Podcasts

The Migrant Integration Policy Index IV

This podcast is performed by Elena Sanchez. This briefing will discuss the new edition of the “Migrant Integration Policy Index” (MIPEX), updated in 2015. This Index tries to measure and compare integration policies in 39 countries, using 150 indicators. MIPEX creates a picture of migrants’ opportunities to participate in society.

Atlantic Strategy Group : Summary Discussion

Policy Center for the New South and the German Marshall Fund of the United States, in partnership with the Fernando Henrique Cardoso Institute, organized an Atlantic Strategy Group conference on June 23rd and 24th, 2015 in São Paulo, Brazil with a focus on trade, energy, food, and Geopolitical System in the international system.
This video is the summary discussion of the convening moderated by Ambassador Aziz Mekouar, Policy Center for the New South Senior Fellow, and featuring President Henrique Cardoso of Brazil and Mr. Jose Manuel Barosso, former President of the EU Commission.

The UK after the Elections

This podcast is performed by Francis Ghilès. The general elections in the UK have resulted in conservatives making unexpected wins while the labor and other smaller parties, notwithstanding SNP's major rise, saw some declines. This Webinar will aim to analyze the causes and implications of such results. The Virtual Brief held in Policy Center for the New South under the theme "The UK after the Elections", was presented by Francis Ghilès, Associate Senior Researcher at CIDOB, and the following summarizes the discussions of the brief:

The 56th Parliament general elections of the United Kingdom held on the 7th of May 2015 have resulted in Conservatives making unexpected wins while the labor and other smaller parties, notwithstanding SNP's major rise, saw some declines. This webinar will aimed to analyze the circumstances and implications of such results.
The Conservatives won 12-seat majorities in parliament as Labour Party members were almost wiped out by the Scottish National Party (SNP) in Scotland, and the Liberal Democrats suffered major losses. The campaign was marked by the growing support for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which came third in terms of votes. UKIP voters are perceived to be those abandoned by the Conservatives and New Labor, who have had some difficulties in adjusting to modern Britain and its new ethnic composition.
In contrast, Francis Ghiles explained that the dismaying results of the Labour party were partly due to its collapse in Scotland and the fragmentation of votes. Aside, Miliband’s personality as the Leader of the Labor Party did not create a general consensus due to many of his controversies. The reputation of the last Labor government as economically incompetent jeopardized the desire for stability that most of the voters were looking for in the current elections. However, there is still a margin of hope for the Labor Party to regain its popularity in the long term and it lays in the absence of commonality.

Des émergents au défi du « retour de la géopolitique » - Regards croisés économiques et géopolitiques

Cette deuxième émission de la série Ifri-Policy Center for the New South Roundtables sur "les défis de l'émergence et le retour de la géopolitique" porte sur les défis de l’émergence auxquels sont confrontés des pays comme le Brésil, l’Indonésie, le Nigéria et la Côte d’Ivoire. Acteur économique et politique incontournable des relations internationales depuis le début des années 2000, le Brésil connaît une croissance ralentie depuis 2011. Compte tenu du manque d’investissement dans les secteurs innovants et performants et de la persistance de très fortes inégalités sociales, le questionnement sur la trajectoire d’émergence brésilienne reste entier.
Avec ses caractéristiques géopolitiques, culturelles et politiques, l’Indonésie possède de tous les atouts d’une puissance en devenir. Néanmoins, les nombreuses crises internes et le faible niveau d’industrialisation freinent encore le retour de la confiance des investisseurs et remettent en question le modèle de croissance.
Devenu première puissance économique africaine en 2014, le Nigeria a fini par trouver sa place dans le cercle des pays émergents. Cependant, les inégalités fortes qui y persistent ainsi que la faible diversification de son économie dépendant très largement d’un secteur pétrolier en difficulté sont tant de freins à une croissance solide. Un climat sécuritaire extrêmement délicat fragilise d’autant plus ce géant aux pieds d’argile.
Disposant d’un fort potentiel en ressources naturelles et humaines, d’infrastructures relativement performantes et d’une croissance soutenue depuis l’adoption en 2011 de politiques de grands travaux, la Côte d’Ivoire semble destinée à un avenir économique florissant. Néanmoins, les défis économiques et sociaux que connaît le pays liés à l’existence de fortes inégalités entre espaces ruraux et urbains et à un climat politique tendu pourraient entraver son développement futur.

Renewable Energies and Mediterranean Energy Cooperation

This podcast is performed by Luigi Carafa. This tele-briefing will focus on renewable energy cooperation in the Mediterranean, pointing out some lessons learned in the last five years as well as the challenges ahead at national and regional level.
In this Virtual Brief, Luigi Carafa discussed policy, market, and governance pertaining to the Renewable Energy industry in the MENA region. The main points of his presentation are the following:

- Energy demand has been growing steadily in the Middle East-about 70% increase;
- The Energy demand CHALLENGES cannot be faced alone;
* Reduction of power losses
* Financial challenges
* Very high upfront costs/substantial initial investment
* Challenges call for regional and international cooperation;
* Policy and politics dichotomy creates a governance gap that should be overcome for the renewable energy industry to flourish;
* Policy refers to national planning-Investment in renewable requires suitable policy
* Access to cooperation refers to politics
- The way to overcome the policy and politics dichotomy is cooperation;
- Cooperation structures include;
* Cooperation over technical aspect, that should happen in such structures as the neighborhood policy between Europe and North Africa, as well as through South-South cooperation
* Industrial cooperation that would serve the purpose of changing business strategies and proposed business models, eventually leading to diversification of strategies
* Political cooperation in order to leverage into financial assistance
- Idea between renewable energy politics:
* Trade electricity from Morocco to other regions
* Have Spain be fully connected to the European continent, as it is now isolated
* Experiment with electricity transfers from Morocco to Spain
- Political will needs to be transformed into concrete results, and this happens through policy on the one hand, with sound public policy and a creation of the right conditions to enable that, and politics on the other, focused on creating several levels of cooperation around the betterment of the renewable energy sector.