The Effect of Arab Spring on Yemen
February 20, 2012 by afrench14
The demonstrations and protests materializing in the Arab World are occurring in an attempt to draw attention to the repression felt by citizens of these countries. Yemen is no exception. Yemen’s protests, commencing in January 2011, called for the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh after 33 years of authoritarian rule. Although the resistance is intended to ignite a social revolution, the consequences of these movements have larger implications for Yemen’s economy and the macroeconomy as a whole.
Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Arab World and is heavily dependent on oil resources for revenue. According to the Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook, “petroleum accounts for roughly 25% of GDP and 70% of government revenue.” However, Yemen faces diminishing resources, largely responsible for the country’s further decline. Although the government has taken steps to bolster non-oil sectors of the economy along with foreign investment, they must still battle longterm challenges such as dwindling water resources and a high population growth rate in addition to Arab Spring.
The political turmoil caused by Arab Spring has exacerbated rising unemployment. The most recent estimate of the unemployment rate reached 35%. This in turn results in a loss of income and therefore a decline in standards of living. This is accurately reflected in GDP per capita, estimated at $2,500 in 2011. The population below the poverty line was also listed at 45.2%. This is no surprise as political turmoil often demands that attention be focused elsewhere, rather than on the current state of the economy.
Rising unemployment also has the property of a domino effect. Those people facing unemployment will have less demand for goods and services, thus affecting the employees in the sector that provides those goods and services. A decrease in demand means that the marginal product of labor decreases. A chain reaction ensures, causing more workers to be laid off. In addition, the decrease in wages implies a decreasing money multiplier. If people do not have money to save and invest, the banks cannot create more money by distributing loans.
Yemen, already a suffering country, is experiencing a loss of national output as well. If people are spending their time protesting rather than working, resources are being wasted, which also decreases GDP. The government must also focus on welfare spending despite foreign aid they receive for development projects and humanitarian needs, which increases deficits. An increase in government spending results in a decline of national savings, raising the interest rate and discouraging investment. In addition, government spending is heightened even more as the government attempts to stifle more protests and uprisings. The corrupt government, heightened by Arab Spring, extends into the judicial system as well. This insinuates that contracts are not enforced and private property rights are not respected. This limits economic security and freedom, and discourages foreign investment.
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Yemen has also experienced surging inflation rates since Arab Spring, ranking as one of the highest rates in the world, now at 20%. This is a significant increase from the 2010 inflation rate of 11.2%. This inflation occurs as the government issues large quantities of money to pay for expenditures. With this, seigniorage occurs, which can be thought of as a tax. Inflation tax hurts those who hold the money because old money in the hands of the public becomes less valuable. The difference between the value of money and what it costs to print the money is seigniorage and goes to the issuer of the money. In countries experiencing hyperinflation, this is often the government’s primary source of revenue.
Further, the Fisher effect explicates a one-to-one relation between the inflation rate and nominal interest rate (the rate the bank pays). Thus, when inflation is high, nominal interest rates are high as well. This lowers the demand for real money balances, the quantity of money in terms of the quantity of goods and services it can buy. In other words, it measures the purchasing power of the stock of money. If demand decreases, there is a decreased desire among the population to hold assets in the form of cash or bank deposits because of it’s decrease in value. This is true for Yemen, as it experiences high inflation.
Arab Spring has negatively affected Yemen’s already poor economy. The adverse effects are intertwined, leading the country farther into poverty. These multiplier effects not only travel through Yemen’s economy, but through the macroeconomy as a whole. The World Bank experienced interrupted projects during the political crisis in 2011 is just one example. Thus, Arab Spring is not only a crisis for the Arab World, but the world in its entirety.
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Libya
In the uprising against dictator Muammar Gaddafi, below, he was hunted down to a roadside drain, killed and dragged through the streets in triumph, his body put on display.
But then the rebels turned on each other, the country is split, and although Isis has been ousted from its stronghold in the city of Sirte it still operates as a guerrilla force.
Criminality and human trafficking is so rampant that gangs hold public slave auctions, and every year thousands of desperate migrants from sub-Saharan Africa are forced onto decrepit boats for the risky trip to Europe; many have met their deaths in the Mediterranean.The European Union has been accused of fuelling conflict by paying Libyan militias to crack down on trafficking routes. The numbers of people making the sea crossing has fallen but thousands are trapped and suffering in makeshift prisons inside the country.
his is the first article of a two part series examining the Iraqi revolution and the five years that followed it. Part II looks at Iraq’s ancient Sunni-Shia division . Read Part II here.
The Arab Spring carried with it the Middle East’s hopes, dreams and aspirations. Like its cousins in Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa almost 30 years ago, it promised to be the spark to transform the region into a haven of democracy and bring the grip of autocracy to an end.
The “fourth wave of democracy”, though, it wasn’t to be. Unease replaced optimism very quickly. Instead of falling like dominoes, regimes reasserted their authority with characteristic brutality. Revolutions were reversed; autocracies returned with a vengeance; protests developed into full-blown civil wars.
Six years on, can anyone be certain what the next few years will bring? Have we witnessed the end of the Arab Spring or just the beginning of a much longer stage on the road to democracy? Although no one can answer these questions with any degree of certainty, enough time has elapsed to make some sense of the events that have unfolded since protests began in December 2010.
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Iraq
Like Libya, Iraq may have been in the category of regimes that were impervious to the unassisted overthrow of regimes from within. Nevertheless, the country was omitted from the Brownlee, Masoud and Reynolds survey because there were other factors, such as the US invasion in 2003 and its bloody aftermath, which distorted any post Arab Spring conclusions.
In February 2011, a full eight months before the US withdrawal from their country, thousands of Iraqis gathered on the streets and converged on Baghdad’s Liberation Square as part of an anti-government rally. Demonstrations took place across the country from Mosul in the north to Basra in the south, reflecting the widespread anger felt by Iraqis at the government’s inability to improve their lives. One of the larger clashes was in Fallujah, where approximately 1,000 demonstrators clashed with the police. On these “Day of Rage” protests, 23 demonstrators were killed.
As the Arab Spring was overturning regimes elsewhere during 2012 and becoming ever more sectarian in Syria, angry Iraqis were staging weekly demonstrations against the sectarian Shia-led government of Al-Maliki; among their demands was for him to step down and for the US-brokered constitution to be replaced.
New waves of protest began in early 2012 following a raid on the home of Finance Minister Rafi Al-Issawi and the arrest of 10 of his bodyguards, which reinforced widespread perceptions that the prime minister was intent on eliminating his political rivals within the Sunni community. Protests continued throughout the first half of 2013, gaining support from non-Sunni Iraqi politicians like Muqtada Al-Sadr.
These protests became extremely fierce by April 2013, when gun battles erupted as Al-Maliki’s security forces stormed a Sunni protest camp in Hawija. At least 42 people were killed, 39 of them civilians, with more than 100 wounded. It was one the most deadly confrontations between predominantly Sunni-organised protests and Shia-led security forces. The country was on edge, as Sunni tribesmen mobilised and declared that this was a jihad — holy war.
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The incident sent shock waves across the country in Sunni communities seething with discontent; protesters set up street camps similar to those established in Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution. The New York Times reported at the time that Sunni mosques were bombed in the mixed Baghdad neighbourhood of Dora and the volatile city of Diyala, killing 10 people. In Saddam Hussein’s hometown, Tikrit, the authorities imposed a curfew after gunmen twice attacked security forces.
Syrian’s sectarian war, it seemed, was spreading into Iraq. Throughout May, killings were reported in both Sunni and Shia majority cities. From 15 to 21 May 2013, a series of deadly bombings and shootings struck the central and northern parts of Iraq, with a few incidents also occurring in towns in the south and far west. At least 449 people were killed and 732 others were injured during outbreaks of violence of an intensity that had not been seen since 2006-2007 when the country was on the brink of civil war. Al-Maliki’s heavy-handedness was demonstrated further when dismantling the anti-government protest camp in the city of Ramadi. A Human Rights Watch investigation noted that hundreds of security personnel descended on the camp where 300 to 400 Sunni demonstrators were staying; at least 17 people were killed.
The collapse of the Iraqi army in Mosul in the face of Daesh militants who entered the city from Syria in June 2014 finally put an end to Al-Maliki’s government and exposed the serious weaknesses of the rump state created by the US and its allies. Iraq’s sectarian politics had finally brought the country to its knees; it required foreign intervention to stay alive. Having all but eradicated Al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2007 by supporting the Sunni tribes, Al-Maliki’s subsequent marginalisation of the Sunni population and his regime’s corruption and misrule left the country weak, vulnerable and on the brink of collapse.
As the Arab Spring collided with the bitter legacy of the Iraq war, the massive failures of the previous decade were exposed. Unresolved grievances led to people pouring onto the streets; simmering tensions escalated into violence between the US-installed regime and Sunni sections of the population that were alienated. Instead of becoming a “beacon of democracy” in the Arab world, as claimed by supporters of the US and Western 2003 invasion, Iraq has become a haven for Daesh, arguably the most extreme sectarian group of the very many in the region. The West’s long history of “divide and rule” policies has rarely borne such bitter fruit.
International Organizations
Please, describe the activities of the UN, name its major bodies.
Ø The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945. It is currently made up of 193 Member States.
Ø The Charter of the United Nations was signed on 26 June 1945, in San Francisco. The Purposes of the United Nations are: 1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace; 2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace; 3. To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; 4. To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.
Ø UN official languages: English, Russian, Spanish, French, Chinese and Arabic.
Ø The UN's Chief Administrative Officer is the Secretary-General. The current UN Secretary General is Antonio Gutierres.
Ø The UN has six principal organs: the General Assembly; the Security Council; the Economic and Social Council; the Trusteeship Council; the International Court of Justice; and the UN Secretariat. The UN System includes a multitude of specialized agencies, such as the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, and UNICEF.
What is the World Bank, when was it formed and what for?
The World Bank (French: Banque mondiale)[5] is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of poorer countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects.[6] It comprises two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and the International Development Association (IDA). The World Bank is a component of the World Bank Group.
The World Bank was created at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The president of the World Bank is, traditionally, an American.[11] The World Bank and the IMF are both based in Washington, D.C., and work closely with each other.
The intention behind the founding of the World Bank was to provide temporary loans to low-income countries which were unable to obtain loans commercially Originally, its loans helped rebuild countries devastated by World War II. In time, the focus shifted from reconstruction to development, with a heavy emphasis on infrastructure such as dams, electrical grids, irrigation systems, and roads.
Please, describe the activities of the OIC
The organisation states that it is "the collective voice of the Muslim world" and works to "safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony". The Member States of the OIC face many challenges in the 21st century and to address those challenges, the Third Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Summit held in Makkah in December 2005, laid down the blue print called the Ten-Year Program of Action. It successfully concluded with the close of 2015. A successor programme for the next decade (2016-2025) has since then been adopted.The new programme OIC-2025 is anchored in the provisions of the OIC Charter and focuses on 18 priority areas with 107 goals. The priority areas include issues of Peace and Security, Palestine and Al-Quds, Poverty Alleviation, Counter-terrorism, Investment and Finance, Food Security, Science and Technology, Climate Change and Sustainability, Moderation, Culture and Interfaith Harmony, Empowerment of Women, Joint Islamic Humanitarian Action, Human Rights and Good Governance, among others.
What is IOFS? Describe its purpose.
Islamic organization for food security
To provide expertise and technical know-how to Member States on various aspects of sustainable agriculture, rural development, food security and biotechnology including addressing the problems posed by desertification, deforestation, erosion and salinity as well as providing social safety nets;
To assess and monitor, in coordination with Member States, the food security situation in member states in order to determine and make necessary emergency and humanitarian assistance, including creation of food security reserves;
To mobilize and manage financial and agricultural resources for developing agriculture and enhancing food security in Member States
To coordinate, formulate and implement common agricultural policies, including exchange and transfer of appropriate technology and public food management system
The organisation seeks to strengthen cooperation among member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to ensure food security for its member states and develop the Kazakh agricultural industry.
What is CICA?
The Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) is an inter-governmental forum for enhancing cooperation towards promoting peace, security and stability in Asia. It is a forum based on the recognition that there is close link between peace, security and stability in Asia and in the rest of the world. The key idea of the Conference is based on the priority of the indivisibility of security, joint initiative and mutually beneficial interaction of small and large states.[1]
The idea of convening the CICA was first proposed by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on 5 October 1992, at the 47th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. On October 5, 2017, the CICA process celebrated its 25th anniversary.[1]
Please, name the main organs of the EU. When was it formed and what for?
· the European Council, which sets the general political directions and priorities of the Union by gathering together its member states' heads of state/government (elected chief executives). The conclusions of its summits (held at least quarterly) are adopted by consensus.
· the European Commission, the only institution empowered to propose legislation, serves as the "Guardian of the Treaties". It consists of an executive cabinet of public officials, led by an indirectly elected President. This College of Commissioners manages and directs the Commission's permanent civil service. It turns the consensus objectives of the European Council into legislative proposals.
· the Council of the European Union brings together ministers of member states governments' departments. It serves to represent the various governments directly and its approval is required for any proposal to enter into law.
· the European Parliament consists of 705 directly elected representatives. It shares with the Council of the EU equal legislative powers to amend, approve or reject Commission proposals for most areas of EU legislation. Its powers are limited in areas where member states' view sovereignty to be of primary concern (i.e. defence). It elects the Commission's President, must approve the College of Commissioners, and may vote to remove them collectively from office.
· the Court of Justice of the European Union ensures the uniform application of EU law and resolves disputes between EU institutions and member states, and against EU institutions on behalf of individuals.
· the European Central Bank is responsible for monetary stability within member states.
· the European Court of Auditors investigates the proper management of finances within both the EU entities and EU funding provided to its member states. As well as providing oversight and advice, it can refer unresolved issues to the European Court of Justice to arbitrate on any alleged irregularities.
The European Union was formally established when the Maastricht Treaty—whose main architects were Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand—came into force on 1 November 1993. ut in 1952, disappointed at what they saw as the lack of progress within the Council of Europe, six nations decided to go further and created the European Coal and Steel Community, which was declared to be "a first step in the federation of Europe".[46] This community helped to economically integrate and coordinate the large number of Marshall Plan funds from the United States.[47] European leaders Alcide De Gasperi from Italy, Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman from France, and Paul-Henri Spaak from Belgium understood that coal and steel were the two industries essential for waging war, and believed that by tying their national industries together, future war between their nations became much less likely.[48] These men and others are officially credited as the founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome, which created the European Economic Community (EEC) and established a customs union. They also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958.[48]
What is EAEU?
The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU)[note 1] is an economic union of states located in central and northern Asia and Eastern Europe. The Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union was signed on 29 May 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, and came into force on 1 January 2015.[5] Treaties aiming for Armenia's and Kyrgyzstan's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union were signed on 9 October and 23 December 2014, respectively. Armenia's accession treaty came into force on 2 January 2015.[6] Kyrgyzstan's accession treaty came into effect on 6 August 2015.[7] It participated in the EAEU from the day of its establishment as an acceding state.
What is ICAO?
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO; French: Organisation de l'aviation civile internationale; Chinese: 国际民航组织) is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It changes the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth.[1] Its headquarters is located in the Quartier International of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The ICAO Council adopts standards and recommended practices concerning air navigation, its infrastructure, flight inspection, prevention of unlawful interference, and facilitation of border-crossing procedures for international civil aviation. ICAO defines the protocols for air accident investigation that are followed by transport safety authorities in countries signatory to the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation.
What is IMF?
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 189 countries working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world while periodically depending on the World Bank for its resources.[1] Formed in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference primarily by the ideas of Harry Dexter White and John Maynard Keynes,[6] it came into formal existence in 1945 with 29 member countries and the goal of reconstructing the international payment system. It now plays a central role in the management of balance of payments difficulties and international financial crises.[7] Countries contribute funds to a pool through a quota system from which countries experiencing balance of payments problems can borrow money. As of 2016, the fund had XDR 477 billion (about US$ 667 billion).[8]
Through the fund and other activities such as the gathering of statistics and analysis, surveillance of its members' economies, and the demand for particular policies,[9] the IMF works to improve the economies of its member countries.[10] The organization's objectives stated in the Articles of Agreement are:[11] to promote international monetary co-operation, international trade, high employment, exchange-rate stability, sustainable economic growth, and making resources available to member countries in financial difficulty.[12] IMF funds come from two major sources: quotas and loans. Quotas, which are pooled funds of member nations, generate most IMF funds. The size of a member's quota depends on its economic and financial importance in the world. Nations with larger economic importance have larger quotas. The quotas are increased periodically as a means of boosting the IMF's resources in the form of special drawing rights.[13]
The current Managing Director (MD) and Chairwoman of the IMF is Bulgarian Economist Kristalina Georgieva, who has held the post since October 1, 2019.[14]
Gita Gopinath was appointed as Chief Economist of IMF from 1 October 2018. She received her PhD in economics from Princeton University. Prior to her IMF appointment she was economic adviser to the Chief Minister of Kerala, India.[15]
What is SCO? Describe its purposes
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), or Shanghai Pact,[1] is a Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance, the creation of which was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai, China by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Charter, formally establishing the organisation, was signed in June 2002 and entered into force on 19 September 2003. The original five nations, with the exclusion of Uzbekistan, were previously members of the Shanghai Five group, founded on 26 April 1996. Since then, the organisation has expanded its membership to eight countries when India and Pakistan joined SCO as full members on 9 June 2017 at a summit in Astana, Kazakhstan. The Heads of State Council (HSC) is the supreme decision-making body in the SCO, it meets once a year and adopts decisions and guidelines on all important matters of the organisation. Military exercises are also regularly conducted among members to promote cooperation and coordination against terrorism and other external threats, and to maintain regional peace and stability.
The SCO is widely regarded as the "alliance of the East", due to its growing centrality in Asia-Pacific, and has been the primary security pillar of the region. It is the largest regional organisation in the world in terms of geographical coverage and population, covering three-fifths of the Eurasian continent and nearly half of the human population
The main SCO goals and tasks shall be: strengthening mutual trust, friendship and goodneighborliness between the member States; development of multifaceted cooperation in the maintenance and strengthening of peace, security and stability in the region and promotion of a new democratic, fair and rational political and economic international order; joint combating terrorism, separatism and extremism in all their manifestations, fighting against illicit narcotics and arms trafficking and other types of transnational criminal activity, and also illegal migration; encouraging efficient regional cooperation in such areas as politics, trade and economy, defense, law enforcement, environment protection, culture, science and technology, education, energy, transport, credit and finance, and also other areas of common interest; facilitating comprehensive and balanced economic growth, social and cultural development in the region through joint actions on the basis of equal partnership aimed at steady increase of living standards and improvement of living conditions of the peoples of the member States; coordinating approaches to integration into the global economy; promoting enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with the international obligations of the member States and their national legislation; maintaining and developing relations with other States and international organizations; cooperating in the prevention of international conflicts and their peaceful settlement; jointly searching for solutions to the problems that would arise in the 21st century.
What is OSCE and when was it created?
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, promotion of human rights, freedom of the press, and fair elections. It employs around 3,460 people, mostly in its field operations but also in its secretariat in Vienna, Austria, and its institutions. It has its origins in the 1975 Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) held in Helsinki, Finland.
The OSCE is concerned with early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management, and post-conflict rehabilitation. Its 57 participating countries are located in Europe, northern and central Asia, and North America. The participating states cover much of the land area of the Northern Hemisphere. It was created during the Cold War era as an East–West forum.[3]
The Organization has its roots in the 1973 Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE). Talks had been mooted about a European security grouping since the 1950s but the Cold War prevented any substantial progress until the talks at Dipoli in Espoo began in November 1972. These talks were held at the suggestion of the Soviet Union which wished to use the talks to maintain its control over the communist countries in Eastern Europe, and President of Finland Urho Kekkonen hosted them in order to bolster his policy of neutrality. Western Europe, however, saw these talks as a way to reduce the tension in the region, furthering economic cooperation and obtaining humanitarian improvements for the populations of the Communist bloc.he CSCE opened in Helsinki on 3 July 1973 with 35 states sending representatives.
| • As the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe | July 1973 |
| • Helsinki Accords | 30 July – 1 August 1975 |
| • Paris Charter | 21 November 1990 |
| • Renamed OSCE | 1 January 1995 |
Please, name the main goals of the IAEA.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established as an autonomous organisation on 29 July 1957. Though established independently of the United Nations through its own international treaty, the IAEA Statute,[3] the IAEA reports to both the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council.
The IAEA is generally described as having three main missions:
· Peaceful uses: Promoting the peaceful uses of nuclear energy by its member states,
· Safeguards: Implementing safeguards to verify that nuclear energy is not used for military purposes, and
· Nuclear safety: Promoting high standards for nuclear safety.
Where is FAO headquartered? What does it deal with?
Rome, Italy
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)[Note 1] is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, fiat panis, translates to "let there be bread". Founded in October 1945, the FAO is the oldest existing agency of the U.N.[1]
The FAO is headquartered in Rome, Italy and maintains regional and field offices around the world, operating in over 130 countries.[2] It helps governments and development agencies coordinate their activities to improve and develop agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and land and water resources. It also conducts research, provides technical assistance to projects, operates educational and training programs, and collects data on agricultural output, production, and development.[3]
What is WHO?
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialised agency of the United Nations that is concerned with world public health. It was established on 7 April 1948, and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO is a member of the United Nations Development Group. Its predecessor, the Health Organisation, was an agency of the League of Nations.
The WHO constitution was signed by 61 countries (all 51 member countries and 10 others) on 22 July 1946, with the first meeting of the World Health Assembly concluding on 24 July 1948. It incorporated the Office International d'Hygiène Publique and the League of Nations Health Organisation. Since its establishment, it has played a leading role in the eradication of smallpox. Its current priorities include communicable diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, Ebola, malaria and tuberculosis; the mitigation of the effects of non-communicable diseases such as sexual and reproductive health, development, and aging; nutrition, food security and healthy eating; occupational health; substance abuse; and driving the development of reporting, publications, and networking.
The WHO is responsible for the World Health Report, the worldwide World Health Survey, and World Health Day. The current Director-General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom, served as Ethiopian Health Minister from 2005 to 2012 and as Ethiopian Foreign Minister from 2012 to 2016. Adhanom started his five-year term on 1 July 2017.[1]
What is CSTO and why was it established?
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO; Russian: Организация Договора о Коллективной Безопасности, Organizatsiya Dogovora o Kollektivnoy Bezopasnosti, ODKB) is an intergovernmental military alliance that was signed on 15 May 1992. In 1992, six post-Soviet states belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States—Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—signed the Collective Security Treaty (also referred to as the "Tashkent Pact" or "Tashkent Treaty").[1] Three other post-Soviet states—Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Georgia—signed the next year and the treaty took effect in 1994. Five years later, six of the nine—all but Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Uzbekistan—agreed to renew the treaty for five more years, and in 2002 those six agreed to create the Collective Security Treaty Organization as a military alliance. Uzbekistan rejoined the CSTO in 2006 but withdrew in 2012.The CSTO charter reaffirmed the desire of all participating states to abstain from the use or threat of force. Signatories would not be able to join other military alliances or other groups of states,[3] while aggression against one signatory would be perceived as an aggression against all. To this end, the CSTO holds yearly military command exercises for the CSTO nations to have an opportunity to improve inter-organization cooperation. A CSTO military exercise called "Rubezh 2008" was hosted in Armenia, where a combined total of 4,000 troops from all seven constituent CSTO member countries conducted operative, strategic and tactical training with an emphasis towards furthering efficiency of the collective security element of the CSTO partnership.
What does abbreviation NATO stand for?
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO /ˈneɪtoʊ/; French: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries. The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949.[3][4] NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party. NATO's Headquarters are located in Evere, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium.
What is OECD? What does it deal with?
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; French: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, OCDE) is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 36 member countries,[1] founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. It is a forum of countries describing themselves as committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practices and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members. Most OECD members are high-income economies with a very high Human Development Index (HDI) and are regarded as developed countries. As of 2017, the OECD member countries collectively comprised 62.2% of global nominal GDP (US$49.6 trillion)[3] and 42.8% of global GDP (Int$54.2 trillion) at purchasing power parity.[4] The OECD is an official United Nations observer.[5]
In 1948, the OECD originated as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC),[6] led by Robert Marjolin of France, to help administer the Marshall Plan (which was rejected by the Soviet Union and its satellite states).[7] This would be achieved by allocating United States financial aid and implementing economic programs for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. (Similar reconstruction aid was sent to the war-torn Republic of China and post-war Korea, but not under the name "Marshall Plan".)[8]
In 1961, the OEEC was reformed into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development by the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and membership was extended to non-European states.[9][10] The OECD's headquarters are at the Château de la Muette in Paris, France.[11] The OECD is funded by contributions from member countries at varying rates and had a total budget of €386 million in 2019.[2]
What is OPEC? What does it deal with?
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC, /ˈoʊpɛk/ OH-pek) is an intergovernmental organization of 14 nations, founded on 14 September 1960 in Baghdad by the first five members (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela), and headquartered since 1965 in Vienna, Austria. As of September 2018, the 14 member countries accounted for an estimated 44 percent of global oil production and 81.5 percent of the world's "proven" oil reserves, giving OPEC a major influence on global oil prices that were previously determined by the so-called "Seven Sisters" grouping of multinational oil companies.The stated mission of the organization is to "coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its member countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets, in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers, and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry."[5] The organization is also a significant provider of information about the international oil market. The current OPEC members are the following: Algeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Saudi Arabia (the de facto leader), the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Ecuador, Indonesia and Qatar are former members.
Please, describe the activities of the Turkic Council
The Turkic Council (Azerbaijani: Türk Şurası; Kazakh: Түркі кеңесі, Túrki Keńesi; Kyrgyz: Түрк кеңеш; Turkish: Türk Keneşi;[a] Uzbek: Turkiy Kengash), officially the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States (CCTS; Turkish: Türk Dili Konuşan Ülkeler İşbirliği Konseyi), is an international organization comprising some of the Turkic countries. It is an intergovernmental organization whose overarching aim is promoting comprehensive cooperation among Turkic states. It was founded on 3 October 2009 in Nakhchivan. The idea of setting up this cooperative council was first put forward by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev back in 2006.
The General Secretariat is in İstanbul, Turkey. The member countries are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkey. Turkmenistan is currently not an official members of the council due to its neutral stance. However, they are possible future members of the council.[5] Uzbekistan announced its intention to join the council on 30 April 2018,[6] and formally applied for membership on September 12, 2019.[7] Since late 2018, Hungary is an observer and may soon request full membership in the Turkic Council.[8]
Since its founding agreement defines comprehensive cooperation among Turkic states as the organization's main objective and raison d'être, the Turkic Council is working on a whole variety of projects. The projects are grouped under six cooperation processes, which are: economy, culture, education, transport, customs, and diaspora. Examples of the projects include establishing the Turkic University Union[10] and writing a common history textbook. The Turkic Council also works on ways to boost economic development in underdeveloped regions of Member States. The Secretariat brings together Economy Ministers, Education Ministers, Transport Ministers, Heads of Customs Administrations, and other senior officials from different ministries and agencies in order to work on ways to promote cooperation in relevant spheres. Prior to being brought before ministers and heads of administrations, projects and issues of cooperation are elaborated by working groups. One recently launched project is the establishment of a mechanism for closer cooperation among Turkic diasporas all over the world.Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the newly independent Turkic States of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as well as Turkey organized Summits of the Heads of Turkic Speaking States, the first of which took place in 1992 in Ankara. With the establishment of Turkic Council, at the 10th Summit it was decided to rename the top-level meetings to Turkic Council Summits.Turkic Council Summit is the highlight of the year whereby Heads of State evaluate outcomes of the past period and set goals for the next year. The First Summit took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on 20–21 October 2011 and focused primarily on economic cooperation. The Second Summit was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on 22–23 August 2012 and concentrated on educational, scientific, and cultural cooperation. The Third Summit took place on 15–16 August 2013 in Qabala, Azerbaijan with a theme of transport and connectivity.[12]On October 15, 2019, the Seventh Turkic Council Summit was organized in Baku with the participation of Presidents of member states Ilham Aliyev, Sooronbai Jeenbekov, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, as well as Purli Agamyradov as a guest, Viktor Orban as an observer and heads of Turkic cooperation institutions. The participants celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Nakhchivan Agreement on the establishment of the Turkic Council in addition to Uzbekistan’s joining the organization as a full-fledged member. The title of Honorary Chairman of the Turkic Council was given to the former President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. In the conclusion of the Summit, the Heads of States signed Baku Declaration. Besides, the presidency in the Council officially passed to Azerbaijan.[13][14]
The Nakhchivan Agreement sets out the main purposes and tasks of the Organization as follows:
· Strengthening mutual confidence and friendship among the Parties;
· Developing common positions on foreign policy issues;
· Coordinating actions to combat international terrorism, separatism, extremism and cross-border crimes;
· Promoting effective regional and bilateral cooperation in all areas of common interest;
· Creating favorable conditions for trade and investment;
· Aiming for comprehensive and balanced economic growth, social and cultural development;
· Expanding interaction in the fields of science, technology, education, health, culture, sports and tourism;
· Encouraging interaction of mass media and other means of communication;
· Promoting exchange of relevant legal information and enhancing legal cooperation.
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