Security Council Renews Arms Embargo, Diamond Trade Ban in Côte d’Ivoire

Security Council Expresses Concern at Delay in Publication of Provisional

Secretary-General Welcomes Provisional Voters List in Côte d’Ivoire, Encourages All Parties to Build on This Critical Milestone, Determine New Election Date

     Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on 24th November on all parties in Côte d’Ivoire to fix a new date as soon as possible for their much-delayed elections, now postponed yet again from their latest deadline of this month.

    Welcoming 23rd November publication of the provisional voter list in the West African country, split by civil war in 2002 into a Government-ruled south and a rebel-controlled north, he assured all parties that the UN would continue to provide the necessary financial, technical and logistical aid to help them organize and conduct open, free, fair and transparent elections.

    The elections, originally scheduled for as far back as 2005, were planned for 29 November after repeated postponements.

    “The Secretary-General believes that with this important development [the provisional list], the Ivorian parties and institutions have made significant progress towards the establishment of a consensual and transparent voters list,” a statement issued by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said.

    “The Secretary-General now encourages all the Ivorian parties to build further on this critical milestone in order to prepare the final voters list and move forward in determining a new election date as soon as possible.”

    A UN peacekeeping mission, known as UNOCI, has been stationed in Côte d’Ivoire since 2004 to help ensure a ceasefire and pave the way for permanent peace and democratic elections. Reauthorized repeatedly since then, most recently until 31 January 2010, it currently comprises nearly 8,400 uniformed personnel, as well as 407 international civilian staff.

Côte d’Ivoire Country Operations Profile

UNHCR Maps – Côte d’Ivoire

    A peace agreement between the Government and the rebel Forces Nouvelles (FN) in March 2007 resulted in the appointment of FN leader Guillaume Soro as prime minister. This event marked a turning point in the peace process in Côte d’Ivoire. All the signatories to the accord, signed in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, confirmed their commitment to peace and stability, a development welcomed by the international community.

    The Ouagadougou Agreement included provisions for a joint military command, a new government, the disbanding of militias and armed groups, assisted returns of internally displaced persons (IDPs), and elections within 10 months. The agreement also included the gradual removal of the zone de confiance, a buffer strip set up by international peacekeepers to separate government troops in the south from the FN in the north, and the resumption of the audiences foraines, or public hearings related to the granting of birth certificates, identity papers and settlement of nationality issues.

    Notwithstanding the delay in implementing some of the major aspects of the agreement, including the disarmament and demobilization of armed factions, key groups in the country have agreed that the first round of presidential elections should be held on 30 November 2008.

The needs

    Self-reliance projects are required for the remaining Liberian refugees in Côte d’Ivoire to help with their local integration. Persons with specific needs who do not benefit from local services need assistance. Urban refugees, who are affected by the current economic crisis in the country, need help to maintain minimum living standards. Women and children at risk need educational programmes and income-generating activities. Ivorian refugees in neighbouring countries require assistance to return to Côte d’Ivoire and to reintegrate into their areas of origin.

Main objectives

• Promote the voluntary repatriation and reintegration of Ivorian refugees.
• Protect and assist urban refugees in Abidjan.
• Facilitate the local integration of some 24,000 Liberian refugees through self-reliance projects, support local structures and help individuals with specific needs.
• Provide community-based assistance in the health, education, social services, sanitation and water supply sectors.
• Prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence.
• Pursue third-country resettlement for eligible cases.

UNHCR Statistical Yearbook Country Data Sheet – Côte d’Ivoire

• 2005 UNHCR Statistical Yearbook Country Data Sheet – Côte d’Ivoire

• 2004 UNHCR Statistical Yearbook Country Data Sheet – Côte d’Ivoire

• 2003 UNHCR Statistical Yearbook Country Data Sheet – Côte d’Ivoire

• 2002 UNHCR Statistical Yearbook Country Data Sheet – Côte d’Ivoire

The filmmaker Oliver Englehart follows a local team working to clear mines from a residential area in Afghanistan, where buried explosives are a finite, but persistent problem

THE UNITED NATIONS MINE ACTION SERVICE 

 

 

 

 Deminers train for rapid response deployment

THE UNITED NATIONS MINE ACTION SERVICE

 

 

 

UNMAS Annual Report 2007

UNMAS Annual Report 2008 

UNMAS Annual Report 200819 Donors contribute $92.5 million to Voluntary Trust Fund for Assistance in Mine Action

 

 

 

The Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, today paid tribute to the men and women of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) who contributed to Operation CATALYST (Iraq).

Speaking at the national parade to mark the end of the Operation, Air Chief Marshal Houston said Operation CATALYST was one of the most complex operations ever undertaken by the ADF.

“Today, I encourage all Australians to pause for a moment to consider the service of their fellow countrymen. In our name and under our flag they risked their lives to provide others with a brighter future,” Air Chief Marshal Houston said.

“As your Chief, I am immensely proud of you and thankful for your skill and commitment. You have been wonderful ambassadors for our nation. As indeed, are the men and women still deployed in Iraq with the United Nations and those who are providing security for the Australian Embassy.

“Of course, the success of Operation CATALYST is also due, not only to those who deployed to Iraq, but also to the performance of the defence organisation here at home.

“I would also like to pay special tribute today to the families and friends of those who contributed to Operation CATALYST.

“Without their love and encouragement, the men and women of the ADF would not have been able to perform as well as they did. For that I am most grateful.”

Air Chief Marshal Houston said Operation CATALYST was a very dangerous mission and that we should never forget the human cost.

“Very sadly, three Australians never came home from their military service in Iraq. Today I honour the service of Warrant Officer Class Two David Nary from the Special Air Service Regiment and Private Jacob Kovco of the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment,” Air Chief Marshal Houston said.

“I also wish to mention Flight Lieutenant Paul Pardoel, a graduate of the Australian Defence Force Academy, who was killed in Iraq whilst serving with the Royal Air Force.

“To the Nary, Kovco and Pardoel families I want them to know that they are in our thoughts, just as David, Jake and Paul are in our thoughts.

“Today we should also remember the 27 ADF men and women who were wounded during this operation. Some made full recoveries. Others will never fully recover.

“To all our sailors, soldiers, airmen and airwomen who contributed to Operation CATALYST, I offer my sincere gratitude for your service.”

Official histories

       Since its inception, the Memorial has sponsored Australia’s official war histories. Australian governments have commissioned four separate series of official war histories over this period, one for each of the major conflicts in which Australia has been involved: the two world wars and the Cold War–conflicts in Korea and south-east Asia. In 2004 the Federal Government authorised the writing of a fifth official history relating to peacekeeping and Post–Cold War operations.

 

       Official histories are “official” in the sense they are commissioned by government as the national record of Australia’s involvement in particular conflicts. The official historians are granted unrestricted access to closed period and security classified government records.

        The Australian official war histories contain the authors’ own interpretations and judgements and do not follow any official or government line.

        The works are the first published official record of Australia’s involvement in war. They are a detailed, chronological record of all services and theatres of conflict. They comprise an invaluable resource for researchers at all levels, from the scholar to the general reader. The official war histories are our enduring national record providing a comprehensive, authoritative, and accessible account of the Australian experience of war.

Please select a conflict:

First World War

Second World War

Korean War, 1950–53,

South-east Asian conflicts

Peacekeeping and Post–Cold War operations

This one took a bit of digging. No, you won’t be able to find this song on her album “In a Perfect World”. This new song is for Europe only and will be featured in a German Movie entitled “Zweiohrküken”. Er, my German is a little rusty. Where is Boris Kodjoe when you need him?

An organization will not begin the transformation until it is aware that the quality of the product or service must be improved. Awareness comes about when an organization loses market share or realizes that quality and productivity go hand in hand. It also occurs if TQM is mandated by the customer or if management realizes that TQM is a better way to run business and compete in domestic and world markets.

Automation or other productivity enhancements might not help a corporation if it is unable to market its product or service because the quality is poor. The Japanese learned this fact from practical experience. They could sell their products only at ridiculously low prices, and even then it was difficult to secure repeat sales. Until recently, corporations have not recognized the importance of quality. However, a new attitude has emerged—quality first among the equals of cost and service—the customer wants value.

Quality and productivity are not mutually exclusive. Improvements in quality can lead directly to increased productivity and other benefits. The improved quality results in improvement in productivity, capacity, and profit. Many quality improvement projects are achieved with the same workforce, same overhead, and no investment in new equipment.

More and more corporations are recognizing the importance and necessity of quality improvement if they are to survive domestic and world-wide competition. Quality improvement is not limited to the conformance of the product or service to specifications; it also involves the inherent quality in the design of the system. The prevention of the product, service, and process problems is a more desirable objective than taking corrective action after the product is manufactured or a service rendered.

TQM does not occur overnight; there are no quick remedies. It takes a long time to build the appropriate emphasis and techniques into the culture. Over-emphasis on short term results and profits must be set aside so long-term planning and constancy of purpose will prevail.

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        Climate change has long-since ceased to be a scientific curiosity, and is no longerjust one of many environmental and regulatory concerns. As the United Nations Secretary General has said, it is the major, overriding environmental issue of our time, and the single greatest challenge facing environmental regulators. It is a growing crisis with economic, health and safety, food production, security, and other dimensions.

        Shifting weather patterns, for example, threaten food production through increased unpredictability of precipitation, rising sea levels contaminate coastal freshwater reserves and increase the risk of catastrophic flooding, and a warming atmosphere aids the pole-ward spread of pests and diseases once limited to the tropics.

        The news to date is bad and getting worse. Ice-loss from glaciers and ice sheets has continued, leading, for example, to the second straight year with an ice-free passage through Canada’s Arctic islands, and accelerating rates of ice-loss from ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Combined with thermal expansion—warm water occupies more volume than cold—the melting of ice sheets and glaciers around the world is contributing to rates and an ultimate extent of sea-level rise that could far outstrip those anticipated in the most recent global scientific assessment.

        There is alarming evidence that important tipping points, leading to irreversible changes in major ecosystems and the planetary climate system, may already have been reached or passed. Ecosystems as diverse as the Amazon rainforest and the Arctic tundra, for example, may be approaching thresholds of dramatic change through warming and drying. Mountain glaciers are in alarming retreat and the downstream effects of reduced water supply in the driest months will have repercussions that transcend generations. Climate feedback systems and environmental cumulative effects are building across Earth systems demonstrating behaviours we cannot anticipate.

        The potential for runaway greenhouse warming is real and has never been more present. The most dangerous climate changes may still be avoided if we transform our hydrocarbon based energy systems and if we initiate rational and adequately financed adaptation programmes to forestall disasters and migrations at unprecedented scales. The tools are available, but they must be applied immediately and aggressively.

        Scientists in the journal Science are now reporting that the contraction of Greenland’s ice sheet is accelerating. Using computer modeling to confirm their satellite data, the team concluded that the ice mass shrank by 273 billion tons a year (or as the Brits like to say…”nearly 300 Lake Windermeres”) during the warm summers from 2006 to 2008.  That’s roughly a 70 percent increase over what had already been a pretty quick shrink of 166 billion tons a year since 2000.

        The Greenland ice sheet is the second largest in the world, behind Antarctica, and could increase sea level by 7 meters in sea level were it to completely melt.

        More than 273 gigatons of water is now pouring into the oceans annually, raising sea levels by nearly a millimetre every year, satellite imaging has shown.

        Such is the change in the vast ice sheet that the loss of weight is actually changing its affect on the earth’s gravitational pull, the study in Science claims.

          One gigaton could provide enough water for 17 million people in Britain and is the volume of Lake Windermere, the country’s biggest water mass.

        The melting rate has been accelerating over the last decade and has more than tripled since the early 1990s.

        While scientists cannot say that all the melting is caused by climate change, they believe this is “very, very compelling evidence” that man-made global warming is affecting the world’s ice sheets.

It could cause major coastal flooding could happen every five years – instead of every hundred.

        About 1.2 billion people live in coastal areas around the world and they could be “devastated” by the rise in sea levels if the ice cap, which covers 1.71 million kilometres.

        Professor Jonathan Bamber, the lead author at Bristol University, said: “When you put it into context how much ice is melting each year is very alarming. ”One gigaton is the same as a billion tonnes of water. Four of them could provide the domestic water supply for the whole of the UK.

        “What is very worrying is that the speed of melting is increasing. Ice caps are like supertankers. Once they start moving in one direction is takes a lot to stop them.”

    Professor Bamber used satellites to calculate the difference between the amount of inflowing ice – mainly from snowfall- compared the amount of outflowing ice – from surface melt and glacier rivers, to make the calculations.

        He also looked at satellite data on the contribution the huge ice mass has on the earth’s gravitational pull.

        He said both records had shown that the ice sheet had gone from roughly a state of equilibrium in the 1950s and gradually accelerated to its current rate of melting.

        He said at the current rate seas would rise approximately half an inch a decade which could have devastating effects on lowland areas.

        Professor Bamber also said that if the entire 2.5 million gigatons of the Greenland ice cap were to melt then global sea levels would rise by seven metres.

“Flooding that it is currently a once every hundred year even could happen every five years,” he said.

        “This is very, very, strong and compelling evidence that the recent climate change is not normal and is influenced by man-made global warming.”

        BBC viewers were treated last week to the bizarre spectacle of Mr Ban
Ki-moon standing on an Arctic ice-floe making a series of statements so laughable that it was hard to believe such a man can be Secretary-General of the UN. Thanks to global warming, he claimed, “100 billion tons” of polar ice are melting each year, so that within 30 years the Arctic could be “ice-free”. This was supported by a WWF claim that the ice is melting so fast that, by 2100, sea-levels could rise by 1.2 metres (four feet), which would lead to “floods affecting a quarter of the world”.

        Everything about this oft-repeated item was propaganda of the silliest kind. Standing 700 miles from the Pole, as near as the stubbornly present ice would allow his ship to go, Mr Ban seemed unaware that, although some 10 million square kilometres (3.8 million square miles) of sea-ice melts each summer, each September the Arctic starts to freeze again. And the extent of the ice now is 500,000 sq km (190,000 sq m) greater than it was this time last year – which was, in turn, 500,000 sq km more than in September 2007, the lowest point recently recorded (see the Cryosphere Today website). By April, after months of darkness, it will be back up to 14 million sq km (5.4 million sq m) or more.

        Mr Ban seems equally unaware that, even if all that sea-ice were to melt, this would no more raise sea-levels than a cube of ice melting in a gin and tonic increases the volume of liquid in the glass. If he is relying for his “100 billion tons” on land ice melting in Antarctica and Greenland, he should note that much of their ice sheets are growing rather than shrinking. His “100 billion tons” is fantasy.

        Similarly worthy of the Booker Prize for fiction was WWF’s claim that sea levels might rise by four feet (twice the most extreme guess by those UN computer models), let alone the ludicrous claim that this would flood “a quarter of the world”. But Mr Ban was indulging in this childish publicity stunt for the same reason the BBC, the Royal Society and others have lately been banging on about various mad schemes for “climate engineering”, such as putting up vast mirrors in space to keep out the sun’s rays or lining our motorways with artificial trees to suck deadly CO2 out of the air, to be taken away and buried in holes in the ground.

        Why are they all going off their heads like this, in emulation of the “projector” that Gulliver met on his travels, in the Academy of Lagado, who had designed a scheme for extracting sunbeams from cucumbers? It is because they are desperately trying to whip up alarm over global warming before December’s planned “climate treaty” in Copenhagen, when all evidence suggests that they are not going to get the successor to the Kyoto Protocol they want.

        The countries of the developing world, led by China, India, Russia and Brazil, continue to insist that, since global warming is all the fault of the already developed countries of the West, it is up to the West to cut its CO2 emissions by 80 per cent, while the rest of the world is allowed to catch up. Some, such as China, are prepared to make token emission cuts, but only so long as they are compensated by the West to the tune of trillions of pounds a year. As some of the gloomier warmists admit, Copenhagen looks to be a dead duck.

        According to Government figures, however, we in Britain are already committed to spending, under the Climate Change Act, £18 billion every year between now and 2050 on this nonsense – daft light bulbs (see below), electricity blackouts and all. In other words, we are only beginning to see some of the nastier consequences of this crazy make-believe, based on nothing more substantial than the kind of gibberish we got last week from Mr “Light Bulb” Ban and the BBC.

 READ THE UNEP REPORT ON CLIMATE CHANGE 

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Polaris Media Group is an international community of successful men and women who believe in social responsibility through entrepreneurism and developing highly motivated, self-sufficient, and successful people. Our goal is instilling competence through the application of proven entrepreneurial principles. Creating effective media products and events fulfills our passion to reveal the true nature of the human spirit. Join us.

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TO STOP THE GENOCIDE

Our partners at Genocide-Intervention Network are recruiting for the second class of Carl Wilkens Fellows, and the application is due Nov. 1! The Carl Wilkens Fellowship is a selective, year-long program that provides a diverse set of emerging citizen leaders with the tools and training to build sustained political will to end genocide. Seeking to bridge the gap between thought and action in the anti-genocide movement, the goal of the Carl Wilkens Fellowship is to develop effective leaders in communities across the United States who have acquired the skills and fostered the relationships necessary to influence and shape US policies on genocide.

The program is named in honor of Carl Wilkens, a self-described “ordinary” man, who was the only American who chose to remain in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide and is credited with saving hundreds of lives. Mr. Wilkens is emblematic of the program’s theme: ordinary individuals can make an extraordinary difference when they choose to engage.

The inaugural class brought together individuals from Los Angeles, CA, Terre Haute, IN, Ramsey, NJ, Miami, FL and more . . . These activists are corporate lawyers, IT specialists, professors, museum-based educators, filmmakers, heath professionals, and therapists.

MEDIA : Darfur, The children of conflicts

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United Nations, New York, 13 October 2009 – Some 500 diplomats, Pakistani Government officials, senior UN officials and staff and family and friends gathered for a memorial today to pay respects to the World Food Programme staff members who were killed or injured in the suicide attack on the WFP headquarters in Islamabad on 5 October. Five WFP staff were killed and four injured in the attack; one staff member remains in critical condition.

The Secretary-General, in a message read out at the ceremony, said that the victims of this senseless attack were working tirelessly on the frontlines of hunger and human suffering to assist the poor and vulnerable of Pakistan. Their selfless work to feed the hungry should not have been dangerous.

The Secretary-General added that we will not be deterred by this senseless violence. Although we must continue to be vigilant about the dangers of the world we live and work in, he stressed that our resolve will stay strong and our work will continue.
Also addressing the gathering was UN Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security Gregory Starr, who has been visiting UN operations in Pakistan over the past two days. He pledged his department’s support for the continuing work of the United Nations in Pakistan.
And the UN flag is at half mast outside Headquarters today, in honour of the fallen staff.

The flag is also at half mast today in honour of the 11 peacekeepers who died Friday in a plane crash in Haiti.

This morning in Port-au-Prince, the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) held a memorial ceremony for these peacekeepers. Hundreds of UN staff, as well as Haitian and international dignitaries, attended the ceremony.
The coffins were each decorated with a wreath of flowers laid by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the country, and the commanding officers of the Jordanian and of the Uruguyan battalions.

Annabi also read a message by the Secretary-General in which he said that this tragedy reminds us that even where there is no open conflict, peacekeeping is fraught with unforeseeable risks.

He added that the 5 Jordanian and 6 Uruguayan peacekeepers had ventured far from home to serve the shared values that bind us together as a human family. Their deeds speak eloquently, said the Secretary-General adding that he had seen with his own eyes the remarkable progress that Haiti has made thanks to the efforts of our peacekeepers.
They were here in Haiti protecting the country’s borders. They were here providing relief to the victims of last year’s terrible storms and hurricanes. They were here helping the people of Haiti fulfill the enormous promise of their proud nation, said the Secretary-General.
During the ceremony, President Rene Preval bestowed the National Order of Honour and Merit posthumously on the 11 peacekeepers.
The bodies are will now be repatriated.

News Stories:
PAKISTAN  -  http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=32518&Cr=pakistan&Cr1=

HAITI – http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=32522&Cr=haiti&Cr1=
Press release:

• Secretary-General’s Message to Honour Peacekeepers Who Died in Crash of United Nations Aircraft in Haiti

• Ban pays tribute to fallen blue helmets in Haiti
• Secretary-General’s message to Memorial Ceremony in honour of UN staff killed in Pakistan
• Secretary-General’s message in honour of the Victims of Flight UNO-146 in Haiti
• MINUSTAH website
• World Food Programe Website

UN-Water Work Programme 2009–2010

UN-Water complements and adds value to existing UN programmes and projects by facilitating synergies and joint efforts among the implementing agencies. In doing so, UNWater
seeks to:

1. improve the coherence in UN system actions at all levels, and in particular at the country level;
2. contribute to the global policy debate on waterrelated issues through active participation in global policy fora and events and through the production of assessments and policy reports for informed decisionmaking;
3. contribute to increased knowledge on water-related issues through relevant monitoring and reporting systems and by serving as an entry point for water-related indicators, data and information;

4. identify emerging issues related to global water challenges and provide a platform for UN System strategic discussions on how to prepare for and cope with them more effectively; and

5. increase the capacity among stakeholders through the provision of relevant information and policy advice, available through the extensive experience among UNWater members and partners.

MEDIA : Holy Water – A Message of Peace…and Entrepreneurship

   This joint study by the International Labour Office and the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization focuses on the relationship between trade and the growth of the informal economy in developing countries. Based on existing academic literature, complemented with new empirical research by the ILO and the WTO, the study discusses how trade reform affects different aspects of the informal economy. It also examines how high rates of informal employment diminish the scope for developing countries to translate trade openness into sustainable long-term growth.

    The report analyzes how well-designed trade and decent-work policies can complement each other so as to promote sustainable development and growing prosperity in developing countries.

Download the PDF files on the Book Picture

or Order a Printed copy

 MEDIAS:   WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM 2009

 A joint study from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has found that high incidence of informal employment in the developing world suppresses countries’ ability to benefit from trade opening by creating poverty traps for workers in job transition.

    The study is a product of the collaborative research programme of the ILO International Institute for Labour Studies and the WTO Secretariat. It focuses on the linkages between globalisation and informal employment and finds that informal employment is widespread in many developing countries, leaving thousands of workers with almost no job security, low incomes and no social protection.

    According to the findings, levels of informality vary substantially across countries, ranging from as low as 30 percent in some Latin American countries to more than 80 percent in certain sub-Saharan African and South Asian countries.

“The study confirms what we know from experience, that by promoting complementarity between decent work objectives and trade, financial and labour market policies, developing countries are much better placed to benefit from trade opening, advance the social dimension of globalisation, and to cope with the current crisis, said the ILO Director-General Juan Somavia.

    He added that this echoes the recent call by the G20 to implement recovery plans that support decent work, help preserve employment, and prioritize job growth….and to continue to provide income, social protection, and training support for the unemployed and those most at risk of unemployment.”

    Informal employment involves private, unregistered enterprises which are not subject to national law or regulation, offer no social protection and involve self-employed individuals, or members of the same household. In most cases, informality has remained high and has even increased in some countries, particularly in Asia, the study found.

“Trade has contributed to growth and development worldwide. But this has not automatically translated in an improvement in the quality of employment. Trade opening needs proper domestic policies to create good jobs. This is all the more evident with the current crisis which has reduced trade and thrown thousands into informal jobs,” said WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy.

    The analyses on the effect of trade opening on the size of the informal economy suggest that the effect of trade opening on informality depends crucially on both country-specific circumstances and the design of trade and domestic policies. The empirical analysis in this study shows that more open economies tend to have a lower incidence of informal employment. The short term effects of trade reforms may in the first instance be associated with higher informal employment. But longer terms effects point in the direction of a strengthening of formal sector employment, provided that trade reforms are more employment friendly and the right domestic policies are in place.

    The analyses states that reducing informality can release additional productive forces, enhance diversification and strengthen the capacity to trade internationally. Adverse effects of informality can mainly be related to the absence of productivity gains and low average firm size resulting from barriers to firm growth in the informal economy. Entrepreneurship and risk-taking is reduced when informality is high, partly as a result of badly designed tax systems, weak social protection and poor business regulation. Informality also prevents countries from fully benefiting from trade reforms by creating poverty traps for workers in job transition.

    The higher the incidence of informality, the greater the vulnerability of developing countries to shocks like the ongoing global crisis. Countries with larger informal economies suffer more frequently from shocks and experience lower sustainable growth rates. Also, informal employment reduces the effectiveness of automatic stabilisers, according to some of the advanced arguments.

    It continues that integration into world markets and tackling informal employment through decent work policies should be considered complementary. Facilitating formality of firms and jobs helps a country to benefit fully from trade openness, improves living standards and gives workers access to decent working conditions. Social protection is also crucial for supporting transitions and realising the gains from open trade. Greater attention should be devoted to social protection policies as well as to the design of trade reforms.

    The study suggests that trade reforms should be designed and implemented in an employment-friendly way, making the reallocation of jobs more conducive to formal employment growth.