARCH OBJECTIVES14 1.4STRUCTURE15 1.5DATA SOURCE15 2.PHARMACEUTICAL WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTION17 2.1PHARMACEUTICAL SUPPLY CHAIN17 2.2FULL-LINE PHARMACEUTICAL WHOLESALERS18 2.3SHORT-LINE PHARMACEUTICAL WHOLESALERS19 2.4FUNCTIONS OF PHARMACEUTICAL WHOLESALERS20 2.4.1Bridging of Distances21 2.4.2Bridging of Time22 2.4.3Quantity Function22 2.4.4Quality Function24 2.4.5Services creating Added Value26 2.4.6Coverage27 3.HEALTHCARE IN TRANSITION29 3.1CHANGINGDEMOGRAPHIC COMPOSITION29 3.2CHALLENGES IN HEALTHCARE FUNDING33 3.3COST-DRIVEN CHANGES34 3.3.1Generic Market Penetration34 3.3.2Price Erosion38 3.4STRUCTURAL ALTERATIONS IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL SUPPLY CHAIN41 3.4.1Direct Deliveries42 3.4.2Public Service Obligation46 3.4.3Certified Supply Chain47 3.5TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS IN CEE49 3.5.1The Post-Semaskho Era49 3.5.2Informal Payments and Corruption51 4.SUSTAINABLE GROWTH55 4.1OUTSOURCING55 4.2VALUE ADDED SERVICES58 4.3VERTICAL INTEGRATION59 4.3.1Sweden Abolishes Pharmacy Monopoly60 4.3.2Legislation61 4.4COOPERATION MODELS66 4.5PHARMERGING MARKETS69 5.CONCLUSION73Textprobe:Text Sample: Chapter 2.1, Pharmaceutical Supply Chain: Although the pharmaceutical supply chain has different peculiarities depending on national legislations and market structures, a general supply chain organisation exists and is to a large extent valid across Europe. Figure 4 shows that the origins of the pharmaceutical supply chain are at the manufacturing level. Pre-wholesaling is a preliminary stage of wholesaling and usually covers the logistics processes that have been outsourced by manufacturers. Phoenix, one of the three large pan-European pharmaceutical trading companies, explains the growing importance of pre-wholesale activities: 'Today, there is not a single country in Europe where it is not in manufacturers' interests to outsource their entire distribution and logistics requirements, whether for drugs, medical products or veterinary pharmaceuticals, to a specialist company operating within an efficient pharmaceutical logistical system. This logistics partner takes over responsibility for distribution to all wholesalers.' In addition to basic logistical services, such as the professional storage and transportation in accordance with legislation and special requirements for handling drugs, pre-wholesalers offer tailor-made solutions to the pharmaceutical industry. Tailor-made solutions include among others the tracking of medicine deliveries, monitoring of temperature, humidity and exposure to light, and country specific packaging and labelling. 2.2, Full-line Pharmaceutical Wholesalers: Distribution of pharmaceuticals is the core business of full-line pharmaceutical wholesalers. They provide the most important link between pharmaceutical manufacturing and the point of sale (PoS) and point of dispensing (PoD). 'The activity of pharmaceutical full-line wholesaling consists of the purchase, warehousing, storage, order preparation and delivery of medicines. Pharmaceutical full-line wholesalers carry and distribute the complete assortment of products in range and depth within the framework set by the authorities and the market to meet the needs of those with whom they have normal business relations. In addition to delivering all medicines in their geographical area of activity on the same day/within less than 24 hours, pharmaceutical full-line wholesalers provide working capital and extended financing services, funding of stock and receivables of pharmacies and health care professionals'. Pharmaceutical wholesalers provide not only state-of-the-art logistics services but also a wide range of value added services to various stakeholders in healthcare. Tailor-made solutions for the pharmaceutical industry are becoming increasingly important and full-service support beyond logistics competencies has long been established for pharmacy customers. Value added services are no longer mere add-ons to the logistics services but are vital competitive assets. Wholesalers are not only creating benefits down-stream in the supply chain but also across the healthcare market including the final consumers of medicines. 2.3, Short-line Pharmaceutical Wholesalers: Another mode of wholesaling is provided by short-line wholesalers, which are the cherry pickers of pharmaceutical wholesaling. Short-liners restrain their product portfolio to a specific range of pharmaceuticals only. Consequently, they benefit significantly from a narrow financially driven product portfolio and slim cost structures. By contrast, full-line wholesalers offer the entire spectrum of medicines in order to guarantee supply and to support the health of the population. Service offers from short-line wholesalers are either minimal or not existing. National governments usually strive to achieve three targets concerning the pharmaceutical supply chain: drug safety, security of supply and quality of supply. Short-line wholesalers cannot guarantee the security of supply as they only provide a narrow range of medicines. Their focus on highly profitable products negatively affects the product portfolio of full-line wholesalers, which need the profitable products to be able to stock and distribute unprofitable medicines. Hybrid costing has been the economic baseline to guarantee the security of supply. To ensure that supply of medicines is guaranteed, several European countries have legally obliged wholesalers to provide the full range of medicines to pharmacies. France, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Spain and some of the new EU member states have implemented these public service obligations.
With this Cameroon economic update, the World Bank is pursuing a program of short, crisp and frequent country economic reports. These economic updates provide an analysis of the trends and constraints in Cameroon's economic development. Each issue, produced bi-annually, provides an update of recent economic developments as well as a special focus on a topical issue. The economic updates aim to share knowledge and stimulate debate among those interested in improving the economic management of Cameroon and unleashing its enormous potential. The notes thereby offer another voice on economic issues in Cameroon, and an additional platform for engagement, learning and change.
The report provides quantitative and qualitative insights into the performance of different non-permanence approaches for consideration of parties. This note summarizes the results of the analysis presented in the report. Besides the existing mechanism for temporary crediting, the study analyzed a range of alternative approaches to addressing non-permanence, including those considered in prior deliberations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The approaches address the risk of non-permanence in several ways. Under the tonne year accounting, credits are issued for the increments of carbon sequestered corresponding to a defined permanence period, and their quantity depends on the carbon stored in biomass each year of the permanence period. However, this approach has not been implemented by any standard. These approaches are not mutually exclusive, but can be used in tandem with each other.
The firming of the economic recovery is putting the policy spotlight back on the longer term challenge of faster, more inclusive Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. Modest investment rates despite attractive returns and low savings rates despite favorable demographics are important impediments. A virtuous cycle of faster capital accumulation, job creation (especially for the youth), and technological advancement needs to be stimulated. There are no quick fixes that can produce the desired stimulus. The quest for inclusive growth calls for a different, bolder approach. Integration of the advanced and less-developed economies and more effective integration with the global economy, using factory Southern Africa as a platform, hold considerable potential. South Africa's medium-term growth prospects point to a strengthening recovery. GDP growth is projected to be 3.5 percent in 2011, 4.1 percent in 2012 and 4.4 percent in 2013. The long term potential growth rate under the current policy environment is estimated at 3.5 percent. In light of South Africa's low national savings, the reemergence of high current account deficits, financed mostly through volatile portfolio flows, will reemerge as the biggest cause for macroeconomic concern over the medium term. With considerable strengthening of the economic recovery and GDP projected to reach its potential by 2014, the focus shifts back to the longer term challenge of raising GDP growth to 6-7 percent and making it much more inclusive to tackle the extremely high unemployment. This first issue is anchored in the national aspirations of faster and more inclusive growth, with special emphasis on the issues of savings and investment.
Human activities now represent the most important force shaping the degradation of ecosystems in all of the world´s major biomes (well established). Long-established drivers of land degradation continue to increase across much of the world, including agricultural activities {3.3.1, 3.3.2}, driven by increasing demands for food and bioenergy. More recent global change drivers, such as climate change and atmospheric nitrogen deposition, further exacerbate impacts {3.4}. We are now in a qualitatively different and novel world, compared to only a few decades ago, and the combination of drivers creates significant challenges to restore degraded land and mitigate further degradation (established but incomplete). Few, if any, areas of the world are now free of some form of human influence (well established) and some systems are experiencing unprecedented challenges. Changes in the extent and severity of both land degradation and restoration commonly result from multiple underlying social and economic factors – indirect drivers, many of which occur in places distant from where the impacts are felt (well established) {3.6.4}. Demand for food imports is increasing across much of the world. This high dependency on imported commodities means that a large share of the environmental impacts of consumption is felt in other parts of the world. The physical quantity of goods traded internationally only represents one third of the actual natural resources that were used to produce these traded goods. The sustainability of the commodity production systems that support global supply chains is thus substantially shaped by the sourcing and investment decisions of market actors who may have little direct connection to the production landscapes (established but incomplete). Moreover, the globalized nature of many commodity supply chains potentially elevates the relative importance of global-scale factors such as trade agreements, market prices and exchange rates, as well as distant linkages related to buyer and investment preferences, over national and regional governance arrangements and the agency of individual producers (inconclusive). Addressing this complexity to avoid and reverse land degradation therefore requires the building of effective multi-sector and multi-stakeholder partnerships that span national boundaries (established but incomplete) {3.6.6}. Economic growth and per capita consumption, more than poverty, is one of the biggest threats to sustainable land management globally (established but incomplete) {3.6.3, 3.6.4}. Extreme poverty, combined with resource scarcity, can contribute to land degradation and unsustainable levels of natural resource use, but is rarely the major underlying cause (well established). Many of the most marked changes in how land is used and managed come from individual and societal responses to economic opportunities, such as a shift in demand for a particular commodity or improved market access, moderated by institutional and political factors (established but incomplete). For example, clearance of native vegetation and land degradation across much of Latin America and Asia is linked to agricultural expansion and intensification at a commercial scale for export markets (well established). Reducing poverty, although a priority for sustainable development, is insufficient to mitigate land degradation if not accompanied by additional measures. Concurrently, rising per capita consumption levels can exacerbate degradation. Efforts to reverse degradation therefore require a combination of local and regional poverty-alleviation strategies, including the adoption of pro-poor food production systems, together with efforts to improve the enforcement of public regulations for sustainable land uses, and strengthening the accountability of global market actors in effectively supporting such strategies. The highly interconnected and globalized nature of indirect drivers of land degradation and restoration means that the outcome of any global, regional or local intervention can be highly unpredictable, yet contextual generalizations are possible (established but incomplete) {3.6.2.3, 3.6.3}. The ways in which land is used in one part of the world can be highly sensitive to sudden, unexpected changes in economic and institutional factors elsewhere (unresolved). For example, changes in currency exchange rates, and cascading effects on the profitability of a given commodity, can markedly accelerate or decelerate the clearance of native vegetation for agriculture within a single year {3.6.2.3}. The sudden imposition of trade restrictions (e.g., due to disease controls), can have a similarly marked impact. However, with an improved understanding of the interactive effects amongst different drivers, it is possible to make predictions that are valid under a certain range of conditions. For example, agricultural intensification and agroforestry practices can help reduce the pressure on remaining areas of native vegetation under certain conditions (such as inelastic demand for staple crops), but unless such measures are coupled with increased enforcement of land-use policies they can result in a rebound effect that increases pressure on natural resources (established but incomplete) {3.6.3}. Land degradation in any given place is rarely the consequence of a single anthropogenic driver, but is instead the result of a diverse and frequently mutually-reinforcing set of human activities and underlying drivers (well established) {3.4.5, 3.5, 3.6.2.1}. Typically, at least three types of indirect driver, such as economic, technological and institutional, underpin any direct driver of land degradation or restoration (established but incomplete). The complexity of drivers that commonly underpin land degradation highlights the fact that single factors, such as high rural population density, rarely provide an adequate underlying explanation on their own for observed impacts (established but incomplete) {3.6.3}. Land degradation is typically the result of multiple direct drivers, especially in instances of severe degradation (e.g., where land-use intensification drives increased species invasions and increases in fire frequency). This combination of drivers has resulted in large expanses of economically important grazing lands, including in North America, being transformed to fire-prone annual grass monocultures (well established) {3.3.7}. The multi-causality of land degradation requires commensurately holistic policy responses that operate across multiple scales and combine both regulatory and incentive based measures (established but incomplete). Rapid expansion and inappropriate management of agricultural lands (including both grazing lands and croplands), especially in dryland ecosystems, is the most extensive land degradation driver globally (well established) {3.3.1, 3.3.2}. The expansion of grazing lands has largely stagnated globally with evidence for an approximate 1% decline in grazing land area over the past decade. Grazing pressure has been stable or only moderately increasing across the major land areas globally, although there are regional exceptions such as Southern Asia. Over half of grazing lands occur in dryland environments that are highly susceptible to land degradation (established but incomplete) {3.3.1.3}. More recently intensification and increasing industrialization of livestock production systems, especially in developed countries, has resulted in an increasing reliance on mixed crop-livestock production systems and industrialized "landless" systems. As a result, 35% of global crop production is now allocated to livestock feed. Globally, fertilizer and pesticide use is expected to double by 2050 {3.3.2.2}. Marked drops in nitrogen-use efficiency (change in yield per unit of fertilizer input) in many parts of the world, particularly the Asia Pacific region, often accompanied by continued excessive fertilizer application, underscore the critical importance of sustainable agricultural practices, including conservation agricultural techniques, to maintain yield improvements (established but incomplete) {3.3.2.3}. Increases in consumption levels of many natural resources underpin increasing levels of degradation in many parts of the world (well established), with slow rates of adoption of sustainable production systems (established but incomplete) {3.6.2.2, 3.6.3.2, 3.6.4.2}. Projections to 2050 suggest that one billion ha of natural ecosystems could be converted to agriculture by that time. More than half of agricultural expansion in the last three decades has occurred in relatively intact tropical forests. Economic growth in the developing world is projected to double global consumption of forest and wood products by 2030, with demand likely to exceed production in many developing and emerging economies in Asia and Africa within the next decade. Traditional fuelwood and charcoal continue to represent a dominant share of total wood consumption in low income countries, up to 70%, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (well established). Under current projections efforts to intensify wood production in plantation forests, together with increases in fuel-use efficiency and electrification are only likely to partly offset the pressure on native forests (unresolved). Adoption of more sustainable production systems continues to be slow, as seen, for example, by a slowdown in the expansion of the area of certified forests. More than half of the terrestrial surface of the Earth has fire regimes outside the range of natural variability, with changes in fire frequency and intensity posing major challenges for land restoration (established but incomplete) {3.3.7}. The frequency of fires has increased in many areas – exacerbated by decreases in precipitation – including in many regions of humid and temperate forests that rarely experience large-scale fires naturally. Some changes in fire regimes, particularly in tropical forests, are sufficiently severe that recovery to pre-disturbance conditions may no longer be possible. Increases in international trade, intensification of land use and urbanization have meant that few areas of the planet are free of invasive species (established but incomplete) {3.3.8}. Nearly one fifth of the Earth´s surface is at high risk of plant and animal invasion, including many biodiversity hotspots. Climate change, including increased nitrogen deposition and changes in CO2, as well as increases in fire frequency with rising temperatures in many areas, are all likely to increase invasions {3.4}. Once established, the eradication of many invasive species is often very expensive, if not impossible, underscoring the need to develop proactive strategies to pre-empt invasions, including through inspections, research and education. Activities related to industrialization, infrastructure development, urbanization, and many extractive industries result in complete transformation of ecosystems, accompanied by near or complete loss of biodiversity and ecosystem function and the services those ecosystems provide (well established) {3.3.6}. Infrastructure, industrial development and urbanization activities, often replace natural ecosystems with impervious or contaminated surfaces such as asphalt, concrete and rooftops, leading to the one of the most severe forms of land degradation in the form of soil sealing. Built-up areas, which are dominated by sealed soils, currently occupy nearly 0.6% of the global land surface. If population densities in cities remain stable, the extent of built-up areas in developed countries is expected to increase by 30% and triple in developing countries between 2000 and 2050. Under more extreme scenarios of increasing population density and economic development, the extent of built-up areas globally may increase to over 2% of the global land area over this same time period. New urban design and green technologies that incorporate features that promote sustainability and delivery of ecosystem services can play an important role in restoring some of the ecosystem functions and services of built environments. The importance of climate change for land degradation is most prominent through its role in exacerbating the impacts of other human activities (established but incomplete) {3.4}. The exacerbating effect of climate change on the impact of degradation drivers, including land clearance and intensive farming techniques, can be felt both through chronic impacts and directional changes – like temperature changes, leading to shifts in species range sizes, as well as changes in average precipitation levels, atmospheric CO2 and nitrogen deposition – and acute impacts through extreme weather events of flooding, drought, and other natural disasters (well established). Heavy rainfall events and storms as well as heat waves and droughts are predicted to increase in frequency over several parts of the globe, with cascading effects on the frequency, intensity, extent and timing of other drivers such as fires, pest and pathogen outbreaks, species invasions, soil erosion and landslides (established but incomplete). The last decade has witnessed a rise in consumer-driven demand for sustainable land use and land management, as well as commitments to restore degraded land that is unprecedented in human history (well established) {3.6}. In the last decade hundreds of companies have made pledges to reduce their impacts on forests and on the rights of local communities, with many committing to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains entirely by 2020. In the same period, many governments and civil society groups have made ambitious commitments to restore hundreds of millions of hectares of degraded land. New players, such as the finance sector, who until recently have been completely detached from the mainstream sustainability agenda are also starting to make explicit commitments to avoiding environmental harm. The overall impact of these voluntary measures remains to be assessed but they offer a vital window of opportunity for reversing degradation trends and placing economies on a more sustainable footing – especially as large areas of marginal agricultural become increasingly abandoned with ongoing development (unresolved).
Human activities now represent the most important force shaping the degradation of ecosystems in all of the world´s major biomes (well established). Long-established drivers of land degradation continue to increase across much of the world, including agricultural activities {3.3.1, 3.3.2}, driven by increasing demands for food and bioenergy. More recent global change drivers, such as climate change and atmospheric nitrogen deposition, further exacerbate impacts {3.4}. We are now in a qualitatively different and novel world, compared to only a few decades ago, and the combination of drivers creates significant challenges to restore degraded land and mitigate further degradation (established but incomplete). Few, if any, areas of the world are now free of some form of human influence (well established) and some systems are experiencing unprecedented challenges. Changes in the extent and severity of both land degradation and restoration commonly result from multiple underlying social and economic factors – indirect drivers, many of which occur in places distant from where the impacts are felt (well established) {3.6.4}. Demand for food imports is increasing across much of the world. This high dependency on imported commodities means that a large share of the environmental impacts of consumption is felt in other parts of the world. The physical quantity of goods traded internationally only represents one third of the actual natural resources that were used to produce these traded goods. The sustainability of the commodity production systems that support global supply chains is thus substantially shaped by the sourcing and investment decisions of market actors who may have little direct connection to the production landscapes (established but incomplete). Moreover, the globalized nature of many commodity supply chains potentially elevates the relative importance of global-scale factors such as trade agreements, market prices and exchange rates, as well as distant linkages related to buyer and investment preferences, over national and regional governance arrangements and the agency of individual producers (inconclusive). Addressing this complexity to avoid and reverse land degradation therefore requires the building of effective multi-sector and multi-stakeholder partnerships that span national boundaries (established but incomplete) {3.6.6}. Economic growth and per capita consumption, more than poverty, is one of the biggest threats to sustainable land management globally (established but incomplete) {3.6.3, 3.6.4}. Extreme poverty, combined with resource scarcity, can contribute to land degradation and unsustainable levels of natural resource use, but is rarely the major underlying cause (well established). Many of the most marked changes in how land is used and managed come from individual and societal responses to economic opportunities, such as a shift in demand for a particular commodity or improved market access, moderated by institutional and political factors (established but incomplete). For example, clearance of native vegetation and land degradation across much of Latin America and Asia is linked to agricultural expansion and intensification at a commercial scale for export markets (well established). Reducing poverty, although a priority for sustainable development, is insufficient to mitigate land degradation if not accompanied by additional measures. Concurrently, rising per capita consumption levels can exacerbate degradation. Efforts to reverse degradation therefore require a combination of local and regional poverty-alleviation strategies, including the adoption of pro-poor food production systems, together with efforts to improve the enforcement of public regulations for sustainable land uses, and strengthening the accountability of global market actors in effectively supporting such strategies. The highly interconnected and globalized nature of indirect drivers of land degradation and restoration means that the outcome of any global, regional or local intervention can be highly unpredictable, yet contextual generalizations are possible (established but incomplete) {3.6.2.3, 3.6.3}. The ways in which land is used in one part of the world can be highly sensitive to sudden, unexpected changes in economic and institutional factors elsewhere (unresolved). For example, changes in currency exchange rates, and cascading effects on the profitability of a given commodity, can markedly accelerate or decelerate the clearance of native vegetation for agriculture within a single year {3.6.2.3}. The sudden imposition of trade restrictions (e.g., due to disease controls), can have a similarly marked impact. However, with an improved understanding of the interactive effects amongst different drivers, it is possible to make predictions that are valid under a certain range of conditions. For example, agricultural intensification and agroforestry practices can help reduce the pressure on remaining areas of native vegetation under certain conditions (such as inelastic demand for staple crops), but unless such measures are coupled with increased enforcement of land-use policies they can result in a rebound effect that increases pressure on natural resources (established but incomplete) {3.6.3}. Land degradation in any given place is rarely the consequence of a single anthropogenic driver, but is instead the result of a diverse and frequently mutually-reinforcing set of human activities and underlying drivers (well established) {3.4.5, 3.5, 3.6.2.1}. Typically, at least three types of indirect driver, such as economic, technological and institutional, underpin any direct driver of land degradation or restoration (established but incomplete). The complexity of drivers that commonly underpin land degradation highlights the fact that single factors, such as high rural population density, rarely provide an adequate underlying explanation on their own for observed impacts (established but incomplete) {3.6.3}. Land degradation is typically the result of multiple direct drivers, especially in instances of severe degradation (e.g., where land-use intensification drives increased species invasions and increases in fire frequency). This combination of drivers has resulted in large expanses of economically important grazing lands, including in North America, being transformed to fire-prone annual grass monocultures (well established) {3.3.7}. The multi-causality of land degradation requires commensurately holistic policy responses that operate across multiple scales and combine both regulatory and incentive based measures (established but incomplete). Rapid expansion and inappropriate management of agricultural lands (including both grazing lands and croplands), especially in dryland ecosystems, is the most extensive land degradation driver globally (well established) {3.3.1, 3.3.2}. The expansion of grazing lands has largely stagnated globally with evidence for an approximate 1% decline in grazing land area over the past decade. Grazing pressure has been stable or only moderately increasing across the major land areas globally, although there are regional exceptions such as Southern Asia. Over half of grazing lands occur in dryland environments that are highly susceptible to land degradation (established but incomplete) {3.3.1.3}. More recently intensification and increasing industrialization of livestock production systems, especially in developed countries, has resulted in an increasing reliance on mixed crop-livestock production systems and industrialized "landless" systems. As a result, 35% of global crop production is now allocated to livestock feed. Globally, fertilizer and pesticide use is expected to double by 2050 {3.3.2.2}. Marked drops in nitrogen-use efficiency (change in yield per unit of fertilizer input) in many parts of the world, particularly the Asia Pacific region, often accompanied by continued excessive fertilizer application, underscore the critical importance of sustainable agricultural practices, including conservation agricultural techniques, to maintain yield improvements (established but incomplete) {3.3.2.3}. Increases in consumption levels of many natural resources underpin increasing levels of degradation in many parts of the world (well established), with slow rates of adoption of sustainable production systems (established but incomplete) {3.6.2.2, 3.6.3.2, 3.6.4.2}. Projections to 2050 suggest that one billion ha of natural ecosystems could be converted to agriculture by that time. More than half of agricultural expansion in the last three decades has occurred in relatively intact tropical forests. Economic growth in the developing world is projected to double global consumption of forest and wood products by 2030, with demand likely to exceed production in many developing and emerging economies in Asia and Africa within the next decade. Traditional fuelwood and charcoal continue to represent a dominant share of total wood consumption in low income countries, up to 70%, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (well established). Under current projections efforts to intensify wood production in plantation forests, together with increases in fuel-use efficiency and electrification are only likely to partly offset the pressure on native forests (unresolved). Adoption of more sustainable production systems continues to be slow, as seen, for example, by a slowdown in the expansion of the area of certified forests. More than half of the terrestrial surface of the Earth has fire regimes outside the range of natural variability, with changes in fire frequency and intensity posing major challenges for land restoration (established but incomplete) {3.3.7}. The frequency of fires has increased in many areas – exacerbated by decreases in precipitation – including in many regions of humid and temperate forests that rarely experience large-scale fires naturally. Some changes in fire regimes, particularly in tropical forests, are sufficiently severe that recovery to pre-disturbance conditions may no longer be possible. Increases in international trade, intensification of land use and urbanization have meant that few areas of the planet are free of invasive species (established but incomplete) {3.3.8}. Nearly one fifth of the Earth´s surface is at high risk of plant and animal invasion, including many biodiversity hotspots. Climate change, including increased nitrogen deposition and changes in CO2, as well as increases in fire frequency with rising temperatures in many areas, are all likely to increase invasions {3.4}. Once established, the eradication of many invasive species is often very expensive, if not impossible, underscoring the need to develop proactive strategies to pre-empt invasions, including through inspections, research and education. Activities related to industrialization, infrastructure development, urbanization, and many extractive industries result in complete transformation of ecosystems, accompanied by near or complete loss of biodiversity and ecosystem function and the services those ecosystems provide (well established) {3.3.6}. Infrastructure, industrial development and urbanization activities, often replace natural ecosystems with impervious or contaminated surfaces such as asphalt, concrete and rooftops, leading to the one of the most severe forms of land degradation in the form of soil sealing. Built-up areas, which are dominated by sealed soils, currently occupy nearly 0.6% of the global land surface. If population densities in cities remain stable, the extent of built-up areas in developed countries is expected to increase by 30% and triple in developing countries between 2000 and 2050. Under more extreme scenarios of increasing population density and economic development, the extent of built-up areas globally may increase to over 2% of the global land area over this same time period. New urban design and green technologies that incorporate features that promote sustainability and delivery of ecosystem services can play an important role in restoring some of the ecosystem functions and services of built environments. The importance of climate change for land degradation is most prominent through its role in exacerbating the impacts of other human activities (established but incomplete) {3.4}. The exacerbating effect of climate change on the impact of degradation drivers, including land clearance and intensive farming techniques, can be felt both through chronic impacts and directional changes – like temperature changes, leading to shifts in species range sizes, as well as changes in average precipitation levels, atmospheric CO2 and nitrogen deposition – and acute impacts through extreme weather events of flooding, drought, and other natural disasters (well established). Heavy rainfall events and storms as well as heat waves and droughts are predicted to increase in frequency over several parts of the globe, with cascading effects on the frequency, intensity, extent and timing of other drivers such as fires, pest and pathogen outbreaks, species invasions, soil erosion and landslides (established but incomplete). The last decade has witnessed a rise in consumer-driven demand for sustainable land use and land management, as well as commitments to restore degraded land that is unprecedented in human history (well established) {3.6}. In the last decade hundreds of companies have made pledges to reduce their impacts on forests and on the rights of local communities, with many committing to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains entirely by 2020. In the same period, many governments and civil society groups have made ambitious commitments to restore hundreds of millions of hectares of degraded land. New players, such as the finance sector, who until recently have been completely detached from the mainstream sustainability agenda are also starting to make explicit commitments to avoiding environmental harm. The overall impact of these voluntary measures remains to be assessed but they offer a vital window of opportunity for reversing degradation trends and placing economies on a more sustainable footing – especially as large areas of marginal agricultural become increasingly abandoned with ongoing development (unresolved).
The Middle East and North Africa region is in turmoil. Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen are in civil war, causing untold damage to human lives and physical infrastructure. Fifteen million people have fled their homes, many to fragile or economically strapped countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Djibouti and Tunisia, giving rise to the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. Palestinians are reeling from deadly attacks and blockades. With recruits from all over the world, radicalized terrorist groups and sectarian factions like Daesh are spreading violence around the globe, threatening some governments' ability to perform basic functions. Countries undergoing political transitions, such as Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Jordan, face periodic attacks and political unrest, leading them to address security concerns over inclusive growth. Even relatively peaceful oil exporters, such as Algeria, Iran and the GCC, are grappling with youth unemployment and poor-quality public services, the same problems that contributed to the Arab Spring, alongside low oil prices. Finally, the author will develop and monitor input indicators that are consistent with the theory of change associated with the new strategy. We will have indicators that show whether our interventions are helping to renew the social contract (the use of citizen engagement in projects is an example). Household surveys can tell us whether the welfare of refugees and host communities is improving. Preparedness indicators can be used to inform progress on the recovery and reconstruction pillar. And standard indicators such as the share of electricity production that is traded will be used for the regional integration pillar.
The European Union (EU) Regular Economic Report (RER), is a semiannual publication of the World Bank Group and covers economic developments, prospects, and economic policies in the European Union. The report uses four sub-groups that share broadly similar development patterns EU : Central Europe comprises Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia; Northern Europe comprises Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden; Southern Europe comprises Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain; Western Europe comprises Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. While the report covers the European Union, it provides additional information on European countries which had historically a stronger operational engagement with the World Bank Group, in particular, Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland and Romania. The focus note of this RER covers "Welfare States and the Protection of the Poor in the European Union".
