Amandla

quick commentary on the World Economic Forum, 2012
http://www.bloomberg.com/davos/

 

The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas

Highlights:

Opening of the Annual Meeting 2012

The Global Business Context - Annual Meeting 2012

TIME Davos Debate on Capitalism - Annual Meeting 2012

An Initiative of the Risk Response Network, World Economic Forum in collaboration with:
Marsh & McLennan Companies
Swiss Reinsurance Company
Wharton Center for Risk Management,
University of Pennsylvania
Zurich Financial Services

http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2012/

Economic imbalances and social inequality risk reversing the gains of globalization, warns the World Economic Forum in its report Global Risks 2012. These are the findings of a survey of 469 experts and industry leaders, indicating a shift of concern from environmental risks to socioeconomic risks compared to a year ago. Respondents worry that further economic shocks and social upheaval could roll back the progress globalization has brought, and feel that the world’s institutions are ill-equipped to cope with today’s interconnected, rapidly evolving risks. The findings of the survey fed into an analysis of three major risk cases: Seeds of Dystopia; Unsafe Safeguards and the Dark Side of Connectivity. The report analyses the top 10 risks in five categories - economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological - and also highlights "X Factor" risks, the wild card threats which warrant more research, including a volcanic winter, cyber neotribalism and epigenetics, the risk that the way we live could have harmful, inheritable effects on our genes. Key crisis management lessons from Japan’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters are highlighted in a special chapter.

Global Employment Trends 2012: Preventing a deeper jobs crisis

Source: International Labour Organization

From the press release:

The world faces the "urgent challenge" of creating 600 million productive jobs over the next decade in order to generate sustainable growth and maintain social cohesion, according to the annual report on global employment by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

"After three years of continuous crisis conditions in global labour markets and against the prospect of a further deterioration of economic activity, there is a backlog of global unemployment of 200 million," says the ILO in its annual report titled Global Employment Trends 2012: Preventing a deeper jobs crisis. Moreover, the report says more than 400 million new jobs will be needed over the next decade to absorb the estimated 40 million growth of the labour force each year.

+ Link to full report (PDF; 1.61 MB)

+ Link to publication web page for individual chapter links and supplemental material

From Docubase January 24, 2012 04:48

This 22nd annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide in 2011. It reflects extensive investigative work that Human Rights Watch staff has undertaken during the year, often in close partnership with domestic human rights activists.

 

The introductory essay examines the Arab Spring, which has created an extraordinary opportunity for change. The global community has a responsibility to help the long suppressed people of the region seize control of their destiny from often-brutal authoritarian rulers. Standing firmly with people as they demand their legitimate rights is the best way to stop the bloodshed, while principled insistence on respect for rights is the best way to help these popular movements avoid intolerance, lawlessness, and summary revenge once in power.

• Download this report (PDF, 4.22 MB)

 

 

The United Nations has launched the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2012 (WESP); A joint product of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the five  regional commissions. WESP provides an overview of recent global economic performance and short-term prospects for the world economy and some key global economic policy and development issues.  This year's WESP notes that global economic growth started to decelerate on a broad front in mid-2011 and this slow growth is expected to continue into 2012 and 2013.  UN economists project that 2012 will be a make-or-break year in terms of proceeding with slow economic recovery or falling back into recession. 

Download World Economic Situation and Prospects 2012 (pdf)

Related Resources:

• WESP Information website
• Past years WESP
• DESA Development Policy and Analysis Division (DPAD)

UN Pulse: Permanent Link: World Economic Situation and Prospects 2012

The UN-Habitat has released a report on the Economic Role of Cities.

 

 

This report examines the economic role of cities and illustrates the important contributions of cities to national economic development and poverty reduction. It looks at the agglomeration economies, city clusters, city regions and mega city regions.

UN Pulse:  Permanent Link: Economic Role of Cities report

... Guantánamo: A Decade of Damage to Human Rights, [a report published by] Amnesty International highlights the unlawful treatment of Guantánamo detainees and outlines the reasons why the detention centre continues to represent an attack on human rights. 

[GITMO] At a Glance

The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) Nuclear Materials Security Index is a first-of-its-kind public benchmarking project of nuclear materials security conditions on a country-by-country basis. The NTI Index, prepared with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), was created to spark an international discussion about priorities required to strengthen security, and most importantly, encourage governments to provide assurances and take actions to reduce risks.

The project draws on NTI's nuclear expertise, the EIU’s experience in constructing indices, and the reach of the EIU’s global network of 900 analysts and contributors. NTI—working with an international panel of nuclear security experts and a number of technical advisors—focused on the framework and priorities that define effective nuclear materials security conditions. The EIU was responsible for developing the Excel-based model and gathering the data.

The NTI Index assesses the contribution of 32 states with one kilogram or more of weapons-usable nuclear materials toward improved global nuclear materials security conditions, using five categories: (a) Quantities and Sites, (b) Security and Control Measures, (c) Global Norms, (d) Domestic Commitments and Capacity, and (e) Societal Factors. An additional 144 states, with less than one kilogram of weapons-usable nuclear materials or none at all, are assessed on the last three of these categories.

+ Link to full report (PDF; 5.78 MB)

From Docubase

- How Africa and Europe can end illicit capital flight

Every year huge unreported flows of money are leaving developing countries, ending up in rich countries or tax havens. If properly reported this illicit capital flight would generate at least US$160 billion per year in tax revenue - more than one and a half times the total annual aid to the developing world. These are resources that could be crucial in the fight to combat poverty.    

 

Contrary to popular belief, only a small share, three to five percent, of illicit capital flight stems from corruption. Instead, almost two thirds originate from multinational companies evading to pay tax, and one third is a result of criminal activities such as trade with humans, drugs and weapons. Despite the fact that illicit capital flight has severe consequences for developing countries – it cancels investment, undermines trade, hurts competition, worsens income gaps and drains hard-currency reserves – awareness of the measures needed to end it is low.  

 

As a percentage of GDP, capital flight from Africa is larger than from other parts of the world. But Africa cannot stand alone to end it, cooperation and political will is required by decision makers in Europe as well as in Africa.    

 

This new report is a part of Forum Syd's publication series Global Studies. It explains illicit capital flight, how it happens, its magnitude, its consequences for the poor, and measures needed to end it. It also presents illustrative case studies from Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania.

 

To read the entire report, click here

 

From : FORUM SYD IN AFRICA.

Forum Syd is a Swedish democracy and rights organization with the aim to strengthen the role of civil society in its efforts to bring about global justice and sustainable development.

A new report - 'Restricting Growth: The Impact of Industrialised Country Climate Strategies on the World’s Poor' – was launched by World Growth at at the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban.

The report reveals how proposals on land use and forestry advanced by industrialized countries (the so-called REDD measures) will reduce economic growth in developing countries and increase the likelihood that efforts to regulate global emissions will fail.

Report by World Growth International

Note from Polity.org.za

 

 

Never in our lifetime has the future been in a more uncertain state.

Obviously, neither Chantell Ilbury nor I experienced the horrors of the two world wars of the last century. So the phrase that change has become more extreme is simply not valid. However, the potential for major upsets is huge; and it is against that backdrop that we offer our list of events, trends or issues that could make headlines in 2012...[more]

From Clem Sunter's column on News24