Kinda Muhamadieh

Tunisian and Egyptian civil society organizations “are not just looking at political reform, but also looking at economic reform, debt cancellation, and the relationship with the European Union (EU) and overall transition process,” according to Kinda Muhamadieh, programme manager at the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND).

Leonor Briones

The impact of typhoons, earthquakes, climate change and other external factors make it difficult for the Philippines to reach its economic growth targets of 5 percent to 6 percent this year and 6 percent to 7 percent next year, warned Social Watch Philippines this week.

Photo: MME

The Mediterranean Migration Network (MMN) was officially launched during a two-day kick-off meeting in Nicosia, on March 1-2. The meeting was organized by the MMN coordinator, the research and development centre CARDET, focal point of Social Watch in Cyprus.

Atiur Rahman (Social Watch), Manzoor Ahmed (Education Watch), Rasheda K Choudhury (Peoples' Forum on MDG), and Arifur Rahman (Manusher Jonno). (Photo: The Daily Star)

The centralization in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, is responsible for the unsustainable development of that South Asian country, according to the Social Watch Report 2012. The historical absence of long-term planning and overpopulation are the main cause of environmental degradation and resource depletion, said Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, executive director of Coastal Association for Social Transformation (COAST Trust) while launching the study.

The report, based on 670 reports of 66 nations, said in its Bangladesh part that centralisation has accentuated geographical imbalance in income in the country.

President Lee Myung-bak. (Photo: Marco Castro/United Nations)

The Citizen’s Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ), focal point of Social Watch in the Republic of Korea, gave failing grades on the President Lee Myung-bak's performance during its time in power. The organization concluded that only 39.48% of Lee's 100 major governance tasks were executed. The administration scored a D+ grade for satisfaction with the results of those, reported journalist Jung Hwang-bong for The Hankyoreh daily newspaper.