The Commonwealth, gender and peacekeeping

Reflecting on the strategic commitment outlined in the Plan of Action for Gender Equality (2005-2015) and the priority issues of the Commonwealth Women’s Forum, this article assesses the extent to which the Commonwealth as an institution is supporting troop and police-contributing member states in addressing the gender imbalance in peacekeeping operations. Drawing on desk-based research, interviews with international policymakers and a statistical analysis of the International Peace Institute Peacekeeping Database, the article first outlines the Commonwealth’s gender and security policy perspective before examining data sets to determine the success of Commonwealth member states in integrating women into uniformed peacekeeping contingencies between 2009 and 2015. The article observes that, in spite of a renewed optimism and drive to propel women into leadership positions in politics, the judiciary, public bodies and private companies, security sector reform and the implementation of pillar one of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325, is notably absent from the Commonwealth’s gender agenda. It is argued that this policy gap suggests that national and international security architecture is regarded as an accepted domain of masculine privilege. A lack of political will among Commonwealth Heads of Government to mainstream gender equality and facilitate structural transformation of national security organs, and a chronically under resourced Commonwealth Secretariat limits the influence of the institution to that of arms-length promoter of international norms on women, peace and security.

The impact of public capital and public investment on economic growth: an empirical investigation

in this anicle we measure the impact of public sector capital and investment on economic growth. Initially, traditional growth accounting regressions are run for a cross-country data set. A simple endogenous growth model is then constructed in order to take into account the determinants of labor, private capital and public capital. In both cases, public capital is a separate argument of the production function. An additional data-set constructed with quarterly American data was used in the estimations of the growth mode!. The results indicate lhat public capital and public investment play a significant role in determining growth rates and have a significant impact on capital and labor returns. Furthermore, the impact of public investment on productivity growth was found to be positive and always significant for bolh samples. Hence. in a fully optimizing modelo we confmn previous results in the literature that lhe failure of public investment to keep pace with output growlh during the Seventies and Eighties may have played a major role in the slowdown of lhe productivity growth in the period. Anolher main outcome concems the output elasticity wilh respect to public capital. The coefficiem estimates are always positive and significant but magnitudes depend on each of lhe two data set used.

The Brazilian and the french private equity sectors from 2006 to present: a comparative analysis

Private equity, ou o ato de fundos ou investidores de investir em empresas não cotadas em bolsa pública, assumiu uma importância crescente no mundo financeiro nos últimos anos. De fato, enquanto o surgimento de um setor de private equity (PE) tem sido um grande fenômeno em mercados emergentes desde meados dos anos 2000, a crise financeira mundial enfraqueceu private equity no mundo desenvolvido. Assim, esta pesquisa vai se concentrar em dois países com dinâmicas supostamente muito diferentes em relação a este sector: França e Brasil. O objetivo será o de discernir padrões gerais de comportamento em ambos os sectores de PE durante todo o período compreendido 2006-2013, e tentar determinar em que medida eles são comparáveis. Utilizando a literatura como fonte conceitual para o quadro comparativo a ser desenvolvido, será analisado se as condições do mercado e do ambiente institucional evoluíram durante o período estudado na França e no Brasil, se comparar, e se eles impactaram o nível de atividade de private equity - oferta e demanda de fundos - em ambos os países. Para identificar esses padrões, a pesquisa contará com uma análise de dados exploratória qualitativa, com base em um quadro dos determinantes do setor de PE identificados e retirados da literatura acadêmica. Esta pesquisa trazera sua contribuição para o trabalho acadêmico existente sobre private equity, graças à sua natureza comparativa e para a sua conclusão sobre a relevância dos determinantes acima mencionados sobre a atividade de private equity na França e no Brasil.

O Cariri cearense: da ocupação do território à institucionalização da região metropolitana do Cariri

Urbanization in their mearing simpler, the agglomeration of people, occurred from the time that the productive activities have to be based on trade. The first cities arose when the evolution of agriculture allowed the production and storage of surpluses. However, with industrialization was that urbanization becomes intense, according to Singer (1987), the industrial revolution was to stage, from the beginning, the urban area. It requires, in its proximity, the presence of a large number of workers. With respect to the Cariri cearense, the occupation of its territory is associated with the movement of agricultural surpluses produced and reproduced under the hegemony of merchant capital and due to the development of extensive cattle that promoted the territorial occupation of Ceará. From the 1960s, the region has undergone changes in its productive structure due to industrial planning policies of the government of Ceará. However it was in the 1990s that the region itself as economic and urban polo because policies to attract investments from the state government of Ceará. This policy led to boosting trade and services marking the predominance of tertiary activities in the region, especially the retail, wholesale , medical services and education. Investments also consolidated the industrial park area making it diverse, especially the footwear industries, mining, non-metallic minerals, transport equipment, pharmaceutical chemical, food and beverages, rubber and leather and construction. Thus, the aim of this study was to review the region of Cariri cearense occupation of its territory institutionalizing its metropolitan region, to understand what factors influenced the Cariri cearense become an important area in urban and economic terms in the interior of Ceará. In order to develop this research in that refers to the methodological perspective, research is guided by bibliographic studies and also makes use of secondary data analysis (population, GDP, urbanization rate, employment) of the main databases the country, as IBGE, IPEADATA and RAIS - MTE

Combined cycle versus one thousand diesel power plants: pollutant emissions, ecological efficiency and economic analysis

The increase in the use of natural gas in Brazil has stimulated public and private sectors to analyse the possibility of using combined cycle systems for generation of electrical energy. Gas turbine combined cycle power plants are becoming increasingly common due to their high efficiency, short lead times, and ability to meet environmental standards. Power is produced in a generator linked directly to the gas turbine. The gas turbine exhaust gases are sent to a heat recovery steam generator to produce superheated steam that can be used in a steam turbine to produce additional power. In this paper a comparative study between a 1000 MW combined cycle power plant and 1000 kW diesel power plant is presented. In first step, the energetic situation in Brazil, the needs of the electric sector modification and the needs of demand management and integrated means planning are clarified. In another step the characteristics of large and small thermoelectric power plants that use natural gas and diesel fuel, respectively, are presented. The ecological efficiency levels of each type of power plant is considered in the discussion, presenting the emissions of particulate material, sulphur dioxide (SO2), carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

THE HIGGS PORTAL and AN UNIFIED MODEL FOR DARK ENERGY and DARK MATTER

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy 2011-2012: Continuing crisis in the centre and new opportunities for developing economies

Includes bibliography

Economic reforms, growth and employment: labour markets in Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

The income distribution problem in Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Investment and economic reform in Latin America

Includes bibliography

Review of Caribbean economic and social performance in the 1980's and 1990's

Includes bibliography

The Singapore success story: public-private alliance for investment attraction, innovation and export development

Includes Bibliography

Job losses, multinationals and globalization: the anatomy of disempowerment

Includes bibliography

The migration of health care workers in the Western Hemisphere: issues and impacts

Includes bibliography

From hard-peg to hard landing?: recent experiences of Argentina and Ecuador

Includes bibliography