International Monetary Fund was created 65 years ago!

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was conceived in July 1944 and came into existence on December 27, 1945 when the 29 countries signed its Articles of Agreement in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States.

With a goal to stabilize exchange rates and assist the reconstruction of the world’s international payment system, after World War II, the IMF helped the world stabilize the economic system and it has been working to improve the economies of its member countries.

Nowadays, IMF is an organization of 187 countries, (members of the IMF are 186 of the UN members and Kosovo) working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty”.

What IFM does?

The IMF promotes international monetary cooperation and exchange rate stability, facilitates the balanced growth of international trade, and provides resources to help members in balance of payments difficulties or to assist with poverty reduction.

For achieving its goals IMF works with other international organizations, interacts with think tanks, civil society and the media on a daily basis.

Through its economic surveillance, the IMF keeps track of the economic health of its member countries, alerting them to risks on the horizon and providing policy advice. It also lends to countries in difficulty, and provides technical assistance and training to help countries improve economic management.

Violence against women

United Nations Development Fund for Women – UNIFEM

Established in 1976, United Nations Development Fund for Women works to promote and protect women’s rights over the world, for eradicating violence and all forms of discrimination against women and achieving gender equality.

UNIFEM works on the premise that it is the fundamental right of every woman to live a life free from discrimination and violence, and that gender equality is essential to achieving development and to building just societies.

Working in more than 100 countries, UNIFEM focuses its activities on one overarching goal: to support the implementation at the national level of existing international commitments to advance gender equality.
In support of this goal, UNIFEM works in the following thematic areas:

• Enhancing women’s economic security and rights – UNIFEM is committed to the advancement of women’s human rights and places their realization at the centre of its work in all thematic areas. Women bear a disproportionate burden of the world’s poverty. Statistics indicate that women are more likely than men to be poor and at risk of hunger because of the systematic discrimination they face in education, health care, employment and control of assets. UNIFEM supports women to reshape conditions at both ends of the economic spectrum — from boosting women’s participation in economic policy-making to supporting efforts to provide women and their communities with practical skills needed for securing sustainable livelihoods.

• Ending violence against women – Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread violations of human rights. Globally, up to six out of every ten women experience physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. A World Health Organization study of 24,000 women in 10 countries found that the prevalence of physical and/or sexual violence by a partner varied from 15 percent in urban Japan to 71 percent in rural Ethiopia, with most areas being in the 30–60 percent range. On behalf of the UN system, UNIFEM manages the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women. The key international agreement on women’s human rights is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which is also described as the international bill of women’s rights. Ratified by 185 UN Member States.

• Reducing the prevalence of HIV and AIDS among women and girls – More than 30 million people are today living with HIV. Globally, women now account for half of all infections. Gender inequality and violations of women’s rights make women and girls particularly susceptible, leaving them with less control than men over their bodies and their lives. Women and girls often have less information about HIV and fewer resources to take preventive measures.

• Advancing gender justice in democratic governance in stable and fragile states – around the world, gender equality in democratic governance continues to be extremely limited. Women are outnumbered 4 to 1 in legislatures around the world. At mid-year 2009, only 17 heads of state or government were women. One of the pillars of UNIFEM’s work is advancing women’s political participation and good governance, to ensure that decision-making processes are participatory, responsive, equitable and inclusive.

Learn more and help on the following link:

http://www.unifem.org/

The social effects of tourism in developing countries

Tourism may represent one of the effective ways to developing countries boost their economy, improve livelihoods and create and economic market, which can help them to start getting out of poverty.

When countries begin to provide facilities for massive tourism, such as hotels, leisure complexes, there is an immediate demand for labour, especially cleaners, waiters, gardeners and drivers which may significantly boost the local economy.

Such work more than create opportunities to learn valuable new skills, it represents an attractive alternative to agriculture or fishing for thousands of workers.

Tourisms jobs play also an important role for women social development. It is known that in developing countries women are slightly put part of the society, living under the husband economy dependence and oversight.

The tourism may development employ and important number of women, so they can gain economy independence and skills, which can be used helping their children’s education and improve the communities where they live.

In a national level, at the same time the tax revenues from tourism earnings increase the national income, which can be used to develop the country.

It has been point out that one inevitable feature of tourism’s growth is the creation of badly-paid, seasonal and insecurity jobs, Moreover, the combination of wealthy tourists being served by exploited waitresses is likely to increase social tensions in these areas, encourage crime, prostitution and other less desirable aspects of moderns economy.

These negative aspects of tourism’s growth may, in fact, occur. There are several examples regarding creation of badly-paid jobs and emerging crime and prostitution in several countries.

However, the balance between the positive and negative effect of tourism in developing countries lead us, definitely, to accept this reality as an important factor of development.

Having some experience not only living but also visiting developing counties, it can been easily seen that tourism growth and all the related services around are one of the way they have to economic growth, mainly for those that have not natural resources or other forms of revenues.

Most of developing countries have and economy based on subsistence agriculture and fisheries, which is not enough either to support country economic growth or to allow private sector development.

Since the lack of human resources is the one of the most gaps of developing countries, the investment in tourism, which not reclaims a qualify human resources, is also an advantage.

Oecussi, Timor-Leste

Oecussi was the first part of the island of Timor-Leste on which the Portuguese established themselves, in fifteenth century.

Oecussi is a coastal exclave in the western part of the island of Timor. It is separated from the rest of Timor-Leste (East) by West Timor, which is part of the province of Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia, and which surrounds Oecussi in all directions except the north, where it borders the Savu Sea. It has an area of 815 square kilometres.

Oecussi is a district in Timor-Leste situated around 12 hours by ferry boat from the capital Dili. This boat connects to Dili twice a week. It can also be reached by road via Indonesia, this takes around six hours. This route requires visa authorisation from Timor-Leste’s authorities and a visa on arrival from the Indonesian government. A third, and quickest, option is by UN helicopter four days per week, although waiting lists tend to be long.

The capital of Oecussi district is Pante Macassar, which is also known as Oecussi town. Oecussi is divided into four sub-districts; Nitibe, Oesilo, Pante Macassar, and Passabe. The sub-districts are divided into 19 sucos (communities) in total. Just like any other district in Timor-Leste, most of the inhabitants are Roman Catholic. They speak Tetum, the official language of Timor-Leste, Portuguese and Indonesian.

The vast majority of Oecussi people – around 82 per cent – have always relied on agriculture for their livelihood. Oecussi farming practice tends overwhelmingly towards a subsistence model, and traditional markets commonly feature the bartering of goods as a mode of transaction. The major crops are cassavas and rice.

Attempts to increase economic activity in Oecussi through agriculture or agro-forestry will need to address the challenges of a dry climate, poor soils and mountainous topography, that offers little flat land for large-scale agriculture. Rainfall in Oecussi, as across Timor, falls mostly from November to April.

Life in Oecussi is pleasant but basic. There is a small number of restaurants and almost no nightlife. Shops are generally well stocked, with many imported goods from Indonesia, and markets have a good stocking of local products ranging from fruit to beef. Electricity is sparse, mainly for the evenings, and with regular black-outs. Hence, cooled and frozen products tend to be less available than fresh or canned goods. Both a vegetarian and a vegan diet are possible to maintain in Oecussi.