Suchergebnisse

During the last decade there has been a phenomenal increase in the flow of international remittances received by the developing countries in general, and Pakistan in particular. In 2013, officially recorded remittances to Pakistan amounted to US $14.6 billion and were six times more than the official development assistance received. In order to investigate how the receipt of international remittances affects the average and marginal spending behaviour of households, this paper uses nationally representative household income and expenditure survey data for Pakistan to analyse households' consumption behaviour on five different categories of goods: food, education, health, non-durables and durables. Understanding that the decision of a household member to migrate and remit money may not be taken at random and to control for endogeneity, a two-stage Heckman model is used to address the selection in unobservable heterogeneity. Two findings emerge. First, expenditure share on food for households that receive remittances would have been more if the households had not been receiving remittances. Similarly, less spending on the other four categories of education, health, non-durables and durables is predicted for remittances- receiving households had they not been receiving remittances. Second, households that receive remittances spend less at the margin on food and durables and more on education, health and non-durables. At the mean, compared to households that do not receive remittances, the households receiving remittances spend, at the margin, 10 per cent and 4 per cent less on consumption of food and durables, respectively. Moreover, the respective marginal increase in spending on education and health is 26 per cent and 6 per cent more for a remittances-receiving household than for a non-receiving household. Finally, the households receiving remittances spend, at the margin, 14 per cent more on non-durables (which includes their spending on housing, and is thus akin to investment in physical capital) than the households with no remittances. A key policy feature of these results is the likely positive impact of remittances on economic development. Remittances provide an alternative way to finance development by the way of increased spending on human capital or education as well as physical capital. Remittances-receiving households appear to look at the remittance earnings as a transitory income and therefore tend to spend remittances more on investment than consumption. This finding lends support to the permanent income hypothesis.

This volume spotlights recent advances in the worldwide use of quantitative performance measures in the public sector, especially approaches that incorporate program evaluation techniques. Chapters include single-country case studies, multi-country comparisons, and thoughtful essays on the challenges of making performance measurement and management work in diverse settings.

This book provides a clear and thorough account of the process leading up to the revision of the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) one of the four treaties administered by the ITU. The author's inside view of the events, and his legal analysis of the new ITRs, are different from that what has been aired in most other accounts to date. His systematic approach shows how much of the criticism of the WCIT-12 process, and of the ITRs themselves, is unjustified. This book provides the most accurate view to date of what the ITRs really mean and of what really happened at WCIT-12, which was undoubtedly a key event in the history of telecommunication policy and which is likely to have significant long-term effects. The book covers in some detail the events leading to the non-signature of the treaty by a significant number of states, outlines possible consequences of that split between states, and offers possible ways forward. The book includes a detailed article-by-article analysis of the new ITRs, explaining their implications, and concludes with recommendations for national authorities. It concludes with an analysis of events from the point of view of dispute resolution theory, offering suggestions for how to avoid divisive outcomes in the future

La création le 1 er mai 1979, dans un contexte marqué par les échecs successifs de projets intergouvernementaux d'organisation d'un Sommet francophone, de l'Association internationale des maires francophones (AIMF) constitue un événement sans précédent dans l'histoire de la francophonie. À contre-courant d'une historiographique classique jusque-là restreinte aux politiques francophones intergouvernementales, cet article propose d'étudier le tournant que constitue l'apparition de ce nouvel acteur sur la scène internationale. Il s'intéresse à cet effet au contexte propice au développement d'une politique intercommunale avant d'analyser les ambitions diplomatiques de cette association et, enfin, sa reconnaissance progressive par la Francophonie institutionnelle.

This article revisits the work of Mohammed Bedjaoui, the Algerian jurist and diplomat who played a key role in coordinating efforts to garner support for the NIEO. Focusing on his 1979 study Towards a New International Economic Order, it examines Bedjaoui's attempt to ground his call for a structural transformation of world order in a sustained defense of legal universalism and closely related critique of legal formalism. Further, it argues that this insistence on a wholesale reconfiguration of international life can only be appreciated against the background of Bedjaoui's decades-long engagement with the Third World, including, crucially, his involvement in the Algerian war of national liberation.

This article explores changes in the international political significance of "strategic minerals" over the past half-century. The method of analysis is comparative historical, or "diachronic", and the major issues examined are: 1) minerals as a cause of international conflict; 2) minerals as a factor contributing to the military potential of states; and 3) the question of mineral scarcity. In addition to the above issues, the author analyzes two central concepts, "geopolitics" and "strategic minerals" . He concludes that while it does make sense to speak of a "new geopolitics of Minerals" in the post-1973 era, there are nevertheless important ways in which recent strategic-minerals issues resemble those of the earlier period under examination, the interwar years (and, in particular, the 1930s). What does not seem to have changed in respect of strategic minerals since the 1930 s is that access to them continues ultimately to be a function of political processes, and therefore the access question remains what it was, a matter of geopolitical concern. Where there have been differences in the relevance of strategic minerals, these have mainly consisted in: 1) the declining importance of minerals as a major contributory factor in the breakdown of world order; 2) the lessening of what had formerly been a deterministic equation between mineral possession and military potential; and 3) the increased salience in the post-1973 era of the perception that access will be affected by the growing scarcity of minerals, whether due to the actual depletion of reserves or politically induced supply disruptions.

How can the international community influence belligerents in internal armed conflict to move towards peace? Research on influence strategies in international relations commonly stresses the importance of a combined 'carrot-and-sticks' approach, yet little is known about how this mixed strategy is best applied in the context of internal armed conflict. The article addresses this question by developing a theoretical framework exploring the conditions under which the mixed approach is successful in influencing conflict actors and by focusing specifically on non-state actors. It is argued that the effectiveness of the contrast strategy in dealing with non-state actors depends on the balance between the 'good cop' approach and the 'bad cop' approach, the perceptions of the targets and contextual adoption of the sequencing of strategies. We apply this framework to the case of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka between 2002 and 2008, when the international community's initial success later turned into a failed attempt to influence the LTTE in the direction of respect for human rights, in ending the violation of the ceasefire and in preventing a return to the battlefield.

Two years ago, a UNESCO-affiliated international network of organizations and universities (UNITWIN) was established to collaborate on research, innovative leadership, and education, focusing on concerns related to access to work and working conditions for the most vulnerable groups at a time of increasing economic and political instability and inequality. A year ago, Lesley University became the only university in the country to join this effort, along with 17 other universities and institutes in South America, Africa, and Europe. Through this project, Lesley faculty have attended international conferences and have been engaged in an international research project titled, Perceptions of Decent work and the Future Among Youth in Northern and Southern Countries. In addition, Lesley faculty participated in the drafting of the Manifesto for Inclusion – a document stating the commitments we would make in our respective institutions to ensure increased access and opportunity for those that have been historically excluded from education, good employment, and leadership positions. This panel presentation will briefly update attendees on the UNITWIN initiative and engage in lively discussion about the possibilities this project offers to Lesley University faculty, students, and administrators for research, education, and leadership. Together we will consider what Lesley University's unique contribution might be toward this effort and we will brainstorm ideas – big and small – for future steps.