Priorities Of Cooperation Research Articles

Assessing Energy and Environmental Efficiency of the Spanish Agri-Food System Using the LCA/DEA Methodology

Feeding the world’s population sustainably is a major challenge of our society, and was stated as one of the key priorities for development cooperation by the European Union (EU) policy framework on food security. However, with the current trend of natural resource exploitation, food systems consume around 30% of final energy use, generating up to 30% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Given the expected increase of global population (nine billion people by 2050) and the amount of food losses and waste generated (one-third of global food production), improving the efficiency of food systems along the supply chain is essential to ensure food security. This study combines life-cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) to assess the efficiency of Spanish agri-food system and to propose improvement actions in order to reduce energy usage and GHG emissions. An average energy saving of approximately 70% is estimated for the Spanish agri-food system in order to be efficient. This study highlights the importance of the DEA method as a tool for energy optimization, identifying efficient and inefficient food systems. This approach could be adopted by administrations, policy-makers, and producers as a helpful instrument to support decision-making and improve the sustainability of agri-food systems.

Priorities for Brazilian cooperation in the South Atlantic

This study aimed at making a critical assessment of the actions of Brazil facing the challenges for the maintenance of the ZPCAS. Research focused on the investigation of documents that dealt with the purposes of this regional integration, as speeches of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the minutes of the inisterialMeetings of ZPCAS, the National Defense Strategy and the news on the subject. It came to the conclusion that military and technical cooperation and investment policies are inseparable elements for the consolidation of Brazil as a regional leader.

Wpływ akcesji Polski do Unii Europejskiej na „priorytety współpracy zagranicznej województw”

<p>„Priorytety współpracy zagranicznej województwa” to specjalna uchwała sejmiku zawierająca cele tej współpracy, jej kierunki geograficzne oraz deklaracje co do przystępowania do międzynarodowych zrzeszeń regionalnych. Dokument ten jest podstawą podejmowanych przez województwo inicjatyw zagranicznych i prowadzenia współpracy z regionami innych państw. Artykuł, w oparciu o analizę porównawczą pierwszych uchwał przyjętych w latach 1999–2000 i tych uchwalonych już po 2004 roku, weryfikuje hipotezę, że przystąpienie Polski do Unii Europejskiej spowodowało przynajmniej modyfikację, a w wielu przypadkach także przeorientowanie zarówno celów, jak i kierunków współpracy, a także zamierzeń co do przystępowania do stowarzyszeń międzynarodowych.</p>

The trade network of the Belt and Road Initiative and its topological relationship to the global trade network

Unimpeded trade is one of the cooperation priorities in the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China. On 15 May 2017, the Joint Communique of the Leaders Roundtable of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation reaffirmed the participants’ shared commitment to build an open economy and ensure free and inclusive trade. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is not only China's new action to drive its open and global development, but also a platform for an increasing number of countries to explore free and inclusive trade and promote a universal, rule-based, open, non-discriminatory, and equitable multilateral trade system. It is therefore important to examine the topological relationship between the BRI and global trade networks. More specifically, this article first analyzes the community structure of trade networks using a community detection algorithm, and then estimates the topological relationship between different trade communities. The findings of this article are as follows. First, this research identified three trade communities and two sub-communities in the BRI trade network, in which China is the core, Russia is the sub-core of the biggest trade community, and India, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia are cores of the second trade community (South Asia-West Asia). Second, it identified five trade communities in the global trade network, centred on China, USA, Russia, India-United Arab Emirates, and Germany- Netherlands-France-Britain and other European developed countries. Third, the topological analysis indicated that in the global trade network, most BRI countries are attracted by the core nodes of the BRI regions, such as the China, Russia and India-United Arab Emirates core nodes, and have strong trade contacts with BRI countries. Most Central-East European countries are mainly attracted by Germany-Netherlands-France-Britain and other developed European countries with a low penetration of BRI trade. Although some Southeast Asian countries are incorporated into the Asia-Australia-South Africa community with China as the core, they still need to strengthen trade linkages with BRI countries.

Brazilian international cooperation in health in the era of SUS.

This paper addresses the role of health in Brazil's health diplomacy and international cooperation since the emergence of the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS), focusing in particular on South-South cooperation, in line with the priorities of the country's international technical cooperation since its creation. It highlights the relationship with the Latin American and Caribbean Countries (LAC) and the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), more specifically, with the Portuguese Speaking African Countries (PALOP) and East Timor. It emphasizes the roles of the Ministry of Health, through the International Advisory Working Group on Health (AISA) and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The article points out that the TC-41 Co-operation Agreement is one of the main instruments for enabling cooperation. It presents the cases of the structuring networks of health systems, as well as the paradigmatic negotiations of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the TRIPS Agreement and the establishment of UNITAIDS, in which Brazilian diplomacy had a predominant role.

Science, Technology and Innovation as Social Goods for Development: Rethinking Research Capacity Building from Sen\u2019s Capabilities Approach

Science and technology are key to economic and social development, yet the capacity for scientific innovation remains globally unequally distributed. Although a priority for development cooperation, building or developing research capacity is often reduced in practice to promoting knowledge transfers, for example through North–South partnerships. Research capacity building/development tends to focus on developing scientists’ technical competencies through training, without parallel investments to develop and sustain the socioeconomic and political structures that facilitate knowledge creation. This, the paper argues, significantly contributes to the scientific divide between developed and developing countries more than any skills shortage. Using Charles Taylor’s concept of irreducibly social goods, the paper extends Sen’s Capabilities Approach beyond its traditional focus on individual entitlements to present a view of scientific knowledge as a social good and the capability to produce it as a social capability. Expanding this capability requires going beyond current fragmented approaches to research capacity building to holistically strengthen the different social, political and economic structures that make up a nation’s innovation system. This has implications for the interpretation of human rights instruments beyond their current focus on access to knowledge and for focusing science policy and global research partnerships to design approaches to capacity building/development beyond individual training/skills building.

SOCIAL PARTNERSHIP OF UKRAINE WITH THE EU WITHIN THE EUROPEAN REGIONS AND CROSS-BORDER CLUSTERS

Urgency of the research. Taken into consideration the existing advantages of Ukraine as a powerful European State, promising directions of its development is being involved in cross-border cooperation. Target setting. Modern analysis of regional development of Ukraine testifies to the presence of negative trends, in particular, to deepen inter-regional differences, economic disparities and the exacerbation of social problems. Concerning this. crossborder cooperation is becoming an important factor of sustained development of Ukraine, a channel of involvement in European integration. Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. Devoted to problems of euroregìonal policy of Ukraine are the researches of such scholars as V. O. Martynyuk, N. A. Mikula, C. C. Troyan, L. I. Fedulova, T. M. Uhnovska, A. Hubert. Uninvestigated parts of general matters defining. Further analysis is needed for the system of institutional and financial mechanisms of innovative development of euroregions. For Ukraine, urgent is a need of scientific justification of cross-border partnership benefits and problems, as well as a need of developing regulatory procedures providing the clustering process. The research objective. The analysis of the social partnership of Ukraine with the EU in the framework of cross-border clusters and euroregions. The statement of basic materials. The article deals with priorities of cooperation between Ukraine and the EU within the European regions and cross-border clusters. Based on the data SWOT-analysis identified the main objectives of European regions, effective mechanisms for inter-regional cooperation. Conclusions. It is important to implement in national statistical agencies the collection and processing of cross-border statistics in accordance with the recommendations of Eurostat; allocate budget funds for co-financing projects supported by the European Commission; create together with the Governments of neighboring States special funds, which will be accumulating finances to support social initiatives.

Китайская инициатива "Пояс и Путь" и Евразийский экономический союз: "Интеграция интеграций”

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), officially unveiled in 2013, has been promptly placed among the top priorities of China’s foreign policy. One of the BRI’s cooperation priorities is unimpeded trade, which implies the improvement of the investment and trade facilitation and removal of the recurrent investment and trade barriers. Despite its apparent flexibility and openness to embracing existing regional and multilateral platforms, there has been little debate on the compatibility of the BRI objectives with the existing economic integration projects. The paper is aimed at enriching this debate by addressing the relationship of the BRI with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), a regional economic grouping bringing together several of China’s important BRI partners including Russia and Central Asian countries. The paper addresses the current progress in bridging the two grand economic projects and outlines the priority directions for further coordination between them.

Рынок труда и рынок образовательных услуг в Донецкой Народной Республике: стратегические приоритеты взаимодействия

Рынок труда и рынок образовательных услуг в Донецкой Народной Республике: стратегические приоритеты взаимодействия

Cooperation between Convention Bureaus in Light of Empirical Research

The stakeholders’ cooperation in region (micro level) is recognized the basic source of cities’ competitive advantage in the meetings market. Though the cooperation also occurs between destinations (at the mezzo level), the existing studies rarely present it from this perspective. Cities on the meetings market are represented by specialized organizations, namely convention bureaus (CBs), whose function is to build and develop relations. The article aims to identify the significance of this function in the CBs operation, in face of progressive competitive processes. To achieve the research goal, an internet survey was conducted, addressed to the managers of the convention bureaus. The obtained data has been analyzed applying the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) method. The results of the study indicate a low priority for cooperation with other convention bureaus.

Strategic priorities of cooperation between Heilongjiang province and Russia

During the five-year period of implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, Heilongjiang Province, which is one of the nine Chinese border provinces, has actively responded to the national development policy and achieved some impressive results in its strategic cooperation with the Russian Far East. The article characterizes the current state of Heilongjiang Province’s relationship with Russia and describes its strategic plans for findings new paths of cooperation as a result of the province’s integration into the Belt and Road Initiative and participation in China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor construction. The key projects crucial for the province’s development are the Eastern Land-Sea Silk Road Economic Belt (hereinafter referred to as the Eastern Silk Road Belt) and the Heilongjiang Land-Sea Silk Road Economic Belt (hereinafter referred to as Longjiang Silk Road Belt). Both projects are aimed at increasing the interconnectedness between regions and countries, promoting international trade and fostering understanding and tolerance. The article describes the background, objectives, results and problems associated with these projects in Heilongjiang Province and their role in ensuring further socio-economic development of the territory. Finally, recommendations are given concerning the main areas of cooperation between the province and Russia: these include modernization of trade (e-commerce), fostering cooperation in the industrial sphere and agriculture, and opening a free cross-border trade zone.

From distribution to replication in cooperative systems with active membranes: A frontier of the efficiency

P systems with active membranes use evolution, communication, dissolution and division (or separation) rules. They do not use cooperation neither priorities, but they have electrical charges associated with membranes, which can be modified by rule applications. The inspiration comes from the behaviour of living cells, who “compute” with their proteins in order to obtain energy, create components, send information to other cells, kill themselves (in a process called apoptosis), and so on. In these models, mitosis is simulated by division rules (for elementary and non-elementary membranes) and meiosis, that is, membrane fission inspiration, is captured in separation rules. The parent's objects are replicated into both child membranes when a division occurs, while in the case of separation, objects are distributed (according to a prefixed partition). In both cases, active membranes have been proved to be too powerful for solving computationally hard problems in an efficient way. Due to this, polarizationless P systems with active membranes have been widely studied from a complexity point of view.Evolution rules simulate the transformation of components in membranes, but it is well known that in Biology elements interact with each other in order to obtain new components. In this paper, (restricted) cooperation in object evolution rules is considered, and the efficiency of the corresponding models is studied.

Indigenous Values and Health Systems Stewardship in Circumpolar Countries.

Circumpolar regions, and the nations within which they reside, have recently gained international attention because of shared and pressing public policy issues such as climate change, resource development, endangered wildlife and sovereignty disputes. In a call for national and circumpolar action on shared areas of concern, the Arctic states health ministers recently met and signed a declaration that identified shared priorities for international cooperation. Among the areas for collaboration raised, the declaration highlighted the importance of enhancing intercultural understanding, promoting culturally appropriate health care delivery and strengthening circumpolar collaboration in culturally appropriate health care delivery. This paper responds to the opportunity for further study to fully understand indigenous values and contexts, and presents these as they may apply to a framework that will support international comparisons and systems improvements within circumpolar regions. We explored the value base of indigenous peoples and provide considerations on how these values might interface with national values, health systems values and value bases between indigenous nations particularly in the context of health system policy-making that is inevitably shared between indigenous communities and jurisdictional or federal governments. Through a mixed methods nominal consensus process, nine values were identified and described: humanity, cultural responsiveness, teaching, nourishment, community voice, kinship, respect, holism and empowerment.

Актуални проблеми на регионалното сътрудничество

Identifying regional alternatives for the progressive development of small countries is vital in today's world of globalisation and accelerated technological and societal divide. The new interdisciplinary work published by the Institute of Economic Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences under the scientific editorship of Prof. Dr. I. Rositsa Chobanova and acad. Lyupcho Kotsarev is dedicated to the problem of defining state and academic priorities for scientific and innovation cooperation between Bulgaria and Macedonia as a prerequisite for finding such regional alternatives.

ОПЫТ И ПРОБЛЕМЫ ПОВЫШЕНИЯ ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТИ СОТРУДНИЧЕСТВА АВТОРОВ С ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВАМИ ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОЙ УЧЕБНОЙ И НАУЧНОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ

<p>The article is devoted to the experience and problems of interaction between the authors of educational and scientific literature and publishers. It examines the types of educational and methodological and scientific publications, such as scientific article, monograph, textbook, manual, as well as the specifics of collective work preparation and the stages of interaction between authors and publishers. Particular attention is paid to the increasing role of authors in the promotion of their books, as well as in the preparation of supplemented and revised publications. The problems of modern book publishing are identified, in particular the slowdown in sales, pricing in book publishing, new opportunities for using electronic library systems, the use of scientific journals controlled by the publishing house to promote books of the publishing house. The article is based on the thesis of the author's speech at the round table of the allRussian conference "Book Publishing and Professional Education: Priorities for Interaction and Cooperation", conducted by the INFRA-M research and publishing center in cooperation with the Russian State Humanitarian University.</p>

Federal Legislative Regulation of the Labor Sphere

Particular attention is drawn to the public policy growing tendency aimed at promoting employment performed by means of providing conditions for the development of non-governmental organizations engaged in activities promoting employment of citizens and (or) selection of workers, including private employment agencies, and interaction and cooperation of such organizations with the employment service authorities New areas of legislative regulation include providing labor of employees (personnel) to third parties, labor relations in micro-enterprises, relations associated with implementation of professional standards and introduction of an independent qualification assessment The author indicates priorities of cooperation between the Russian Federation and the International Labor Organization to improve the legal regulation of socio-labour relations. The paper highlights the importance of a new General Terms Agreement between all-Russian associations of trade unions, all-Russian associations of employers and the Government of the RF in 2017-2019 envisaged for the elaboration and adoption for the further improvement of the labor legislation and the new Program of cooperation between Russia and the International Labor Organization for 2017-2020.

Migration, Mobility and the Challenge of Co-ownership Exploring European Union-Tunisia Post-Revolutionary Agenda

Soon after the jasmine revolution and the fall of Ben Ali’s regime in 2011, the migration and mobility dossier immediately entered the cooperation agenda between the European Union (EU) and Tunisia and dominated bilateral negotiations. The signature of the Joint Declaration for a Mobility Partnership was an important breakthrough in EU-Tunisia cooperation, since after decades of stalemate, the agreement allegedly sealed a new mutual will to cooperate in a sensitive policy area. Despite its pivotal role in the ‘new turn’ in EU-Tunisia relations, and against the EU declared quest for strengthened co-ownership, this contribution argues that the first steps of the EU-Tunisia Privileged Partnership in the realm of migration tend to replicate rooted dynamics rather than breaking with the past. It is contented that the permanence of deep institutional embeddedness in times of volatile transition limited the leeway of the Tunisian government, confirm the asymmetric nature of the relationship and questions the possibility for future cooperation priorities to be truly co-owned.

Developing hybrid SWOT methodologies for choosing joint bioeconomy co-operation priorities by three Finnish universities

ABSTRACTThe aims of this study were two-fold: to provide decision aid for a practical bioeconomy research, development and innovation (RDI) and education challenge, and to elaborate hybrid strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) methodologies for providing tangible suggestions as to strategic choices to alleviate the challenge. Scientifically, the new methodology developed is the main result of the study, as it can be used for other strategy processes as well, while the case-wise strategic choices may not be generalized. A hybrid method was developed based on the combined use of SWOT that was enlarged by goals and actions, social choice theory and robust portfolio modelling (RPM). The method was applied to deriving joint strategic choices for developing forest bioeconomy education and RDI together by three universities in eastern Finland. A joint brainstorming process was organized in order to choose together the means to develop the co-operation efficiently and in a manner acceptable for all the universities. Voting methods and the core value calculation of RPM were used for prioritizing elements in normal SWOT, goals and actions. The most prioritized elements formed the basis for the co-operation development portfolio. The method development suggestions include, for example, a recommendation to prefer approval voting over cumulative voting in the workshop setting.

The Poland-United States Security Relations in the light of Asymmetry Theory

Asymmetry in inter-state relations occurs when one of the partners enjoys more freedom of action, resulting from a unique confluence of power factors, thus obtaining a dominant position. Still, in the process, the superior power incurs costs and risks ineffectiveness, thus having to precisely calculate its modus operandi, while the weaker state has at its disposal means to mitigate the consequences of existing power discrepancies. Asymmetry defines Polish-US relations, manifesting itself with full strength in the field of security and defense, given the discrepancies in the two countries’ potentials, different roles played in international relations and the position of the USA as the guarantor of Poland’s security. This article touches upon the effects and the dynamics of this situation, perceived as a process that is the result of certain adjustments rather than coercion. Included in it is the ability of influencing the politics of the stronger partner as well as the overvaluation of its results by the weaker side, along with the neglect of the weaker player’s interests by the dominating side. Managing this kind of relations demands maturity and loyalty on both sides. Also, necessary is the institutionalization of deconflicting the priorities of cooperation, using international law tools and consultation mechanisms offered by multilateral forums as well as negotiating mutual relations protecting from their dissolution. Not without importance are also societal sentiments, as well as respect towards all symbolism that underlines mutual relations. Key for Polish-American cooperation, in the field of security, is an understanding of the USA’s global perspective, in which Europe is only one of its dimensions.

Private Sector Development and Korea-Africa Development Cooperation

Although Africa has witnessed outstanding economic performance, poverty remains prevalent because economic growth has not been translated into more jobs and higher income. Still trapped within the confines of a mono-cultural economy, Africa's dependency on a limited inventory of primary goods and its retreat into de-industrialization hinders it from escaping the poverty trap. With the shifting paradigm of development cooperation from a public sector led development to private sector development, the development of Africa's private sector is considered crucial in translating economic growth into inclusive growth. However, Africa's private sector faces many challenges including the accessibility of SMEs to government services, large size of the informal sector and excessive regulations. Analysis of a wide spectrum of variables through a cross-sectional model to identify areas that increase the effects of private sector development and their degree of efficacy shows that small business ownership is the most important factor that affects both income and employment. Other variables such as technological readiness, market size and concentration of rent had an impact on income while improvements in higher education and training, labor market efficiency and primary education had an impact on employment. With reference to the PSD policies of the UK, US and Germany and in consideration of Korea's development experiences and handicaps four areas are considered as a priority for PSD cooperation with Africa: entrepreneurial support, construction of industrial complexes, human resource development and agricultural development.