Post by Tran Viet Anh on Jan 9, 2004 10:22:34 GMT 7
The FRESH framework, according to the World Bank, is the starting point for developing an effective school health hygiene and nutrition in a more child friendly and health promoting school. The five quality standards of a "child friendly school" are, the quality of the learners and their experiences and needs; the relevance of the curriculum content and processes' the quality of the classroom and broader school environment; and the appropriateness of assessment and achievement of learning outcomes in areas such as literacy, numeracy, knowledge, attitudes and skills for life. The aim is to focus on interventions that are feasible to implement even in the most resource-poor schools. This is because ensuring that children are healthy and able to learn is an essential component of an effective education system.
IMF Says Rise in US Debts Is Threat to World's Economy. With its rising budget deficit and ballooning trade imbalance, the United States is running up a foreign debt of such record-breaking proportions that it threatens the financial stability of the global economy, according to a report released Wednesday by the International Monetary Fund, reports The New York Times.
Prepared by a team of IMF economists, the report sounded a loud alarm about the shaky fiscal foundation of the United States, questioning the wisdom of the Bush administration's tax cuts and warning that large budget deficits pose "significant risks" not just for the United States but for the rest of the world.
The report warns that the United States' net financial obligations to the rest of the world could be equal to 40 percent of its total economy within a few years-"an unprecedented level of external debt for a large industrial country," according to the fund, that could play havoc with the value of the dollar and international exchange rates. The danger, according to the report, is that the United States' voracious appetite for borrowing could push up global interest rates and thus slow global investment and economic growth. White House officials dismissed the report as alarmist, saying that President Bush has already vowed to reduce the budget deficit by half over the next five years. The deficit reached $374 billion last year, a record in dollar terms but not as a share of the total economy, and it is expected to exceed $400 billion this year. But many international economists said they were pleased that the report raised the issue.
Briefly Noted... Jordan's transport sector is suffering as truck drivers avoid entering Iraq following armed attacks on the road linking the Red Sea to Baghdad, Amman officials say, reports the FT. Before the March war, Jordanian officials say 10,000 Jordanian truck and fuel tanker drivers plied the 1000-kilometre journey between Baghdad and the Amman area, ferrying millions of tones of UN rations to Iraq and bringing all Jordan's oil needs out. Now Jordan imports its oil by sea and many Iraqis have turned to the newly-opened border with Kuwait to import supplies. Jordanian drivers also face stiffer competition from their Iraqi counterparts.
Syria's archaic banking sector this week ended nearly half a century of state monopoly as two private banks opened for business in Damascus, reports AFP. The creation of private banks in Syria, made possible under a reform law passed in 2001, is part of a plan to improve banking services and encourage private sector investment. The Syria and Overseas Bank
(BSOM) was officially inaugurated Wednesday by Finance Minister Mohammad al-Hussein and bank board chairman Rateb Shallah. The European Bank of the Middle East-Saudi-Fransi opened its doors to clients Sunday, a branch official told AFP. BSOM's parent company is the Lebanon and Overseas Bank (BLOM), Lebanon's largest in assets. It launched a 38 percent public offering of BSOM's capital in October with the IFC and Syrian investors.
The European Union is reviewing a longstanding aid embargo imposed over human rights abuses in Togo, where President Gnassingbe Eyadema has ruled for longer than any other African leader, the FT reports. The European Commission is today expected to recommend holding talks on the sanctions with the Togolese government, which is campaigning to restore EU assistance despite controversy surrounding Eyadema's re-election last year.
The Angolan government has approved a $500 million national water plan, according to a press release from Cabinet Council available here on Thursday, reports Xinhua. The program is part of the Government's Global Development and Poverty Reduction effort. The press release said that the government acknowledges that despite the country's great hydric potential, there are localized problems of water shortage in some regions, associated with other related to the supply of water and with sanitation that result from scarce appropriate infrastructures and services, with impact on the current infant death rates and on the high costs to the populations in their search for water.
Britain's Standard Chartered Bank and the IFC said on Thursday they had established a $40 million facility to help Nigerian banks expand and improve their trade finance services, reports Reuters.The IFC said that even sound and reputable banks in Nigeria were affected by poor trade finance confirmation from international banks. "Consequently, transaction costs remain high for companies, as they have to fund them largely with upfront cash collateral borrowed at high domestic interest rates," the IFC said.
The discovery of oil in southern Sudan dates back to 1980, reports Liberation (France), three years before the civil war began. The fight over the control of oil zones fed the war and led to the displacement of thousands. After many delays, production started in 2000. In a report published in November, Human Rights Watch estimated that $580 million-that is 60 percent of oil revenues in 2001-were used for military spending, buying weapons abroad, and developing the national weapons industry. The rumors of peace which preceded the signature of the agreement on the sharing of resources in Kenya yesterday led many petrol companies to knock on the door of Sudan again.
The World Bank has agreed to provide $13 million of emergency aid to the cash-strapped transitional government of Guinea-Bissau to help it pay compensation for damage to private property inflicted during the civil war of 1998-99 and to finance a demobilization program for former combatants, reports UN IRIN. Part of the money will also be used to compensate depositors in a collapsed state-run bank, Banco International da Guine-Bissau.
AFP notes that government and rebel troops in divided Cote d'Ivoire on Wednesday pursued efforts to hammer out details for disarmament after 15 months of a conflict which has divided the west African state. The national disarmament commission said a three-day workshop in the capital Yamoussoukro was aimed at defining a broad joint operations plan and a step-by-step guide to the entire disarmament and rehabilitation process. Donors including the World Bank and former colonial power France will likely underwrite the disarmament program.
Growing instability in the Andes region is putting US interests at risk, according to an independent report published today, reports the FT. The report by the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations is sharply critical of US policy in the region, arguing that its focus on drugs and security issues has been "myopic" and "underestimates the fundamental challenges to the region". Land reforms to reduce rural inequality and changes to broaden tax bases and cut evasion should be particular priorities. The US also needs to invite greater international participation, especially in relation to its efforts to control the growing illegal drugs industry. One problem is that local authorities have little ability to prevent replanting. Another is that poor peasant farmers have few viable alternatives. "Eradication will never be completely successful so long as there are poor people on the ground whose only option to support themselves and their families is to grow coca or poppy," argued the report.
The GDP of India increased by 8.4 percent in the last quarter of 2003, reports La Tribune (France). Indian investment abroad reached $450 million in 2003. But India still has a ways to go, particularly as far as infrastructure goes. Development projects have been launched for roads, ports and airports.
Growing power short-ages have plunged large areas of [China] into darkness, leading experts to the conclusion that there is one bright idea that can get the country out of this malaise "deregulate one of the last remaining sacred cows of the Chinese economy, reports China Daily. As the government is trying to combat the problem, experts say that emergency measures can only bring temporary relief. The crux of the problem, they say, lies in the system itself. "The current energy shortage reflects the failure of the government's 'command and control' approach to address energy sector issues," says Zhao Jianping, senior energy specialist of the World Bank in Beijing. Zhao maintains that the mismatch in energy supply and demand is the result of over-control. "When the government is in control of supply, rather than the market, problems will inevitably arise," he says.
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