Category Archives: Resource Based Economy

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In order to support the campaign to diversify the economy from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy through Information technology(IT), High tech for women and youth launched and inaugurated Steam boys, Tech men Initiative.

The Director General of NITDA Mr Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi CCIE, was the special guest of honour at the launching and inauguration of the initiative with the theme Muscles with brains for technology innovation in Abuja on thursday 13th February.

Digital technologies are disrupting the way we live, the DG said, as he gave his opening remarks at the event which was well attended by mostly students from secondary schools.

He pointed out that the internet has changed the way we live, access information and interact with one another and urged the students to meaningfully utilize their access to computers in other to proffer solutions to challenges or improve on existing ones.

The convener of the event, President and CEO, High tech Centre for Women and Youth Dr Wunmi Hassan informed the participants that the goal of Nigeria STEM summit and Train of Trainers workshop taking place on the 24th-26th of March 2020 is to produce a mobile phone.

She confirmed that the need for the STEAM boys/Tech men initiative is to incorporate boys/men into the vision of the organisation, stating that STEM has been hosting just females in the last two years but for 2020 the summit will comprise of both genders.

The urge to diversify took us from not just learning information technology but producing technology, said Dr Hassan.

Related

See the article here:

Diversifying the economy through IT - Daily Trust

Progress on protecting life on land has been agonisingly slow, as deforestation and habitat loss has accelerated, but hopes remain that a step change in global land management can yet be engineered

We often take the land for granted, even though - or perhaps because - it is literally the foundation of everything we do, from the materials that make up our homes, workplaces, and transport systems to the source of our food, water, and medicines. And those are the only the most obvious essential services provided by the land. When well managed the land helps regulate water and air quality, sequester and store carbon, and minimise flood and soil erosion risks. On top of that, the land plays host to much of the planet's biodiversity, providing incalculable benefits to humanity and the global economy, starting with the pollination that underpins the global food system.

The problem is that terrestrial ecosystems can quickly flip from sources of life-sustaining abundance into actively hostile environments when they are exploited unsustainably. Soil erosion, wildfires, floods, monocultures, and pollution can all pose a serious threat to life and the viability of the economies and communities that are dependent on the land. And then there are the big picture climate threats that poorly managed land can rapidly amplify. As the World Resources Institute points out, "land is critically important - both as a source of greenhouse gas emissions and as a climate change solution". The reality is that the land-based foundations of both the global economy and a stable climate are being eroded from beneath our feet.

That is why SDG15 - the UN goal to protect "life on land" and to "protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss" - is regarded by many commentators as one of the most important of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Cristiana Paca Palmer, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, points out that "while all the SDGs are important in themselves and for the achievement of the others, biodiversity is clearly the linchpin between all of them. Essentially, without biodiversity, we would not exist, let alone develop".

To take just one example, an estimated 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihood and they are home to more than 80 per cent of all terrestrial species of animals, plants, and insects, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In addition, 74 per cent of the poor are directly affected by land degradation globally and over 80 per cent of the human diet is provided by plants, with just three cereal crops - rice, maize and wheat - providing 60 per cent of humanity's energy intake.

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) notes in characteristically understated fashion, land "provides the principal basis for human livelihoods and well-being, including the supply of food, freshwater and multiple other ecosystem services, as well as biodiversity". The group even puts a valuation on land's contribution to the global economy in its report on Climate Change and Land, calculating that land ecosystems and biodiversity contribute some $75tr to $85tr to the global economy, far more than global GDP. It is an intriguing academic exercise that highlights the critical economic importance of healthy terrestrial ecosystems and is part of a growing body of work to assess how natural systems enable sustainable economic development. Although critics will note that, given that presumably without land the planet would be a dusty, lifeless husk, the $85tr figure is ultimately pretty meaningless.

And yet despite the huge clear and present threat to critical environments, every year the global economy puts ever more pressure on global ecosystems and biodiversity. The Global Footprint Network calculated that in 2019, Earth Overshoot Day, the date when humanity has used nature's resource budget for the entire year, was reached on July 29, the earliest date ever. The global economy first went into ecological deficit in the early 1970s and over the past 20 years, the date has advanced by three months. Human civilisation is now "using nature 1.75 times faster than our planet's ecosystems can regenerate, [consuming resources] equivalent to 1.75 Earths," the network says.

This inherently unsustainable level of consumption is having multiple real world impacts. "Ecological overspending costs are becoming increasingly evident: deforestation, soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leading to climate change and more frequent extreme weather events," says Mathis Wackernagel, co-inventor of Ecological Footprint and founder of Global Footprint Network.

UNEP is among the group of official bodies that fear these impacts could create feedback loops, whereby a warming climate puts more pressure on terrestrial ecosystems, leading to more emissions, and in turn more warming. "Land is already under growing human pressure and climate change is adding to these pressures," the agency states. "At the same time, keeping global warming to well below 2C can be achieved only by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors including land and food."

SDG15 aims to protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss, including by tackling poaching and trafficking of protected species. The key targets within the Goal include commitments to:

Progress on SDG 15 is decidedly mixed. A lot more ecosystems are now in protected areas and there has been considerable progress on slowing deforestation, but that has been threatened by developments such as a less forest-friendly government in Brazil, as well as a spate of devastating wildfires around the world, from California to Australia.

"There are some encouraging global trends in protecting terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity," the SDG Knowledge Platform states. "Forest loss is slowing down, more key biodiversity areas are protected and more financial assistance is flowing towards biodiversity protection."

But it admits that "the 2020 targets of Sustainable Development Goal 15 are unlikely to be met, land degradation continues, biodiversity loss is occurring at an alarming rate, and invasive species and the illicit poaching and trafficking of wildlife continue to thwart efforts to protect and restore vital ecosystems and species". In short, the expansion of some nature reserves and encouraging debates about 'rewilding', in no way compensate for complex market failures and the continued expansion of unsustainable and under-regulated extractive and agricultural industries.

Consequently, the level of species extinction is truly alarming. For example, a recent study found that at least one million species face extinction in coming decades, at least half of them insects. "It is not only their vast numbers, but the dependency of ecosystems and humanity on them, that makes the conservation of insect diversity critical for future generations," the study in the journal Biological Conservation states, adding that it is overwhelmingly mankind that has caused these extinctions, through habitat loss, pollution, invasive species, and climate change.

This is not just a biodiversity issue - insects provide the economy with a variety of services, including pollination, nutrient cycling, and pest control. In the US alone, these services are estimated to be worth $57bn a year, while the UN's biodiversity panel says that insect pollination is vital to crops with a value of $235bn-$577bn a year. Although again, critics of such economic modelling would say the true value of insect pollination is incalculable, given that without any insects entire food systems could collapse.

Unless we reverse nature loss, trillions of dollars will be wiped off the world's economies - WWF's Global Futures report

The proportion of key biodiversity areas on land, including in the mountains and in fresh water that are covered by protected areas, has increased significantly since 2000, yet between the turn of the century and 2015, more than a fifth of the Earth's total land area was degraded, largely as a result of "human-induced processes, such as desertification, cropland expansion and urbanisation". At the same time, land cover became significantly less productive. The number of species threatened with extinction has also increased drastically over the past 30 years.

WWF calculates in a new Global Futures report that environmental degradation, if it continues at current rates, will cost the global economy a minimum of 368bn a year, leading to total losses of 8tr by 2050. The losses are expected to be caused by a range of factors, such as higher food prices, droughts, commodity shortages, extreme flooding, and coastal erosion if action is not taken to confront the multiple environmental crises facing humanity.

"Unless we reverse nature loss, trillions of dollars will be wiped off the world's economies, industries will be disrupted and the lives of millions will be affected," the group says.

However, it says that if land use is carefully managed to avoid further loss of areas important for biodiversity and ecosystem services, global GDP could rise by $490bn per year above the business as usual calculation. The opportunity is still there to rebuild the foundations, to reclaim the land.

Steve Polasky, co-founder of the Natural Capital Project, which was involved in the study, spells out what is at stake. "The world's economies, businesses and our own well-being all depend on nature," he says. "But from climate change, extreme weather and flooding to water shortages, soil erosion and species extinctions, evidence shows that our planet is changing faster than at any other time in history. The way we feed, fuel and finance ourselves is destroying the life-support systems on which we depend, risking global economic devastation."

The business community is right at the heart of whether or not the targets contained in SDG15 can be achieved and disaster averted. Business both impacts and depends upon nature. All economic activity is ultimately dependent on value derived from nature, and the survival of nature depends on the decisions and actions of businesses, argues Dr James MacPherson, head of the natural capital and ecosystem services practice at sustainability consultancy Anthesis.

"If both nature and the economy are to thrive in the long term, businesses must integrate nature into their decision making," he says. "To do this, we must provide relevant, reliable and useful data on natural capital impacts and dependencies."

That means that getting to grips with SDG 15 should be a key priority for businesses, yet this is not always the case, according to Gudrun Cartwright, environment director at Business in the Community.

"It very much depends what kind of business you talk to as to how important it is," she says. "It was the least considered issue in our Business Tracker survey in 2019, but for certain sectors, such as food and drink, construction and utilities, it is very much on the agenda."

It is likely to rise up the agenda for many sectors this year because a critical meeting of the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in China is hoping to deliver a biodiversity equivalent of the Paris Agreement on climate change. The CBD may be less high profile than its climate change cousin, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), but the hope is that just ahead of the crucial COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow the biodiversity COP will broker a sweeping new agreement under the hugely ambitious heading "Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth".

This higher profile for biodiversity policy coincides with a raft of sustainability initiatives from the business community, ranging from the World Economic Forum's focus on stakeholder capitalism to growing calls from investors for businesses to report on deforestation and biodiversity-related risks. "There is much more understanding now of how companies and their supply chains are dependent on the health of nature to be successful," Cartwright argues. "There will be an increasing focus from financial institutions because of the need to think about climate change. When they get more interested, there will be a cascade effect down to the people they lend to and the businesses they invest in."

Insurers are already starting to think about nature and its health in relation to issues such as flood risk and mitigation, while manufacturers are thinking about the availability of resources, where they come from and how secure is that supply, she adds. The expectation is that these concerns will quickly spread beyond the usual suspects in the food, fashion, and infrastructure industries.

Progress on nature is lagging action on climate because it's a much more complex issue -Dr James MacPherson, natural capital consultant at Anthesis

Nonetheless, the importance of biodiversity and ecosystems is often overshadowed in many businesses and government corridors by more direct efforts to tackle climate change. "One of the big challenges for this SDG is framing biodiversity issues and how organisations interact with nature to highlight companies' impacts and dependencies and their response to that," Macpherson points out. "Progress on nature is lagging action on climate because it's a much more complex issue. There's no single unit of measurement like a ton of CO2. It's a lot easier for people to understand carbon impacts than potential biodiversity risks around materials in products they buy. It's a much more challenging concept because it is a much more multi-faceted problem. It's much harder to know what to do because there are so many different components involved."

This complexity is further amplified by competing theories around how best to protect nature and reverse damage to terrestrial ecosystems.

"To protect nature, we need to engage stakeholders and catalyse change on the ground through market mechanisms," Macpherson argues. Known as a 'Capitals' approach, this market-based model encourages businesses, investors and policymakers to consider not only the implications of a decision for financial capital, but also for natural capital, human capital, and social capital. By putting a value on natural capital stakeholders can then identify how and where nature provides value beyond that which might be gained from its exploitation.

The concept makes complete sense as an economic theory and it is gaining traction with a growing number of businesses and governments. Many corporate now undertake natural capital accounting exercises to help them manage watersheds or forest resources. Meanwhile, the UK government is piloting a number of new initiatives, including biodiversity offsets that are designed to ensure developers better consider the environmental costs of new projects.

But critics of the approach have long argued that it is impossible to accurately calculate the economic value of nature and in doing so policymakers can inadvertently help justify nature-destroying developments. The journalist and campaigner George Monbiot has been a vociferous critic of the very idea of natural capital and ecosystem services, saying that "efforts to price the natural world are complete and utter gobbledygook" and arguing that the natural capital agenda represents a "neoliberal road to ruin".

Regardless of whether or not businesses regard natural capital thinking as a useful tool in protecting nature or a dangerous distraction, there are plenty of other reasons why engagement with biodiversity and habitat protection, as well as wider reforms to land management, is growing fast.

Natural capital thinking is one of a number of policy ideas jostling for position as governments consider how best to tackle accelerating levels of environmental damage. Massively expanded nature reserves; the 'rewilding' of vast tracts of land enabled by a shift away from livestock-based diets; farming subsidy changes and wider land ownership reforms; lab based meats and vertical farms; and more stringent forest protection regulations backed by advanced satellite monitoring technologies are all firmly in the mix.

Savvy businesses are aware of this evolving policy debate, as well as the intensifying pressure from consumers and investors for them to publicly demonstrate that they are actively minimising their environmental impacts. As in so many other aspects of the economy, transparency is increasing and more and more companies are being held to account.

For example, the NGO Global Canopy has recently published a report calling out "world-famous brands selling everything from high fashion to supermarket favourites, who are ignoring deforestation caused by demand for the commodities they use". In its latest Forest 500 report, it pulls no punches, declaring that "vast areas of tropical forest are being cleared each year to make way for six globally-traded commodities - palm oil, soy, beef, leather, timber and pulp and paper - used in millions of everyday products. Yet, of the leading companies trading these commodities and the financial institutions that finance them, nearly half (242 of 500) have made no public commitment to end deforestation".

It then highlights the role of some of the world's biggest corporate names, including Amazon; Capri Holdings - owner of Versace, Jimmy Choo and Michael Kors; Us food giant Tyson Foods; and investors such as Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street.

"Many of the world's best-known brands are complicit in the destruction of tropical forests, which undermines our ability to combat global climate change," says report author Sarah Rogerson. "They are turning a blind eye to deforestation caused by demand for the commodities they use and failing to publicly recognise their responsibility to act."

With wildfires in the Amazon, Australia, and California raising awareness among consumers, and 244 financial institutions having signed a statement calling on companies to take action to avoid deforestation, it is increasingly difficult for businesses to hide. Yet even when companies have made deforestation commitments, too many stand accused of abandoning, watering down or refusing to report on their progress against those pledges. Global Canopy reports that in 2018, 157 companies had pledged to end deforestation. But of those, 81 companies have since removed or weakened commitments or reduced reporting, including the owners of brands such as Burger King, Nike, KFC, Walmart, and Carrefour.

"Forest risk commodities are in almost everything we eat, from beef in ready meals and burgers, palm oil in biscuits, to soy as a hidden ingredient in poultry and dairy products," says Rogerson. "Many people would be shocked to know how many familiar brands in their shopping basket may be contributing to the destruction of the Amazon and other tropical forests."

Such practices are particularly high risk in today's economic and social landscape, Cartwright argues. "Public interest about the environment is very driven by how horrified people are by the damage caused by things like plastic pollution," she says. "There is a public expectation now that companies are doing the right thing. If consumers find out that companies are harming nature or they have supply chains that are causing environmental damage, they are really surprised and they punish them. If you're not aware of what's going on in your supply chain, you put yourself at risk."

However, despite the many daunting challenges there are sources of optimism. Emerging technologies, such as satellite mapping and blockchain, are giving firms ever greater insight into their land-based supply chains. Technological progress has coupled with increased management focus and a growing understanding of the value of ecosystem services so as to allow executives to actively minimise supply chain risks. The green procurement codes of a few years ago have evolved into wide-ranging suppler engagement programmes that see consumer brands work closely with suppliers to minimise environmental impacts at every turn.

For example, Michelle Norman, head of sustainability at Lucozade Ribena Suntory, says that the company "is driven by its desire to work in harmony with people and nature" and as such it "wants our supply chain to be as sustainable as possible and the traceability of our ingredients forms a huge part of that".

"Blackcurrants rely on life on land to thrive," she continues. "That's why we support our growers all year-round to implement Biodiversity Action Plans on their farms and have done since 2004. This includes water conservation, habitat restoration and other initiatives designed to promote biodiversity, without which we couldn't sustain our wonderful blackcurrant crop." Consequently, the company says it can now trace the 10,000 tonnes of British blackcurrant that go into Ribena, right through from bush to bottle.

Meanwhile, product innovation in everything from packaging to proteins is helping to curb land use impacts.

For example, over the last two years, the market for lab-grown or plant-based meat substitutes has grown from being essentially science fiction to a market where, in 2019, "one of the world's biggest alternative protein brands, Beyond Meat, the manufacturer of the plant-based Beyond Burger, went public at a valuation of almost $1.5bn", according to CB Insights. Another company, Impossible Foods, whose plant-based meat features in Burger King's meat-free Impossible Whopper, was valued at $2bn at its last funding round.

"In addition to offering new products, these alternative protein start-ups have the potential to upend the meat production process," CB Insights explains. "Going forward, the meat value chain could be simplified dramatically, as 'clean meat' labs could take the place of farms, feed lots, and slaughterhouses." This disruption could have profound effects on the $1.8tr meat market on a similar scale to the upheavals being experienced by carmakers, utilities, and oil and gas groups as a result of competitive clean technologies and escalating concerns over climate change.

Another trend that offers businesses the opportunity to reduce their harmful impacts on land and biodiversity is the growth of the circular economy, which has the potential to massively reduce resource use, waste, and pollution. Indonesian start-up Evoware provides just one example of the resource-saving innovation that is accelerating around the world, thanks to its edible alternative to plastic cups and food sachets. Made from seaweed, the new material promises to not only reduce plastic pollution but also sequester CO2. Similarly, Finnish oil refiner Neste is one of a number of companies moving from making products from crude oil to alternatives made from materials such as waste oils and fats to produce biodiesel, bioaviation fuel, and bioplastics. The race is on to develop low carbon fuels that avoid the land use impacts that inevitably come with first generation biofuels.

It is these many innovations, coupled with the kind of policy interventions that have proven to increase forest cover in many industrialised nations and slow deforestation rates in emerging economies, which provide hope that slow progress on SDG15 to date could yet reach an inflection point.

Cartwright argues it is proactive businesses that are likely to trigger a new wave of action to deliver on SDG15. "This is an area where we really need business to lead, because otherwise we get stuck in a cycle of government saying that companies are not doing enough and businesses saying they can't do any more because it is not compulsory for their competitors to act as well," she says. "It's a real opportunity for companies to step up and tackle these issues."

The debate over 'ecosystem services' and 'natural capital' accounting may continue to rage on, but alongside escalating corporate and investor fears over the climate crisis a fundamental truth is dawning in boardrooms around the world. "There is a growing realisation that we can't tackle climate change without restoring nature," reflects Cartwright. "It's easy to take nature for granted until it's gone - but once it's gone, we can't get it back. It's really interesting that the connection doesn't get made that we are nature; we are life on land. We're not separate from it. If we damage life on land, we are damaging ourselves."

Read more here:

SDG15: The fight for life on land - http://www.businessgreen.com

Finance Minister Grant Robertson says New Zealand'sin a strong position to stand up to the economic and health impacts of coronavirus, and said in a worst case scenario "immediate fiscal stimulus to support the economy" may be considered.

Ina speechon Thursday Robertson noted it was "welcome" that there has not yet beena case of coronavirus in NZ. Nonetheless he said health experts adviseit remains a high probability that NZwill have a case at some point. The Governmenthasthe capacity and ability to "do what it takes," he said.

"Beyond the public health response, we are taking a whole-of-government approach to managing the outbreak and planning for further scenarios. A key part of this is our planning for the economic impacts of the virus," Robertson said.

"We go into this situation with the economy in good shape. We are in a strong position to stand up to the economic and health impacts of coronavirus. Looking across fiscal and monetary policy, our labour market, consumer and business confidence readings and our housing market, the economy showed solid signs of improvement in late 2019."

"We go into this with our official interest rate higher than many other advanced economies our Reserve Banks OCR at 1% is above Australia and the UK at 0.75%, and there are negative rates across Europe, said Robertson.

"We go into this with very low Government debt compared to the rest of the world. Credit ratings agency Moodys recently reported that New Zealands Government debt position is significantly lower than other countries with its top Aaa rating."

"And we go into this situation off the back of our Governments announcement of additional infrastructure investment in roads, rail, schools and hospitals under the New Zealand Upgrade Programme. We are investing to support, grow and modernise our economy," Robertson added.

Nonetheless Robertson acknowledged there'sa high level of uncertainty about what will unfold.

"It is not possible for anyone at this stage to give definitive answers to significant questions, such as: How long will it last? What will the global reach be? How deep will the impact be felt?"

"But while we look for answers for those questions, we can say some things with certainty. This will have a serious impact on the New Zealand economy in the short term," he said, highlighting the impact on tourism and the tertiary education sector with estimates of about 40% of foreign students not travelling to NZ.

"It is obvious that if the docks in China are shut down because workers are not able to get to work, then this will impact New Zealands log and food exports. Although I will add that we are starting to hear reports of some shipments getting through. Chinese authorities are also prioritising food shipments into China, which is positive for a country like New Zealand," Robertson said.

"We also know that the supply chain disruption in China is having some effects here in New Zealand, where domestic companies rely on imports from China that are not moving at this time. Very early, we began speaking to industry groups about how we could help them respond to the initial impacts of coronavirus."

Robertson said current international analysis of the economic impacts fromcoronavirus focuseson a scenario where the virus is contained and there is a short, sharp impact on the global economy in the first half of 2020, before activity returns to normal levels.

Within NZ an Economic Advisory Group led by the Treasury and including the Reserve Bank and the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment is assessing three scenarios:

Scenario one predicts a temporary global demand shock where there'sa temporary but significant impact on the NZeconomy across the first half of 2020, before growth rebounds in the second half as exports return to normal.

The second scenario is based on a longer lasting shock to the domestic economy, as the global impact feeds through for a period of time, and where there are cases of coronavirus in NZ.

And the third scenario is planning for how to respond to a global economic downturn if the worst case plays out around the world, and there'sa global pandemic, Robertson said.

"We believe it is sensible and responsible to plan for these multiple scenarios. It does not mean we are predicting them. But it means we can continue to act swiftly and decisively as the impacts of coronavirus on the global and domestic economies become clearer, so that we can support Kiwis and New Zealand businesses," said Robertson.

"Our officials here are actively monitoring this situation, drawing on all data and analyses that they can to adjust our assumptions and forecasts. This includes administrative data that might provide more timely signals than traditional economic indicators which are reported with a lag."

"It also includes high-frequency data from China that economic analysts around the world are keeping tabs on ranging from coal consumption to air pollution levels and traffic jams in Chinese cities to monitor activity there," said Robertson.

The second scenario would see the domestic economy experiencing a longer period of slower growth, throughout 2020,due to the global effects of coronavirus.

"Under this scenario, global uncertainty about the worldwide spread and containment of the virus causes deeper impacts on directly exposed sectors, as our trading partners feel the effects of coronavirus. We would expect to experience a decline in visitor arrivals from other markets outside of the temporary travel ban due to the economic impact that the virus has in other countries like what were seeing now with South Korea," said Robertson.

"These external effects lead to broader indirect impacts across the domestic economy, with business and consumer confidence falling and the subsequent impact on investment and spending decisions."

In scenario three,where the virus outbreak becomes a global pandemic leading toa global downturn or a global recession, "it may be necessary to consider immediate fiscal stimulus to support the economy as a whole and businesses and individuals through this period," said Robertson.

"I hasten to add that we are not predicting this scenario. But we are doing the planning for it. I also remind you that these scenarios are all temporary. The effects of this virus will pass. We are in a strong position to handle these scenarios."

"We have the capacity and ability to do what it takes," Robertson said.

Bank lobby group the New Zealand Bankers' Association says businesses and individuals financially affected by coronavirus should talk to their bank.

Were aware that some businesses, particularly small to medium sized ones, are being financially impacted by this unfolding global issue. The same may apply to individual customers working in sectors directly affected. Banks can offer affected customers support, says New Zealand Bankers Association chief executive Roger Beaumont.

The sooner you talk to your bank, the better placed they are to help you. Good two-way communication between customers and their banks is essential to helping get through financial stress. Depending on your circumstances, there are a number of ways in which banks can help.

Reducing or suspending principal payments on loans and temporarily moving to interest-only repayments

Referring individual customers to budgeting services.

Robertson's full speech is below.

NZ economy in strong position to respond to coronavirus

Prepared remarks on coronavirus by Finance Minister Grant Robertson to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and Massey University.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen,

The topic of this speech is the Budget 2020 priorities. But, given the considerable interest that I imagine is in the room about COVID-19 coronavirus, I do want to make some comments about that first.

Because we do meet today in the shadow of one of the biggest uncertainties that the global economy has seen in recent times.

This is a rapidly changing situation that the world finds itself in.

This week we have seen stock markets react to news of the virus spreading.

Just overnight, the World Health Organisation reported there were more new cases recorded outside China than inside it.

I am going to spend a bit of time outlining what we are doing to respond to coronavirus, and how we are planning for a range of scenarios so that we are prepared and able to support the New Zealand economy as the global impact of the virus becomes clearer.

First and foremost, our response to coronavirus must be led by our responsibility to protect the health and wellbeing of our people. That is why our first response has been a public health response.

The Ministry of Health has done significant work over recent years on our pandemic planning and response. That means we are in a position to deploy that plan if this virus outbreak spreads and cases reach New Zealand.

The Ministry is working closely with DHBs, public health units, general practitioners and other health providers, including holding daily teleconferences on emerging issues.

The Prime Minister earlier this week set out some of that work. This includes even the level of detail of having 9 million P2 masks, and 9 million general purpose surgical masks available.

Weve initiated an intensive care network of clinical ICU directors. Weve undertaken a national stocktake from DHBs, which shows that we can deploy new staff across ICUs and high-dependency unit beds around the country.

We have access to negative pressure rooms across 15 DHBs, and New Zealand has the ability to test for the virus in Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington, with same-day turnaround.

As you know, weve also put in place the travel ban on people who have left or transited through mainland China in the previous 14 days. We continue to review that ban every 48 hours, including taking into account the spread of the virus to other countries.

Public health staff are at our international airports, providing advice and information, and they are available to undertake health assessments of passengers.

That information includes guidance on self-isolation. Since early February there have been more than 5,000 registrations of people in self-isolation. I want to take a moment here to thank New Zealanders for showing that kind of responsibility.

Healthline has established a dedicated phone line for coronavirus information 0800 358 5453.

It is, of course, welcome that we have not yet had a case of coronavirus in New Zealand.

The advice from health experts is that, with an outbreak of this type, it remains a high probability that we will have a case at some point. But I want to congratulate our public health officials on their response.

What it has done is buy us some time to prepare ourselves should a case arrive.

Beyond the public health response, we are taking a whole-of-government approach to managing the outbreak and planning for further scenarios.

A key part of this is our planning for the economic impacts of the virus.

As we do this, we know that this Governments economic plan has been strengthening and growing the economy, even in the face of the global headwinds we have faced over the past two years, like the US-China trade war and Brexit uncertainty.

We go into this situation with the economy in good shape. We are in a strong position to stand up to the economic and health impacts of coronavirus.

Looking across fiscal and monetary policy, our labour market, consumer and business confidence readings and our housing market, the economy showed solid signs of improvement in late 2019.

The Governments accounts for the first six months of the fiscal year to the end of December 2019 were strong. We had a surplus over the first six months of our fiscal year and were sitting $500 million higher than expected due to the stronger economy. This is on top of the $12 billion of surpluses in our first two years in Government. Tax revenue, including corporate tax and GST, were running ahead of forecast highlighting the underlying strength of our businesses and our economy.

Just yesterday, the New Zealand Institute for Economic Research reported how the fundamentals of the economy are still strong, saying there is underlying momentum in the economy. This was off the back of higher consumer and business confidence, and following the announcement of the Governments significant infrastructure plans, which will boost domestic economic activity.

We go into this with our unemployment rate having ticked down to 4%. Just last week, Australias rate ticked up to 5.3%.

We go into this with our official interest rate higher than many other advanced economies our Reserve Banks OCR at 1% is above Australia and the UK at 0.75%, and there are negative rates across Europe.

We go into this with very low Government debt compared to the rest of the world. Credit ratings agency Moodys recently reported that New Zealands Government debt position is significantly lower than other countries with its top Aaa rating.

And we go into this situation off the back of our Governments announcement of additional infrastructure investment in roads, rail, schools and hospitals under the New Zealand Upgrade Programme. We are investing to support, grow and modernise our economy.

New Zealand is in a strong position to respond to the impacts of coronavirus.

We are operating in an environment of high uncertainty. It is not possible for anyone at this stage to give definitive answers to significant questions, such as: How long will it last? What will the global reach be? How deep will the impact be felt?

But while we look for answers for those questions, we can say some things with certainty.

This will have a serious impact on the New Zealand economy in the short term.

It is clear that there is an immediate impact on the tourism industry, particularly given there are now very few flights between China and New Zealand.

Chinese tourists typically spend around $180 million per month in the peak travel months of January through to April.

Within education exports, our tertiary sector has been impacted due to foreign students not travelling. The estimates we have are that around 40% of students have not been able to travel here.

Thats why we are working closely with our tertiary education sector to see what they can do to make sure New Zealanders public health isnt put at risk if the travel ban is lifted for students.

It is obvious that if the docks in China are shut down because workers are not able to get to work, then this will impact New Zealands log and food exports. Although I will add that we are starting to hear reports of some shipments getting through. Chinese authorities are also prioritising food shipments into China, which is positive for a country like New Zealand.

We also know that the supply chain disruption in China is having some effects here in New Zealand, where domestic companies rely on imports from China that are not moving at this time.

Very early, we began speaking to industry groups about how we could help them respond to the initial impacts of coronavirus.

This week, Minister Davis and I held a meeting with leaders from the tourism industry regarding the $11 million fund we set up to help identify new markets and opportunities as visitor numbers from China remain low due to the public health travel ban.

At that meeting we agreed to establish a tourism industry advisory group to ensure a continuous flow of information between the industry and the Government.

We also agreed on the importance of working together to rebuild the Chinese market from a New Zealand Inc. point of view once restrictions are lifted.

In terms of Government departments, MSD and IRD are working closely with affected businesses and individuals to make sure they receive the support they need.

The most recent numbers show the IRD has spoken directly with more than 100 businesses to give them advice and support.

An MBIE website atbusiness.govt.nzhas been set up as a dedicated resource for businesses to source information about a range of potential issues like where exporters can go for assistance, implications for landlords and tenants, issues around tax obligations and questions around planning for travel.

As of yesterday, there had been 45,000 hits on the site so its good to see information flowing between Government and businesses.

Minister Stuart Nash moved quickly to help our live rock lobster industry with a set of common sense changes to rules that he oversees to help them manage their stocks after it became difficult to export to China.

Economic impact

It is important to keep in mind that this outbreak will end, just as we saw with other outbreaks like SARS. The question is a matter of, when that will be?

New Zealands economy is in a strong position to respond to coronavirus. We are well prepared to respond to a range of scenarios that could play out.

Current analysis of the economic impacts of coronavirus from various forecasters has focussed on a scenario where the virus is contained and there is a short, sharp impact on the global economy in the first half of 2020, before activity returns to normal levels.

Over the weekend, the IMF downgraded its China growth forecast for 2020 from 6% to 5.6% under a scenario which assumes the spread of the virus is contained. The impact on global growth from this would take it from 3.3% in 2020 to 3.2%.

The OECD publishes its next set of interim forecasts next week, which will contain further updates.

The IMFs Managing Director did say they are looking at further scenarios where the spread of the virus continued for longer, was more global, and had more protracted global growth consequences.

This is similar to what we are doing here in New Zealand, through an Economic Advisory Group led by the Treasury and including the Reserve Bank and MBIE.

Through this, we are assessing three scenarios:

Scenario one predicts a temporary global demand shock where we experience a temporary but significant impact on the New Zealand economy across the first half of 2020, before growth rebounds in the second half as exports return to normal.

The second scenario is based on a longer lasting shock to the domestic economy, as the global impact feeds through to the economy for a period of time, and where there are cases in New Zealand, and,

The third scenario is planning for how to respond to a global downturn if the worst case plays out around the world, and we have a global pandemic.

We believe it is sensible and responsible to plan for these multiple scenarios.

It does not mean we are predicting them. But it means we can continue to act swiftly and decisively as the impacts of coronavirus on the global and domestic economies become clearer, so that we can support Kiwis and New Zealand businesses.

This week NZIER released a piece of research showing they expect a short, sharp shock, with the effects expected to be temporary in line with what Ive outlined in scenario one, where containment works.

But it is important to note that NZIER said that if its assumption around containment does not hold, then there would likely be a larger impact on export demand, meaning weaker GDP growth in the New Zealand economy.

Read more here:

Finance Minister Grant Robertson says New Zealand is in a strong position to respond to the impacts of coronavirus - Interest.co.nz

LeoPatrizi via Getty ImagesIn this stock photo, pedestrians cross a busy street in downtown Toronto.Canadians have serious doubts about their financial future and the economy as a whole, a new survey from Edelman has found.

MONTREAL Despite a strong economy that has churned out a record number of jobs in recent years and a housing market that has fattened many households assets, Canadians have serious doubts about their financial future and the economy as a whole.

Those are the key findings in the latest edition of the annual trust barometer from public relations firm Edelman, which measures public trust in the system government, business, non-governmental organizations and the media.

Watch: Its easier to get rich in Canada than in the U.S., but it comes at a cost. Story continues below.

The survey of 1,500 Canadians was carried out from Oct. 19 to Nov. 18, 2019, well before the coronavirus outbreak and the Wetsuweten solidarity protests placed large question marks on the economic outlook.

It found that 76 per cent of Canadians are worried about losing their jobs, with the gig economy, a lack of training or skills, and fears of a recession the top reasons for the concern.

EdelmanThis chart from Edelman ranks the top causes for why 76 per cent of Canadians are worried about losing their job.

It found that barely more than a third of Canadians 35 per cent expect they will be better off in five years time. Thats lower than the U.S., where 43 per cent expect to be better off, but higher than in some developed countries, such as the U.K. and Japan.

EdelmanThis chart from Edelman's 2020 trust barometer ranks countries according to the percentage of people who believe they will be better off in five year's time. Canada is among the countries where a majority are pessimistic.

There is a narrative in Canada that while there are indicators of a strong-performing economy, there are some underlying issues, said Lisa Kimmel, CEO of Edelmans Canada and Latin America operations.

She listed off the countrys high household debt levels, the still-unratified new North American free trade deal, trade tensions with China and obviously the whole pipeline issue in a conversation with HuffPost Canada.

The reality is we are a resource-based economy still, our future economic prosperity to a large degree is dependent on our ability to get oil out of the country. Those are issues that cause great anxiety.

And there seems to be an inability were seeing it play out around these [pipeline] protests in coming to an agreement as to what were going to do as a country about that issue, Kimmel said in a phone interview.

Edelmans survey breaks down respondents into two groups: The informed public those who tend to consume a lot of news and who tend to have higher incomes and education and the mass public, which is everyone else.

One use of this breakdown is that it offers an insight into how the countrys elites are thinking, and its among this group that pessimism is particularly on the rise in Canada a trend that Kimmel describes as concerning.

As in most other countries, Canadas informed public has more faith in institutions such as government, business and media than the mass public, but that faith dropped sharply among Canadians in the latest survey.

Faith in government, business and media fell by eight percentage points each, and the share of informed public who believe they will be better off five years from now dropped to 47 per cent from 53 per cent a year earlier though thats still more optimistic than the public as a whole.

Kimmel thinks that may have had to do with last years federal election.

For many people among the informed public and this extends to the mass public as well we didnt have great options to choose from, she said. You had to choose the best of not great options. That to me demonstrates there is not a lot of confidence and trust thats being placed in political leaders today in Canada.

What people demand from leaders is changing, Kimmel acknowledged.

Expectations of leadership have evolved. The characteristics that defined leaders in the past [for example] delivering strong financial results arent necessarily going to be the qualities that make a good leader in the future.

Business leaders, for instance, are expected not only to deliver financial results, but to prioritize the well-being of the communities in which they operate. And more than ever, politicians need to be collaborative, [to] lead with purpose and understand the issues that are most concerning to their stakeholders, Kimmel said.

The expectations are greater than they once were.

Continue reading here:

Canada Trust Survey Finds Only 1 In 3 Believe They Will Be Better Off In 5 Years - HuffPost Canada

More than half of Russias entire territory is covered by permafrost ground with a temperature that remains at or below freezing point for more than two years 

Author: Charlotte Gifford

January 27, 2020

There are many reasons why one might decide against buying a house in the Siberian city of Norilsk: the Sun doesnt rise for three months each year; the name of the neighbouring town translates as either forbidden place or death valley; and its so cold that the bodies of the Gulag prisoners who built it are said to be perfectly preserved beneath a memorial at the foot of Mount Schmidtikha.

Its fair to say that its no place for the faint-hearted. At the very least, buying a house in such a dark, icy wasteland should be good value for money, but even this is no longer the case. The population of the city used to be 300,000, give or take, Nikolay Shiklomanov, Associate Professor of Geography and International Affairs at the George Washington University, told World Finance. Nowadays, its 180,000 so you would expect that the housing market should be pretty light that there should be lots of empty spaces but now theyre experiencing some acute housing shortages because so many of the buildings there are critically deformed.

Norilsk is the largest city in the world to be built on permafrost ground with a temperature that remains at or below freezing point for more than two years. Now, as the Earths climate warms, that permafrost is melting. In fact, approximately 60 percent of the citys buildings have been damaged by thaw and 10 percent have been abandoned. The foundations of Norilsk which was built in the 1930s during Russias push for industrialisation in the Siberian and Yakutia regions are sinking and eroding, causing walls to crack, roofs to crumble and pipes to burst. As Shiklomanov explained: The city was built cheaply and quickly. Obviously, nobody considered climatic changes.

While GDP and employment in petrostates such as Saudi Arabia revolve around oil and gas revenue, Russia has a relatively diversified economy

Warming to the ideaThe unenviable situation Norilsk finds itself in is not a unique one within Russia. More than half of Russias entire territory is covered by permafrost. As this ground thaws, its not just buildings that are in danger, but also pipelines and other oil and gas infrastructure vital to Russias economy.

Alexander Krutikov, Deputy Minister for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic, predicts that the economic loss resulting from the thawing of permafrost could be as high as RUB 150bn ($2.34bn) a year. Its difficult news to swallow for a nation with climate commitments deemed critically insufficient by the Climate Action Tracker, and whose leader has consistently denied the existence of global warming.

Until recently, President Vladimir Putin argued that global warming was good news for Russia. At the 2017 Arctic: Territory of Dialogue international forum, he claimed it would result in more favourable conditions for economic activity in the northernmost reaches of the country. This idea isnt as far-fetched as it might seem. In his bestselling book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari explained how Russia could stand to benefit from climate change: Whereas higher temperatures are likely to turn Chad into a desert, they might simultaneously turn Siberia into the breadbasket of the world.

But this year, the leader of the worlds fourth-largest greenhouse gas emitter changed his tune on climate change. Although Putin continues to insist the phenomenon cant be confidently attributed to human activity, he admitted in June 2019 that Russia was warming 2.5 times faster than the global average. This is a major challenge for us, he said. This is the reason for the floods and for permafrost thawing in the areas where we have fairly big cities. We must be able to understand how to react.

According to Shiklomanov, global warming could affect as much as a fifth of infrastructure across the permafrost area by 2050, costing Russia approximately $84bn, or 7.5 percent of its GDP. As the tundra melts, underground methane is released, causing gas pipelines to explode. At the same time, Russias shoreline is eroding by an estimated four metres annually, increasing the risk of damage to offshore infrastructure. All that coastal infrastructure is extremely important and exceedingly vulnerable, Shiklomanov told World Finance.

Russias coast currently witnesses an accident involving power stations, nuclear-powered icebreakers, chemical facilities or communications installations every three months. Needless to say, Putins new stance on global warming is a huge paradox: by curbing greenhouse gas emissions, he hopes to keep feeding and expanding an emissions-producing oil and gas industry. As the leader of the worlds second-largest oil exporter (see Fig 1), though, this position makes a certain amount of sense arguably, the sector is simply too important for Russia to lose.

Greasing the wheelsRussia is sometimes referred to as a petrostate, but as analysts like Michael Bradshaw a professor of global energy at Warwick Business School point out, this obscures the specific and complex role that oil plays in the Russian economy: Russia has a fairly substantial economy that is not resource-based. However, its increasingly clear that large sectors of the industrial economy are tied one way or another to the resource economy.

While GDP and employment in petrostates such as Saudi Arabia revolve around oil and gas revenue, Russia has a relatively diversified economy. For example, the services sector makes up a larger share of Russias GDP than oil and gas (see Fig 2). Nonetheless, oil and gas revenues are still crucially linked to the non-oil economy in Russia, accounting for 40 percent of government income, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

The wealth generated by oil and gas known as oil and gas rents is extracted by the state and channelled into strategically important sectors or the economy more broadly, either in the form of taxes paid to the government or as subsidies for other goods and services. This system, however, means Russia can only prosper so long as oil prices are high.

As such, its economy is extremely vulnerable to sudden changes in oil demand and supply. If you go back to the 1980s, one of the factors that led to the eventual collapse of the Soviet economy was the fall in oil and gas prices and the loss of substantial rent to the economy, Bradshaw told World Finance. That volatility, of course, continued through the 1990s and 2000s, at times supporting the Russian economy and at times punishing it.

One obvious way of reducing Russias exposure to oil shocks is through economic diversification, but such reform is made difficult by the fact that non-oil sectors are so heavily reliant on oil and gas rents. Moreover, beneficiaries of this system are reluctant to change the status quo. Russia has been spectacularly unsuccessful in seeking to diversify its economy, Bradshaw explained. Theres been an awful lot of rhetoric, particularly under [Dmitry] Medvedevs presidency, but very little change.

To maintain government income in the short term, Russia has to keep expanding oil and gas production. Currently, the need to do so is urgent. Russias main oil and gas fields are depleting: according to the Financial Times, West Siberia, a critical oil-and-gas-producing region, has seen a 10 percent decline in output over the past decade. Whats more, a 2016 report by the Wilson Centre showed that Russia is increasingly dependent on production from its more remote East Siberian and Arctic offshore fields. Covered almost entirely by permafrost, these are some of the most inhospitable regions on the planet.

A pipe dreamAs the Arctic sea ice retreats, the Northern Sea Route becomes more navigable to the worlds superpowers. With a fifth of its territory inside the Arctic Circle, Russia has long envisioned itself as the gatekeeper of this sea lane. Although the Northern Sea Route will never be as integral to global trade as the Suez Canal, it could nonetheless become an important passageway between Europe and Asia, saving freight companies millions of dollars and weeks in travel time.

Russia is convinced that its economic future depends on Arctic exploration. As well as opening up a globally important shipping route, the melting sea ice makes it easier to access rich supplies of fossil fuels. The US Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic may be home to as much as 20 percent of the remaining oil and gas reserves on Earth. On the surface, Russia would seem to be making great progress towards seizing these resources: in late 2018, energy giant Novatek finished building Yamal LNG, a $27bn liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. By 2030, Moscow expects it to produce 60 million tons of LNG each year.

But extracting oil and gas in such a hostile environment with limited infrastructure is far from easy. These are very capital-intensive areas where returns are not expected before 10 to 20 years of development, Pami Aalto, a Jean Monnet professor at the University of Tampere, told World Finance. Consequently, oil and gas companies have to make large investments up front to carry out production, meaning they are often dependent on both government subsidies and foreign technology.

In this regard, Russia has faced some major setbacks. EU and US sanctions imposed after Russias annexation of Crimea limit the countrys ability to secure funding for new oil projects and import the hi-tech equipment needed for Arctic exploration. As Aalto points out, this presents a significant hurdle to Russias Arctic oil ambitions: It is not feasible to explore, extract and develop much without international partners. In the Arctic, 80 to 90 percent of technology has been foreign, compared to 40 to 50 percent elsewhere in Russia before import substitution policies started big-time in 2014 Russian actors have been forced to [borrow] old equipment from Asia, and it is not in plentiful supply.

At the same time, Moscow is struggling to provide the necessary subsidies as a result of budgetary constraints. According to the Kremlin, Russia needs to invest over $200bn in Arctic infrastructure between now and 2050 to make its ambitions a reality; so far, it has stumped up just $14bn. The thawing permafrost will only add to the required expenditure, as companies are forced to adapt their infrastructure and account for soaring repair costs.

Frozen in timeEconomic activity in Russias Arctic territory accelerated under former Soviet Union General Secretary Joseph Stalin, who believed that Russia could achieve economic independence from the West by industrialising the resource-rich North. As these settlements grew, Siberia became the crowning glory of Soviet Russia the communist state had tamed the frozen wastelands, creating economic powerhouses in a region where free marketeers would never have dared venture.

Infrastructure can be adapted to help reduce thawing, but this is expensive, particularly when done at scale

Putin is eager not to see the regions economic prowess diminished. According to The Wilson Quarterly, Russias industrial base in the Arctic Circle currently accounts for up to 20 percent of the countrys GDP and nearly a quarter of its export revenues. And Putin is piling on the incentives to boost investment in the region: in addition to setting up the FPV, a special economic zone along its eastern coastline that offers tax and customs privileges, Russia awards 2.5 acres of free land in the Russian Far East to any citizen or foreigner willing to live there for at least five years.

However, the thawing permafrost raises questions over the viability of economic investment in the region. Infrastructure can be adapted to help reduce thawing, but this is expensive, particularly when done at scale. Moreover, it doesnt stop the permafrost from thawing. With this in mind, Putins attempt to relocate citizens to these areas is not dissimilar to Indonesia or the Philippines encouraging migration to their shrinking coastlines.

Nobody in their right mind in Russia will ever even consider building something like Norilsk again, Shiklomanov said. Now the question is, how do they maintain it? And should they maintain it or not? Some analysts would argue not. Over the past few decades, there has been a steady exodus of people from the Far North and Far East to the bright lights of Moscow and St Petersburg. The small mining town of Vorkuta in the Komi Republic, for example, has a dwindling population of about 60,000 residents, down from 217,000 in the late 1980s.

One of the most basic reasons people are shunning these Arctic cities is the severe conditions. The coldest temperature ever measured outside Antarctica was recorded in the Yakutia region of Siberia. The other problem is that these cities are extremely remote it takes 40 hours by train to get from Vorkuta to Moscow.

In their book The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold, Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy argued that cities in the Far North and Far East are a hangover from the Soviet Union, and that Russia must abandon them for the sake of economic progress: People and factories languish in places communist planners put them not where market forces would have attracted them. Russia cannot build a competitive market economy and a normal democratic society on this basis.

In many ways, these cities are frozen in time snapshots of a Soviet past. Few people moved there by choice; most were driven there by fear and ideology. Under Stalin, hundreds of thousands of people many of whom came from Baltic countries were deported to this remote and hostile territory. As Gulag prisoners, they built Norilsk and other cities like it. Repopulating these areas feels like a step into the past one last desperate attempt to relive the days of Soviet industrialisation.

The cold, hard factsIf Russias ambition to repopulate the Far North and Far East is backwards-looking, then so is its drive to exploit the fossil fuel resources there. Over the past decade, the cost of renewable energy has fallen drastically; assuming this trend continues and nations remain committed to decarbonisation, then its highly probable that the world will soon phase out fossil fuels. Consequently, the reserves of oil and gas that Russia is so desperately trying to retrieve from beneath the permafrost will decline in value.

We are looking at a future of constrained demand and continuing supply, Bradshaw told World Finance. In that world, where oil prices are lower new production in Russia outside of the established regions be it in East Siberia or offshore could be more expensive. In other words, youre ploughing a lot of money into supporting an oil and gas industry thats delivering less and less income.

In 2017, Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden predicted that oil prices would peak in the late 2020s or early 2030s, after which point the industry should expect oil prices to be lower forever. In this future, the nations still economically dependent on oil and gas rents could see their power and influence on the geopolitical map wane. In its 2019 report, A New World: the Geopolitics of the Energy Transformation, IRENA described how the transition could profoundly destabilise countries that have not prepared their economies sufficiently for the consequences.

While Saudi Arabia is trying to curb its dependence on oil through its diversification plan, Vision 2030, Russia has no such strategy. In fact, Russia doesnt seem to even acknowledge the importance of relinquishing fossil fuels. They are, in true ostrich fashion, burying their heads in the ground or firmly in the permafrost as it melts, Bradshaw said. To demonstrate this, Bradshaw points to a case in 2014, when low oil prices as well as US and EU sanctions compelled Russia to develop its shipbuilding sector as a means of economic diversification. Even then, its diversification plan still benefitted the oil and gas sector, with ships being built to facilitate offshore production.

Russia has chosen to continue its resource dependence at the expense of long-term economic growth opportunities. Its plans to push industrialisation in its most inhospitable regions indicate that the country is yet to move beyond its Soviet past and set its sights on becoming a knowledge economy, rather than a resource-based one. In a world where oil and gas are no longer the arbitrators of global economic power, Russia could find itself falling further behind nations that prioritise alternative energy resources and technological progress.

Read more:

On thin ice: thawing permafrost dampens Russia's economic growth prospects - World Finance

Meijer Inc. is deploying the Hyer platform/app across its 246-store footprint and its Serv-U-Successdistribution operation to link gig workers with identified tasks on demand.

Using the app, Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Meijer aims to support its workforce needs in real time, ensuring that it can meet consumer demand. The Hyer platform was designed to provide organizations and individuals with a unified, simple way to locate, engage and manage independent work.

Hyer is the first integrated, scalable ecosystem for labor on demand in the gig economy, notedDave Dempsey, CEO of Rye, N.Y.-based Hyer. While there are several labor on-demand apps in todays marketplace, Hyers robust app enables Meijer to manage multiple tasks in a single mobile application.

According to a recent report from Troy, Mich.-based staffing services companyKelly Services, nearly one-third of the worldwide workforce is employed by the gig economy.

Customer experience is always top of mind at Meijer, because asFred Meijeronce said, Our customers dont need us, we need them, saidMike Graham, the companys SVP of supply chain and manufacturing. There are many responsibilities at the store level that can be fulfilled quickly and easily by individuals looking for flexible work arrangements. Hyer allows us to secure labor on demand through a large, independent workforce that is ready and qualified.

Since implementing the Hyer platform, Meijer said that it has been better able to manage the volatility of demand by having the right number of resources to match its needs.

Across the system, the user experience is fast and simplifies the overall resource management at store level, saving us time and increasing efficiency, while simultaneously improving the customer experience, observedTodd Weer, Meijers SVP of stores. Were excited to fully put this app to work for us.

Meijeroperates more than 240supercenters and grocery stores throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin. The companyis No. 7 onPG's 2019 Super 50 list of thetop grocers in the United States.

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Meijer Taps Into the Gig Economy - Progressive Grocer

We cant just drill our way out of the problem.

That was theoft-repeated phrase of President Barack Obama, whothroughout his presidencyargued that the key to beating higher gasoline prices was to subsidize alternative energies, such as solar and wind.

It was a common sentiment from those who fretted that the world had reached peak oil, and that America was simply doomed to become increasingly reliant on a few big international oil producers for a rapidly dwindling resource.

It also played well into the narrative that fossil fuels were inherently evil, destroying the planet by escalating climate change.

But the doomsayers were wrong.

Thanks in large part to American ingenuity and technological innovation, the script has been flippedand the dividends have been enormous.

Recent events in the Middle East underscore the dramatic change thats occurred.

Its been remarkable that following the September attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities and the recent U.S. strikeon Iranian Gen. Qassim Suleimani, oil prices have remained more or less stable.

This is a huge departure from what has transpired after major incidents in the Middle East in the past. As Foreign Policys C.K. Hickeynoted:

The August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait led to a surge in the price of oil from $15 a barrel that month to $40 by October ($65.68 adjusted for inflation as of 2019). In February 2003, the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq once again led to a spike in prices to nearly $40 a barrel, or around $55 in todays dollars, a level that hadnt been seen since the Gulf War.

This time was different.

Why?

U.S. oil production has boomed in the past decade, thanks largely to innovation in the use of fracking, which has allowed the U.S. to tap into not only enormous amounts of shale oil, but also natural gas and other petroleum resources.

In fact, U.S. production has ramped up so much that in 2018, the U.S.became a net exporterof oil for the first time in nearly 75 years.

Perhaps even more incredibly, for a brief time at the end of 2019,the U.S. surpassed Saudi Arabia to become the worlds top oil exporter.

That, of course, produced jobs and aboon to the American economy, but it also created the conditions for a global oil market more resistant to supply and price shockswhich were sometimes created by OPEC nations. Many of the latter are in the Middle East or generally hostile to the U.S.

But now, a world suddenly deprived of, say, Iranian oil, can rely increasingly on U.S. oil.

As political scientist Walter Russell Meadwrotefor The Wall Street Journal, the Middle East is now a region being fundamentally reshaped by drillers in Texas, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, and elsewhere.

As my colleague Nick Loris, an expert on energy and environmental policy, has noted, the huge increase in domestic oil productiondoesnt mean that the U.S. is truly energy independent. We are still very much affected by the global supply and the actions of countries abroad.

Nevertheless, the surge in production has transformed the American economy and given the U.S. an invaluable tool in foreign relations.

That has transpired in spite of efforts by the Obama administration and the left to strangle an industry they fundamentally dislike, an effort that would be stepped up massively if the so-called Green New Deal became law.

The Green New Deal,a badly disguised Trojan Horse for socialismand ofdubious environmental benefit,would end and reverse the oil production advances that have been such a broad-based benefit for the U.S. economy.

Hopefully, the strong economy and stable oil markets amid turmoil in the Middle East will serve as a reminder that reversing the incredible advances in oil drilling of the past decade would be a huge mistake.

Jarrett Stepman is a contributor to The Daily Signal and co-host ofThe Right Side of Historypodcast.Send an email to Jarrett. He is also the author of the new book,"The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America's Past."His article first appeared at The Daily Signal on January 22, 2020.

Image: Richard Masoner via Flickr.

See original here:

Here's Why We Don't Have to Worry About Middle East Wars Anymore - The National Interest Online

The Grand River Valley, the wine grape-growing and destination region comprising portions of Lake, Ashtabula and Geauga counties, recently received support to the tune of $75,000 from the Lake County commissioners and the Lake County Clerk of Courts.

Thanks to excess title funds, the seed money, according to the county, will facilitate marketing initiatives and outreach efforts in promotion of the area. Commissioners John Hamercheck, Jerry Cirino and Ron Young presented Remarkable Lake County, OH Executive Director Neil Stein with the funds at the Ohio Wine Producers Associations Fire and Ice dinner on Jan. 24.

Lake and Ashtabula counties, and the Grand River Valley which runs through both, has for too long been one of the best kept secrets in the nation, Young said. Over the last 30 years, other wine regions such as Napa Valley, Willamette Valley (Oregon) and the Finger Lakes have gained great notoriety and profited as tourism destinations. This funding will allow our visitors bureaus to expand their mission to make Grand River Valley a premier attraction.

The goal is to draw new visitors from outside our immediate area," he added. "As more people discover the wonders that our valley holds, the more the area will develop. Of course, with development comes economic growth, jobs and opportunities to enjoy a better quality of life for all our citizens.

Stein recently noted that the Lake County Visitors Bureau rebranded as Remarkable Lake County, OH plans to work collaboratively with the Ashtabula County Visitors Bureau to increase economic impact through a unified, regional tourism brand.

This work will build upon the 2016 Grand River Branding Initiative, a private-public partnership with Lake and Ashtabula counties, to develop and help brand a shared identity for the Grand River Valley based on natural, social and economic development variables that exist in the region.

Hamercheck said today's tourists are not concerned with political boundaries when choosing where to visit and spend their time and money.

"Tourism and economic development go hand in hand, he added. Our goal is to increase activity in the region as a whole. This collaboration between Lake and Ashtabula counties is a model of how to leverage public and private resources for the continued growth of the Grand River Valley.

Stretching from Madison Township along the Grand River corridor through western Ashtabula County, the Grand River Valley is home to a plethora of wineries, distilleries, micro-brewers and fine dining opportunities. These destinations compliment the growing number of hotels, bed and breakfasts and cottages developing in the region.

"Our commercial winery businesses are a critical part of the Lake County economy, Cirino said. We are pleased to support their efforts to bring more visitors to our county to appreciate the many fine establishments. This is true economic development.

Last month, the commissioners partnered with the clerk of courts and the Certificate of Title Fund and County General Fund to support this regional marketing initiative.

Since the excess funds were generated from fees for motor vehicle, motorcycle and watercraft titles, I think it is apropos a portion be dedicated to the promotion of the Grand River Valley, said Clerk of Courts Maureen Kelly. I am proud to be able to contribute to the branding of this resource and support all it offers to both residents and visitors to our area.

The funds will be used to brand the region for not only the local market, but for regional and national audiences in order to increase overall travel to the region and drive foot traffic to local businesses, according to a news release.

While the wineries may beregarded as the anchor tenant, attractions such as the Lake Erie shoreline, covered bridges and local park systems will be incorporated into the long-term vision as well.

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Lake County commissioners to increase funding for Grand River Valley wine region - News-Herald.com

As Marcia Ballinger, Ph.D., strolls the campus of Lorain County Community College, its hard to miss her smile.

It could be the joy she feels on another unseasonably warm, sunny January day in Northeast Ohio. More likely, its her sense of pride at all the talented, creative minds that have found their way to LCCC the college has seen a 94 percent increase in the number of people earning degrees since 2011, and 61 percent of Lorain County high graduates start their college experience there. These numbers no doubt contributed to the institution being named the top community college in the country for Excellence in Student Success by the American Association of Community Colleges in 2018.

I view us as the portal of opportunity, says Ballinger, LCCCs president. Every students dream matters. So every day, we have to make sure that not only do we keep that dream alive for the students of today and tomorrow, but also for future generations.

This effort has evolved to include a closer partnership with the regional business community.

Were expected to be flexible, agile and nimble partners with those employers, whether thats advanced manufacturing, health care, biomedical whatever the industry sector is, Ballinger says. We need to not only meet them where they are to help create that talent pipeline and solutions for what they need, but also work with them on future development.

Community colleges have been instrumental in providing new programs and curriculum that establish a baseline of skill sets related to advanced technologies being implemented in the workforce, says Matt Hlavin, CEO at Thogus, a plastic injection molding company based in Avon Lake.

There has been a gap for years between the business community and educational institutions, Hlavin says. It is very taxing for employers, particularly small businesses, to have to retrain new employees upon hiring. LCCC is a forward-thinking educational institution that listens to our needs and has been a critical resource for preparing students to enter the workforce with the skill sets we need.

No one knows how the future will unfold, and new technologies, as of now still confined to the imagination of the next great innovator or entrepreneur, await. The goal at LCCC is to create an environment where students can become those innovators and succeed in the workplace.

One of LCCCs signature programs is the University Partnership, which allows students to earn bachelors and masters degree from four-year universities from LCCCs campus. Ballinger helped develop the program, then enrolled to earn her MBA from Kent State University.

Its a program that was desperately needed, Ballinger says.

We were the largest county in the state of Ohio without public access to a four-year university, Ballinger says. Our educational attainment at the bachelors degree level was the lowest among the counties in Northeast Ohio. So we created this concept, passed a tax levy in 1995 and started offering the program in 1998.

After earning their bachelors degree, students can remain in Lorain County while earning more advanced degrees.

We provide the first two or three years, then the universities provide the final courses, all on this campus, says Ballinger. I had the great opportunity to be in one of the first classes. That gave me a sense of the adult student experience, something that Ive held very close to me.

It was a significant step in strengthening the colleges role as an economic engine in Northeast Ohio.

Another pivotal moment occurred in 2001 when the Patsie C. Campana Sr. Engineering and Development Center today the Campana Center for Ideation and Invention opened. The facility recently underwent a 10,000-square-foot expansion.

In the past three months since the CCII grand opening, we have had more than 12 companies, both publicly and privately owned, tour and/or enter into discussions with LCCC and CCII seeking support, ideas, consultation, or simply wanting to understand what LCCC has to offer, says Bob Campana, CEO at Campana Capital and son of Patsie. As Northeast Ohio companies become aware of the capabilities and competencies at LCCC and CCII, we can support them by providing prototyping and parts manufacturing using digital and conventional manufacturing techniques such as additive manufacturing (3D printing), subtractive manufacturing (CNC machining), welding, laser cutting and water jet cutting, to name a few.

LCCC has also partnered with local industry to launch an Applied Science in Digital Fabrication Technologies degree that prepares students for these and other related fields, and teaches tasks such as prototyping, proof-of-concept exploration and rapid tooling.

Ballinger says the Campana family has truly epitomized entrepreneurship and innovation in its effort to support the college and its role in the community.

Theyve been stalwart supporters of the college, she says. The center really takes it to new heights and new levels. Its a launchpad for students in the community to explore, experiment and find a fit for their talents.

Just as businesses often work with customers to keep up with their changing needs, LCCC is carrying on a continuous dialogue with the business community to achieve similar goals.

Weve had to flip our own paradigms in terms of how we educate by having employers at the table designing with us, versus the old models, which weve done now for six decades, Ballinger says. It was a very intensive, community-based process to look at what the preferred future is for what were trying to create. We used a process called VUCA, where you look at volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

By doing so, Ballinger is confident the college is creating a bright future for itself and for its students.

But getting there while navigating constant change will require a flexible approach, Ballinger said at the CCII grand opening. We are living in a VUCA world. Thats why we approached our visioning process with strategic foresight, knowing the century that were in now is best described as the age of uncertainty, a century where rapid change has become the norm.

LCCC is talking to businesses about things like automation, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and blockchain, and exploring how to work these new technologies into its curriculum.

Four years ago, we werent talking about blockchain or about big data or about the Industrial Internet of Things, Ballinger says. We have degree programs in all of those areas now, again with employers at the table driving their development.

When it comes to automation, the college is seeking to create a sense of opportunity rather than fear. Instead of worrying about being replaced by a robot, Ballinger wants students to be excited about the chance to build new robot machinery.

How do we continue to teach individuals to be able to work for themselves? Ballinger says. We have been laser focused on more individualized services to ensure that we are getting students to more meaningful credentials and degrees in shorter amounts of time. We want them employed in more meaningful careers, where they are earning greater salaries for both themselves and their families.

LCCC values its position as a launching pad into the workforce for students of all ages across Northeast Ohio. In addition to the University Partnership and the Campana Center, programs such as the Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise (GLIDE), Innovation Fund Northeast Ohio and NEO LaunchNET aim to spawn more creative, innovative minds. And the colleges Fab Lab, a 5,000-square-foot makerspace where people can make just about anything was the first Fab Lab outside of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S. when it opened in 2005.

The college is counting on voters to approve an operating levy renewal on the March 17 ballot that would sustain support from the existing 1.8 mills and add 0.5 mills, an additional investment of less than $1.50 per month per $100,000 in property value.

Its critically important for Northeast Ohio to have a talent pipeline for our employers that is aligned, Ballinger says. We need to continue to envision and explore what the future can be and not be bound by building off of the past. We need to stay focused on what we can be and what we need to be.

Robert Lando, CEO of AgriNomix, says his company has hired several graduates of LCCCs Automation Engineering Technologies program who were trained in the skills his company a supplier to the North American horticulture industry based in Oberlin needs.

Those students have grown with us, and they made an enormous contribution to our company, says Lando. LCCC has invested in very knowledgeable faculty and paired them with cutting-edge motor control centers and todays sophisticated robots in order to provide students with valuable and applicable training.There are high-paying jobs waiting for grads from LCCCs programs we need more student to take advantage of these amazing programs.

Thoguss Hlavin says substantial progress is already being made.

The role community colleges are playing in evolving the future workforce to prepare them is already having a positive impact, he says. Long term, this will enable companies to remain competitive, as well as prepare their students to make more money and build a stronger economy.

NAME:Marcia Ballinger, Ph.D.

TITLE:President

COMPANY:Lorain County Community College

Education: Bachelors degree, journalism, Indiana University of Pennsylvania; MBA, Kent State University (LCCC University Partnership); doctorate in education community college leadership, Walden University.

Who are some of your mentors?I would say that certainly, having been here for 28 years, I have had mentors here including my predecessor, Roy Church, as well as a number of community college leaders. My dad was an educator and my mother instilled in me that hard work ethic. Ive been very fortunate to have worked within an organization for almost three decades and to have been partnered with so many incredible, amazing people who inspire me every day. But at the end of the day, its our students and graduates who truly have been my inspiration.

Local success stories:Our two new mayors of our largest cities in Lorain County, Elyria Mayor Frank Whitfield and Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley, as well as State Rep. Joe Miller, are alumni of Lorain County Community College.

Pivotal dates in LCCC history:

1966 LCCC moves to its current location, making it the first community college in Ohio with a permanent campus.The campus opened with three buildings: Engineering Technologies, Mechanical Services, and Physical and Social Sciences.

2004 LCCC enrollment tops the 10,000 mark in the fall semester for the first time in the colleges history. That year it was named one of the states fastest-growing colleges.

2011 President Barack Obama endorses the start of LCCCs Innovation Fund America, a program in concert with the American Association of Community Colleges Virtual Incubator Network that is intended to equip other community colleges with the tools and support to implement this program to stimulate high-tech entrepreneurship in their communities.

2016 LCCC Community Learning Center opens at Lorain High School.

Continued here:

Marcia Ballinger embraces LCCC's role as an economic driver for the region - Smart Business Network

On Tuesday, the 17th of December, 2019, Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP) and its Governing Council Chair, Prof. Akin Mabogunje, played host to a galaxy of Nigerias great minds, academics and professionals from all walks of life at a seminar which set out with an extremely rich and competent lead paper presented by the COO andSenior Fellow, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Dr. Tayo Aduloju and titled Building a Great Nation: Reformed Public Institutions as Imperative. In attendance were, HRH Oba Dokun Bolarin, Odia Ofeimun, Amb. (Dr.) Yemi Farounbi, Dr. Kunle Olajide, Dr. Olu Agunloye, Wordsmith Ray Ekpu, Dr. Kolade Mosuro; Chief Bayo Oyero, Chineye Ogwo, Otunba Deji Osibogun, Profs. Bolanle Awe, Biola Odejide, Gabriel Ogunmola, Siyan Malomo, Olabode Lucas, Alaba Ogunsanwo, Babajide Owoeye, Jide Osuntokun, Mike Adeyeye, Sola Ogunniyi, Fola Faponle and Drs. Festus Adedayo, Ademola Adegbile, Tunji Bolade, Sina Adekanbi, Tunde Oseni, Akeem Amodu, Kemi Okowa, Taofeek Ademola Bello, Engrs. Korede Segun, Deji Faponle and John Ayodele, Mr. Lanre Ogunmoyela, Mrs. Edem Ossai, to name just a few. I also like to appreciate Prof, Tunde Adeniran and Mr. Stephen Oronsaye, for the role they play to enrich my story at 60.

It is only to be expected that a conversation to which this assemblage contributed will be rich, nuanced and most enlightening. What I am doing therefore with this piece is to share my reflection from the take away from this remarkable seminar organised as part of events to mark my 60th birthday.

Most Nigerians agree that Nigeria is a good and potentially great country. It is easy to examine statistics and demographics that point at the potential greatness of this state. Indeed, most regret that Nigeria is not able to achieve her fullest national stature because of the bad stroke of luck concerning leadership. It is therefore still possible to find a large horde of optimists all over the country who are incurably certain that Nigeria will still one day, and very soon, overcome her ailing debilitation to redeem her mandate to her citizens, and her responsibility to the West African region, the African continent and the global comity of nations. I consider myself one of these hordes of incurable optimists. And I am more privileged than most because all my life, I have had the singular opportunity of familiarising myself with Nigeria at the point of her institutional and decisional frameworks. My optimism is therefore not just a wooly hopefulness. It is grounded in the institutional and leadership possibilities that I have encountered in my reform advocacy and administrative activities over the years. The history of Nigeria, indeed the history of her administrative evolution, tells many stories that should be outlined as critical landmines by which the Nigerian government could orient its present projections and future expectations. Nigeria is where she is today because we have often failed to seriously consider the crucial administrative insights delineated by the evolution of Nigeria from independence to date.

Nigerias status in so many significant indicesfrom misery to human developmentis not good. The Nigerian state stands as a classic representation of the resource cursethe paradox of lack in the midst of plenty. From the 1960s, Nigerias development strategies have often been beautifully rendered in several development planning documents. The most recent of the development planning document is the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP2017-2020). The time lag for this document makes this year a significant one for a comprehensive evaluation and reflection on how far Nigeria has gone and what needs to be done to push her father. 2020 has remained a critical year in Nigerias visioneering effort. The Vision 20:2020 projects that by the year 2020, Nigeria will be among the 20 largest economies in the world. The ERGP later emerged as a companion midterm plan to increase productivity, improve efficiency in the public and private sectors, achieve sustainable diversification of production and grow the economy.

We have finally arrived the year 2020, and the prognosis and diagnosis are not good. Statistical analysis of the Vision 2020 and the ERGP demonstrates that Nigerias economy is eminently underperforming. In the 2016 scorecard, only 3% of the objectives were achieved; 34% were exceeded, and 63% not achieved. For 2017, 32% were exceeded and 68% were not achieved. The 2018 scorecard is even worse: 29% exceeded, 71% not achieved. Essentially, the anxiety is not that Nigeria has stagnated for a long time, but that there is an ever present danger that she is getting near state failure.

The failure of development planning in Nigeria has become too obvious for us not to have learnt the lesson. From the 60s, it was already clear that Nigerias planning framework lacked the requisite discipline and statistical underpinnings to make it succeed. Projections and planning are more than mere rhetoric or arbitrary exercises in optimism. On the contrary, they are informed and carefully fabricated documents that considered feasible scenarios, their consequences and the measurable parameters that will make them achievable. Planning discipline is not only a function of administrative perspicacity but also political will. The tragedy of politicising development agenda in Nigeria is that these planning lacked the crucial element of administrative continuitythey die before they are ever consolidated. Added to this is the lackluster attention that the political leadership pays to these documents. This is often because development agendas are too long-term for the short-term political gains politicians are looking for. When short-term expectations do not square with long-term agenda, there is a lack of political ownership of the development and reform agenda. This is a critical learning we need to urgently learn in evaluating 2020, and in all post-2020 planning.

The fundamental objective of development projections is fore-grounded on the capacity readiness of the public service. And this readiness is also a feature of the institutional readiness factored into the development planning. This is an institutional reform symbiosis that ensures that the public service system becomes capacity ready to deliver on development objectives because one of the development objectives is to facilitate the reform of the public service. The public service system is made up of critical ministries, departments and agencies. Two of these are the National Population Commission (NPC) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The reason why should be obviousknowing the population of Nigeria, as well as other critical demographic and governance statistics.

Nigerias population figures have always been mired in deep political intrigues. If we are not sure of how many we are, or of the figures relating to poverty, unemployment, births and deaths, schooling and education, and many other matters, then how could we ever hope to plan scientifically?

All these are a function of the availability of a governance framework that adroitly weaves administrative dynamics into governance matters. In Nigeria, a key objective of national development is achieving a productivity paradigm that instigates economic growth. Here, the governance issue of unemployment merges seamlessly into the administrative issue of a functional public service to focus the necessity of an inter-generational consideration into the reform of the public service. The government remains the largest employer of labor in Nigeria. But the sad fact is that the public service is not attracting the best that the tertiary institutions can produce. Those who manage to get employed preferred the private sector. And when the youths eventually get into the public sector, it becomes a stepping stone into some other nongovernmental responsibilities that undermine productivity in the public sector. This implies that in reforming the public service, the reform energy must be on injecting, attracting and injecting the youths and their knowledge, competences and generational enthusiasm into the workforce in a way that transforms the workforce and drives the Nigerian public service system into the 21st century.

For the discerning reader, articulating an inter-generational framework for reforming the public service immediately raises the issue of a viable educational objective. For: how do we inject the youths into the productivity dynamics of the public service, and ultimately into the development objectives of the country, if the educational system is not grounded in a significant human capital development policy?

The second dimension of reforming the public service system involves articulating a framework and dynamics of attitudinal and culture change. The public service in Nigeria has become bureaucratic and less productive because its rules and regulations have congealed into a behavioral conformism that saps the managerial capacity of the public servant. The ultimate challenge is to then transform the public service into a performance-oriented, technology-based, productivity-minded, and entrepreneurial organisation that learns from its administrative mistakes in order to meet future challenges.

This attitudinal change goes to the very idea of who a public servant is and what public service entails. It demands, urgently, putting in place an actionable programme that is rooted in the framework of an integrity system which defines the ethical boundaries of a conscientious public servant.

The second part of revitalising national reformation programme in Nigeria involves the idea of civic engagement as a double-edged factor that injects the citizens into the development project through civic participation which allows the people to be actively involved in their own empowerment. In the final analysis, the citizenry is the focal point of development planning and the national rebirth and reformation of the state. And therefore, it stands illogical that the citizens are just made the end users of development outcomes rather than being intimately involved with and owning the development paradigm and its consequences. Citizen development cuts to the very core of the democratic idea. The will of the people is the foundation on which any democratic experiment is founded. And the leadership is supposed to be the steward of that collective will. Part of the expression of the political will of the leadership, therefore, is the enthusiasm to implicate the Nigerian Storyin all its black, white and graysin the outline of a civic education strategy that can bring Nigerians closer to the love of country. And so, again, we arrive at the significance of a proactive educational system that not only churns out graduates but also those who will be willing to put their skills and competences on the line for the transformation and the rebirth of the Nigerian nation.

Let me end this reflection with a fundamental quote from the former prime minister of Britain, Mr Tony Blair: We know the problem, and we know the solution: sustainable development. The issue is the political will. This quote speaks with intensity to the Nigerian condition, and the crucial element that stands between the Nigerian state and her potential greatness. The will of the political leadership is significant because it is on its wings that the will of the Nigerian people rides in the affirmation of the greatness of the Nigerian state.

Prof. Olaopa, a retired Federal Permanent Secretary is the Executive Vice-Chairman, Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP), Bodija, Ibadan.

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The imperatives for national rebirth in NigeriaOpinion - Guardian