Jobs Undone

A decade since the spark of the Arab Spring, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continues to suffer from limited creation of more and better jobs. Youth face idleness and unemployment. For those who find jobs, informality awaits. Few women attempt to enter the world of work at all. Meanwhile, the available jobs are not those of the future. These labor market outcomes are being worsened by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 'Jobs Undone: Reshaping the Role of Governments toward Markets and Workers in the Middle East and North Africa' explores ways to break these impasses, drawing on original research, survey data, wide-ranging literature, and young entrepreneurial voices from the region. The report finds that a prominent reason behind MENA's unmet jobs challenge is a lack of market contestability in the formal private sector. Few firms in the region enter the market, few grow, and those that exit are not necessarily less productive. Moreover, firms in the region invest little in physical capital, human capital, or research and development, and they tend to be politically connected. At the macro level, economic growth has been mediocre, labor productivity is not being driven by structural change, and the growth of the stock of capital per capita has declined. New evidence generated for this report shows that the lack of dynamism is due to the prevalence of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). They operate in sectors where there is little economic rationale for public activity and they enjoy favorable treatment--flouting the principles of competitive neutrality. Meanwhile, labor regulations add to market rigidity, while gendered laws restrict women's potential. To change this reality, the state must reshape its relationship toward markets, toward workers, and toward women. The region must create a level playing field between SOEs and the private sector, replace labor rigidities with appropriate social protection and labor market programs, and remove barriers to women's economic participation. Governments can also foster new sectors and occupations, gradually propelling market contestability and job creation. All reforms will have to rely on improved data capacity and transparency to create a new social contract between governments and the people of the region.

The report aims to stimulate structural reforms in MENA that allow the region to spur sufficient and decent job creation as well as to leapfrog into the new industrial revolution.

Women have come a long way over the past century. They have gained the right to vote, entered the workplace in vast numbers, become elected members of government, even gone into space. Why, then, after so much progress do some talented women achieve and gain prominence or eminence while others who had as much or more potential fail to achieve the dreams they had as young girls? Why do some bright girls begin to underachieve in school and why do some women who excelled in school remain in unchallenging jobs?In Work Left Undone, Dr. Sally Reis explores these questions and the internal and external barriers facing talented girls and women in today's society. She points out that many girls and women downplay accomplishments in order to maintain relationships and blend into the crowd. Perfectionism and the desire to be the best in all areas of life can drain energy and time away from focusing on special interests. Family and the urge to care for others often takes precedence over developing talents. Likewise, a myriad of external barriers (stereotyping, lack of support from families, conflicting messages from parents, and others) cause some girls and women to give up their dreams and aspirations.Dr. Reis also investigates the different patterns of how females develop and use their talents, various types of creative productivity in females, and the characteristics of successful girls and women including risk-taking, perseverance, and a sense of purpose. She specifically addresses special populations such as talented women in mathematics and science, girls from culturally diverse and economically disadvantaged backgrounds, female artists, and talented women who have chosen a traditionally female career (teaching).Written for gifted and talented girls and women as well as their teachers and parents, this highly readable book presents a large body of research and a number of case studies, offering insight into specific incidents of success or failure. Not only does Dr. Reis expose barriers to success, she also proposes solutions and suggestions for overcoming barriers. She lists specific ideas for girls, parents, and teachers, along with programs and resources that can help girls succeed. Work Left Undone provides readers of any gender and any age with food for thought. Dr. Reis inspires readers to put her suggestions to use, working for change in our society to help women reach their full potential.

Do you desire deeper freedom? Do you feel restricted by the knots of sin and shame that conceal the true beauty of your feminine heart? Through this collection of raw and redemptive testimonies from real Catholic women, punctuated with guided reflection and contemplative prayer, Carrie Schuchts Daunt of the John Paul II Healing Center offers you an encounter with truth and healing tailored to your specific identities as daughter, sister, bride and mother. Undone ushers you through a vulnerable search for truth through essential spiritual exercises, prayer guides, and reflection material. Sharing personal testimonies of illness, loss of faith, rejection, promiscuity, abortion, broken marriage, infertility, miscarriage, addiction, betrayal, bulimia, and depression, the fifteen women in Undone identify shame and fear as major barriers to their relationships. In their stories, they share how their shame was untangled and their identity restored. This chorus of bold women—including Lisa Brenninkmeyer, founder of Walking with Purpose; Jen Settle, managing director of the Theology of the Body Institute; Debra Herbeck, founder of Be Love Revolution; Judy Bailey, executive director of John Paul II Healing Center; and Jeannie Hannemann, founder and executive director of Elizabeth Ministry International—will encourage you to explore and undo the knots in your own life as well. Daunt shares the same prayer exercises and spiritual reflection material used at the John Paul II Healing Center’s Undone women’s conferences, including inner healing prayers spiritual exercises for identifying core wounds spiritual exercises for renouncing false belief systems reflection questions In Undone, readers find an essential guide to distinctly feminine healing that will leave them willingly and eagerly stripping away the bondage of sin and shame allowing them to become the women God calls them to be.

Een moeder van drie tieners geeft veel aandacht aan haar depressieve zoon, maar ziet niet dat de ex-vriend van haar dochter in nood is.

Tracing the development journey of the Arabian Gulf region with a forward-looking perspective, this book describes how a combination of good fortune, creative experimentation, and determination has enabled the region to achieve prosperity. Today, the Arabian Gulf is well positioned to assume a pivotal role in the new global order. Forced to balance an extreme climate and acute resource constraints, but also an exceptional location, the region’s progress and prosperity have historically been precarious and vulnerable to external shocks. Efforts to transcend resource dependency have typically involved proactive attempts to enable other economic activities. This book argues that, while conventional economic diversification is making headway, the Gulf region is in fact amidst a far more holistic transformation that positions it for a pivotal role in the emerging multipolar global order. It now offers globally competitive regulations and world-class infrastructure at the heart of the Old World, flanked by two fast-growing continents. It has become the hub of choice for a growing share of inter-continental flows of people, trade, and capital, and has established strong economic ties in all directions. This book shows how, despite many risks and challenges, the region possesses the forward-looking vision and necessary resilience that can finally liberate it from its long-standing "resource curse" and a development paradigm that looks likely to provide the foundation for sustained well-being in the decades ahead. The scope and rigor of the book make it suitable as a reference on the Arabian Gulf and for those interested in global affairs and economic development, as well as policymakers and the business community.

Getting Away With Murder is an explosive investigation into the death of an American hero, the strange case of the “American Taliban,” and why we never got the truth about either—until now. When John Walker Lindh was arrested in November 2001, Americans were shocked to learn that one of our own had fought for the Taliban. He would come under further fire for the torture and death of CIA officer Mike Spann. The American public was outraged, and the Bush administration vowed to make an example of the traitor. Why then, after threatening treason and the death penalty, did the government suddenly abandon a trial in favor of a soft plea deal? Richard D. Mahoney puts these questions on trial; the final verdict promises to be shocking.