Labour markets, worker protection and lifelong learning in a global economy: experiences and perspectives of Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

A preliminary assessment of the policies implemented by the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean in response to the crisis - May 2010 Meeting

Includes bibliography

The rise in global demand for ethanol and poverty in Brazil

Incluye Bibliografía

Trade, poverty and complementary policies in Latin America

Includes bibliography

The rise in global demand for ethanol and poverty in Brazil

Includes bibliography

The informal sector and poverty in Latin America

Includes bibliography

A poverty profile and functional aspects of Brazilian labour markets

Includes bibliography

Poverty, inequality and public policy in the Andean region: a comparative perspective

Includes bibliography

The United States and Latin America and the Caribbean: highlights of economy and trade

Document prepared on the occasion of the visit of President Barack Obama to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador in March 2011

The digital economy for structural change and equality

Includes bibliography.

Regional study on Women's unrecognized contribution to the economy

The findings and analysis of this study are based on desk review and secondary data to substantiate this growing phenomenon, especially among the female population. Further the recommendations that will be put forward in this study will be added to the literature and serve as a baseline for further study in the Caribbean region. The study is sectionalized as follows. Chapter one discusses in brief the demographics, social and economic profiles of Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. This chapter also examines the employment rate, gender and poverty, and the achievements and progress of member states as it relates to the MDGs especially goal number 3. Men are more likely to be employed in the formal sector than women, and earn higher wages and salaries in the labour market despite the fact women may have obtained tertiary level education. The literature showed that women are at home spending more time on child care and other household related responsibilities but this can still be considered employment. This chapter also addresses the achievements and progress of member states as it relates to the MDGs especially Goal 3. Chapter 2 identifies the literature review of related subjects for this study. Chapter 3 discusses the categories and type of labour activities in the informal economies in the Caribbean Region, for example, paid and unpaid work, time use, women working and their caring, responsibilities for their relatives, domestic workers being undervalued and under paid, street and market vendors, micro-enterprises the services sector and commercial sex workers. Chapter 4 examines the importance of social protection for those employed in the informal labour market and the self employed. Chapter 5 provides a preliminary analysis of the findings from this study. Chapter 6 details the preliminary conclusions and recommendations.

Inclusive social development: The next generation of policies for overcoming poverty and reducing inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean

Foreword by Alicia Bárcena

A mixed methods inquiry into the political economy of agriculture and rural areas in Lebanon

The present work, then, is concerned with the forgotten elements of the Lebanese economy, agriculture and rural development. It investigates the main problematic which arose from these forgotten components, in particular the structure of the agricultural sector, production technology, income distribution, poverty, food security, territorial development and local livelihood strategies. It will do so using quantitative Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modeling and a qualitative phenomenological case study analysis, both embedded in a critical review of the historical development of the political economy of Lebanon, and a structural analysis of its economy. The research shows that under-development in Lebanese rural areas is not due to lack of resources, but rather is the consequence of political choices. It further suggests that agriculture – in both its mainstream conventional and its innovative locally initiated forms of production – still represents important potential for inducing economic growth and development. In order to do so, Lebanon has to take full advantage of its human and territorial capital, by developing a rural development strategy based on two parallel sets of actions: one directed toward the support of local rural development initiatives, and the other directed toward intensive form of production. In addition to its economic returns, such a strategy would promote social and political stability.

Poverty and Mental Health. Tangible and Intangible Aspects of Microcredit

Microcredit, a small lending system, invests on an individual's creativity by stimulating the development of their own potential. This process leads to the attainment of various objectives which in turn allow individuals to develop their skill awareness. Consequently, this process also increases an individual’s self-esteem and self-confidence. These factors play an important role in the aetiology of a number of mental disorders. Namely, those characterized by a series of psychological conditions which impede the full development of a person’s personal, relational and social sphere. Furthermore, since Microcredit is thought to produce tangible goods, such as income, and intangible goods, such as self-esteem and mutual trust, it could also represent an innovative socio-economic tool. We therefore also hypothesize that, Microcredit would be valuable in maximizing abilities/skills in those subjects who are financially excluded and rarely perceived as a ‘resource’ for the Community The longitudinal study set the impact of the Grameen Bank microcredit program on new borrowers women from Noakhali District at the south Bangladesh. The impact evaluation assessment has been structured to detect individual, family and social changes. Manova Analysis allowed distinguishing from women with positive or negative outcomes related to the loan performance. Data revealed consistent differences in terms of economical outcomes and psychological well being amongst the groups of subject analyzed. The data gathered in relation to the changes arisen in the individuals should be looked into through future, continuous and systematic, monitoring.

The Charity and the Poverty

At the end of the middle Ages, financial savings institutions developed, largely in response to the increasingly usurious money-lending practices of the Jews and to the adaptation of church authorities to the by then well developed commercial and financial operations. It was the Franciscan Order that took the initiative to develop such institutions, first in Italy and later in other western European Mediterranean towns. These were the so-called Monte di Pieta, which lent money at low rates of interest taking objects in pawn as security. However, as they had to operate with circulating capital and on the principles of savings banks, they may be considered to be the predecessors of modern banks. Although charity was declared in the very names of these institutions, this was no longer in the sense of the medieval mercy towards the virtuous poor, but more a support for impoverished members of higher social strata, as loan applicants had to place valuable movable property in pawn, meaning that they first had to possess such property. In spite of this, the institutions had the character of the primeval accumulation of capital, although not so much for individuals as for a community or, in the latter's name, for a commune, i.e. the local authority, which at least in the cases of Koper and Piran was also the founder. However, the stagnation of trade with the hinterland and the decline in the economic power of the Venetian Republic, particularly in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, pushed pawnshops into a more miserable existence, with ups and downs linked with the irregularities of profit-making on behalf of the institution, particularly by its clerks.