अΣO אن冬宮 19:30 Wednesdays Global Agendae and Compacts Programme 3/7

FIFA

Social Responsibility

About FIFA’s CSR

In achieving its mission of “building a better future”, FIFA aims to lead by example and channel the power of football and the influence of the organisation on the game and its stakeholders towards making positive impacts on society and the environment. The strategy to achieve these goals is divided up into five core areas.

Our people: Our member associations and team members are our most valuable assets. Providing a safe and healthy working environment for all of our people is a basic responsibility, and is fundamental to the success of FIFA.

Our game: Football is actively played by millions around the world and watched by billions. Ensuring that the game of football reflects the highest values of society is essential to FIFA. Through its regulations and actions on and off the pitch, FIFA fights negative influences on the game and ensures that the fundamental values are respected.

Our events: At the core of FIFA’s aim to develop the game and touch the world are the FIFA tournaments organised at regular intervals around the world. Naturally, these competitions are an essential part of FIFA’s corporate social responsibility strategy as they offer exceptional platforms to raise awareness, highlight particular issues and implement projects and campaigns on the ground.

Our society: Football has become a vital instrument for hundreds of programmes run by non-governmental and community-based organisations all around the world. These programmes are providing children and young people with valuable tools that make a difference to their lives. In support of these efforts, FIFA provides resources and engages with its member associations, commercial affiliates, development agencies and others to bring further resources and know-how to the grassroots level.

Our planet: FIFA is dedicated to taking its environmental responsibility seriously. Issues such as global warming, environmental conservation and sustainable management are a concern for FIFA, not only in regard to FIFA World Cups™, but also in relation to FIFA as an organisation. That is why FIFA has been engaging with its stakeholders and other institutions to find sensible ways of addressing environmental issues and mitigate the negative environmental impacts linked to its activities.

International Cooperation

International Cooperation

As an international federation, FIFA engages with its member associations, international development agencies, non-governmental organisations and other actors interested in participating in the Football for Hope initiative and using sports to achieve positive social change. Working together with these experienced and widely networked actors offers additional resources, know-how and support structures for the implementation of football-based programmes on the ground.

Some of the key collaboration efforts are explained below:

Member Associations

In addition to the long-standing football development projects run with and for FIFA’s 208 member associations, many social development initiatives for youth are jointly supported by football’s world governing body and the associations.

For example, both FIFA and the Football Federation Australia support Football United, an organisation that uses football to promote the integration and development of immigrants and refugees in Australia. Other examples of youth programmes supported by FIFA and national football associations include football for people with intellectual disabilities run by Special Olympics in countries throughout Africa, landmine awareness-raising by Spirit of Soccer in Cambodia and Iraq, and post-conflict reintegration by Cross Cultures in the Balkans and the Caucasus.   

United Nations

FIFA has worked in close cooperation with the United Nations since 1999 when then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter met in New York to announce the start of a closer relationship between the two organisations. This announcement was followed by numerous campaigns and programmes designed to promote peace and development through football.

A concrete example of that relationship is the cooperation with the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Through its International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) the “Elimination of Child Labour in the Soccer Ball Industry” programme was launched in 1997. FIFA worked in close co-operation with ILO/IPEC, the government, manufacturers, trade unions, Save the Children, UNICEF and various local Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to implement this programme. Since its inception, FIFA has given its full backing to highlight the importance of human rights and education for children around the globe, and provided financial resources for various projects in Pakistan.

Multi-lateral Development Institutions

In 2007, FIFA, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to create development opportunities through football for children and young people living in poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean. Since 2009, FIFA and the IDB have been jointly investing into regional programmes for the development of life skills among youth, violence prevention and the improvement of education and employment opportunities. This cooperation has contributed significantly to the impact of Football for Hope in the region.

Non-governmental organisations

Cooperation with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs) is key to the successful implementation of concrete programmes in disadvantaged communities around the globe.

In 2005, FIFA began working with the non-profit organisation streetfootballworld in reaching out to other NGOs and CBOs around the world that were using football as a tool for their social development programmes. Since its foundation in 2002, streetfootballworld has built a strong network of organisations, connecting them with each other as well as with potential funders and supporters. Football for Hope was initiated to provide support and more visibility to such organisations, as well as a platform for discussion and collaboration. In addition, FIFA and streetfootballworld have organised numerous official events at FIFA tournaments bringing young leaders from around the world together to exchange experiences and celebrate their achievements.

IMF/World Bank

Agenda

Tackling Current Challenges

Christine Lagarde on Facebook Live, January 27, 2012

The global economic crisis created the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The crisis began in the mortgage markets in the United States in 2007 and swiftly escalated into a crisis that affected activity and institutions worldwide. The IMF mobilized on many fronts to support its member countries, increasing its lending, using its cross-country experience to advise on policy solutions, and introducing reforms to modernize its operations and become more responsive to member countries’ needs. As the apex of the crisis shifted to Europe, the Fund has become actively engaged in the region and is also working with the G-20 to support a multilateral approach.

Here’s some of the issues that top the agenda:

Stepping up crisis lending

As part of its efforts to support countries during the global economic crisis, the IMF has beefed up its lending capacity. It has approved a major overhaul of how it lends money by offering higher amounts and tailoring loan terms to countries’ varying strengths and circumstances. More recently, further reforms strengthen the IMF’s capacity to respond to and prevent crises. In particular:

• Doubling of lending access limits for low-income member countries and streamlining procedures to reduce perceived stigma attached to borrowing from the Fund
• Introducing and refining a Flexible Credit Line (FCL) for countries with robust policy frameworks and a strong track record in economic performance; a Precautionary and Liquidity Line (PLL) for countries that have sound economic policies and fundamentals, but are still facing vulnerabilities; and a Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) for countries facing an urgent financing need but that do not need a full-fledged economic program
• Modernizing conditionality to ensure that conditions linked to IMF loan disbursements are focused and adequately tailored to the varying strengths of members’ policies
• Focusing more on social spending and more concessional terms for low-income countries

The IMF has committed more than $300 billion to crisis-hit countries—including Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, and Ukraine—and has extended credit to Mexico, Poland, and Colombia under a new flexible credit line. The IMF is also stepping up its lending to low-income countries to help prevent the crisis undermining recent economic gains and keep poverty reduction efforts on track.

A partner in Europe

The IMF is actively engaged in Europe as a provider of policy advice, financing, and technical assistance. We work both independently and, in European Union countries, in cooperation with European institutions, such as the European Commission and the European Central Bank as part of the so-called troika. The IMF's work in Europe has intensified since the start of the global financial crisis in 2008, and has been further stepped up since mid-2010 as a result of the sovereign debt crisis in the euro area. The IMF has recommended that Europe focus on structural reforms to boost economic growth, such as product and services market reforms, as well as labor market and pension changes. The IMF has also urged eurozone members to make a more determined, collective response to the crisis by taking concrete steps toward a complete monetary union, including a unified banking system and more fiscal integration. Read our Factsheet on Europe and visit our webpage that pulls together IMF information about Europe. See also article on fixing the flaws in EMU.

Supporting low-income countries

The IMF has upgraded its support for low-income countries, reflecting the changing nature of economic conditions in these countries and their increased vulnerabilities due to the effects of the global economic crisis. It has overhauled its lending instruments, especially to address more directly countries' needs for short-term and emergency support. The IMF support package includes:

• Mobilizing additional resources, including from sales of an agreed amount of IMF gold, to boost the IMF’s concessional lending capacity to up to $17 billion through 2014, including up to $8 billion in the first two years. This exceeds the call by the Group of Twenty for $6 billion in new lending over two to three years.
• Providing interest relief, with zero payments on outstanding IMF concessional loans through end-2012 to help low-income countries cope with the crisis.
• Commiting resources to secure the long-term sustainability of IMF lending to low-income countries beyond 2014.

Reinforcing multilateralism

The 2008 global financial crisis highlighted the tremendous benefits from international cooperation. Without the cooperation spearheaded by the Group of Twenty industrialized and emerging market economies (G-20) the crisis could have been much worse. At their 2009 Pittsburgh Summit G-20 countries pledged to adopt policies that would ensure a lasting recovery and a brighter economic future, launching the "Framework for Strong, Sustainable, and Balanced Growth."

The backbone of this framework is a multilateral process, where G-20 countries together set out objectives and the policies needed to get there. And, most importantly, they undertake to check on their progress toward meeting those shared objectives—done through the G-20 Mutual Assessment Process or MAP. At the request of the G-20, the IMF provides the technical analysis needed to evaluate how members’ policies fit together—and whether, collectively, they can achieve the G-20’s goals.

The IMF’s Executive Board has also been considering a range of options to enhance multilateral, bilateral, and financial surveillance, and to better integrate the three. It has launched “spillover reports” for the five most systemic economies—China, the euro area, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States—to assess the impact of policies by one country or area on the rest of the world. The IMF recently strengthened the ways in which it keeps an eye on country economies with its global analysis, and as Managing Director Christine Lagarde has stressed, the IMF must continue to pay more attention to understanding interconnectedness and incorporating this understanding into risk and policy analysis.

Strengthening the international monetary system

The current International Monetary System—the set of internationally agreed rules, conventions, and supporting institutions that facilitate international trade and cross-border investment, and the flow of capital among countries—has certainly delivered a lot. But it has a number of well-known weaknesses, including the lack of an automatic and orderly mechanism for resolving the buildup of real and financial imbalances; volatile capital flows and exchange rates that can have deleterious economic effects; and related to the above, the rapid, unabated accumulation of international reserves, concentrated on a narrow supply.

Addressing these problems is crucial to achieving the global public good of economic and financial stability, by ensuring an orderly rebalancing of demand growth, which is essential for a sustained and strong global recovery, and reducing systemic risk. The IMF’s recent review of its mandate and resultant reforms—to surveillance and its lending toolkit—go some way towards addressing these concerns but further reforms are being pursued.

Implementing organizational changes

The IMF must represent the interests of all of its 188 member countries, from its smallest shareholder Tuvalu, to its largest, the United States. Unlike the General Assembly of the United Nations or the World Trade Organization, where each country has one vote, decision making at the IMF was designed to reflect the position of each member country in the global economy. Each IMF member country is assigned a quota that determines its financial commitment to the IMF, as well as its voting power.

In recent years, emerging market countries such as China, India, Brazil, and Russia have experienced strong growth and now play a larger role in the world economy. In December 2010, the IMF agreed on reform of its framework for making decisions to reflect the increasing importance of emerging market and developing economies.

When fully implemented, the reforms will produce a shift of more than 6 percent of quota shares to dynamic emerging market and developing countries. The reform contains measures to protect the voice of the poorest countries in the IMF. Without these measures, this group of countries would have seen its voting shares decline.

The reform will enter into force once three fifths of the IMF’s membership―which currently amounts to 113 countries― representing 85 percent of total voting power have accepted the proposed amendment. Watch a video on the latest efforts on reforming IMF governance.

NATO

Strategic Concept 2010 (Preface, Core Tasks And Principles, Lead Sentences Of Each Proceeding Article).

Preface

We, the Heads of State and Government of the NATO

nations, are determined that NATO will continue to play

its unique and essential role in ensuring our common

defence and security. This Strategic Concept will guide

the next phase in NATO’s evolution, so that it continues

to be effective in a changing world, against new threats,

with new capabilities and new partners:

• It reconfirms the bond between our nations to

defend one another against attack, including

against new threats to the safety of our citizens.

• It commits the Alliance to prevent crises,

manage conflicts and stabilize post-conflict

situations, including by working more closely

with our international partners, most importantly

the United Nations and the European Union.

• It offers our partners around the globe more

political engagement with the Alliance, and

a substantial role in shaping the NATO-led

operations to which they contribute.

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• It commits NATO to the goal of creating the

conditions for a world without nuclear weapons

– but reconfirms that, as long as there are

nuclear weapons in the world, NATO will remain

a nuclear Alliance.

• It restates our firm commitment to keep the door

to NATO open to all European democracies that

meet the standards of membership, because

enlargement contributes to our goal of a Europe

whole, free and at peace.

• It commits NATO to continuous reform towards

a more effective, efficient and flexible Alliance,

so that our taxpayers get the most security for

the money they invest in defence.

The citizens of our countries rely on NATO to defend

Allied nations, to deploy robust military forces where

and when required for our security, and to help promote

common security with our partners around the globe.

While the world is changing, NATO’s essential mission

will remain the same: to ensure that the Alliance remains

an unparalleled community of freedom, peace, security

and shared values.

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Core Tasks and Principles

1.       NATO’s fundamental and enduring purpose is

to safeguard the freedom and security of all its

members by political and military means. Today,

the Alliance remains an essential source of

stability in an unpredictable world.

2.       NATO member states form a unique community

of values, committed to the principles of

individual liberty, democracy, human rights and

the rule of law. The Alliance is firmly committed

to the purposes and principles of the Charter

of the United Nations, and to the Washington

Treaty, which affirms the primary responsibility

of the Security Council for the maintenance of

international peace and security.

3.       The political and military bonds between Europe

and North America have been forged in NATO since

the Alliance was founded in 1949; the transatlantic

link remains as strong, and as important to the

preservation of Euro-Atlantic peace and security,

as ever. The security of NATO members on both

sides of the Atlantic is indivisible. We will continue

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to defend it together, on the basis of solidarity,

shared purpose and fair burden-sharing.

4.       The modern security environment contains a broad

and evolving set of challenges to the security

of NATO’s territory and populations. In order to

assure their security, the Alliance must and will

continue fulfilling effectively three essential core

tasks, all of which contribute to safeguarding

Alliance members, and always in accordance with

international law:

a.       Collective defence. NATO members will

always assist each other against attack, in

accordance with Article 5 of the Washington

Treaty. That commitment remains firm and

binding. NATO will deter and defend against

any threat of aggression, and against emerging

security challenges where they threaten the

fundamental security of individual Allies or the

Alliance as a whole.

b.       Crisis management. NATO has a unique and

robust set of political and military capabilities

to address the full spectrum of crises – before,

during and after conflicts. NATO will actively

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employ an appropriate mix of those political

and military tools to help manage developing

crises that have the potential to affect Alliance

security, before they escalate into conflicts;

to stop ongoing conflicts where they affect

Alliance security; and to help consolidate

stability in post-conflict situations where that

contributes to Euro-Atlantic security.

c.       Cooperative security. The Alliance is

affected by, and can affect, political and

security developments beyond its borders.

The Alliance will engage actively to enhance

international security, through partnership

with relevant countries and other international

organisations; by contributing actively to arms

control, non-proliferation and disarmament;

and by keeping the door to membership in the

Alliance open to all European democracies

that meet NATO’s standards.

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5.       NATO remains the unique and essential

transatlantic forum for consultations on all

matters that affect the territorial integrity, political

independence and security of its members, as

set out in Article 4 of the Washington Treaty.

Any security issue of interest to any Ally can be

brought to the NATO table, to share information,

exchange views and, where appropriate, forge

common approaches.

6.       In order to carry out the full range of NATO

missions as effectively and efficiently as possible,

Allies will engage in a continuous process of

reform, modernisation and transformation.

The Security Environment

7.       Today, the Euro-Atlantic area is at peace and the

threat of a conventional attack against NATO

territory is low.

8.       However, the conventional threat cannot be

ignored.

9.       The proliferation of nuclear weapons and other

weapons of mass destruction, and their means

of delivery, threatens incalculable consequences

for global stability and prosperity.

10.     Terrorism poses a direct threat to the security of

the citizens of NATO countries, and to international

stability and prosperity more broadly.

11.     Instability or conflict beyond NATO borders can

directly threaten Alliance security, including by

fostering extremism, terrorism, and trans-national

illegal activities such as trafficking in arms, narcotics

and people.

12.     Cyber attacks are becoming more frequent, more

organised and more costly in the damage that they

inflict on government administrations, businesses,

economies and potentially also transportation and

supply networks and other critical infrastructure;

they can reach a threshold that threatens national

and Euro-Atlantic prosperity, security and stability.

13.     All countries are increasingly reliant on the vital

communication, transport and transit routes

on which international trade, energy security

and prosperity depend.

14.     A number of significant technology-related trends

– including the development of laser weapons,

electronic warfare and technologies that impede

access to space – appear poised to have major

global effects that will impact on NATO military

planning and operations.

15.     Key environmental and resource constraints,

including health risks, climate change, water

scarcity and increasing energy needs will further

shape the future security environment in areas

of concern to NATO and have the potential to

significantly affect NATO planning and operations.

16.     The greatest responsibility of the Alliance is

to protect and defend our territory and our

populations against attack, as set out in Article 5

of the Washington Treaty.

17.     Deterrence, based on an appropriate mix of nuclear

and conventional capabilities, remains a core

element of our overall strategy.

18.     The supreme guarantee of the security of the Allies

is provided by the strategic nuclear forces of the

Alliance, particularly those of the United States; the

independent strategic nuclear forces of the United

Kingdom and France, which have a deterrent role

of their own, contribute to the overall deterrence

and security of the Allies.

19.     We will ensure that NATO has the full range

of capabilities necessary to deter and defend

against any threat to the safety and security of our

populations.

Security through Crisis

Management

20.     Crises and conflicts beyond NATO’s borders can

pose a direct threat to the security of Alliance

territory and populations.

21.     The lessons learned from NATO operations, in

particular in Afghanistan and the Western Balkans,

make it clear that a comprehensive political, civilian

and military approach is necessary for effective

crisis management.

22.     The best way to manage conflicts is to prevent

them from happening.

23.     Where conflict prevention proves unsuccessful,

NATO will be prepared and capable to

manage ongoing hostilities.

24.     Even when conflict comes to an end, the

international community must often provide

continued support, to create the conditions for

lasting stability.

25.     To be effective across the crisis management

spectrum, we will: (…list of tasks)

Promoting International Security

through Cooperation

Arms Control, Disarmament, and Non-

Proliferation

26.     NATO seeks its security at the lowest possible

level of forces.

Open Door

27.     NATO’s enlargement has contributed substantially

to the security of Allies; the prospect of further

enlargement and the spirit of cooperative security

have advanced stability in Europe more broadly.

Partnerships

28.     The promotion of Euro-Atlantic security is best

assured through a wide network of partner

relationships with countries and organisations

around the globe.

29.     Dialogue and cooperation with partners can make

a concrete contribution to enhancing international

security, to defending the values on which our

Alliance is based, to NATO’s operations, and to

preparing interested nations for membership

of NATO.

30.     We will enhance our partnerships through flexible

formats that bring NATO and partners together –

across and beyond existing frameworks:  (…list)

31.     Cooperation between NATO and the United Nations

continues to make a substantial contribution

to security in operations around the world.

32.     An active and effective European Union

contributes to the overall security of the Euro-

Atlantic area.

33.     NATO-Russia cooperation is of strategic

importance as it contributes to creating a common

space of peace, stability and security.

34.     The NATO-Russia relationship is based upon the

goals, principles and commitments of the NATORussia

Founding Act and the Rome Declaration,

especially regarding the respect of democratic

principles and the sovereignty, independence and

territorial integrity of all states in the Euro-Atlantic

area.

35.     The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and

Partnership for Peace are central to our vision of

Europe whole, free and in peace.

Reform and Transformation

36.     Unique in history, NATO is a security Alliance that

fields military forces able to operate together in any

environment; that can control operations anywhere

through its integrated military command structure;

and that has at its disposal core capabilities that

few Allies could afford individually.

37.     NATO must have sufficient resources – financial,

military and human – to carry out its missions,

which are essential to the security of Alliance

populations and territory. Those resources must,

however, be used in the most efficient and

effective way possible.

An Alliance for the 21st Century

38.     We, the political leaders of NATO, are determined

to continue renewal of our Alliance so that it is

fit for purpose in addressing the 21st Century

security challenges. We are firmly committed to

preserve its effectiveness as the globe’s most

successful political-military Alliance. Our Alliance

thrives as a source of hope because it is based on

common values of individual liberty, democracy,

human rights and the rule of law, and because

our common essential and enduring purpose

is to safeguard the freedom and security of

its members. These values and objectives are

universal and perpetual, and we are determined

to defend them through unity, solidarity, strength

and resolve.