Books on the topic 'Community development / fast'

The monograph examines the problems that play an important role in the processes of constructing transport geostrategies on the Eurasian continent. In the processes of redrawing the world's spaces, the transport sphere (along with financial and information) often acts as a catalyst for modern transformations. It is emphasized that thanks to transport networks, the economy on a global scale is structured in a completely specific way. To increase the potential of any state and society (the peoples living in it), the creation of conditions for communication community (in the broadest sense) is an integral component of its sustainability. The thesis is proved that the direction of the flow of many global integration or disintegration processes corresponding to the new world conditions depends on the reliable and fast operation of transport communications. Special attention is paid to the concept of the modern Chinese state "One Belt , One Road", which the Chinese elite actively promotes in the external space. Some aspects of the economic and transport development of the Arctic region in the context of the functioning of the Northern Sea Route are considered. Due attention is paid to the special role of Central Asia in the context of these problems, as well as the implementation of the international transport project "North - South". For students and teachers, as well as for anyone interested in economics and politics.

The old believer entrepreneurship as a holistic socio-economic phenomenon in the history of Russia as a direction of social and economic thought still never found another proper scientific reflection, despite his advanced age of almost 350 years. Such a long period of existence makes to refer back to the question and think about the reasons for the emergence of old belief as a socio-economic phenomenon, its development, role in the spiritual and economic life of the country, that forces him to live and to survive. Undoubtedly, a special vitality to the old believers, the value of his spiritual and economic heritage by the fact that it was able to impose its own model of management, based on the Russian corporate spirit, ideals of the community, "households" moral and ethical standards of doing business. The publication can be useful for students and professionals.

Community-based adaptation (CBA) to climate change is an approach to adaptation that aims to include vulnerable people in the design and implementation of adaptation measures. The most obvious forms of CBA include simple, but accessible, technologies such as storing freshwater during flooding or raising the level of houses near the sea. It can also include more complex forms of social and economic resilience such as increasing access to a wider range of livelihoods or reducing the vulnerability of social groups that are especially exposed to climate risks. CBA has been promoted by some development nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and international agencies as a means of demonstrating the importance of participatory and deliberative methods within adaptation to climate change, and the role of longer-term development and social empowerment as ways of reducing vulnerability to climate change. Critics, however, have argued that focusing on “community” initiatives can often be romantic and can give the mistaken impression that communities are homogeneous when in fact they contain many inequalities and social exclusions. Accordingly, many analysts see CBA as an important, but insufficient, step toward the representation of vulnerable local people in climate change policy, but that it also offers useful lessons for a broader transformation to socially inclusive forms of climate change policy, and towards seeing resilience to climate change as lying within socio-economic organization rather than in infrastructure and technology alone.

This chapter takes the assertive community treatment (ACT) model of community outreach as a starting point and examines what can and what cannot be varied and still achieve good results. ACT has a special place in community outreach as it was the first model of care confirmed by research, and controversy has raged about the need, or otherwise, for ‘model fidelity’. The chapter identifies the core ingredients—small caseloads, in vivo psychosocial treatments, mainstreaming, flexibility, 24/7 availability—and examines the evidence for and against them. It pays particular attention to the roles of support workers and the medical member of the team. Later developments such as flexible assertive outreach (FACT) are also described.

This all-new guide provides resources and strategies to help care for children with chronic medical conditions and special health care needs in the community and school setting. Covers a spectrum of chronic illnesses, acute situations, and selected developmental and behavioral problems, with a special emphasis on children with special health care needs. Includes more than 35 condition-specific quick reference fact sheets, signs and symptoms, when to call emergency services, medication administration, and ready-to-use sample forms and care plans.

Young African Americans regularly experience racism, poverty, sexism, violence, and other affronts to their humanity. Though they are often highly active and vocal contributors to their churches, schools, and neighborhood communities, they are often silent about the possibility of God working to address the injustices in their lives. The disconnection between the issues young people face, their community involvement, and their conceptions of God point toward the pervasiveness of “fragmented” spirituality among African American youth. Spiritual fragmentation does not necessarily inhibit healthy development or functioning. However, the African American community and church are at risk if they fail to challenge the myth that the personal and the communal or the spiritual and political are in fact disconnected. But why are African American Christian adolescents experiencing spiritual fragmentation? Is spiritual fragmentation symptomatic of an irreparable chasm between the Black church and Black youth? Or are there other factors at play?

The United States has a long and proud tradition of co-operative labour arrangements. Today, worker co-operatives in the US encompass great diversity, not only in the type and size of enterprise, but also in their objectives and ideological commitments. This, in addition to the fact that the US lacks a consistent national policy as regards co-operatives, makes it challenging for researchers to provide more than a general picture of the sector in the United States. It is, however, clear that, although co-operatives are present in many different sectors, worker co-operatives today make up a very small portion of the US economy. This chapter discusses the historical development and current extent of US worker co-operatives, and the challenges and opportunities for growth and change they face. It also considers the character of the sector in terms of different development models, its role in community/economic development, and its orientation towards democratic social change.

The ʻAlawis, or Alawites, are a prominent religious minority in northern Syria, Lebanon, and southern Turkey, best known today for enjoying disproportionate political power in war-torn Syria. This book offers a complete history of the community, from the birth of the ʻAlawi (Nusayri) sect in the tenth century to just after World War I, the establishment of the French mandate over Syria, and the early years of the Turkish republic. The book draws on a wealth of Ottoman archival records and other sources to show that the ʻAlawis were not historically persecuted as is often claimed, but rather were a fundamental part of and Turkish provincial society. It argues that far from being excluded on the basis of their religion, the ʻAlawis were in fact fully integrated into the provincial administrative order. Profiting from the economic development of the coastal highlands, particularly in the Ottoman period, they fostered a new class of local notables and tribal leaders, participated in the modernizing educational, political, and military reforms of the nineteenth century, and expanded their area of settlement beyond its traditional mountain borders to emerge from centuries of Sunni imperial rule as a bona fide sectarian community. Using an array of primary materials spanning nearly ten centuries, the book provides a crucial new narrative about the development of ʻAlawi society.

The cataclysmic upheavals in the Soviet Union during and after perestroika led to an upsurge of nationalism and ethnic conflicts. Not only the communist regime, but the unitary Soviet state exited the historical scene, leaving behind a power vacuum. Politics became a free-for-all: power was up for grabs, and nationalism in various guises – both as a programme for state legitimation and for ethnic mobilisation outside of and against the state –made itself felt on numerous political arenas. This development engendered renewed interest in nationalism studies generally, influencing the interpretation of conflicts also in other parts of the world. In this book, I do not try to answer the question what nationalism “is”, instead, I accept as a fact that nationalism has become a ubiquitous feature of politics in the modern world. I examine some of the ways nationalism has been used as a political strategy, by whom and for what purposes. I argue that national identities cannot be conjured out of thin air. they have to be based on the cultural reservoirs and historical memories of groups. Nationalism is mobilisation to promote the interests of an identity group, the imagined community of ‘the nation’. For some members of the nation (however understood), immaterial goods such as the possibilities to practise one’s culture and language may be paramount, whereas others hope to reap more mundane rewards. Precisely in situations when large numbers of people are caught up in nationalist enthusiasm, some may tap into this fervour, basing their careers on it.

The Oxford Handbook of Taboo Words and Language defines taboo as a proscription of behaviour for a specifiable community of one or more persons at a specifiable time in specifiable contexts. What is in fact tabooed is the use of those words and language in certain contexts; in short, the taboo applies to instances of language behaviour. For behaviour to be proscribed it must be perceived as in some way harmful to an individual or their community but the degree of harm can fall anywhere on a scale from a breach of etiquette to out-and-out fatality. All tabooed behaviours are deprecated and they lead to social if not legal sanction. Taboos are described and the reasons and beliefs behind them are investigated. Tabooed words are typically dysphemistic, think of insults and swearing; tabooed language is avoided through various kinds of euphemism. In twenty chapters, the volume offers comprehensive coverage of tabooed language as perceived by experts in general linguistics, cultural linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, historical linguistics, linguistic philosophy, forensic linguistics, politeness research, publishing, advertising, and theology. Although the principal focus is the English language, reference is occasionally made to linguistic taboos in other languages in order to compare sociocultural attitudes. The existence of taboos and the need to manage taboo lead not only to the censoring of behaviour and the imposition of censorship but also to language change and language development.

Phoenix, Arizona is one of America's fastest growing metropolitan regions. It is also its least sustainable one, sprawling over a thousand square miles, with a population of four and a half million, minimal rainfall, scorching heat, and an insatiable appetite for unrestrained growth and unrestricted property rights. In Bird on Fire, eminent social and cultural analyst Andrew Ross focuses on the prospects for sustainability in Phoenix--a city in the bull's eye of global warming--and also the obstacles that stand in the way. Most authors writing on sustainable cities look at places like Portland, Seattle, and New York that have excellent public transit systems and relatively high density. But Ross contends that if we can't change the game in fast-growing, low-density cities like Phoenix, the whole movement has a major problem. Drawing on interviews with 200 influential residents--from state legislators, urban planners, developers, and green business advocates to civil rights champions, energy lobbyists, solar entrepreneurs, and community activists--Ross argues that if Phoenix is ever to become sustainable, it will occur more through political and social change than through technological fixes. Ross explains how Arizona's increasingly xenophobic immigration laws, science-denying legislature, and growth-at-all-costs business ethic have perpetuated social injustice and environmental degradation. But he also highlights the positive changes happening in Phoenix, in particular the Gila River Indian Community's successful struggle to win back its water rights, potentially shifting resources away from new housing developments to producing healthy local food for the people of the Phoenix Basin. Ross argues that this victory may serve as a new model for how green democracy can work, redressing the claims of those who have been aggrieved in a way that creates long-term benefits for all. Bird on Fire offers a compelling take on one of the pressing issues of our time--finding pathways to sustainability at a time when governments are dismally failing their responsibility to address climate change.

Freedom of religion or belief has long depended on advocates and human rights defenders to ensure its normative development and its protection. Human rights defenders serve as an essential counterpart to States in advancing freedom of religion or belief by operating within charities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), faith-based organizations, interfaith organizations, or community associations. Though the 1981 Declaration and the 1998 Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms are silent on their contributions, their role has been welcomed by numerous freedom of religion or belief mechanisms and mandate-holders. Yet, their contributions are hampered by reprisals against human rights defenders and intimidation against mandate-holders, in sharp contrast with the Standard Terms of Reference for Fact-Finding Missions. Ombudspersons, faith-based organizations, INGOs, and NGOs have an important role to play regarding freedom of religion or belief and need to ensure non-discrimination in their activities.

This chapter argues that Abdullah Quilliam’s Masonic and esoteric background shaped both his understanding of Islam and his leadership of the Liverpool Muslim community. From the time of his conversion through the last trace of his activities in England using the Quilliam name, the connection between Islam, Freemasonry, and esotericism played a significant role in Quilliam’s religious career. In addition to exploring the roles of Freemasonry and esotericism within Quilliam’s own life and activities, this chapter also looks at the larger context of the mixing of Islam, Freemasonry, and esotericism in the Euro-American world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This chapter argues, in fact, that Quilliam played a role in the development of a broader, Euro-American cultural current in which esotericists and esoteric-leaning Masons came to place a high value on Islam. In the twentieth century, this current not only influenced Islamophilia within numerous non-Islamic esoteric organizations, it also produced a variety of Islam-based movements with strong elements of both esotericism and Freemasonry.

China’s economic growth has been revolutionary, and is the foundation of its increasingly prominent role in world affairs. It is the world’s second biggest economy, the largest manufacturing and trading nation, the consumer of half the world’s steel and coal, the biggest source of international tourists, and one of the most influential investors in developing countries from southeast Asia to Africa to Latin America. Multinational companies make billions of dollars in profits in China each year, while traders around the world shudder at every gyration of the country’s unruly stock markets. Perhaps paradoxically, its capitalist economy is governed by an authoritarian Communist Party that shows no sign of loosening its grip. China is frequently in the news, whether because of trade disputes, the challenges of its Belt and Road initiative for global infrastructure, or its increasing military strength. China’s political and technological challenges, created by a country whose political system and values differ dramatically from most of the other major world economies, creates uncertainty and even fear. China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know is a concise introduction to the most astonishing economic and political story of the last three decades. Arthur Kroeber enhances our understanding of China’s changes and their implications. Among the essential questions he answers are: How did China grow so fast for so long? Can it keep growing and still solve its problems of environmental damage, fast-rising debt and rampant corruption? How long can its vibrant economy co-exist with the repressive one-party state? How do China’s changes affect the rest of the world? This thoroughly revised and updated second edition includes a comprehensive discussion of the origins and development of the US-China strategic rivalry, including Trump’s trade war and the race for technological supremacy. It also explores the recent changes in China’s political system, reflecting Xi Jinping’s emergence as the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. It includes insights on changes in China’s financial sector, covering the rise and fall of the shadow banking sector, and China’s increasing integration with global financial markets. And it covers China’s rapid technological development and the rise of its global Internet champions such as Alibaba and Tencent.

The monograph reflects the problems of Russian psycholinguistics from the moment of its inception in Russia to the present day and presents its main directions that are currently developing. In addition, theoretical developments and practical results obtained in the framework of different directions and research centers are described in a concise form. The task of the book is to reflect, as far as it is possible in one edition, firstly, the history of the formation of Russian psycholinguistics; secondly, its methodology and developed methods; thirdly, the results obtained in different research centers and directions in different regions of Russia; fourthly, to outline the main directions of the further development of Russian psycholinguistics. There is no doubt that in the theoretical, methodological and applied aspects, the main problems and the results of their development by Russian psycholinguistics have no analogues in world linguistics and psycholinguistics, or are represented by completely original concepts and methods. We have tried to show this uniqueness of the problematics and the methodological equipment of Russian psycholinguistics in this book. The main role in the formation of Russian psycholinguistics was played by the Moscow psycholinguistic school of A.A. Leontyev. It still defines the main directions of Russian psycholinguistics. Russian psycholinguistics (the theory of speech activity - TSA) is based on the achievements of Russian psychology: a cultural-historical approach to the analysis of mental phenomena L.S. Vygotsky and the system-activity approach of A.N. Leontyev. Moscow is the most "psycholinguistic region" of Russia - INL RAS, Moscow State University, Moscow State Linguistic University, RUDN, Moscow State Pedagogical University, Moscow State Pedagogical University, Sechenov University, Moscow State University and other Moscow universities. Saint Petersburg psycholinguists have significant achievements, especially in the study of neurolinguistic problems, ontolinguistics. The most important feature of Russian psycholinguistics is the widespread development of psycholinguistics in the regions, the emergence of recognized psycholinguistic research centers - St. Petersburg, Tver, Saratov, Perm, Ufa, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Voronezh, Yekaterinburg, Kursk, Chelyabinsk; psycholinguistics is represented in Cherepovets, Ivanovo, Volgograd, Vyatka, Kaluga, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Vladivostok, Abakan, Maikop, Barnaul, Ulan-Ude, Yakutsk, Syktyvkar, Armavir and other cities; in Belarus - Minsk, in Ukraine - Lvov, Chernivtsi, Kharkov, in the DPR - Donetsk, in Kazakhstan - Alma-Ata, Chimkent. Our researchers work in Bulgaria, Hungary, Vietnam, China, France, Switzerland. There are Russian psycholinguists in Canada, USA, Israel, Austria and a number of other countries. All scientists from these regions and countries have contributed to the development of Russian psycholinguistics, to the development of psycholinguistic theory and methods of psycholinguistic research. Their participation has not been forgotten. We tried to present the main Russian psycholinguists in the Appendix - in the sections "Scientometrics", "Monographs and Manuals" and "Dissertations", even if there is no information about them in the Electronic Library and RSCI. The principles of including scientists in the scientometric list are presented in the Appendix. Our analysis of the content of the resulting monograph on psycholinguistic research in Russia allows us to draw preliminary conclusions about some of the distinctive features of Russian psycholinguistics: 1. cultural-historical approach to the analysis of mental phenomena of L.S.Vygotsky and the system-activity approach of A.N. Leontiev as methodological basis of Russian psycholinguistics; 2. theoretical nature of psycholinguistic research as a characteristic feature of Russian psycholinguistics. Our psycholinguistics has always built a general theory of the generation and perception of speech, mental vocabulary, linked specific research with the problems of ontogenesis, the relationship between language and thinking; 3. psycholinguistic studies of speech communication as an important subject of psycholinguistics; 4. attention to the psycholinguistic analysis of the text and the development of methods for such analysis; 5. active research into the ontogenesis of linguistic ability; 6. investigation of linguistic consciousness as one of the important subjects of psycholinguistics; 7. understanding the need to create associative dictionaries of different types as the most important practical task of psycholinguistics; 8. widespread use of psycholinguistic methods for applied purposes, active development of applied psycholinguistics. The review of the main directions of development of Russian psycholinguistics, carried out in this monograph, clearly shows that the direction associated with the study of linguistic consciousness is currently being most intensively developed in modern Russian psycholinguistics. As the practice of many years of psycholinguistic research in our country shows, the subject of study of psycholinguists is precisely linguistic consciousness - this is a part of human consciousness that is responsible for generating, understanding speech and keeping language in consciousness. Associative experiments are the core of most psycholinguistic techniques and are important both theoretically and practically. The following main areas of practical application of the results of associative experiments can be outlined. 1. Education. Associative experiments are the basis for constructing Mind Maps, one of the most promising tools for systematizing knowledge, assessing the quality, volume and nature of declarative knowledge (and using special techniques and skills). Methods based on smart maps are already widely used in teaching foreign languages, fast and deep immersion in various subject areas. 2. Information search, search optimization. The results of associative experiments can significantly improve the quality of information retrieval, its efficiency, as well as adaptability for a specific person (social group). When promoting sites (promoting them in search results), an associative experiment allows you to increase and improve the quality of the audience reached. 3. Translation studies, translation automation. An associative experiment can significantly improve the quality of translation, take into account intercultural and other social characteristics of native speakers. 4. Computational linguistics and automatic word processing. The results of associative experiments make it possible to reveal the features of a person's linguistic consciousness and contribute to the development of automatic text processing systems in a wide range of applications of natural language interfaces of computer programs and robotic solutions. 5. Advertising. The use of data on associations for specific words, slogans and texts allows you to predict and improve advertising texts. 6. Social relationships. The analysis of texts using the data of associative experiments makes it possible to assess the tonality of messages (negative / positive moods, aggression and other characteristics) based on user comments on the Internet and social networks, in the press in various projections (by individuals, events, organizations, etc.) from various social angles, to diagnose the formation of extremist ideas. 7. Content control and protection of personal data. Associative experiments improve the quality of content detection and filtering by identifying associative fields in areas subject to age restrictions, personal information, tobacco and alcohol advertising, incitement to ethnic hatred, etc. 8. Gender and individual differences. The data of associative experiments can be used to compare the reactions (and, in general, other features of thinking) between men and women, different social and age groups, representatives of different regions. The directions for the further development of Russian psycholinguistics from the standpoint of the current state of psycholinguistic science in the country are seen by us, first of all:  in the development of research in various areas of linguistic consciousness, which will contribute to the development of an important concept of speech as a verbal model of non-linguistic consciousness, in which knowledge revealed by social practice and assigned by each member of society during its inculturation is consolidated for society and on its behalf;  in the expansion of the problematics, which is formed under the influence of the growing intercultural communication in the world community, which inevitably involves the speech behavior of natural and artificial bilinguals in the new object area of psycholinguistics;  in using the capabilities of national linguistic corpora in the interests of researchers studying the functioning of non-linguistic and linguistic consciousness in speech processes;  in expanding research on the semantic perception of multimodal texts, the scope of which has greatly expanded in connection with the spread of the Internet as a means of communication in the life of modern society;  in the inclusion of the problems of professional communication and professional activity in the object area of psycholinguistics in connection with the introduction of information technologies into public practice, entailing the emergence of new professions and new features of the professional ethos;  in the further development of the theory of the mental lexicon (identifying the role of different types of knowledge in its formation and functioning, the role of the word as a unit of the mental lexicon in the formation of the image of the world, as well as the role of the natural / internal metalanguage and its specificity in speech activity);  in the broad development of associative lexicography, which will meet the most diverse needs of society and cognitive sciences. The development of associative lexicography may lead to the emergence of such disciplines as associative typology, associative variantology, associative axiology;  in expanding the spheres of applied use of psycholinguistics in social sciences, sociology, semasiology, lexicography, in the study of the brain, linguodidactics, medicine, etc. This book is a kind of summarizing result of the development of Russian psycholinguistics today. Each section provides a bibliography of studies on the relevant issue. The Appendix contains the scientometrics of leading Russian psycholinguists, basic monographs, psycholinguistic textbooks and dissertations defended in psycholinguistics. The content of the publications presented here is convincing evidence of the relevance of psycholinguistic topics and the effectiveness of the development of psycholinguistic problems in Russia.

Latin America and the Caribbean, unlike other regions, is still quite young demographically: people over age 60 make up around 11% of the total population. However, the region is expected to experience the fastest rate of population aging in the world over the coming decades. This projected growth of the elderly population raises challenges related to pensions, health, and long-term care. At the same time, it opens up numerous business opportunities in different sectorshousing, tourism, care, and transportation, for examplethat could generate millions of new jobs. These opportunities are termed the “silver economy,” which has the potential to be one of the drivers of post-pandemic economic recovery. Importantly, women play key roles in many areas of this market, as noted in the first report published by the IDB on this subject (Okumura et al., 2020). This report maps the actors whose products or services are intended for older people and examines silver economy trends in the region by sector: health, long-term care, finance, housing, transportation, job market, education, entertainment, and digitization. The mapping identified 245 actors whose products or services are intended for older people, and it yielded three main findings. The first is that the majority of the actors (40%) operate in the health and care sectors. The prevalence of these sectors could be due to the fact that they are made up of many small players, and it could also suggest a still limited role of older people in active consumption, investment, and the job market in the region. The second finding is that 90% of the silver economy actors identified by the study operate exclusively in their countries of origin, and that Mexico has the most actors (47), followed by the Southern Cone countriesBrazil, Chile, and Argentinawhich have the regions highest rates of population aging. The third finding is that private investment dominates the silver economy ecosystem, as nearly 3 out of every 4 actors offering services to the elderly population are for-profit enterprises. The sectors and markets of the silver economy differ in size and degree of maturity. For example, the long-term care sector, which includes residential care settings, is the oldest and has the largest number of actors, while sectors like digital, home automation, and cohousing are still emerging. Across all sectors, however, there are innovative initiatives that hold great potential for growth. This report examines the main development trends of the silver economy in the region and presents examples of initiatives that are already underway. The health sector has a wealth of initiatives designed to make managing chronic diseases easier and to prevent and reduce the impact of functional limitations through practices that encourage active aging. In the area of long term careone of the most powerful drivers of job creationinitiatives to train human resources and offer home care services are flourishing. The financial sector is beginning to meet a wide range of demands from older people by offering unique services such as remittances or property management, in addition to more traditional pensions, savings, and investment services. The housing sector is adapting rapidly to the changes resulting from population aging. This shift can be seen, for example, in developments in the area of cohousing or collaborative housing, and in the rise of smart homes, which are emerging as potential solutions. In the area of transportation, specific solutions are being developed to meet the unique mobility needs of older people, whose economic and social participation is on the rise. The job market offers older people opportunities to continue contributing to society, either by sharing their experience or by earning income. The education sector is developing solutions that promote active aging and the ongoing participation of older people in the regions economic and social life. Entertainment services for older people are expanding, with the emergence of multiple online services. Lastly, digitization is a cross-cutting and fundamental challenge for the silver economy, and various initiatives in the region that directly address this issue were identified. Additionally, in several sectors we identified actors with a clear focus on gender, and these primarily provide support to women. Of a total of 245 actors identified by the mapping exercise, we take a closer look at 11 different stories of the development of the silver economy in the region. The featured organizations are RAFAM Internacional (Argentina), TeleDx (Chile), Bonanza Asistencia (Costa Rica), NudaProp (Uruguay), Contraticos (Costa Rica), Maturi (Brazil), Someone Somewhere (Mexico), CONAPE (Dominican Republic), Fundación Saldarriaga Concha (Colombia), Plan Ibirapitá (Uruguay), and Canitas (Mexico). These organizations were chosen based on criteria such as how innovative their business models are, the current size and growth potential of their initiatives, and their impact on society. This study is a first step towards mapping the silver economy in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the hope is to broaden the scope of this mapping exercise through future research and through the creation of a community of actors to promote the regional integration of initiatives in this field.

The special edition of the national professional scientific and practical legal magazine “The Slovo of the National School of Judges of Ukraine” was published, which contains reports delivered at the online conference "Ensuring the unity of judicial practise: the legal positions of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court and standards of the Council of Europe", held on the occasion of the third anniversary of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court. time of thematic sessions and webinars for judges of each of the courts of cassation in the Supreme Court, as well as joint sessions for judges of different jurisdictions at the end of 2020. The National School of Judges of Ukraine held these events together with the Supreme Court and in synergy with the Council of Europe projects "Support to Judicial Reform in Ukraine", "Further Support for Ukraine's Implementation in the Context of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights", USAID New Justice Program, OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine. These are projects that support various aspects of judicial reform in Ukraine, compliance with Council of Europe standards and recommendations, offering best practices from member states to help make priorities in the national reform process. The conference and training events were attended by more than 550 participants - judges of the Supreme Court, other courts, leading Ukrainian and foreign experts, representatives of the legal community. Trainers and all structural subdivisions of the National School of Judges of Ukraine were involved, the training activities of which were identified by the CCEJ in one of its conclusions as one of the important tools to ensure the unity of judicial practice. Programs of activities included reports on the role of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court in ensuring the unity of judicial practice and the impact on the legal system; unity of judicial practice in the context of standards - improving access to justice in Ukraine: removing procedural obstacles and ensuring the right to an impartial court, approaches to identifying cases of minor complexity and cases of significant public interest or exceptional importance for a party in the context of access to court of cassation: practice the supreme courts of the member states of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights; key positions of the Supreme Court - application of the provisions of the procedural codes on the grounds for transferring the case to the Chamber, the joint chamber or the Supreme Court, the impact of its decisions on legislative activity, ensuring the specialization of courts and judges, the practice of the Supreme Court of the Supreme Court on administrative cases, the practice of considering cases of disciplinary liability of judges, conclusions on the rules of criminal law, review of court decisions in criminal proceedings in exceptional circumstances; the impact of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on the case law of national courts and the justification of court decisions and the "balance of rights" in civil cases in its practice, the development of the doctrine of human rights protection; ECtHR standards on evidence and the burden of proof, the conclusions of the CCEJ and their reflection in judicial practice; judicial rule-making in the activities of European courts of cassation, etc. The issues raised are analyzed in the Ukrainian and international contexts from report to report, which, we hope, will be appreciated by every lawyer - both practitioners and theorists. As well as the fact that the depth of disclosure of each of the topics through the practice of application serves the development of law and contributes to the formation of the unity of judicial practice of the Supreme Court, the creation of case law is a contribution to rulemaking and lawmaking. The conversion of intellectual discourse into the practice of Ukrainian courts is an important step towards strengthening public confidence in the judiciary. And here the unifying force of the Supreme Court can be especially important, as the Chairman of the Supreme Court Valentyna Danishevska rightly remarked, speaking about the expectations of the society.

Agricultural trade and global food security have been dramatically affected by a series of events. While the global economy is recovering in 2022 from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has sparked new and challenging problems. In a context where agricultural prices were recovering from a generalized surge throughout the pandemic, the war reversed these trends and opened an new episode of rising food prices, general inflationary pressures, and increased volatility. The combination of these shocks affects agricultural trade and food security throughout Africa, especially in countries highly dependent on food imports. The role of trade in creating resilience in this volatile environment is crucial and has been much discussed. From this perspective, the 2022 Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor (AATM) contributes to our understanding of African agricultural trade and its relationship with food and nutrition security in several important ways. First, it provides a thorough analysis of regional and continental trade in agriculture and selected value chains using accurate statistics developed for this report. This year, it adds an analysis of the nutritional content of African trade and looks closely at the trade in processed products. Second, it examines the potentially transformative impact of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on the region’s economies. Third, at the regional level, it analyzes the evolution of intra- as well as extra-regional trade flows, and trade policy of one of Africa’s Regional Economic Communities (RECs), namely the Economic Community of Central Africa States (ECCAS). As in prior editions, this fifth AATM provides improved trade statistics and uses consistent indicators to monitor trends in Africa’s participation in global trade as well as the status of intra-African trade. The report highlights three main findings. First, the insertion of African countries in global and regional value chains is low but has recently improved. Indeed, both forward participation in value chains (that is, provision of inputs to other countries’ processing sectors) and backward participation (incorporation of imported intermediates into African traded products) have increased, although forward links have grown faster than backward links. Second, intra-African trade increased significantly prior to the pandemic in most RECs, especially in processed products. Yet, this trend was halted by the COVID-19 shock, especially in ECCAS and the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU). Third, the nutritional content of extra-African trade is concentrated in products with a high value and a low caloric content. In comparison, intra-African flows are more intensive in calories, fat, and protein. The report also examines a number of special topics. One chapter is devoted to modeling the impacts on trade, growth, and welfare of several potential approaches to AfCFTA implementation. The results confirm that there is a high opportunity cost associated with weak AfCFTA implementation, which is why it is crucial to take a more ambitious approach that fully liberalizes tariffs and reduces nontariff measures. The 2022 AATM also conducts a detailed analysis of trends and policy issues in value chains for stimulants (cocoa, coffee, and tea), demonstrating that trade in these sectors is still concentrated in unprocessed products. Finally, the report examines in-depth the patterns of trade integration within ECCAS. One important finding is that intraregional trade is still impeded by many tariffs, nontariff measures, and poor transport infrastructure. AKADEMIYA2063 and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) are pleased to present this collaborative report, which provides an insightful review of Africa’s progress in trade development, within and beyond the continent, and new analysis on critical topics for trade in Africa’s agrifood sector.