Category Archives: Resource Based Economy

This year marked the 150th anniversary of the periodic table, which UNESCO has dubbed the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. Developed in 1869 by Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist and inventor, the periodic table is the foundation on which nearly all modern science is based. Even in its earliest form, Mendeleev used his newfound creation not only to hypothesize the properties of already identified elements, but also to predict as-yet discovered substances, including those now coveted by todays modern fuel-cell industry, like germanium (Ge) and gallium (Ga).

To mark the occasion, the European Chemical Society published a periodic table infographic designed to highlight the relative abundance and scarcity of elements based on current and forecast supply and demand. Elements topping the abundance category include household names like hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), and silica (Si), while those facing threat of depletion in the next century (based on known reserves) such as lesser known elements like indium (In), tellurium (Te), including those that Mendeleev himself had identified a century and a half earlier. The infographic underscores the sensitivity of commodity supply to the tech industrys burgeoning demands and their dire need to maintain healthy supply networks.

Recognizing the tightening supply chain of mineral resources, many countries are starting to look inward to meet their own needs as well as broaden their economic portfolio. In Saudi Arabia, mining plays a central role in their Vision 2030 diversification plan, with lofty goals to cultivate the Kingdoms mineral resource economy to as high as SAR 97 billion ($34 billion) by 2020, creating 90,000 job opportunities in the process. The Kingdom is already host to significant reserves of aluminum, gold, and copper, and is looking to expand its repertoire even further.

Here too at home, Canada is juggling its commitments to environmental stewardship with much needed wealth generation in the mineral resource sector.

Last year, Canada produced over 60 minerals and metals worth nearly $47 billion and was a global leader in the production of advanced battery technology commodities like cobalt, graphite and nickel. However, despite its mineral resource wealth the country still imports a great deal of products from abroad. In 2018, mineral and metal import trade with the United States, Canada single largest trading partner, hit its highest accounting for nearly half of all of Canadas foreign import expendituresa whopping $48 billion out of a total $87 billion, with coal and crude oil accounting for the largest proportion.

Many countries are starting to recognize the strategic importance minerals play in securing their own place in the world economy. Two years ago, the President of the United States signed Executive Order 13817 , a federal strategy to safeguard supplies of critical minerals. The Executive Order alleges that the dependency of the United States on foreign sources creates a strategic vulnerability for both its economy and military to adverse foreign government action, natural disaster, and other events that can disrupt supply of these key minerals.

The broad interpretation of critical minerals has been the subject of much debate. According to the USGSs companion study of critical minerals , there are 35 minerals or mineral material groups, from aluminum to zirconium, that constitute possible supply chain threats to the US. The list includes minerals like aluminum, potash, and uranium of which Canada is currently the USs largest supplier, as well as fuel-cell components like germanium and gallium.

This edict signals a marked shift in the nationalization of mineral commodities south of the border and how the U.S. will develop and enforce foreign and domestic trade policies relating to the minerals sector into the foreseeable future. It also threatens the lifeblood trade relationship on which Canada so heavily relies; but the U.S. is not alone in its protectionist strategy.

Around the world, other countries are taking stock of their mineral resource wealth and independence. A 2019 study by global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft reveals that as many as 30 countries are facing higher than average resource nationalism risk. Among these are Russia, Venezuela and Democratic Republic of Congo, where increasing tax pressures, threats of expropriation, and ever more stringent local content requirements are at the core of each countrys risk environment.

Only time will tell how these strategies will affect global supply and demand, the trade of commodities across international borders, and the relative ease at which mining companies can access mineral resources on both foreign and domestic soil. What is certain, is that as long as the appetite for technology continues to outpace mineral reserves, so too will the motivation for nations to secure those supplies at home and abroad.

In an ironic twist of fate, Mendeleevs quest to catalogue the building blocks of the universe and unite the scientific community, also opened a Pandoras box that would divide those in its pursuit. With knowledge came power or at least the quest for it.

Kurt Breede, P.Eng. is a mineral resource and corporate development consultant, and Principal of Metallica Consulting, specializing in mineral resource estimation and technical disclosure. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.

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Commentary: The periodic table and the road to resource nationalism - The Northern Miner

MNCHENGLADBACH, Germany December 13, 2019 Of the twelve participating denim mills who took part in Habitat 21 a special Smart Creation showcase at the recent Denim Premire Vision exhibition in London no less than eleven were valued Monforts Denimized finishing technology users.

The aim of Habitat 21 was to highlight those companies taking an eco-responsible approach to denim manufacturing via the use of recycled, organic and bio-based fibres, in combination with resource-saving dyeing and finishing technologies.

Monforts customers involved in the project were Advance Denim, Berto, Bossa, Calik, Evlox/Tavex, Kilim, Naveena, Orta Anadalou, Rajby Industries, Raymond Uco and Soorty.

Their innovations were detailed in a major presentation on trends for the Spring/Summer 2021 season by Manon Mangin of the Premire Vision Fashion Team, based on three key themes Sensation, Hybridization and Expansion.

There was plenty of sustainable innovation on show from Turkey, with Bossa, for example, unveiling the latest creations from its ongoing Reset program first introduced in 2006 and constantly evolving its eco-friendly options and Calik exhibiting a denim collection made with its D-clear process, via which water is reduced by 40% in indigo dyeing and by 83% in the subsequent finishing.

Kilim is meanwhile intending to reduce water by 93% as a result of its current Cactus project, which will have a significant impact on the footprint of the 12 million meters of denim it makes annually, and in addition to resource-saving processes, Orta Anadalou is committing to complete traceability, with each of its garments now labelled with a unique QR code.

Among innovations from Pakistans leading mills, Naveena made a splash with the introduction of its cottonized hemp denim, developed in a collaboration with Kingdom Holdings one of the largest manufacturers of hemp in China in order to reduce the companys reliance on cotton.

There are many challenges involved in working with hemp, Naveena says, but vertically-integrated spinning operations have enabled it to create blended yarns of cotton, hemp and Tencel containing only 49% cotton.

Both Rajby Industries and Soorty have now achieved Cradle to Cradle Gold certification for denim fabrics in their collections, as a globally recognized measure of safer, more sustainable products made for the circular economy.

To receive this certification, products are assessed for environmental and social performance across five critical sustainability categories material health, material reuse, renewable energy and carbon management, water stewardship, and social fairness. The standard encourages continuous improvement over time by awarding certification on the basis of ascending levels of achievement and requiring certification renewal every two years.

Advance Denim has meanwhile become the first denim mill in China to launch a collection made with aniline-free indigo.

As a result of its toxicity, analine is now starting to feature on the restricted substance lists (RSL) of some of the major clothing brands and retailers.

During traditional indigo dyeing process, some aniline stays locked into the indigo pigment and is difficult to wash off the fabric, while the remainder is discharged with the wastewater. The new process being employed by Advance Denim is based on an aniline-free indigo formulation from Switzerlands Archroma.

Italys Berto also introduced pre-reduced indigo dyeing in an expanded range of denims based on GOTS-certified fabrics made with organic cotton and regenerated yarns.

Our latest collection was inspired by young people the Z Generation that is free spirited but at the same time involved in the fight against climate change, said Bertos marketing manager Francesco Polato. We are seeking to meet their needs with an extroverted collection characterised by special colours and looks, but always with a 360-degree attention to sustainability.

To complete the Smart Creation showcase, Indias Raymond Uco introduced a coloured denim range comprising fabrics that are both yarn dyed and made from sustainable dyestuffs, to significantly reduce the use of chemicals, while Evlox/Tavex announced plans to introduce post-consumer recycled denim to its collections, with complete traceability of all the materials used.

Denim Premire Vision took place at the Printworks in London on December 2nd and 3rd. The next edition will be held in Milan in June 2020.

Posted December 13, 2019

Source: A. Monforts Textilmaschinen GmbH & Co. KG

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Monforts 'Denimized' Customers Take The Lead In London Habitat 21 - Textile World Magazine

On the morning of Nov.6, a group of Foodora food delivery workers arrived for a breakfast rally in front of the Ontario Labour Relations Board, which is holding a series of hearings through early 2020 on their right to join the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).

Clad in a telltale pink jersey, one Foodora worker told a CityNews reporter that he is semi-employed by five different gig economy companies, and that he was fed up: Its just gotten worse and worse and worse, he said, and weve gotten to the point where we need to fight for our rights.

Uber drivers are also pushing to unionize, hoping to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). Uber Black, a pricier premium ride-sharing service that promises professional drivers, recruited Ejaz Butt seven years ago while he was working as a limousine driver at Toronto Pearson Airport, and he says that he now works 12-hour shifts, sometimes seven days a week. We are workers, just like at any other company, he says, noting that he hopes a union will give drivers a voice.

READ:How one Ontario town used Uber to solve its public transit crisis

Buried in the details particular to Foodora workers and Uber driversconcerns about cycling injuries, about unpaid time while waiting for delayed flights to arriveare the underpinnings of every class conflict: the idea that people are being exploited, exhausted and underpaid by profitable companies.

Collective action has become a rallying cry around the world for people employed in the gig economy (where freelance workers take on short-term assignments, sometimes navigated through an app, for one or more employers). Once hailed as innovative, the gig economy is now the target of some tough questions about its reliance on a labour force that usually receives no protections like paid time off, benefits or parental leave. But there are questions about exactly how a more conventional union model can be applied to the future of work, and whether new ways of protecting workers are needed as work becomes increasingly fragmented.

So how can workers retain the things they like about gig-economy worknamely, the flexibility and independencewhile also enjoying the protections traditionally extended to full-time employees?

Linda Nazareth, an economist in Toronto and author of Work Is Not A Place: Our Lives and Our Organizations in the Post-Jobs Economy, has concerns about Uber and Foodora becoming representative of the gig economy. While we tend to think of app-based work, the term actually encompasses a wide variety of workers who face a number of uphill battles when it comes to things like securing bank loans and determining parental leave. If youre a graphic designer going from employer to employer, you may be entitled to nothing and thats not right, she says. We need to figure a different way of doing this.

According to Statistics Canada, temporary employees have been growing at a faster pace than permanent employees over the past 20 years. In 2018, 13.3 per cent of employees worked in a temporary job, up from 11.8 per cent in 1998. The Bank of Canada estimates that the gig economy represents the equivalent of 700,000 full-time jobs, or 3.5 per cent of the total workforce. Unions have struggled to adapt to a modern worker who isnt pegged to a single employer or location, says Maurice Mazerolle, associate professor of organizational behaviour and human resource management at Ryerson University.

READ:As the age of AI looms, what is the future for labour and unions?

But the circumstances that make the gig economy a tough place to organizeunspecified schedules, independence and the tendency to work from ones own home or carare also the circumstances that entice workers. I see everything from students who are using Uber as an extra gig and retirees who want social interaction to newer immigrants who cant find other work, says Nura Jabagi, a doctoral candidate at Concordia University who studies the gig economy.

The concept of independent work has also been increasingly romanticized, with narratives about digital nomads who polish marketing materials while sitting on the edge of a white-sand beach. Foodoras recruitment efforts, for instance, lean heavily on the idea that app-based work is a way to reclaim your time and explore your city, all while making your own hours. Sylvia Fuller, a sociology professor at the University of British Columbia, says that is an incomplete picture, noting that while the gig economy might be a dream for workers who have skills that are very much in demand, for the vast majority of folks, that so-called flexibility feels a lot more like instability.

The pushback has already started and pressure on gig economy employers will likely intensify in the year ahead. Recent legislationnotably in California and New Jerseyrequire a reclassification of many independent contractors as employees. Foodora workers in Norway and Uber Eats couriers in Japan formed unions in September and October respectively, earning injury compensation and wage increases. The Foodora union would be the first of its kind in Canada, and could serve as a precedent for other precariously employed groups.

According to a statement issued to the CBC, Foodora has argued that unionizing may limit flexibility and that paying union dues would be harmful to many workers.

But Ivan Ostos, a Foodora courier in Toronto, balks at the idea that pressing for greater rights means sacrificing the appeal of gig-economy work. The model that these employers sell to us is flexibility, be your own boss, he says. But theres nothing that says we cant earn a minimum for the hours we put in, theres nothing that says we cant have health and safety coverage, or grievances so that some people arent suddenly fired by an algorithm.

While some unionization efforts have been based on the premise that most people would prefer conventional full-time work for a single employer, others maintain that protections can be implemented for those who prefer to work on a per-project basis.

Mazerolle notes that some unions, like Unifor, have introduced an association model, where multi-employer workers can benefit from things like group purchasing power and access to legal resources. Organizations like the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists collect dues, offer benefits and negotiate wages on behalf of over 160,000 members with widely varied employers.

In good times, as Mazerolle points out, workers can vote with their feet. But when decent jobs are scarce, collective action can help protect and amplify a single voice. The fissuring of the workplace and the increase in precariousness is only going to continue, he says. Unless public policy catches up with reality, which it hasnt, youre going to find a lot more frustration out there.

This article appears in print in the January 2020 issue of Macleans magazine with the headline, Order up a union. Subscribe to the monthly print magazine here.

Excerpt from:

The gig economy keeps growing, but its workers are fed up - Maclean's

WILSON Raleigh-based Internet of Things organization RIoT is expanding its 12-week startup accelerator to Wilson come February 2020.

Seeing promise in the leadership, broadband achievements, economic growth and rural market opportunity the city of Wilson brings, theRIoT Accelerator Program (RAP) is ready to help cultivate the next generation of technology startups east of the Triangle.

The free program will be hosted at Gig East Exchange (pictured above), an incubator and resource hub for startups in the Wilson area. Applications are due Monday, December 16 at 5 p.m. EST. The program will begin in February and conclude in May.

Though the spring 2020 RAP program will be held in Wilson, RIoT still urges startups spanning the Triangle, down I-95 to the coast to apply. RAP is open to all business owners and prospective companies, regardless of location.

RIoT Executive Director Tom Snyder says he expects startups will commute into Wilson to participate in the free accelerator or in hopes of receiving the $1,000 stipend each team receives.

Experience has shown that many smart entrepreneurs are not able to relocate to Raleigh or Charlotte, so RIoT is making an effort to get closer to them, Snyder adds.

City of Wilson Innovation Hub Manager Darren Smith, who also leads Gig East Exchange, said RAP Wilson will be a core program to provide support to startups and existing small businesses, both locally and regionally.

The interest continues to grow regarding the RAP program as potential applicants learn of its tremendous success in the Triangle, Smith added. We believe our community-owned broadband infrastructure, our Gig East Exchange collaboration space, and our proven business development programming through RAP are the key ingredients needed for continued economic development in Wilson and points East.

GiG East Exchange aims to be collaboration space to encourage growth in City of Wilson

When asked why RIoT chose Wilson, Snyder cited the citys leadership and history of being visionary and forward acting, adding that Wilsons Gig Easts Exchange project is just the latest example of its investment in job creation and economic growth.

Wilson has set itself apart for its broadband initiatives. Its Greenlight fiber network is North Carolinas first community-owned fiber-to-home system.

City leaders are continually ramping up education and development opportunities to help boost the broadband industry. Just last month, Wilson launched its first Fiber Boot Camp, a workforce training program run by Greenlight, Wilson Community College and Gig East Exchange.

Fiber-rich Wilson moves forward with advanced workforce training

Wilson to construct innovation hub with $1.1M Golden LEAF Foundation grant

Rural market opportunity was also a major factor in moving RAPs presence to Wilson. Speaking about the lack of support resources outside of urban hubs, Snyder said, If we, as economic developers, are to really walk the talk about inclusive and diverse participation, then it is important to bring programs to where people are, rather than expect everyone to have the possibility to come to you.

RIoT regularly teaches startups to look for market white space,an identified market need that is currently unaddressed by competitors, Snyder adds. While RIoTs culture is to collaborate, rather than compete, there is still a business to run. Startup programming for rural entrepreneurship is a huge white space opportunity.

Long-term, RIoT sees the Wilson expansion as a key move in its mission to make North Carolina a hub for innovation in the data economy. This opportunity, Snyder says, is far greater than Raleigh or the Triangle region.

It is critical to enable statewide (and beyond) participation, Snyder added. Like they have proven time and time again, Wilson is recognizing this sooner than other citiesand they are taking bold action to seize that opportunity. RIoT is happy to play a part.

Application Deadline: RAP Wilson Cohort (Spring 2020)

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Expanding to Wilson, RIoT aims to support tech startup growth east of the Triangle - WRAL Tech Wire

Pamela Makanjera

AS Zimbabwe joins the rest of the world in commemorating 16 days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, it is an opportune time to reflect on the economic costs of all forms of violence in general. Political violence, domestic violence, ethnic violence, terrorism, genocide, resource conflict violence, among the many types of conflicts.

Violence and conflict have been proven to have negative implications on the broader economy.According to The Institute of Economic and Peace, the economic impact of violence to the global economy in 2017 was a staggering US$14,76 trillion while the economic impact of violence in Sub-Saharan Africa amounted to US$616 billion for the same year. To put the figures in perspective, the Sub-Saharan figure is a staggering 147 times more than the recently announced 2020 budget of Zimbabwe! Simply put, humanity is spending more on violence and conflict more than ever.

Furthermore, the economic impact of violence in the 10 worst affected countries was equivalent to an average 45% of their gross domestic product compared to 11% for the 10 most peaceful countries in the world. Canada, Switzerland and Iceland rank top among the worlds 10 most peaceful countries in the positive peace index and have the lowest economic cost of violence whereas the opposite is true for Syria, South Sudan and Iraq. Their citizens are the most vulnerable in the world.

Zimbabwe has had its own spate of violence and conflict altercations in the past century, some in a bid to redress historical imbalances and others out of personal or institutionalised insatiability. These include the First Chimurenga, Second Chimurenga, Gukurahundi, fast-track land re-distribution, political suppression and violence, machete-wielding Mashurugwi terrorising residents in various gold-rich areas across Zimbabwe, the current government unleashing live bullets on its citizenry and the alarming increase in domestic violence and murders.

What has been the impact of all this on the economy? We might not have exact figures, but the impact goes beyond financial quantification, apart, of course, from the loss of precious human lives.

How much has the private sector in Zimbabwe lost in riots, demonstrations, looting and disturbances that have been on the rise since the famous food riots started in 1998? How much have corporates and informal sector players in the vicinity of opposition MDC headquarters lost due to continuous running battles with the police, leading sometimes to the destruction of valuable property? How many potential investors have been put off by the violence and conflict? Is the situation still manageable and when should we start to worry as a nation?

Apart from the other ills like inflation and currency shortages bedevilling the economy, to what extent is conflict contributing to the haemorrhaging of the economy? The deep rootedness of violence and conflict is psychological and, left to itself, it can easily morph into a culture.

While legislation has been put in place to deal with domestic violence, cases are on the increase with tabloids awash with various reports. Could this be a culture on the rise? Could it be emanating from the general laid-back approach with which the country deals with political violence?

Frankly speaking, there is so much institutionalised political violence in election times and these very perpetrators are part of the broader society. Do they change once elections are over, or continue their violence at domestic level? As many questions are posed on the rising culture of violence in Zimbabwe, we need to think deeply and have frank conversations on the path we are taking as a nation.

Traditionally, our culture, although patriarchal, had family support systems that were used for conflict resolution and dealt with issues without resorting to violence, especially towards women. But with modernisation, migration and other factors, such family and societal systems have disintegrated, exposing the family unit and uprooting the very core of its foundation.

Depending on your angle, Zimbabwe is a generally peaceful country but speaking from a positive peace perspective, there is still a lot of work to be done. Positive peace is the attitudes, structures, systems and institutions that underpin and sustain a peaceful society.

One of the Chapter 12 institutions, the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission, is working on establishing strong grassroots peace committees which, apart from redressing past conflicts, can assist in containing potential conflicts. How effective these committees will be is yet to be ascertained. Can these committees contribute impactfully to the positive peace and are they sustainable?

Despite some arguments from various corners on the need to increase military and related expenditure in a bid to secure our sovereignty as a nation, safeguard our hard-won independence, and maintain the peace, there is dire need to put as much energy and vigour in funding military expenditures and productive sectors of the economy.

The government needs to strike a balance so that the cost of violence and conflict does not crowd out the development agenda in Zimbabwe. The ambitious middle-income economy goal by the current government will remain a pipe dream if deliberate efforts are not made to balance these two important rudiments in governance.

As we commemorate 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, let us remain steadfast in addressing all forms of violence as they are in one way or the other intertwined: violence is violence whether domestic or political, and it has a price.

Ultimately, the vulnerable members of our society pay the highest price and these are usually women, people living with disability and minors. Apart form the examples given above of the monetary cost of violence and conflict, there are long-term psychological effects that are even more dangerous as they have a subtle ripple effect which can change the moral fibre of a people permanently, as Cicero, the famous philosopher, rightly puts it the good of the people is chief law.

We need men and women who understand the repercussions of all forms of violence and thus act according to the betterment of our motherland, ZimbabweMakanjera is an economist, a hustlepreneur and the executive director of JM Busha 54 Races Zimbabwe, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes peace and unity through sports and also engages individuals and institutions to actively promote and pledge for peace and unity.

These weekly New Perspectives articles are co-ordinated by Lovemore Kadenge, immediate past-president of the Zimbabwe Economics Society kadenge.zes@gmail.com and mobile: +263 772 382 852.

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The economic cost of violence on Zim - Zimbabwe Independent

A new-age payments technology firm has been exploringthe option of tweaking the compensation structure of its senior managementtoraise the variable pay to 50 percent of the cost-to-company (CTC) from the current 40 percent. The idea is to cap fixed costs and increasingly link the pay to performance.

As companies grapple with cost pressures, linking variable pay or the performance-based component of the compensation package of senior management to the company'sperformance is becoming an alternative.

This could mean the variable pay will be raised to 50-55 percent of the CTC in 2020.At present, it constitutes 40-45 percent of the CTC for top management while it is between 25-30 percent for the junior staff.

With a drop in corporate earnings in the September quarter, there is increasing pressure on companies to link a large quantum of the pay to performance. Employee cost that is almost 30-35 percent of the expenses weighs down the earnings.

The variable component of the CTC also takes into account how a company performs and not just an individual employees performance. Hence, it makes sense to have a larger quantum of variable pay, said the chief human resource officer at a large financial services firm.

A rise in variable pay directly means that the yearly in-hand compensation could be much lower. This is because even if an employee completes all targets and the company performs well, only 80-85 percent of the variable pay will be given.

For instance, if an individual has an annual CTC of Rs 10 lakh, of which Rs 4 lakh is in variable pay, then the take-home compensation will be Rs 6 lakh excluding taxes. However, an increase in the percentage of variable could mean Rs 4 lakh will now be Rs 5 lakh and reduce the take-home to Rs 5 lakh.It is also important to note that variable compensation is usuallypaid as a bulk amount and will attract taxes.

"Instead of hiking the annual salary substantially, firms will only increase a large chunk of the variable portion in 2020. So while on paper an employee's CTC goes up, the actual salary may stay constant," said the India chief executive of a global HR firm.

On the one hand, corporate earnings have slowed, while on the other there is a consumption slowdown. For consumer-facing industries like FMCG, retail and e-commerce, this leads to further concern. Hence, the variable pay to match this change.

Indias gross domestic product (GDP) grew 4.5 percent in July-September 2019, the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2012-13, confirming fears of a deepening slowdown in the economy as households aren't spending enough to buoy demand and companies aren't adding capacities or hiring more.

HR sources said the top management will be the biggest hit while there will be a partial increase for the entry-level staff as well.

Which sectors would be impacted?

Among sectors, BFSI, FMCG/retail and e-commerce would be the biggest hit. In e-commerce, for instance, the variable pay that stood at around 30 percent three to four years ago has now increased to almost 40-45 percent for the top management.

In banking, Reserve Bank of India has said that top executives will have to receive half of their salary in variables which will be linked to the bank's performance. This comes into effect from April 1, 2020.

This will help save banks on the salary costs with entities struggling with rising bad loans and a slump in real estate sector impacting loan disbursals.

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Variable pay to eat up 50-55% of India Inc salaries from 2020 - Moneycontrol.com

Business News of Friday, 13 December 2019

Source: Graphic.com.gh

File photo: The World Bank

The World Bank Group has cautioned the government against overly depending on the countrys natural resources for economic development.

The bank noted that Ghanas natural resources contributed about 13 per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which was too high, compared to other lower-middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa, whose natural resource contribution was around 3.7 per cent.

In a presentation at the Kick-Off Meeting for Ghana Partnership Framework, the Senior Economist at the World Bank, Ms Tomomi Tanaka, said the issue had led to high fiscal volatilities in the economy and the risk of catching the dreaded Dutch disease.

She, therefore, called for quick measures to diversify the economy.

In 2015, natural resource rents reached 20 per cent of GDP, the highest share in West Africa, and three products ?gold, cocoa and petroleum account for over 80 per cent of exports, she said.

Risk to exchange rate

Ms Tanaka also noted that the countrys significant oil revenue inflows posed a risk to exchange rate management and the competitiveness of other sectors of the economy.

A large inflow of oil revenues could lead to exchange rate appreciation, which could in turn have detrimental effects on the competitiveness of non-oil sectors.

At the start of oil production in 2011, agriculture saw its lowest growth rate of 0.8 per cent and industry grew by over 41 per cent, she pointed out.

The chief economist said although there was also an impact of low crop yields in 2011, amplifying the shift, 2011 marked the time of increased natural resource revenues.

Fiscal situation

The senior economist also indicated that Ghanas fiscal situation had not been sustainable for several years, with comparatively low revenue mobilisation and high public wage expenditures.

She said tax revenues were below potential by an estimated five per cent of GDP and far below regional peers.

She said the countrys tax expenditure regime was too expensive, noting that in 2013, exemptions and preferential treatments cost the country 5.2 per cent of GDP in foregone revenue.

Meanwhile public sector employment costs 9.5 per cent of GDP and is crowding out other non-wage items that are critical for improving public service delivery, she noted.

In 2014, she said, Ghanas wage bill was 62.1 per cent of tax revenue, which was far above the sub-Saharan Africa average of 28 per cent and the West African Monetary Zone convergence criterion of 35 per cent.

Country diagnosis

The Country Director of the World Bank, Mr Pierre Laporte, in his welcome address, said the way that the bank prepared its strategies for countries was a two-step process.

He said the first process was the systemic country diagnosis that made an assessment of the constraints that the country faced.

These constraints are identified through broad-based consultations and then later these priorities are discussed with the government and we wil focus on the more critical ones.

From that diagnosis, we go to the framework and develop the strategy. This strategy will be the reference document that will guide our interventions in Ghana for the next six years, he explained.

Six-year strategy

Mr Laporte said the bank had now made a decision to have strategies that would span longer years.

We have decided to have a six-year strategy, beginning July 2020. After the third year, we will do a review of how things have gone and re-adjust

One of the critical things is to have broad-based participation. This is the first step of the consultative process. Based on the constraints that have been identified, we will now have some areas of focus, he said.

He said the strategy would be one that would fit into the governments strategy.

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Don't overly depend on natural resources for devt - World Bank cautions - GhanaWeb

Psychotherapist Randy Flood first coined the term in 2000.

By Lauren Vinopal

Betty Friedan wroteThe Feminine Mystiquein 1963, because believed women were suffering and it needed a name.

When psychotherapist Randy Flood founded the Mens Resource Center in Grand Rapids Michigan in 2000, he realized the same wastrue for men. They are suffering, because of an outdated idea of what it means tobe a manthat no longer works.

A decade before the phrase toxic masculinity became ubiquitous in the broader culture, Flood and his colleagues came up with a more clinical term: Mascupathy.

RELATED:2 Major Insecurities That Undermine Modern Men

I dont care what we call it, some people call it toxic masculinity. We need to name it for what it is so that men are inspired to work on developing a more balanced form of masculinity, Flood explains. This is our way of talking about a pathological form of masculinity thats not healthy, fit, or whole for the world we live in.

The notion that masculinity, in some forms might be diseased unsurprisingly made a lot of men mad, at least initially. Masculinity is an integral part of the male identity that boys learn to perform, protect, and defend at all costs at a young age.

Floods attempts to pathologize (and to some, even police) masculinity were perceived as a threat. People initially thought he hated men and was trying to emasculate them.

We think masculinity is a wonderful part of humanity, Flood, who co-authored the bookMascupathy: Understanding And Healing The Malaise Of American Manhoodin 2014, says. We just believe that there is a disease process that goes on when we raise boys to cut off half of their humanity in order to pursue the pinnacle of masculinity.

Like a growing amount of mental health professionals, academics, and thought leaders, Flood is not trying to get rid of masculinity, but upgrade it in order to make it work better for men and everyone around them. Flood explains how increased emotional intelligence, community, and humility among men can help with that.

Language is so triggering for peopleand depending on where theyre at in terms of the whole process of understanding gender constructs and such, I may not even use the word we coined.

Instead, well talk about the statistics: women are graduating from college at higher levels, the male suicide rate is four times that of women, men have a harder time moving out of their parent'shomes than women. There are so many statistics that are telling us that men are struggling.

Ninety-eight percent of mass shooters are men, but when there is a shooting we dont talk about mens mental health. We talk about mental health in general, or we talk about gun control. If women were shooting at the rate men were, I guarantee wed be asking about whats going on with our girls. Wed have a public health strategy for addressing it, but were not doing that with men.

They are essentially trying to explain the statistics with a different construct or idea. Theyre saying that those statistics tell us that feminist belief systems, immigration, and the more diversity we have in the world is marginalizing men, in particularwhite males.

But were seeing these statistics that societies are becoming sicker and sicker and men are suffering as a result of it. So, its just a different framework for looking at the same statistics.

RELATED:Misunderstood Men: The Conversation Nobody Is Having

If were in a service economy, instead of a manufacturing-based economy, in order to be employable, you have to have emotional and relational intelligence in order to be able to function in that economy, then you better be teaching boys how to have those skills.

Otherwise, youre going to see them failing to launch and learn the requisite skills to thrive. Then, people will argue that we need to just create more manufacturing jobs, then well have more jobs for men, but there will always be those kinds of jobs for men.There will always be different types of skilled labor. The skills trade sector is struggling to recruit people to do those types of specialized labor.

So theres a need for that, but its not a zero-sum game. A lot of people think its immigration thats taking jobs, but were trending towards a lot of artificial intelligence and robotics taking jobs that men used to use their bodies for. That trend is saying men need to have more than brawn to function in society. Our society requires more human skills that robots cannot do.

With mascupathy, there are four domains:

The first domain is a weak self-concept. Fundamentally, many men feel inadequate as men because the ideal man is not attainable. They may feel adequate today after winning the softball tournament, but tomorrow it all starts over. They might get recognized in their profession, but that doesnt help you tomorrow because tomorrow youre performing masculinity day-in and day-out. Thats why the first domain is a weak self-concept.

The second one is inadequate emotionalityor emotional literacy. We train boys to turn away from emotions and see emotions as weakness, so they dont want anything to do with emotions. And any sadness, fear, loneliness, or anxiety gets transformed into anger, because anger is a masculine emotion. You dont talk about emotions, because thats what women do.

The third domain of mascupathy isrelational deficiencies. We have this idea that were rugged individualists and a mature man is someone who doesnt need others. Thats not true. Everything we know about psychology, humanity, and social sciences is that we do need others, we do function better as a community, and we are pack animals.

Finally, the fourth domain is externalization. We train boys and men to act out their feelings. That which you dont talk out you act out. Thats why you see more criminal behavior in men. You see more shootings in men. You see more bar fights and domestic violence in men, because we train men not to talk about what is going on inside of them, but to pass their pain onto others.

It is true that women have been the primary consumers of mental health counseling and its not because women have more problems than men. It is because its not antithetical to being female to ask for help. Its not unfeminine to know that we are better individuals when we live in a community and share our emotions and problems.

For men, its just another form of failure and weakness to say they need help for a mental or emotional problem. At the Mens Resource Center, we really help men revision masculinity and realize they ask for help on their golf swings and financial portfolios. Its also an act of wisdom and courage to ask for help for other kinds of complex emotional problems.

RELATED:All The Feminine Things Men Would Do (If They Didn't Feel Judged)

We try to expand their definition of what it means to ask for help. When they go to war, its very clear that they need the help of their platoon to keep everyone safe.

They have this idea that they are not warriors in and of themselves, but when it comes to their own mental well-being, men think they can make it alone and the ones who dont are weak. So, a lot of men secretly feel inadequate.

Group therapy helps, because men are socialized in what we call the man pack to believe that men are to make it on their own. Developmental psychologist Niobe Way talks about how, in middle school, boys turn away from their male friends for intimacy and begin to pursue intimacy through sexuality.

So, if you get men in a therapy group and there are other men who are their peers who have been working at the process of personal growth longer, theyre the ones who are going to have the power and respect to talk to other men about the benefits of getting connected to their heart and other peoples heartsand that doesnt make them weak. I can connect with compassion and that doesnt emasculate me, that humanizes me.

Men get that more in a group process than when they have a therapist telling them what it means to be healthy. They dont buy it, they dont trust it, and they dont make progress, so theres a huge attrition rate for men in mental health services.

Look at the change in the role men are playing as dads. It used to be that being a father meant you were providing clothes on their backs, food on the table, and a roof over their head.

But now, men need to provide nurturing and other forms of support beyond economics. Being able to help men see how much fathering has evolved in such a significant way my dad wasnt even allowed in the delivery room.

When we talk about toxic water and toxic air, we dont assume someone whos advocating for clean water or air is anti-water and air. Thats how people treat masculinity. You dont go to a cardiologist who treats cardiomyopathy and say he hates hearts, thats why he went into the business. Its really hard to get people to understand what were trying to do.

For myself, I played baseball in college, I grew up hunting and fishing, and Ive competed in triathlons in my adult life. I do traditionally masculine things, but I also participate in a mens group, see a therapist, and attend retreats. All the things were trying to get men to work on, Ive worked on myself as a man.

When youre trying to help men cross-train, the way you would for a triathlon, but with a different party of their humanity, you have to work on where you have the weakest performance. I hated swimming, so I had to spend more time in the pool.

For many men, their weakest part is emotional intelligence and relational intimacy, so why not spend time working on that? Its not going to make you bad at construction work.

RELATED:How To Stop Shaming Men For Their Emotions & Help Them Love Again

Lauren Vinopal is a writer who focuses on relationships, self-care, and health and wellness. For more of her self-care content, visit her author profile on Fatherly.

This article was originally published at Fatherly. Reprinted with permission from the author.

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What Mascupathy Is And How It Might Be Able To Help Us Understand Toxic Masculinity Better - YourTango

Calls are growing for a national bushfire plan, including from former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who says they are an issue of national security and the federal government must provide hands-on leadership.

Its true that more people are living in high-risk bushfire areas, emergency services are stretched and the climate is rapidly changing. Future crises are inevitable. We must consider the prospect of a monstrous bushfire season, the likes of which weve never seen.

But bushfires arent the only catastrophe Australia must prepare for. If we are to create a national crisis plan, we must go much further than bushfire planning.

Read more: 12 simple ways you can reduce bushfire risk to older homes

In the decade since Victorias Black Saturday fires, we have improved fire predictions, night-time aerial firefighting, construction codes and emergency warnings. All of these have no doubt saved many lives.

Read more: What has Australia learned from Black Saturday?

There are calls for more resources to fight fires, as part of a coordinated national plan. But few people have proposed an all-encompassing vision of such a plan.

For a start, it should not be confined solely to bushfires. Far more people die during heatwaves and residential housefires. Tropical cyclones, floods and hail each cost our economy more.

Any plan must provide a strategic vision across these various facets for at least the next ten to 20 years.

Calls for a national firefighting force to supplement existing state resources are fundamentally short-sighted. A national force quite apart from the level of duplication it would create would spend much of its time idle.

Even during severe fires, such as those now raging, there would be limits to its usefulness. At a certain point, the size and energy of the fires means no amount of firefighting technology will extinguish them all.

Research conducted by Risk Frontiers, the Australian National University and Macquarie University through the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre, has focused on better planning and preparedness for catastrophic events.

This research concludes it is unrealistic to resource the emergency management sector for rare but truly catastrophic events. It is wildly expensive to remain 100% prepared for the worst-case scenario.

Instead of simply scaling up existing arrangements, we need to think differently.

Bush firefighting could be improved by innovation and research. Future investments must focus on rapidly detecting and extinguishing ignitions before they spread out of control.

States and territories are traditionally responsible for emergency management in Australia. But almost by definition, a catastrophic disaster exceeds ones capacity to cope - inevitably drawing on nationwide resources.

This means preparing for catastrophic disasters is everyones responsibility.

Existing plans allow for assistance across state borders, and between state and federal governments. But there is no national emergency legislation defining the Commonwealths role, or assigning responsibility for responding to a truly national disaster.

The Australian Defence Force has a well-defined support role in natural disasters, but should not be relied on due to its global commitments.

However, resource-sharing between states could benefit from more investment in programs that enable emergency services to work better together.

International help in massive emergencies also needs better planning, particularly around timing and integration with local agencies.

Non-government organisations, businesses and communities already make valuable contributions, but could play a more central role. We could look to the US, which successfully uses a whole-of-community approach.

This might mean emergency services help community organisation provide aid or carry out rescues, rather than do it themselves. These organisations are also best placed to make sure vulnerable members of the community are cared for.

Read more: Extreme weather makes homelessness even worse. Here's how we can help

The most important task is to reduce the risk in the first place. The vast majority of disaster-related spending goes on recovery rather than risk reduction. Calls from the Productivity Commission and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) for more disaster mitigation funding have been largely ignored.

The federal governments recent National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework highlights the need to identify highest-priority disaster risks and mitigation opportunities.

This would see priority investments in flood mitigation and strengthening of buildings against cyclones in northern Australia. (This will also help address insurance affordability.)

Land-use planning needs to be improved to reduce the chance that future developments are exposed to unreasonable risks.

Infrastructure must be constructed to the highest standards and, following a disaster, destroyed buildings should be rebuilt away from dangerous areas.

Finally, communities have the most critical role. We must understand our local risk and be ready to look after ourselves and each other. Governments at all levels must facilitate this spirit of self-reliance. Local leadership is crucial to any crisis plan and communities need to be involved in its construction.

Eastern Australias bushfire crisis has triggered emotional arguments for throwing resources at the problem. But planning must be careful and evidenced-based, taking into account the changing face of natural disasters.

Read more: Friday essay: living with fire and facing our fears

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Australia needs a national crisis plan, and not just for bushfires - The Conversation - Australia

Prosper Chitambara

AN amazing feat from Chinas development success story has been the high poverty-reducing impact of their economic growth.Since the early 1970s, the Chinese economy has grown by an average 9% per annum. This stupendous economic growth has resulted in millions of Chinese citizens being delivered from the shackles of absolute poverty. Out of the 1,4 billion citizens, only about 20 million still remain in absolute poverty. Their development vision is to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020.

In most African countries, economic growth has been happening but the number of poor Africans has also been on the rise. For instance, in its 2016 publication Poverty in a Rising Africa, the World Bank estimated that Africa had at least 50 million more poor people in 2013 compared to 1990, and two renowned scholars, namely Homi Kharas and Wolfgang Fengler, estimate that at least 2,4 million of new poor were added in 2017 alone.

Zimbabwe aspires to be an upper middle-income status country by 2030. It is important to highlight the fact that attaining upper middle-income status and attaining pro-poor, inclusive, employment-intensive and sustainable development are not the same. Indeed, the country can attain upper middle-income status by 2030 without necessarily reducing absolute poverty and ensuring that economic growth is pro-poor, inclusive, employment-intensive and sustainable.

The development experiences of most poor countries have shown that countries can actually attain stellar economic growth without creating decent and productive employment opportunities, a phenomenon known as jobless growth and/or without reducing poverty, a phenomenon known as ruthless growth. Productive and decent employment creation and poverty eradication must be strategically, pro-actively and directly promoted and not rely on trickle-down.

Ideally, therefore, the vision of the country must be explicitly and unequivocally about eradicating poverty. While the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) has clear economic growth targets, there are no clear and explicit targets on employment creation and poverty reduction.

The TSP is therefore not based on a holistic approach to sustainable development that integrates economic, social and environmental imperatives and considerations.

It is therefore vital to ensure that explicit employment and poverty targets are mainstreamed in all the macroeconomic and development policies. Importantly, employment creation must also be an explicit monetary policy objective alongside price stability. Employment creation is very important in the fight against poverty as it provides an important link between economic growth and poverty reduction.

Another vital stylised fact in development is that nations must assume full financial responsibility and autonomy over their own development process. Countries that have successfully developed have seized their economic destiny with their own hands. We need to realise that our fate is in our own hands and not in the hands of the International Monetary Fund and/or the World Bank.

No country or organisation or investor is responsible for the development of another country. Most poor countries have relied too much on donor (development/cooperating partner) funding to finance their development. Zimbabwe is a classic example.

According to the 2020 National Budget, cumulative support from development partners in 2019 is projected at US$610,4 million, with bilateral partners contributing US$449,1 million and multilateral partners US$161,3 million. While in 2020, development partners support is projected at US$677,6 million, with bilateral partners contributing US$506,7 million and multilateral partners US$170,9 million. Development assistance towards the health sector is projected at US$360 million in 2020 up from US$316 million in 2019.

A country that relies on donor funding is like a father who relies on a father next door to feed and clothe his family whilst he is around. This is an error under the sun and highly unsustainable. Donor funding is meant to ensure countries remain in servitude and never prosper. Even from a Biblical perspective, the blessing is never to the receiver but to the giver as the Lord Jesus Christ taught us that it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).

The major problem with many developing countries, especially in Africa (including Zimbabwe), is not a lack of financial resources per se, but rather poor stewardship, mismanagement and misprioritisation of the available resources. Africa is the richest continent in terms of natural resource endowments and yet Africa is the poorest continent in terms of development. We must also come up with our own home-grown macroeconomic and development policies that are bottom-up and not top-down or dictated by the IMF and the World Bank.

Importantly, government policies must be the result of a process that involves the much-needed broad-based participation of all key stakeholders, especially the working class and civil society.

The government has come up with the mantra Zimbabwe is open for business. While foreign direct investment is good, it must supplement domestic investment. We must not view foreign investors as our economic messiahs. Also, international investors do not come into a country to develop; hence the country needs to look inwards.

We must not put too much faith in foreign investors, but rather invest in building and strengthening the capacity of local industry. The country is currently overtaxed and overregulated, but underdeveloped. Developed countries focus on lowering and lessening economic regulations and income taxes to make it easier for citizens and organisations to thrive.

Another important development lesson is that any country can develop no matter the odds against it whether sanctions or geographical barriers, any country can develop. We have wasted too much time crying about the effects of sanctions without innovatively coming up with effective sanctions-busting measures like other countries did. Development economics is filled with case studies of countries that have successfully busted economic sanctions and trade embargoes.

For instance, following the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) by Ian Smith on November 11, 1965, Great Britain immediately announced the imposition of sanctions, including the freezing of Rhodesian assets. Shortly thereafter, the UN passed a resolution urging member states to withhold recognition of the new regime, break economic relations, and embargo oil exports. Eventually, the sanctions were broadened, culminating in a 1968 UN resolution requiring mandatory sanctions against Rhodesia. This economic embargo ran from 1965 to 1979.

A study by the Harvard Centre for International Affairs, reveals that between 1965 and 1974 Rhodesias real output actually increased 6% per year despite the depressing effect of sanctions; the value of exports more than doubled between 1968 and 1974 and continued to rise afterward, although much more slowly.

The embargo did have important effects on the Rhodesian economy, of course. It led mainly to Rhodesia becoming more self-sufficient through import substitution industrialisation (ISI) strategy. In the decade from 1965 to 1975 the Rhodesian economy was transformed from virtually total dependence on the importation of manufactured goods in exchange for raw materials to a remarkable degree of self-sufficiency in most areas except oil and industrial plant and machinery. The Rhodesian sanctions were far more comprehensive and punitive than the targeted sanctions that Zimbabwe is currently under.

Ultimately, the greatest and most punitive sanctions have been the sanctions that we have collectively imposed on ourselves through our own acts of commission and omission. For the most part, we have allowed sectarian and selfish interests to override the national interests. The choices we have made as a country have gotten us where we are and we need to urgently change course by making different and bold choices to get us out of the rut we are in.

Dr Chitambara is a Harare-based scholar. These weekly New Perspectives articles are co-ordinated by Lovemore Kadenge, immediate past-president of the Zimbabwe Economics Society kadenge.zes@gmail.com and mobile: +263 772 382 852.

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Economic development is neither mysterious nor accidental (Part II) - Zimbabwe Independent