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China's development model faces an external constraint that could cause an economic hard landing. China has become a global manufacturing powerhouse, and its size now renders its export-led growth strategy unsustainable. China relies on the US market, but the scale of its exports is contributing to the massive US trade deficit, creating financial fragility and undermining the US manufacturing sector. These developments could stall the US economy's expansion, in turn triggering a global recession that will embrace China. This is the external constraint. These considerations suggest that China should transition from export-led growth to domestic demand-led growth. This requires growing the economy's demand side as well as its supply-side. To avoid stalling the US economic expansion, which is critical to China's growth, China should significantly revalue its currency as part of a generalized East Asian upward currency revaluation. Longer term, China should raise wages and improve income distribution. Under export-led growth, higher wages undermine employment. Under domestic demand-led growth, they support it. The challenge is to raise wages in an efficient decentralized manner. History shows that this requires independent democratic trade unions. However, such unions are currently unacceptable to the Chinese political leadership. Creating a domestic demand-led growth regime therefore requires solving this political roadblock. (J Contemp China/DÜI)

In Ontario, the unpredictable funding climate of the 1990s led health care organizations to look for ways to reduce costs. Adopting a just-in-time staffing policy, they employed fewer full-time workers, scheduled part-time workers to work regular shifts, took on more casual staff, and became increasingly reliant on agency nurses and overtime to cover shifts. These policies resulted in higher costs and reduced surge capacity, and placed the health of nurses and patients in jeopardy. Fewer staff meant more overtime. Stress-related absenteeism increased. Some nurses reacted to casualization by working for multiple employers. During the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic in Toronto, nursing resources were stretched to their limits. An exploratory investigation, based on relevant literature and interviews with 13 nurse administrators who held key positions during the epidemic, confirmed the lack of spare capacity in the health care system and indicated that community and long-term care sectors had less capacity than acute care. Low surge capacity in these sectors increased the vulnerability of the entire health care system. Capacity issues should be addressed as part of a larger human resources initiative to create a more flexible workforce. Since SARS, a number of government and organizational initiatives have been developed to increase nursing capacity.

Health care priorities for many emerging economies have undergone a dramatic transition in the recent past because of the rise in chronic illness, increased longevity, and lessened infant mortality. Two additional major societal forces, democratization and the information revolution, will alter the nature of global health assistance. Because of democratization, governments will feel increasing pressure to provide adequate health care. Because of the information revolution, all practitioners will know what is available. The convergence of these three forces will create an enormous financial burden for emerging economies. Adapting to these new realities will be the challenge to donor organizations. What is likely to emerge as a critical health care problem around the world is the need to balance priorities between acute care and prevention or modification of chronic disease. These efforts will be directed at different populations, one manifestly ill and one potentially so, and each will need to be recognized politically as having valid claims on governmental resources. External support will need to include demonstration within the recipient communities that data collection permits an accurate identification of disease burden, that risk factor modification ameliorates the impact of disease, that continuity of care is essential to long term outcomes, and that therapy of developed disease can be rationally carried out utilizing evidence based medicine to insure efficiency and appropriateness. A.N.E. 2002;7(1):73–77

This article analyzes a set of negotiations within a coordination network. These negotiations surrounded the establishment & development of a coordination network of citizen peacebuilding initiatives focused on the Georgian-Abkhaz peace process. The authors reflect on six years of action research working with both local & international organizations & individuals working on citizen peacebuilding initiatives in the Georgian-Abkhaz peace process. Tracing the negotiations from 1999 through 2005, the article first highlights the context in which the coordination network developed to fill a need for joint strategizing amongst peacebuilders working in the region. In this context the locally recognized organic need for coordination drove the development of the network through an elective process. The analysis details early negotiations about establishment of the coordination network, which focused on building a culture of coordination by establishing norms of coordination. Subsequent negotiations within revised network structures, & outcomes of the coordination negotiations are then presented. Key factors that enhanced the coordination network are identified: inclusivity & transparency; in-person meetings; absence of a formal organizational structure; autonomy of each organization; focus on integrative agreements; & a culture of coordination. The case highlights the possibilities for long-term peacebuilding work based on relationships of trust & a culture of coordination. Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.

La ponencia tematiza las relaciones entre la UE y el Mercosur desde su creación con el foco principal en las perspectivas futuras desde la vista de los resultados de la Cumbre de Viena. Delante del trasfondo de las relaciones generales entre la UE y América Latina en total. Basándose en la tesis, que la cumbre de Viena no signifique una ruptura de repente sino el punto final de un proceso largo de alienación y distanciación. ; The article discusses the future of the relationship between the EU and Latin America, specifically Mercosur, in light of the EU-LAC summit this year in Vienna. On the basis of official documents of the summit as well as of alternative events, the study argues that the standstill in EU-Latin American relations is not a sudden rupture, but the culmination of a long-running process of polítical and economic estrangement. This situation was brought about by a fundamental change in the foreign policy of the EU, caused by internal and external crises as well as new challenges. For the relationship between the EU and Mercosur, this means: +) a medium-term failure of the planned biregional association agreement +) the concentration on specific common polítical goals and areas of interest (UNO, fundamental human rights, security policy, the European social project) ; Instituto de Integración Latinoamericana (IIL)

Metadata only record ; This paper describes and analyses the PES programme developed and implemented by Vittel (Nestl Waters) in north-eastern France. In order to address the risk of nitrate contamination caused by agricultural intensification in the aquifer, the world leader in the mineral water bottling business is financing farmers in the catchment to change their farming practices and technology. The paper examines the methodology used by Vittel, and the ten year process that was necessary to transform conflict into a successful partnership. The paper's main conclusion is that establishing PES is a very complex undertaking, one that requires the consideration of scientific but also social, economic, political, institutional, and power relationships. The ability to maintain farmers' income level at all times and finance all technological changes was an important element of success, but primary reasons for the programme's success were not financial. Trust-building through the creation of an intermediary institution (locally based and led by a "champion" sympathetic to the farmers' cause); the development of a long-term participatory process to identify alternative practices and a mutually acceptable set of incentives; the ability to link incentives to land tenure and debt cycle issues and to substitute the old technical and social support networks with new ones, were all fundamental conditions of success. ; PES-1 (Payments for Environmental Services Associate Award)

The Sunni insurgency in Iraq has entered its fourth year after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and continues unabated. Today, Iraq is a failed state that will remain instable for years to come, and the Sunni insurgents can claim a large part of the responsibility. They will remain an important factor in Iraqi politics. Furthermore, since 2005 indications have multiplied that Jihadist organizations like al-Qaida in Iraq succeed in triggering a civil war by targeting the Shiite majority in the country. Therefore, the insurgency is developing into a conflict between Sunni rebels and Shiite militias; more and more civilians of both confessions are the victims.Germany and Europe have to prepare for continuing instability and possibly a civil war in Iraq. This could lead to turmoil in neighbouring countries, first and foremost Syria. On their part, Iran and Turkey might be tempted to intervene more directly than they already do. As European influence in Iraq is negligible, Germany and the EU should focus on the neighbouring countries. The foreign and interior ministers of Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt have met frequently since 2003 in order to discuss the regional implications of the events in Iraq. Germany and the EU should aim at fostering such initiatives with the long-term goal of establishing a (sub-)regional security architecture. (SWP-Research Papers / SWP)

PurposeTo critically examine how the post‐tsunami recovery process has affected the livelihoods of small fisher communities in southern Thailand.Design/methodology/approachThis study was carried out as part of on‐going work with small fisher communities in southern Thailand. It was based on direct observations and interviews in fishing communities and following decision‐making processes through attending meetings and reviewing secondary reports.FindingsThe Indian Ocean tsunami had immediate devastating and longer‐term debilitating consequences for small fisher communities in southern Thailand. Delays in repairing or replacing boats have had a major impact on well‐being. The tsunami by removing housing and other coastal infrastructure also created opportunities for both social and ecological reorganization. These opportunities were seized upon by powerful interests groups with already strong connections to state through membership in taskforces and other links to power, in particular the tourism and conservation sectors to the detriment of interests of small fishers. A narrow focus on tourism‐led recovery is unlikely to do anything but recover tourism.Practical implicationsAs a marginalized and vulnerable group small fishers need to be directly involved in negotiations around disaster recovery programmes and setting priorities for future regional development in southern Thailand.Originality/valueThis study draws attention to persistent problems in the disaster recovery programs in Thailand that have left small fisher communities in a perilous condition.

In the beginning of the 1990s, Singapore's government identified the local production of global knowledge as field of action that shall assure sustainable future economic and social development. This focus appears plausible when looking at the factors of production that - besides knowledge - Singapore can offer. As a small country with less than 4m inhabitants, little land and labour is available. Consequently, the Singaporean government decided to focus on knowledge and money as the factors of production that are increasingly regarded as responsible for the creation of wealth by members of the international scientific community. Besides others, the management guru Peter F. Drucker expressed this belief in the economic strength of knowledge by stating: 'the central wealth-creating activities will be neither the allocation of capital to productive uses, not 'labour'. Value is now created by 'productivity' and 'innovation' both applications of knowledge to work' (Drucker, 1994: 8). This paper attempts to outline this push towards knowledge production and the positioning of Singapore as a knowledge hub in the Straits of Malacca initiated by the Singaporean government. The paper is divided into, first, grasping the dominant definitions of knowledge in Singapore and second, redrawing the government activities towards increased knowledge production, which is hoped to ensure long-term economic stability and growth.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "After the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center (WTC), nearly 3,000 people died and an estimated 250,000 to 400,000 people in the vicinity were affected. An estimated 40,000 people who responded to the disaster--including New York City Fire Department (FDNY) personnel and other government and private-sector workers and volunteers--were exposed to physical and mental health hazards. Concerns remain about the long-term health effects of the attack and about the nation's capacity to plan for and respond to health effects resulting from future disasters. Several federally funded programs have monitored the physical and mental health effects of the WTC attack. These monitoring programs include one-time screening programs and programs that also conduct follow-up monitoring. GAO was asked to assess the progress of these programs and examined (1) federally funded programs implemented by state and local government agencies or private institutions, (2) federally administered programs to monitor the health of federal workers who responded to the disaster in an official capacity, and (3) lessons learned from WTC monitoring programs. GAO reviewed program documents and interviewed federal, state, and local officials and others involved in WTC monitoring programs. This statement updates information GAO provided to Congress on September 10, 2005."