Saturday, August 31, 2019

Medical Records and Privacy of the Famous Essay

Medical Records and Privacy of the Famous Privacy seems to be something that many people desire, but is becoming less and less available. With all the new technology, it is easier than ever to invade someone’s privacy. With cameras everywhere, from ATM’s to people’s cell phones, it is difficult for anyone to do anything that can be kept to one ’s self. While privacy is a right that the average person doesn’t normally struggle with, it is a problem that celebrities encounter everyday. Paparazzi are constantly following these famous people around as they do their everyday things like shopping, playing with their children, partying, or simply hanging in their homes. It is basically the price to pay to be famous. While these celebrities’ lives are invaded to a large degree, shouldn’t they still enjoy the right to keep some aspects of their lives private? Celebrities should have the right to keep things like medical records private, because not only is it a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), it is unethical to release medical information about someone to the public, even celebrities. In recent years, there have been a number of break-ins of celebrity medical records that have been leaked to the tabloids. In 2006 one of the country’s leading medical institutions discovered that the security of their medical records had been breached when The National Enquirer printed a story about Farrah Faucet’s cancer relapse, before the actress even told any of her family members† (Steinhaurer, 2008). Ms. Faucet is not the only celebrity who has had this happen. In 2007, George Clooney was informed that his medical records were accessed by people who didn’t have the right to look at them, following a motorcycle crash that left the actor with broken ribs and scrapes. Britney Spears was also a victim when the media reported that she was involuntarily hospitalized in 2008 and put in the psych ward under the thought she could be a danger to others or herself. Gossip outlets and other news media reported on her interactions with staff and visitors throughout her hospitalization (Techweb, 2008). These are incidents that have occurred for many years, as tabloids are always interested in the medical issues celebrities deal with, and keeping it under wraps is more difficult with technology making it easier for anyone to gain instant access to health secrets. â€Å"With the advent of networked computers, the problem has increased exponentially, and celebrities are constantly surrounded by people who are willing to trade in medical information for profit or their own 15 minutes† (Blankstein, 2008). While the people who accessed the records of these celebrities and leaked the stories are definitely at fault, I think that much of the blame also lies with the reporters and journalists who actually print and air the stories. The press is violating privacy by releasing these stories in two ways, legally and ethically. â€Å"Medical privacy rules apply to everybody, including celebrities,† Alicia Mitchell, spokesperson for the American Hospital Association said. â€Å"Everybody is entitled to confidentiality of what is often very personal information† (Rhea, 2007). By printing the very private medical information, there was a violation of HIPPA. HIPPA is an act that went into effect in 1996 and it set a national standard for securing and protecting patient health information. Hospitals have strict policies against leaking information, with the exceptions of insurance and law enforcement investigations. Because of this law, many health care providers won’t even admit to treating some patients (Techweb, 2008). While the people who leaked the stories to the press have been reprimanded by either suspension or termination, there wasn’t any type of consequences for the press for reporting this illegal material. That brings me to the ethical violation. â€Å"Depriving people of their privacy is a cruel and immoral act, which could destroy their lives. The sole objective of tabloids is to make money, so they’ll go to any extreme to satisfy their readers and increase circulation figures† (Heng, 2006). It is obvious that celebrity news is an outlet that sells, as seen by the numerous tabloids and entertainment shows. The public has an interest in what is going on in the lives of these rich and glamorous people. This brings on a form of mediated voyeurism, which can be defined as, â€Å"the consumption of revealing images and information about others’ real and unguarded lives, not always for the purpose of entertainment but frequently at the expense of privacy and discourse, through the means of the mass media† (Calvert, 2000). Basically saying that the public has a need to see these famous people and learn about their lives, even at the risk of invading their privacy. The tabloids simply exploit the public’s desire to learn these things, regardless of the ethical issues of invading a human being’s privacy. They know people will buy it and that they will make money. I think that to be an ethical journalist it is important to empathize with the person whose life is about to be splashed on the papers. Of course there is the matter of getting the story and pleasing the readers and the editor, but it should take into account the public’s real right to know. A story about the health of someone like the President of the United States might be something worth printing, because knowing how he is medically is of public interest because this is a man that is running the country. However, that is a different scenario with someone like Britney Spears. She is simply an entertainer and it isn’t important for the public to know her health because it will not affect the daily lives of people. It is simply news that the public likes to learn about. If I were a journalist, I would like to think to myself how I would feel if someone had released my medical records for the public to read. I would feel very violated. As Lance Morrow states, â€Å"Good journalistic standards are not difficult to state, just tough sometimes when applied case by case. Journalists function best when they are mature, experienced, and intelligent; when they keep their work as clear and simple as possible; when they fall back upon decency and common sense if questions arise about whether to run a piece† (Morrow, 2002). If these people were true journalists, they would think ethically about whether or not to release this type of information, and whether or not it is simply the decent thing to do. I would think that it would be an easy answer because, just because someone is famous, doesn’t mean that all of their privacy rights should be violated.

Learning experience paper acrophobia Essay

Have you ever been on top of a large building and were too afraid to look over the side? Have you ever climbed a really tall tree and were too afraid to climb down? I have, when I was younger I climbed a really tall tree and when I got to the top I looked down, I was too afraid to climb back down. What I was experiencing was a fear of heights know as acrophobia. Acrophobia (n.d.) according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is an abnormal dread of being in a high place: fear of heights. I believe that most people become a little scared when it comes to heights. There is nothing wrong with having acrophobia to an extent. It is a defense mechanism our bodies use to stop us from walking off cliffs. The problem is when a natural instinct becomes paranoia. For example, someone who has acrophobia would be scared, nervous, and or panic inside a safe environment like a skyscraper. Symptoms There are many symptoms of the fear of heights (acrophobia) that may occur when up on a tall building or high place. Many people with acrophobia can become dizzy, excessive sweating, nausea, sick to their stomachs, shaking, dry mouth, and unable to speak. One of the main symptoms of acrophobia is fear of dying. Some of these symptoms can then turn into a full blown anxiety attack. â€Å"Discomfort anxiety tends to be specific to certain uncomfortable or dangerous situations- and consequently shows up in such phobias as fear of heights† (Ellis, 2003, p.83). It is only believed that between 2 and 5 percent of the world’s population actually suffers from acrophobia, and that twice as many woman are affected by acrophobia then men. A common misconception with the fear of heights is people calling it vertigo. Vertigo happens to people when they are on a tall building and look down from the top. Vertigo is a sensation that causes a person to feel like  they are spinning eve n though they are not. So even though vertigo occurs to a lot of people when they high in the air, it does not mean they are afraid of heights. Some Causes What causes people to become afraid of heights? Some psychologist believe that the fear of heights enters your life from something that happened in your past. Psychologist believe that it is caused by some emotional trauma that has to do with heights. For example a person who is suffering from acrophobia may have fallen out of a tall tree when they were little. It is also believed that this condition can be triggered by trauma seen in a movie, television, or a real life event involving another person that has to do with heights. Research and Studies There has been some research done on the fear of heights. Psychologists by the name of Gibson and Walk did an experiment in 1960 called â€Å"Visual Cliff†. The â€Å"Visual Cliff† experiment was an experiment to see if babies who were still crawling would cross a thick piece of glass that covered a steep drop off. They then put the mother on the other side of the drop off to call the baby over to the other side. Even with the mother calling the crawling babies to come to them, the babies still did not cross over the glass. This experiment shows that most humans if not all humans have acrophobia at least partially ingrained in our genetics. I believe this is part of our survival instincts. The Cure Many people who are suffering from acrophobia are often prescribed medications to help them out with their fear of heights. Medications will not actually cure someone of their fears it only masks them. In some cases the side effects of the drugs may be worse than a fear of heights. One of the best treatments for acrophobia is cognitive behavior therapy. Cognitive behavior therapy involves exposing a person to heights and helping them develop coping skills that will help them increase their confidence and change their thought process towards heights. How I would go about my fear of heights is by actually facing my fears. I would take baby steps when facing this fear. I would find a tall building, I would go to the top of it,  and I would then would walk as close to the edge as I could before the fear overcomes me. I would then mark that spot on the ground, I would then come back the next day and take 1 step closer. I would keep that up each day until I get to the edge, and each day I would tell myself to trust my body and building there is nothing to be afraid of. I believe this would be the best approach for me to overcome my fear of heights. Conclusion Suffering from acrophobia can be something that is hard for a person to deal with. I do believe that we all have a fear of heights, it may be very minute but I do believe we all have it. I think the only way to cure a phobia or fear is to face them. I personally know facing fears is very hard to do but once I overcome the fear it was an incredible feeling. References Ellis, A. (2003). Discomfort anxiety: A new cognitive-behavioral construct (part I). Journal of Rational – Emotive & Cognitive – Behavior Therapy, 21(3-4), 183. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/220282433?accountid=458 Acrophobia. In Merriam-Webster Dictionary online. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acrophobia

Friday, August 30, 2019

Genetics Lab Report

Reshmi Radhakrishnan, TA: Jared Tues Rm 24 Experiment 6 Purpose: To analyze if diploid yeast strain heterozygous for ARG8 ADE2 HIS3/arg8 ade2 his3 on chromosome XV and TRP1/trp1 on chromosome IV irradiated with UV light underwent mitotic recombination to form homozygous recessive ade2/ade2 mutants. The ade2/ade2 mutant are selected then plated on different media to observe if the homozygous recessive mutants were due to mitotic recombination. Controls: If all the red cells grew on the CSM-Trp plates, than it would show that they are wild type for the TRP1 gene.All of the plates showed thick white colonies for the CSM-Trp plates. They should have been red because the ade2 colony streaked on the plate was red. They were still white because the adenine from the plate had not been exhausted. However, the cells are ade2- because they are red on all the other replica plates. The CSM-Ade plates are also a control. In order to ensure that the cells are ade2-, they would not be able to grown on this plate or have sparse red colonies. Because the cells have the dysfunctional form of the ade2 gene, they would not be able to survive with adenine present in the plate.Since YPD plate was the last replica plate, it was used as a control to make sure that the transfer was effective for all the other plates. Since red colonies appear red on all the other media plates, it is concluded that the transfer was effective. Results: Growth on the replica plating Plate| 1| 2| 3| 4| CSM-Arg| Red colonies| Red| Red| Red| CSM-Ade| Sparse Red| No growth| Sparse Red | Sparse Red| CSM-His| Sparse Red| Red| Red| Red| CSM-Trp| White| White| White | White| YPD| Red| Red | Red| Red| Conclusion: We plated the red colonies or sectors on CSM-Arg, CSM-His, and CSM-His to iscern the genotype of each colony or sector. Colony 1 is ade1 his3 because of the sparse red growth seen on the CSM-Ade and CSM-His plate. Colony 2, 3 and 4 are ade2. The colonies on the CSM-Trp plates were white but should have bee n red. They were white because they haven’t exhausted the adenine present in the plate. Many of the ade2 cells were also his3 because the recombination occurred between the ade2 gene and centromere. Since mitotic recombination is rare, the chance of double recombination is improbable so the cells would ARG8.Further Questions: i. Yeast can also exist in haploid form. So the ade2 his3 arg8 genotype is possible if there is only one copy of the chromosome and there is loss of the chromosome that was wild type for all the genes. ii. Red sectors in white colonies arise mitotic recombination, by loss of the entire chromosome containing the ade2+ allele, by a deletion of the portion of the chromosome containing the ade2+ allele, or by spontaneous mutation of the ade2+ allele to an ade2- allele. ii. Red colonies were ade2 before the first division on the plate. Red sectors arise from successive divisions after on the plate. Red colonies can also arise from loss of chromosome with the ADE2 allele, mutation of the ADE2 allele, or deletion of the ADE2 allele. iv. If it is a red sector, it is possible to be due to recombination. However reversion from ade2 to ADE2, cannot be distinguished from the white colonies because they look they same phenotypically.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Project Performance and Control on the London 2012 construction Essay

Project Performance and Control on the London 2012 construction programme - Essay Example Equally, the program did not suffer from any noticeable or significant deviation from the set goals and measures as detailed in the governing blueprint of the schedule. The orderly and harmonious connection of the different aspects of the program was an enabling factor to the attaining of the different goals attained at the various levels and stages of the program. Most project deliverables were within the stipulated range of time and measures. The overall performance of the program is indicative of the accuracy of methods employed, the appropriate estimations, and the quality of controls and management systems employed before and in the course of the construction. The success of the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games depended nearly entirely on the nature of logistics and state of infrastructure. The entire construction project was placed under the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) (Elson, 2012). Experts in the fields of construction, planning, sports, and finance worked together to achieve a level of efficiency that contributed significantly to the successful model of construction and architecture. In essence, analysts contend that much of the efficiency and effectiveness of the program was a factor of appropriate consultation and the assessment of utility, resources, and the element of time. Analysts observe that the performance of the construction program surpassed benchmarks and established standards and that it demonstrated the capacity of London construction industry to overcome the usual inequalities and logistical mishaps that have defined nearly similar projects in the past. Forensic schedule analysis and cost management are some of the key indicators of success that attend to construction projects in many parts of the world. The application of this analysis was manifest in matching of specific processes to respective estimates of time. Teams comprising of contractors, the academia, industry partners, and multiple government bodies worked together with the ODA to assess the kind of synergies that would be required in the development of other systems that are consistent with the nature of success achieved in the London 2012 Construction Program (Elson, 2012). On this note, it becomes important to assess the program as a case in point of the effect of coordination and management on the performance of processes as understood within the construction industry. Appropriate systems of risk management were enlisted throughout the various processes to serve as the safeguards against possible and unforeseeable mishaps to the program. The enlisting of the risk management systems was premised on the awareness of the impact of external factors to the performance of the program. As such, estimates of costs and other operational variables were determined in recognition of the possible variations that determine the nature of performance of processes against the set goals and benchmarks. The preliminary stage of the program focused on the dev elopment of the most appropriate strategy. This stage was one of the most important because it determined the course of action to be taken regarding the other kinds of processes. Some of the details that informed the development of strategy included matters of funding of the specific aspects of the program. Details of internal and external funding were discussed with the view of determining the most appropri

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 399

Assignment Example Eventually, I realized that I could competently rehearse the notations from the book to the physical environment by playing the right keys of the piano. It is apparent that playing the piano as a music instrument requires the devotion and intelligence of every participant. During the â€Å"Light Bulb† experience, one would acknowledge the essence of enforcing intellectual variations to acquaint slow learners, mid-range individuals, and the competent group with varied tasks that would ease the process of learning. The class session would evoke competence among the majority group of students if the instructor would appreciate the contribution of every student. Further, the evaluation of one’s cultural and lingual background would empower instructors with the ideal approaches in training different groups of students to emulate the ideal notations to the physical environment. The course presented different aspects of acquiring music through the workshop training sessions that were informative on different musical orientations. The unprecedented variations in playing Asian, African, and American among other social systems’ musical notations among through the piano provoked an understanding of the psychological events that revolve around a person’s mind in playing and depicting competence choreography classes of music. However, instructors should critical in predicting the extent at which a student would learn the different notations fast over another, as such would contribute to professionalism and competence in the

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Brand equity for Sandro Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Brand equity for Sandro - Speech or Presentation Example In which case, the brand should make use of effortless style with both ranges of men and women across all the ages (Burger, 2012, 35). For brand meaning, it is wholly inspired by French design and usually sought by women in their 30’s. In order to maintain and improve its customer base, the brand has ensured strong customer relationships through conducting client data collection about how their response to the product. Through the help of brand equity, the company compliments its brand’s imagery by improving its commitment to social causes such as introducingâ€Å"reduce, reuse, recycle†. This triggers customers to feel good while purchasing the product. Further, brand performance demonstrates its reliability and durability; people know that their products are well designed and stylish, and that they wont let them down. In terms of brand response, Sandro makes use of high quality materials, to satisfy their clients, obtained from France thereby reflecting modern fashion (Kapferer, 2012, 5). This has helped in evoking feelings directly in the customers because of the expertise associated with the contemporary fashion. According to the nature of the brand, trendy people known to be fast fashion follower are strongly attracted to the fashion created by the brand. Consequently, this has evoked loyalty given that the customers can identify the brand according to their unique needs. Apart from the trendy people, fun loving people who have a sense of achievement and self-respect visualize credibility and superiority of the brand (Kapferer, 2000, 45). This is because, the modernity evident in the brand allows the customers to express themselves in a fashionable way. The superiority arises given that the competitors have not been able to evoke the same feeling on the customers. One of Sandro assets, towards ensuring brand resonance, is strong online presence that ensures that there is 24-hour connection with the clients. This has helped the brand in

Monday, August 26, 2019

Art History Course Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Art History Course - Assignment Example The study started with the in-depth analysis of the religions Islam, Christianity and Jewish relating them with the perceptions of East and West, referring to the texts by Jonathan Berkey, Maria Rosa Menocal, Nasser Rabbat, Jerilynn Dodds, Oleg Grabar, Rachel Milstein, William Tronzo, Annabel Jane Wharton and the likes. The referential books related to us the vibrant architectural and artifacts history of Islam, Christianity and other faiths; highlighting various central monuments and respective religious to political institutions and philosophical traditions based on economic networks, commodities and geographical stipulations. The chosen study areas based on geographical settings were the Levant where the age of the Crusades witness the Ayyubid metalwork and glassware elaborated by evident Christian iconography, in Asia Minor Armenian-Byzantine masons and artists working for Seljuk and Ottoman courts were observed, Egypt's religious and political learning delineate the Courtly Arts, representation of conduct and utilization and trade of Fatimid's. As the course progressed we were directed to Spain studying the Mudejar style synagogues and churches created by the Muslim masons and architects for Jewish and Christian patrons and the Iberian Peninsulas acknowledging the culture of Tolerance, the Golden Age of Judaism, the relation and conflicts among Christianity and Islam. The research work on regions such as Southern Italy, Norman Sicily where we interpreted a universal "language of luxury" that was intentionally created by ruling heads as well as the illustration on the tri-lingual artistic customs of the Norman, Islamic, and Byzantine civilizations. Greece cultivated in our minds the more elaborate architecture constitutions, the convoluted philosophical and religious interaction. Their individual sermons and preaching outlining the concept of their faith and believes were discussed in detail helping us to understand the encounters among such entities. These comprehensive readings enlighten the art history students on the subject of medieval Mediterranean era as the communal stage of artisans made richer by the interaction of the East and West, bearing in mind the socio-religious divergence among them all. Communication whether resultant of warfare or peaceful affability created that shared world of art and culture; the individualistic beliefs and skills can be manifested from each study. Thus regarding this, both the regions can be deemed as individually accomplished of structural design and rich customs. Class Critique: Keeping in view the purpose and high level design of the course, it comprised of a small group with classes held twice a week. This ensured that each theme based lecture and presentation helps the students to actually breathe in the medieval times of contrasting religions and beliefs. The lectures were conducted through related images and highly structured lectures on them. However I feel that printed handouts of the lectures or its important points would help students to understand the reading in a more efficient way. Each student was encouraged to conduct presentations and discussions

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Employment Law Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Employment Law - Research Proposal Example However, if the IRS later reclassifies a contractor as an employee, the employer faces liability for back payroll taxes, possible criminal sanctions and invalidation of benefit plans." (2004) These are things to keep in mind when an organization is facing an audit from the Department of Labor. It would be best to thoroughly review the laws governing independent contractor categorization before the audit process begins in order to ensure that the independent contractors are properly classified. As far as the school bus accident is concerned, it would again be best to review the laws governing the liability of the organization when an accident involving an independent contractor is concerned. It is most likely that the liability of the accident will fall into the hands of the person who is actually at fault for the accident rather than the employing organization, as it may first appear. Since companies who hire independent contractors rarely carry insurance on these individuals, there may be a significant problem arise (Freelawanswer, 2010). An independent contractor gets into a car accident while on the employer's time, who is liable for the damage (201

Saturday, August 24, 2019

The Development of the Paris Haute Couture Essay

The Development of the Paris Haute Couture - Essay Example The essay "The Development of the Paris Haute Couture" analyzes the Paris Haute Couture. The upper class citizens of the country came up with the haute couture in 1860, a fashion which would differentiate them from the lower class in the society . The fashion became popular in France, but it disappeared during the Second World War. The Second World War led to the fall of the haute couture because Germans occupied Paris, the city that bore the fashion. The upper class in the French society struggled to recover the status of the fashion in Paris after the war. The fashion has since grown to the extent of being exported and earning the country foreign exchange. The haute couture was developed in 1858 by Charles Fredrick Worth who was born in Lincolnshire. Fredrick travelled to Paris in 1858 with the intention of introducing new techniques of sewing clothes in the city. The founder who targeted women in the upper class in the society built the first houte culture shop in Rue de la paix i n the city. Charles sewed dresses for women using the most expensive fabric in the country at that time. Women came to the shop to order for dresses according to the design that they preferred. Fredrick then measured the bodies of the women so that he could determine the size and shape of the dresses. In the course of the business, Worth became a designer. The designer formulated dress designs, and labeled them with the worlds, â€Å"Worth 7 Rue de la paix .† The label contributed to the spread of the fashion not only in France., but the whole of Europe. In 1868, Fredrick developed the Chamber Syndicale De La Couture, an association that was in charge of registering and satisfying new haute couture houses. The Spread of Haute Culture in Europe The slave trade that took place along the Atlantic contributed to the spread of haute couture to the whole of Europe. Women who earned high income at that time travelled along the roads that were built by slaves to Paris where they boug ht the expensive designs made by Fredrick. The travelers who came from far regions spent their nights at the Hotel De La Paix where they were served with haute cuisine. This means that even the hotel and the haute food contributed to the development of the fashion. The women who bought the haute fashion dresses mainly used the clothing for special occasions such as horse racing and beauty pageants (Dejean 2005). Researcher found out that the number of models in France increased drastically when the haute couture was developed in Paris. The spread of haute couture led to the upcoming of new designers before the Second World War. The designers include Coco, Vionnet, Banciaga, Fortuny, and Poiret among others. These designers developed the haute couture further, and this led to the increased popularity of the fashion in Europe, Italy, and America (Ruppery, & Jana 2009). Fortuny developed a technique of pleating silk in a column-like silhouette. Banciaga who worked in a fabric firm deve loped silk gazar, which he used to make voluminous coats and dresses. Poiret, on the other hand, developed new designs, and he expanded the fashion to perfume and beauty products apart from dresses3. The increase in the number of silhouette sewers in the couture industry verifies the spread of the culture. In 1910, for example, the number

Friday, August 23, 2019

Communication in the work place Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Communication in the work place - Research Paper Example In this paper, we will discuss interpersonal communication in the workplace settings. We will also develop strategies for active listening, critical listening, and empathic listening. Along with that, we will also discuss the impact of gender and culture on interpersonal communication and will explain the principles and misconceptions related to effective workplace communication. Interpersonal Communication Interpersonal workplace communication is a form of communication, which takes place between two or more individuals in any workplace setting. Interpersonal communication is basically the exchange of information, expressions, and symbols between people. Interpersonal communication depends on the type of relationships and the level of understanding that exists between the individuals. For example, interpersonal communication taking place between a person and his or her family members will be different from the interpersonal communication that takes place between an employee of a com pany and the manager or boss of that company. Level of understanding between the individuals is the key towards effective interpersonal communication. Less understanding results into ineffective communication whereas good understanding and patience result into effective and result-oriented communication. Therefore, we can say that interpersonal communication has a deep association with the level of understanding and the nature of relationships that exists between people. Interpersonal Communication in the Workplace Environment Interpersonal workplace communication is different from normal interpersonal communication. In workplace settings,

Critical Appraisal of Business Planning Process Essay

Critical Appraisal of Business Planning Process - Essay Example In most cases, the entrepreneur himself will not be capable of raising the required capital for the business. Sometime, even when the initial capital is brought in by the owner, further expansion or the need for additional working capital requirements will force him/her to approach a venture capitalist or financial institution. In any of these cases, the clarity of the business plan is what convinces the concerned institution for granting finance. A good business plan should be prepared based on an outside-in approach. An entrepreneur should have a good understanding of the external environment in which the business will operate. A vision and mission for the business forms the two main components of the business plan. Vision is the ultimate goal that the business wants to achieve and mission statement states in brief about how the vision will be achieved by the business. Thus a well charted out business plan is an inevitable component for a successful business venture. The following section will give a critical analysis of the various steps of the business planning process. ... Identification of a problem that exists in the market is the first step that an entrepreneur should take. â€Å"If you keep up with your industry, talk to customers, study what is not working in your business, you should have a ton of problems you would like to solve.† (Starak, 2006) Identification of problem will lead to finding of various alternative solutions for the problem. All ideas should be screened well and the entrepreneur should select the one best solution that becomes the real business idea. Thus it can be said that the first thought that should come into the minds of an aspiring entrepreneur is a market problem. Strategic Objectives: Strategic objectives refer to the core business objectives of the venture. It mainly consists of the vision and mission of a business. Apart from that, it also consists of the other objectives of the business. Formulating good strategic decisions are extremely important for the success of a business. Most of these objectives are long term in nature. Therefore, an entrepreneur should have good foresight in order to formulate clear business objectives. Also, the entrepreneur should have a good understanding of the market and environment situation in order to make the objectives clear, focused, realistic and achievable. The objectives are the motive behind a business success. The various strategies that the business should take will depend mainly on the business objectives. Clear objectives imply that half the work of an entrepreneur is complete. He/she just have to manage the business to make sure that it is operating as per the objectives. Market Analysis and Research: It was mentioned that an understanding of the market is very much essential for idea generation

Thursday, August 22, 2019

How to Address Conflicts or Dilemmas Essay Example for Free

How to Address Conflicts or Dilemmas Essay 1.1Describe potential conflicts or dilemmas that may arise between the duty of care and an individual`s rights. In our care work we mostly work with children and young people who may not have the ability to judge what is good for them and what is not. In those cases it is our responsibility and job as individuals and as a team to provide them what we judge is best for them. In some other cases they have the skills to get involved in the decisions and this can lead to conflicts and dilemmas. Potential conflicts between the service user and the care worker in our job role can arise from disagreeing in certain questions e.g. what is healthy to eat, what is not, what is more important when having a meal: quality or quantity, what activities or forms of entertainment (films, songs, etc.) are age-appropriate and/or mentally and emotionally adequate and so on. 1.2Describe how to manage risks associated with conflicts or dilemmas between an individual`s rights and the duty of care. If a conflict arises, I can never force a learner to do or not to do things unless the law or the School Policy allows me to (for example if they want to watch an age-inappropriate film, but in these cases I always have to refer to my line manager). What I can do if a conflict in these questions arises between me and the learner is to provide all the information about the risk carried by their decisions in a supportive, encouraging way, and then let them make their own choices. Every time when a conflict arises I should record what actions were taken to provide every source for the learner to make their own decision and what choice they made. I always should seek for advice at my line manager.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Impact of the Economic Crisis on Countries in Africa

Impact of the Economic Crisis on Countries in Africa The aim of this dissertation is to analyze the impact of the global economic crisis in Africa and provide suitable suggestions as a consultant of the African Union The African economy was proceeding towards a splendid reasonable growth towards the beginning of the year 2008 even though many countries in the world were caught between the subprime crises. The African continent was one of the worlds best continent with abundant of resources and gradually developing and recording a reasonable growth in their GDP, before the global economic crisis affected the development of this region. Africa was a frontier in the production of resources with recording a above average growth, experts predicted the present growth rate would lead to the development of African economy as a superior power in the future. However the present decline in the prices of export commodities has resulted in the decline in the government revenues which has affected the GDP of Africa. The major contributors to the development of African economy were the need for resource materials, the reasonable development of china and the increase in the inflow of capital and factors of macro economic rectifications. There was an also major contribution from the migrant remittances which contributed to the reasonable earnings in the household and increase the government revenues in terms of tax. There were many speculations expecting the best out of the potential of Africa in order to produce resources for the growth of the continent and reduce poverty. But there was a close indication of the downfall in the economy in the early 2007 which ultimately was encountered by the African economy in the late 2008. In the world economy when many developed countries were facing recession and crisis, there was severe alteration towards the growth scenario in Africa because of the stagnancy. The majority of the growth contributors of Africa were affected by this crisis. The development in chinas economy declined gradually and there was a downfall in the need for resources and their prices were declining to an extent. Because of the reasonable GDP there was no pressure on the concern of inflation. Certain assurance of added aids was not implemented yet and there was a reduction in the capital inflow. Since the effects were taken care of there were no immediate reactions in Africa due to the economic crisis. However the reduction in the external aid which was not implemented as assured by many developed countries in the G20 started affecting the health sector to a greater extent. To have a detail description of African economic crisis we would discuss the major sectors which have been adversely affected due to recession. To start with there would be an impact in the mining sector, impact in banking sector does not have any major adverse effects, consequences faced by the effects of crisis in finance sector including the commodity markets and international exchange rates, adverse effects on remittances and capital inflows in the trade sectors with the addition of FDI. There were other sectors too such as tourism, manufacturing which had experienced an impact due to the global economic crisis. The under development of the banking sector in Africa is another major concern because the banking sector has failed to derive structures that benefits the economy. The increase in the banking policies with external integration could generate the flow of capital which was not implemented in Africa There were certain positive impacts for the countries importing commodities in Africa, they were benefited a lot from reducing the expenditures. On the entire economy of Africa the sub Saharan region was the most to be affected by the crisis. The ultimate effects of the global economic crisis were the increase in the infant mortality rate, increase in poverty, pressure on government to restructure the fiscal budget, and unemployment. However since there was growth in African economy it could face the immense pressure of Economic crisis. The major countries to experience severe effects by the economic crisis are Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Egypt which are mostly the sub Saharan Africa regions. The impact of the economic crisis in Africa made many underdeveloped countries to receive international implications on its economy to develop their infrastructure. The international business strategies suitable recovery facts have proved more beneficiaries in the world economies. The suggestion of suitable changes in the physical structure could help in the faster recovery of the economic crisis IMPACTS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON BANKING The global economic crisis effect in the major developed countries was on the banking sector where many banking corporate collapsed during the crisis. But the African economy did not have any adverse effects on the banking sector because of their less extent of bonding with the world economies. The African economy has a comparatively low external financing compared to other continents of the world, the external financing of Africa only accounts to 4% of the overall volume in the emerging economies. To have a statistical overview the African external financing it only issued bonds worth of six million American dollars and received only three million dollars from private reserves. This comparatively low market capitalization of the world economy has protected the African banking system from severe damages. The African economy did not report any bankruptcy during the global economic crisis because the African banks could manage reasonable returns from the mortgages. There were certain e ffects in the African economy due to the presence of foreign banks with assets in some African countries like Swaziland, Madagascar who suffered major losses due to world financial crisis. But the effects of world economic crisis did not affect the banks progress in Africa, the banking systems dominates the finance sector and the role played by the financial markets are not of greater concern. There is a transmission check of funds borrowed from foreign banks by the government and there is less awareness of off balance sheet procedure to African economy which was the major reasons for the stability of African banking sector. The conversion of many capital resources into foreign assets saved the African economy to avoid exchange rate appreciation. To sum up the impact of global economic crisis did not deliver any adverse effect on the banking sector. IMPACTS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE FINANCIAL STRUCTURE OF AFRICA INTRODUCTION The African continent was not isolated from the financial crisis, to have a deep overview of the financial crisis there were certain adverse effects on the economy because of the badly constructed financial systems. There was a reduction in the earnings in many sectors such as there was a reduction in the need of commodities and also reduction in the commodity prices, There were reduction in capital inflows, the major affected sector will be the export where it will face a reduction of $578 billion in the recent years out of which the oil sector itself will account to $420 billion reduction in the earnings. This loss in the earnings will account to one fifth of the GDP which is five times the avail given to the region. There was an effect of this financial crisis in the growth of the economy and it also increased poverty. To have a deeper analysis of the impact of the financial crisis in Africa let us look at the causes of transmission of the financial crisis and its effect on the in dividual factors of the financial sector. Causes of financial crisis is Africa The major cause of the financial crisis in Africa was the reduction in the prices and amount of the export commodities because of the global financial crisis. There was a prominent reduction in the prices of commodities in the late 2008 such as oil sector faced a downfall of 69% in their prices, because of the decline in the exports up to 45% there was a huge loss faced by the continent, even the other commodities excluding oil accounted to 38% of downfall in their prices. The other major cause of the African financial crisis is the decline in the capital inflow and remittances. These accounted to decline in the foreign exchange which ultimately guided to poverty in the continent due to the shortage in income. The developing countries have always depended on foreign direct investment (FDI) for developing the countys economy and infrastructure. Because of the delays in the assured FDI many projects have been delayed or halted leading to gradual loses. Finally there was downfall in the stocks of the foreign reserves and the reduction in the span of import cover contributed to a larger pressure in the African economy unable to afford the commodities hence causing more crisis. Let us have a broader view of the effects in the African economy due to the causes of the global economic crisis. EFFECTS OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS IN AFRICA EFFECT ON THE FINANCIAL MARKETS There was a gradual impact in the financial markets because of the subprime crisis. The banking sector did not face any direct impact of the crisis but there were effects due to transmission and dependence on the external economy. There were slight rise in the prices of the assets and the risk premium was increased indicating there was some damage in the finance structure in the early 2008. Because of the transmission and dependency, the liquid finance markets where affected more in this region more than the developed countries and inclined to the over valuing of stocks. If you have a look at the reports from countries like Nigeria and Egypt, they faced a loss of more than half of their investment towards late 2008. Increase in the value of debts in the international finance markets has caused the rise in debt spreads in the African countries. In order to attract the investors the African countries like Tunisia increased their bias points. The bias points of the developing countries mainly in Africa in the international market reached to 800 points in the late 2008, these indeed inclined the risk premium which forced many countries like Kenya to stop imploring from international financial markets and circulate the long term resources to local markets.There was a decline in the foreign exchange reserves because of the depreciation of currencies, this happened due to the decline in the commodity prices. Variations in the currency exchange rate against American dollars and Euros delivered an effect in the African economy. There was a three fifth of drop in the copper prices due to the global economic crisis. Hence African countries were one of the international reserves of copper and they had faced a chief downfall in their foreign reserves. There was about 50% depreciation of the currency of countries like Zambia against American dollars. Africa is one of the main continents with abundant of resources whose exports were one of the major earnings and helped in increasing the growth of economy. There have been decline in the commodity prices and volume all over the world because of the global economy crisis in the late 2008. This crisis inclined certain effects in the African economy, there was a three fifth decline in the prices of the crude oil which was one of the major reserves of Africa. Some of the other major natural resources of Africa such as diamond, copper, timber etc produced by mining declined by 30%, the development in the African export sector declined by 3% and there was a reduction in the GDP was about 3.5% compared to the fiscal year 2008. There were certain adverse effects because of the reduction in commodity prices which resulted in, reduction in the gain, low profit for high production cost resources, decline in government aids and finally the termination of many projects which were supported by FD I incline a huge loss to the African economy. The decline in the price of food commodities resulted in restructuring the government budget and balance of payments. There are certain regions in Africa such as Burundi where the oil is imported would have an positive impact of the reduced prices there are also certain negative impacts in attracting FDI for these countries which would decrease their development. EFFECT OF LONG TERM AND MEDIUM TERM TRANSACTIONS There are certain effects on the trade of goods and services in the world due to the global economic crisis from which Africa is not isolated. According to the reports there is an decrease in the growth of trade in terms of exports and imports, there is a decrease of 5% in the growth of imports and 7% in the growth of exports. Africa will experience a loss of about 45% of its value of exports. The other important effect is due to the capital flow within Africa and the world, there was a decline in the FDI about 21% in the African region towards the end of 2008. This effect has only been described by certain countries is Africa such as Egypt while other countries have increased the FDI such as South Africa. But there was certain adverse effects of FDI in the production of natural resources which was not availed as assured by international markets due to the economic crisis. The effect of short term capital flows is there was a decline about 50% in the capital flow for emerging counties because of the reduction in the availability of financial resources, but the African economy only suffered upto a lesser extent because of the limited bonding between the external financial markets and the African financial markets. IMPACT OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON SUB SAHARAN AFRICA The major effects of the global economic crisis in the sub Saharan region were the decline in their trade, decline in the remittances, and reduction in external financing. The major problem in the sub Saharan region was their trade was mostly depended on the countries suffered by economic crisis this reduced the demand in the resources exported. The decline in the prices of the primary commodities in sub Saharan Africa accounted to adverse effects in their economies. The government revenues depend on tourist sector for development infrastructure which suffered a major hit during the crisis. The decline in world trade accounted by one percent accounted to half the percent decline in the growth of the sub Saharan region. The prominent causes for the economic crisis in the sub Saharan region was the trade with United States, there was a fifty seven percent decline in the trade between the two regions. The development of the sub Saharan Africa was majorly because of the trade with china, thirteen percent of this regions exports and a comparative ten percent of imports depended on the trade with China. The investors from china were behind the initiative of many projects in the Africa region funded by them. The integration between both the regions decreased after the effect of global economic crisis leading to further impacton the economy of the sub Saharan Africa countries. There was a dramatic decline in the capital inflows in the sub Saharan region compared to other parts of Africa. There was a 26.7% drop in the external investments which accounted to the financial crisis of the economy of many countries. The sub Saharan Africa earned reasonable government revenue from migrant remittances who suffered adverse effects because of redundancy as an effect of the economic crisis, this reduced the government revenues in terms of tax. There were certain assurance given by the developed countries in the G8 committee meeting regarding the increase in the funding to the Afr ican countries which was not implemented due to the economic crisis. Out of the impact of the financial crisis on the entire African continent, Southern Africa will be affected the most. Countries like Angola will experience a dramatic downfall in their growth about 20.9%, the economy growth of east Africa will be affected by 2%, the Sub Saharan region will have difficulties in fiscal balancing. There will be huge responsibilities for the government to structure their budget to meet the social needs of the people in Africa. These are the financial issues experienced by Africa during the Global Economic Crisis. IMPACT OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON REMITTANCES IN AFRICA The prominent impact of the global economic crisis in Africa was on remittances which indeed resulted in severe harm to the African Economy. Before the economic crisis remittances was one of the modes of earnings in the African economy. Remittances helped in the developing the infrastructure of African Economy and was one of the major sources of external financing.. The remittances of natural resources exporting countries were affected the most, since Africa is one of the prominent exporters of natural resources they faced badly affected by the economic crisis. Remittances in Africa where expected to decline about six percent which could damage the economy of remittance dependent countries. Certain countries in Africa were expecting external financing aid to overcome the decline in remittances. The major regions having effect on remittances are the North African regions whose economy depends on it. CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF DECLINE IN REMMITANCES The remittances in the African economy is prominently transferred in informal terms such as friends and relatives, the formal mode of transmission of remittances in Africa is through the banking system. The major remittance in Africa is the workers remittance, the remittance –GDP ratio for many countries in the African region was at an average of nine percent . these above calculations explains the contribution of remittances in the growth of African economy. The African economy dependence on remittances was comparatively low to other parts of the world. Another spread of remittances was in terms of migrants, Africa countries face 20% of their migration within their continent. Because of the migrants to other continents such as Europe and America which were the worst affected continents of the global economic crisis there was a decline in the remittances. North Africa region was affected the most because they had many migrants in Europe and Middle East which has faced adverse negative impacts in their economy. The countries like Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria had a decline of about seven to nine percent in their remittances because of the larger proportion of migrants from their country in Europe regions affected by the Global economic crisis. This decline in the remittances has produced an impact on the government revenues in Africa, and also affected fiscal structure of the economy. Because of the global economic crisis which leads to the decline of process in the manufacturing industries accounted to job cuts, this situation lead to the decline in remittances. The decline in remittances damaged the better earnings in the households which caused poverty and increased the infant mortality rate. There were some positive impacts due to the increase in remittances in certain regions of Africa such as Kenya because of the decline in the import commodity prices. The major effects of decline in remittances are it decreases the governments revenue in terms of tax. The decline in the revenue can affect the GDP of the economy, and effects on negative growth of GDP increases the IMR. Many countries in Africa such as Ethiopia are about to lose 0.2 to 0.3 percent of their GDP growth. The African country to be majorly affected by the decline in remittances is Morocco, where it faced two to three percent of decline in their GDP growth. The countries in Africa which had immense migration transfer to Europe faced immense damage in their GDP. The ultimate effect on decline in remittances is, redundancy of migrants which will affect their household incomes resulting in poverty. To sum up the ultimate cause of decline in remittances was redundancy of migrants and nationals, decline in the external financing because of economic crisis. Finally the effects of redundancy are decline in house hold incomes, unemployment, and decline in government revenues. THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE AFRICAN ECONOMY EFFECTS OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS IN ECONOMY FACTORS Africa encountered a drastic change in their economy during the economic crisis in the world. Before the economic crisis the African oil exporting countries gained plenty of foreign exchange which they used for projects to develop the infrastructure and repay their debt. During the global economic crisis there was a 60% downfall in the oil prices which had a bad effect on their GDP. The GDP of African countries exporting oil were facing a decline of 5% which had adverse effects on their economy, even oil importers in Africa will face a decline of 2% of their GDP and all these accounted to the decline in the oil revenue. There were several regions in Africa which recorded a positive growth in their GDP despite the decline in the prices of the commodities such as North Africa, Morocco and certain other countries. There will be a total unbalance in the economy of some countries in Africa because of the decline in the exports sector more than the imports, they will face a couple of downf all in a countrys economic structure. Hence the countries will face difficulties to restructure the economy and there would be a reduction in the consumption because of the downfall in revenue. The other effects on the economy of Africa is inflation, this would be a serious problem encountered by the economy of many African countries. The inflation would raise about three percent in the African region because of the decline in the revenue, but the positive impact of the crisis is that there would be a reduction in the commodity prices which might take the pressure on inflation for some reasonable time. The countries which import oil will have a positive impact of reduction in the inflation rate in their economy, but it is the opposite for the countries exporting oil and will face an increase in the rate of inflation. There is certain decline in growth prospects of Africa as an impact of the global economic crisis, despite of not being directly affected by the World financial crisis because of the low bonding with external economies, there was some decline in the growth prospects in the African region. The oil exporters in Africa faced a decline of three percent in growth while the oil importing countries faced a decline of one percent in growth. Developing countries in Africa will face difficulties due to the reduction in the demand of their goods, these effects could halt the Africas development into a superior power. EFFECTS OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON INDUSTRIES The other key sectors which had a major impact due to the crisis was the tourism sector, they suffered major damages during the global economic crisis. The revenue in the tourism sector was affected badly in the African region making the functions of the sector miserable. There was a decline in the number of arrivals to the countries like Kenya in Africa. The decline in the arrivals accounted to a decline in the profit for airways. The decline in tourism which is one of the governments revenue from the service sector faced many negative impacts, there was considerable amount of loss due to cancellations. Countries like Egypt and Kenya experienced ten to thirty percent fall in their revenue. There was major losses on the mining sector due to the economic crisis, many projects in the African region were terminated or postponed because of the shortage of investments. For instance the decline in the copper prices had halted many projects in the African region in countries like Zambia, th e leading copper mining industries faced one fourth decline in their supplier contracts. Many mining projects were terminated because of the falling copper prices. Other natural resources such as cobalt also faced reduction in their prices which halted operations in certain projects in countries like The Democratic Republic of Congo. There were many employees been laid off because of the termination of the projects, the Democratic Republic of Congo alone recorded two hundred thousand employees dropped. The decline in the price of other natural resources have caused adverse effects on budget, countries like Gabon in Africa experienced negative impacts. The reduction in the price of iron, uranium and bauxite which are one of the major exports in many countries experienced decline in the revenue. Since Africa has been one of the major continent with an abundant wealth of natural resources and the fall in the price of natural resources has made Africa suffer severely which indeed result ed in economic crisis. The textile industry was also not isolated from this economic crisis. Because of the decrease in the demand of textile goods from the African region several industries had to face immediate closure. The countries in Africa were facing immense pressure because of the unemployment of people. The termination of an industry at an average caused reduction of four thousand jobs. There was huge pressure from the labor unions to the government regarding unemployment. The impact on the African manufacturing industry by the global economic crisis has resulted in restructuring of the economy and experience serious financial crisis. Finally the global economic crisis has affected the African economy in several sectors. According to reports two third countries of the African continent are affected by the downfall in the price of natural resources. The major decline of the African economy has caused by one ultimate factor which is the reduction in the commodities. The other minor factor like the decline in the foreign investment is also the cause of African economy crisis. RECOMMENDATIONS There are certain recommendations suggested as a consultant of the African union in order to increase the growth of the economy. To start with the recommendation process, it would highlight facts on four features which are observation on the financial structure, reduction of crisis impact on health, revival of the policies in the economic structure and derivative such as bail out policies. We shall discuss the impact of these recommendations on the African System. The major recommendation in the health sector is the prevention of the effects of the economic crisis that has not fully affected the house hold regions. Hence necessary conservative methods should be taken to take care of the adverse effects of the crisis. There must be constant check on the negative effects in the health sector and take necessary actions. Mainly the IMR should be taken care of to a greater extent. Monitoring the growth of infants could help the development in the health sector. There should be constant negotiation within the health organizations and the population. There should be a drastic increase in the investments in the health sector. The African governments should restructure their fiscal budgets for more allowances to the health sector. Most of the developed countries spent 0.7% of their GDP in the health sector for a better healthy environment. The African economy should make better use of the funds provided by the World Bank for effective health climate. T here should be a constant check in the available resources in the health sector and efficient usage of the available resources is recommended. There are several measuring concepts in the current world to measure the expenditure, performance and future projects of a health sector. A better organization can result in better performance in the health sector. The current economic crisis has helped Africa have a view on the current health structure and decide suitable remedies to overcome this deficiency. The crisis has helped Africa have a check on the IMR, poverty, healthy environments, and causes of the diseases. These checks have recommended Africa to invest on certain suitable regions such as food, medicines etc in the health sector and decide what are the gradual steps to be taken to fight against deaths. The use of health care vouchers is proved effective in many parts of the world which should be concerned by the African economy. There must be necessary action taken in the organi zing and implementing of health programs to perform against the negative impacts. Taking severe actions in the prevention of environmental harms that creates health hazards could prove profitable. The communities in each society should take care of these remedies. The crisis has urged the recommendation of implementation of external aids as soon as possible, governments should derive suitable policies for attracting external financing in the health sector. There should be a bonding between the donors in the health sector and the health organizations. There are several African developing countries maintaining this bond. However the suitable remedies cannot assure the protection of the health sector in the future because it is difficult to estimate such reactions. To summarize the integration between the government and the beneficiary partners can always develop the growth of health sector in Africa. There are certain suitable recommendations on the financial structure of Africa for suitable developments. The initial recommendation would be that there should be a strong network of communication between the African finance ministry and senior banking officials to have a check at the financial breakdown of banks, these actions can prevent the bankruptcy of banks. This action could promote the operations of the bank and increase the African regional process to emphasize the growth of small countries taking advantage over larger countries. There must be a day to day surveillance of the finance markets and the changes on exchange rates and stock prices. This could increase the growth of African economy by taking suitable necessary actions to prevent the adverse effects. There could be a design such as when the numbers of exchange rates and stock prices are adverse, defensive actions are taken by the necessary authorities. This could increase the awareness of the government to perform recovery operations. Because of the economy crisis the banks might face a structural damage because of the shortage in the liquidity of cash flow. Hence necessary actions by the government on the banks can regain market confidence of the customers. This action could indeed trigger the operations of industries by lending money and operations in household by lending credit, hence a economic balance is created. The African governments can generate these funds with the help of foreign reserves such as bonds in capital markets. The African economy can reconstruct their finance structure with the help of international finance organizations. So in order to balance the African economy, frequent check on banks and surveillance of the market is necessary. There are certain long term operations which helps the Africa governments in maintaining economic balance. To maintain balance in the economy regulatory policies should be issued by the government on the transparency of operations performed by the banks and their finance system should be supervised regularly. In order to increase further liquidity there should be regulatory operations performed by the African regional organizations. The African banking structure must be able to meet the capital demands, hence regulatory policies should be improved. The African economy must increase their growth such as their banks start to perform FDI operations in other regions. The network can be further strengthened with the help of legal operations, the legal binding operations can lead to development and growth of the financial structure of the banking sector. The bonding between the legal system and the banking system can result in the growth of African economies. There can be necessary actions performed to increase the competition between banks for better performance. Hence with the help of these recommendations the African economies can experience development in the banking sectors. An effective incentive scheme should be announced for corporate to decrease the invo Impact of the Economic Crisis on Countries in Africa Impact of the Economic Crisis on Countries in Africa The aim of this dissertation is to analyze the impact of the global economic crisis in Africa and provide suitable suggestions as a consultant of the African Union The African economy was proceeding towards a splendid reasonable growth towards the beginning of the year 2008 even though many countries in the world were caught between the subprime crises. The African continent was one of the worlds best continent with abundant of resources and gradually developing and recording a reasonable growth in their GDP, before the global economic crisis affected the development of this region. Africa was a frontier in the production of resources with recording a above average growth, experts predicted the present growth rate would lead to the development of African economy as a superior power in the future. However the present decline in the prices of export commodities has resulted in the decline in the government revenues which has affected the GDP of Africa. The major contributors to the development of African economy were the need for resource materials, the reasonable development of china and the increase in the inflow of capital and factors of macro economic rectifications. There was an also major contribution from the migrant remittances which contributed to the reasonable earnings in the household and increase the government revenues in terms of tax. There were many speculations expecting the best out of the potential of Africa in order to produce resources for the growth of the continent and reduce poverty. But there was a close indication of the downfall in the economy in the early 2007 which ultimately was encountered by the African economy in the late 2008. In the world economy when many developed countries were facing recession and crisis, there was severe alteration towards the growth scenario in Africa because of the stagnancy. The majority of the growth contributors of Africa were affected by this crisis. The development in chinas economy declined gradually and there was a downfall in the need for resources and their prices were declining to an extent. Because of the reasonable GDP there was no pressure on the concern of inflation. Certain assurance of added aids was not implemented yet and there was a reduction in the capital inflow. Since the effects were taken care of there were no immediate reactions in Africa due to the economic crisis. However the reduction in the external aid which was not implemented as assured by many developed countries in the G20 started affecting the health sector to a greater extent. To have a detail description of African economic crisis we would discuss the major sectors which have been adversely affected due to recession. To start with there would be an impact in the mining sector, impact in banking sector does not have any major adverse effects, consequences faced by the effects of crisis in finance sector including the commodity markets and international exchange rates, adverse effects on remittances and capital inflows in the trade sectors with the addition of FDI. There were other sectors too such as tourism, manufacturing which had experienced an impact due to the global economic crisis. The under development of the banking sector in Africa is another major concern because the banking sector has failed to derive structures that benefits the economy. The increase in the banking policies with external integration could generate the flow of capital which was not implemented in Africa There were certain positive impacts for the countries importing commodities in Africa, they were benefited a lot from reducing the expenditures. On the entire economy of Africa the sub Saharan region was the most to be affected by the crisis. The ultimate effects of the global economic crisis were the increase in the infant mortality rate, increase in poverty, pressure on government to restructure the fiscal budget, and unemployment. However since there was growth in African economy it could face the immense pressure of Economic crisis. The major countries to experience severe effects by the economic crisis are Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Egypt which are mostly the sub Saharan Africa regions. The impact of the economic crisis in Africa made many underdeveloped countries to receive international implications on its economy to develop their infrastructure. The international business strategies suitable recovery facts have proved more beneficiaries in the world economies. The suggestion of suitable changes in the physical structure could help in the faster recovery of the economic crisis IMPACTS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON BANKING The global economic crisis effect in the major developed countries was on the banking sector where many banking corporate collapsed during the crisis. But the African economy did not have any adverse effects on the banking sector because of their less extent of bonding with the world economies. The African economy has a comparatively low external financing compared to other continents of the world, the external financing of Africa only accounts to 4% of the overall volume in the emerging economies. To have a statistical overview the African external financing it only issued bonds worth of six million American dollars and received only three million dollars from private reserves. This comparatively low market capitalization of the world economy has protected the African banking system from severe damages. The African economy did not report any bankruptcy during the global economic crisis because the African banks could manage reasonable returns from the mortgages. There were certain e ffects in the African economy due to the presence of foreign banks with assets in some African countries like Swaziland, Madagascar who suffered major losses due to world financial crisis. But the effects of world economic crisis did not affect the banks progress in Africa, the banking systems dominates the finance sector and the role played by the financial markets are not of greater concern. There is a transmission check of funds borrowed from foreign banks by the government and there is less awareness of off balance sheet procedure to African economy which was the major reasons for the stability of African banking sector. The conversion of many capital resources into foreign assets saved the African economy to avoid exchange rate appreciation. To sum up the impact of global economic crisis did not deliver any adverse effect on the banking sector. IMPACTS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE FINANCIAL STRUCTURE OF AFRICA INTRODUCTION The African continent was not isolated from the financial crisis, to have a deep overview of the financial crisis there were certain adverse effects on the economy because of the badly constructed financial systems. There was a reduction in the earnings in many sectors such as there was a reduction in the need of commodities and also reduction in the commodity prices, There were reduction in capital inflows, the major affected sector will be the export where it will face a reduction of $578 billion in the recent years out of which the oil sector itself will account to $420 billion reduction in the earnings. This loss in the earnings will account to one fifth of the GDP which is five times the avail given to the region. There was an effect of this financial crisis in the growth of the economy and it also increased poverty. To have a deeper analysis of the impact of the financial crisis in Africa let us look at the causes of transmission of the financial crisis and its effect on the in dividual factors of the financial sector. Causes of financial crisis is Africa The major cause of the financial crisis in Africa was the reduction in the prices and amount of the export commodities because of the global financial crisis. There was a prominent reduction in the prices of commodities in the late 2008 such as oil sector faced a downfall of 69% in their prices, because of the decline in the exports up to 45% there was a huge loss faced by the continent, even the other commodities excluding oil accounted to 38% of downfall in their prices. The other major cause of the African financial crisis is the decline in the capital inflow and remittances. These accounted to decline in the foreign exchange which ultimately guided to poverty in the continent due to the shortage in income. The developing countries have always depended on foreign direct investment (FDI) for developing the countys economy and infrastructure. Because of the delays in the assured FDI many projects have been delayed or halted leading to gradual loses. Finally there was downfall in the stocks of the foreign reserves and the reduction in the span of import cover contributed to a larger pressure in the African economy unable to afford the commodities hence causing more crisis. Let us have a broader view of the effects in the African economy due to the causes of the global economic crisis. EFFECTS OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS IN AFRICA EFFECT ON THE FINANCIAL MARKETS There was a gradual impact in the financial markets because of the subprime crisis. The banking sector did not face any direct impact of the crisis but there were effects due to transmission and dependence on the external economy. There were slight rise in the prices of the assets and the risk premium was increased indicating there was some damage in the finance structure in the early 2008. Because of the transmission and dependency, the liquid finance markets where affected more in this region more than the developed countries and inclined to the over valuing of stocks. If you have a look at the reports from countries like Nigeria and Egypt, they faced a loss of more than half of their investment towards late 2008. Increase in the value of debts in the international finance markets has caused the rise in debt spreads in the African countries. In order to attract the investors the African countries like Tunisia increased their bias points. The bias points of the developing countries mainly in Africa in the international market reached to 800 points in the late 2008, these indeed inclined the risk premium which forced many countries like Kenya to stop imploring from international financial markets and circulate the long term resources to local markets.There was a decline in the foreign exchange reserves because of the depreciation of currencies, this happened due to the decline in the commodity prices. Variations in the currency exchange rate against American dollars and Euros delivered an effect in the African economy. There was a three fifth of drop in the copper prices due to the global economic crisis. Hence African countries were one of the international reserves of copper and they had faced a chief downfall in their foreign reserves. There was about 50% depreciation of the currency of countries like Zambia against American dollars. Africa is one of the main continents with abundant of resources whose exports were one of the major earnings and helped in increasing the growth of economy. There have been decline in the commodity prices and volume all over the world because of the global economy crisis in the late 2008. This crisis inclined certain effects in the African economy, there was a three fifth decline in the prices of the crude oil which was one of the major reserves of Africa. Some of the other major natural resources of Africa such as diamond, copper, timber etc produced by mining declined by 30%, the development in the African export sector declined by 3% and there was a reduction in the GDP was about 3.5% compared to the fiscal year 2008. There were certain adverse effects because of the reduction in commodity prices which resulted in, reduction in the gain, low profit for high production cost resources, decline in government aids and finally the termination of many projects which were supported by FD I incline a huge loss to the African economy. The decline in the price of food commodities resulted in restructuring the government budget and balance of payments. There are certain regions in Africa such as Burundi where the oil is imported would have an positive impact of the reduced prices there are also certain negative impacts in attracting FDI for these countries which would decrease their development. EFFECT OF LONG TERM AND MEDIUM TERM TRANSACTIONS There are certain effects on the trade of goods and services in the world due to the global economic crisis from which Africa is not isolated. According to the reports there is an decrease in the growth of trade in terms of exports and imports, there is a decrease of 5% in the growth of imports and 7% in the growth of exports. Africa will experience a loss of about 45% of its value of exports. The other important effect is due to the capital flow within Africa and the world, there was a decline in the FDI about 21% in the African region towards the end of 2008. This effect has only been described by certain countries is Africa such as Egypt while other countries have increased the FDI such as South Africa. But there was certain adverse effects of FDI in the production of natural resources which was not availed as assured by international markets due to the economic crisis. The effect of short term capital flows is there was a decline about 50% in the capital flow for emerging counties because of the reduction in the availability of financial resources, but the African economy only suffered upto a lesser extent because of the limited bonding between the external financial markets and the African financial markets. IMPACT OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON SUB SAHARAN AFRICA The major effects of the global economic crisis in the sub Saharan region were the decline in their trade, decline in the remittances, and reduction in external financing. The major problem in the sub Saharan region was their trade was mostly depended on the countries suffered by economic crisis this reduced the demand in the resources exported. The decline in the prices of the primary commodities in sub Saharan Africa accounted to adverse effects in their economies. The government revenues depend on tourist sector for development infrastructure which suffered a major hit during the crisis. The decline in world trade accounted by one percent accounted to half the percent decline in the growth of the sub Saharan region. The prominent causes for the economic crisis in the sub Saharan region was the trade with United States, there was a fifty seven percent decline in the trade between the two regions. The development of the sub Saharan Africa was majorly because of the trade with china, thirteen percent of this regions exports and a comparative ten percent of imports depended on the trade with China. The investors from china were behind the initiative of many projects in the Africa region funded by them. The integration between both the regions decreased after the effect of global economic crisis leading to further impacton the economy of the sub Saharan Africa countries. There was a dramatic decline in the capital inflows in the sub Saharan region compared to other parts of Africa. There was a 26.7% drop in the external investments which accounted to the financial crisis of the economy of many countries. The sub Saharan Africa earned reasonable government revenue from migrant remittances who suffered adverse effects because of redundancy as an effect of the economic crisis, this reduced the government revenues in terms of tax. There were certain assurance given by the developed countries in the G8 committee meeting regarding the increase in the funding to the Afr ican countries which was not implemented due to the economic crisis. Out of the impact of the financial crisis on the entire African continent, Southern Africa will be affected the most. Countries like Angola will experience a dramatic downfall in their growth about 20.9%, the economy growth of east Africa will be affected by 2%, the Sub Saharan region will have difficulties in fiscal balancing. There will be huge responsibilities for the government to structure their budget to meet the social needs of the people in Africa. These are the financial issues experienced by Africa during the Global Economic Crisis. IMPACT OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON REMITTANCES IN AFRICA The prominent impact of the global economic crisis in Africa was on remittances which indeed resulted in severe harm to the African Economy. Before the economic crisis remittances was one of the modes of earnings in the African economy. Remittances helped in the developing the infrastructure of African Economy and was one of the major sources of external financing.. The remittances of natural resources exporting countries were affected the most, since Africa is one of the prominent exporters of natural resources they faced badly affected by the economic crisis. Remittances in Africa where expected to decline about six percent which could damage the economy of remittance dependent countries. Certain countries in Africa were expecting external financing aid to overcome the decline in remittances. The major regions having effect on remittances are the North African regions whose economy depends on it. CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF DECLINE IN REMMITANCES The remittances in the African economy is prominently transferred in informal terms such as friends and relatives, the formal mode of transmission of remittances in Africa is through the banking system. The major remittance in Africa is the workers remittance, the remittance –GDP ratio for many countries in the African region was at an average of nine percent . these above calculations explains the contribution of remittances in the growth of African economy. The African economy dependence on remittances was comparatively low to other parts of the world. Another spread of remittances was in terms of migrants, Africa countries face 20% of their migration within their continent. Because of the migrants to other continents such as Europe and America which were the worst affected continents of the global economic crisis there was a decline in the remittances. North Africa region was affected the most because they had many migrants in Europe and Middle East which has faced adverse negative impacts in their economy. The countries like Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria had a decline of about seven to nine percent in their remittances because of the larger proportion of migrants from their country in Europe regions affected by the Global economic crisis. This decline in the remittances has produced an impact on the government revenues in Africa, and also affected fiscal structure of the economy. Because of the global economic crisis which leads to the decline of process in the manufacturing industries accounted to job cuts, this situation lead to the decline in remittances. The decline in remittances damaged the better earnings in the households which caused poverty and increased the infant mortality rate. There were some positive impacts due to the increase in remittances in certain regions of Africa such as Kenya because of the decline in the import commodity prices. The major effects of decline in remittances are it decreases the governments revenue in terms of tax. The decline in the revenue can affect the GDP of the economy, and effects on negative growth of GDP increases the IMR. Many countries in Africa such as Ethiopia are about to lose 0.2 to 0.3 percent of their GDP growth. The African country to be majorly affected by the decline in remittances is Morocco, where it faced two to three percent of decline in their GDP growth. The countries in Africa which had immense migration transfer to Europe faced immense damage in their GDP. The ultimate effect on decline in remittances is, redundancy of migrants which will affect their household incomes resulting in poverty. To sum up the ultimate cause of decline in remittances was redundancy of migrants and nationals, decline in the external financing because of economic crisis. Finally the effects of redundancy are decline in house hold incomes, unemployment, and decline in government revenues. THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE AFRICAN ECONOMY EFFECTS OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS IN ECONOMY FACTORS Africa encountered a drastic change in their economy during the economic crisis in the world. Before the economic crisis the African oil exporting countries gained plenty of foreign exchange which they used for projects to develop the infrastructure and repay their debt. During the global economic crisis there was a 60% downfall in the oil prices which had a bad effect on their GDP. The GDP of African countries exporting oil were facing a decline of 5% which had adverse effects on their economy, even oil importers in Africa will face a decline of 2% of their GDP and all these accounted to the decline in the oil revenue. There were several regions in Africa which recorded a positive growth in their GDP despite the decline in the prices of the commodities such as North Africa, Morocco and certain other countries. There will be a total unbalance in the economy of some countries in Africa because of the decline in the exports sector more than the imports, they will face a couple of downf all in a countrys economic structure. Hence the countries will face difficulties to restructure the economy and there would be a reduction in the consumption because of the downfall in revenue. The other effects on the economy of Africa is inflation, this would be a serious problem encountered by the economy of many African countries. The inflation would raise about three percent in the African region because of the decline in the revenue, but the positive impact of the crisis is that there would be a reduction in the commodity prices which might take the pressure on inflation for some reasonable time. The countries which import oil will have a positive impact of reduction in the inflation rate in their economy, but it is the opposite for the countries exporting oil and will face an increase in the rate of inflation. There is certain decline in growth prospects of Africa as an impact of the global economic crisis, despite of not being directly affected by the World financial crisis because of the low bonding with external economies, there was some decline in the growth prospects in the African region. The oil exporters in Africa faced a decline of three percent in growth while the oil importing countries faced a decline of one percent in growth. Developing countries in Africa will face difficulties due to the reduction in the demand of their goods, these effects could halt the Africas development into a superior power. EFFECTS OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS ON INDUSTRIES The other key sectors which had a major impact due to the crisis was the tourism sector, they suffered major damages during the global economic crisis. The revenue in the tourism sector was affected badly in the African region making the functions of the sector miserable. There was a decline in the number of arrivals to the countries like Kenya in Africa. The decline in the arrivals accounted to a decline in the profit for airways. The decline in tourism which is one of the governments revenue from the service sector faced many negative impacts, there was considerable amount of loss due to cancellations. Countries like Egypt and Kenya experienced ten to thirty percent fall in their revenue. There was major losses on the mining sector due to the economic crisis, many projects in the African region were terminated or postponed because of the shortage of investments. For instance the decline in the copper prices had halted many projects in the African region in countries like Zambia, th e leading copper mining industries faced one fourth decline in their supplier contracts. Many mining projects were terminated because of the falling copper prices. Other natural resources such as cobalt also faced reduction in their prices which halted operations in certain projects in countries like The Democratic Republic of Congo. There were many employees been laid off because of the termination of the projects, the Democratic Republic of Congo alone recorded two hundred thousand employees dropped. The decline in the price of other natural resources have caused adverse effects on budget, countries like Gabon in Africa experienced negative impacts. The reduction in the price of iron, uranium and bauxite which are one of the major exports in many countries experienced decline in the revenue. Since Africa has been one of the major continent with an abundant wealth of natural resources and the fall in the price of natural resources has made Africa suffer severely which indeed result ed in economic crisis. The textile industry was also not isolated from this economic crisis. Because of the decrease in the demand of textile goods from the African region several industries had to face immediate closure. The countries in Africa were facing immense pressure because of the unemployment of people. The termination of an industry at an average caused reduction of four thousand jobs. There was huge pressure from the labor unions to the government regarding unemployment. The impact on the African manufacturing industry by the global economic crisis has resulted in restructuring of the economy and experience serious financial crisis. Finally the global economic crisis has affected the African economy in several sectors. According to reports two third countries of the African continent are affected by the downfall in the price of natural resources. The major decline of the African economy has caused by one ultimate factor which is the reduction in the commodities. The other minor factor like the decline in the foreign investment is also the cause of African economy crisis. RECOMMENDATIONS There are certain recommendations suggested as a consultant of the African union in order to increase the growth of the economy. To start with the recommendation process, it would highlight facts on four features which are observation on the financial structure, reduction of crisis impact on health, revival of the policies in the economic structure and derivative such as bail out policies. We shall discuss the impact of these recommendations on the African System. The major recommendation in the health sector is the prevention of the effects of the economic crisis that has not fully affected the house hold regions. Hence necessary conservative methods should be taken to take care of the adverse effects of the crisis. There must be constant check on the negative effects in the health sector and take necessary actions. Mainly the IMR should be taken care of to a greater extent. Monitoring the growth of infants could help the development in the health sector. There should be constant negotiation within the health organizations and the population. There should be a drastic increase in the investments in the health sector. The African governments should restructure their fiscal budgets for more allowances to the health sector. Most of the developed countries spent 0.7% of their GDP in the health sector for a better healthy environment. The African economy should make better use of the funds provided by the World Bank for effective health climate. T here should be a constant check in the available resources in the health sector and efficient usage of the available resources is recommended. There are several measuring concepts in the current world to measure the expenditure, performance and future projects of a health sector. A better organization can result in better performance in the health sector. The current economic crisis has helped Africa have a view on the current health structure and decide suitable remedies to overcome this deficiency. The crisis has helped Africa have a check on the IMR, poverty, healthy environments, and causes of the diseases. These checks have recommended Africa to invest on certain suitable regions such as food, medicines etc in the health sector and decide what are the gradual steps to be taken to fight against deaths. The use of health care vouchers is proved effective in many parts of the world which should be concerned by the African economy. There must be necessary action taken in the organi zing and implementing of health programs to perform against the negative impacts. Taking severe actions in the prevention of environmental harms that creates health hazards could prove profitable. The communities in each society should take care of these remedies. The crisis has urged the recommendation of implementation of external aids as soon as possible, governments should derive suitable policies for attracting external financing in the health sector. There should be a bonding between the donors in the health sector and the health organizations. There are several African developing countries maintaining this bond. However the suitable remedies cannot assure the protection of the health sector in the future because it is difficult to estimate such reactions. To summarize the integration between the government and the beneficiary partners can always develop the growth of health sector in Africa. There are certain suitable recommendations on the financial structure of Africa for suitable developments. The initial recommendation would be that there should be a strong network of communication between the African finance ministry and senior banking officials to have a check at the financial breakdown of banks, these actions can prevent the bankruptcy of banks. This action could promote the operations of the bank and increase the African regional process to emphasize the growth of small countries taking advantage over larger countries. There must be a day to day surveillance of the finance markets and the changes on exchange rates and stock prices. This could increase the growth of African economy by taking suitable necessary actions to prevent the adverse effects. There could be a design such as when the numbers of exchange rates and stock prices are adverse, defensive actions are taken by the necessary authorities. This could increase the awareness of the government to perform recovery operations. Because of the economy crisis the banks might face a structural damage because of the shortage in the liquidity of cash flow. Hence necessary actions by the government on the banks can regain market confidence of the customers. This action could indeed trigger the operations of industries by lending money and operations in household by lending credit, hence a economic balance is created. The African governments can generate these funds with the help of foreign reserves such as bonds in capital markets. The African economy can reconstruct their finance structure with the help of international finance organizations. So in order to balance the African economy, frequent check on banks and surveillance of the market is necessary. There are certain long term operations which helps the Africa governments in maintaining economic balance. To maintain balance in the economy regulatory policies should be issued by the government on the transparency of operations performed by the banks and their finance system should be supervised regularly. In order to increase further liquidity there should be regulatory operations performed by the African regional organizations. The African banking structure must be able to meet the capital demands, hence regulatory policies should be improved. The African economy must increase their growth such as their banks start to perform FDI operations in other regions. The network can be further strengthened with the help of legal operations, the legal binding operations can lead to development and growth of the financial structure of the banking sector. The bonding between the legal system and the banking system can result in the growth of African economies. There can be necessary actions performed to increase the competition between banks for better performance. Hence with the help of these recommendations the African economies can experience development in the banking sectors. An effective incentive scheme should be announced for corporate to decrease the invo