Discover the UN

Working for the UN is indeed a mighty goal. You need language skills, excellent training, experience, a thorough education and a bit of luck. Whether you want to work at one of the main headquarters in NY, Vienna or Geneva or for one of the local agencies you need determination, the right skills at the right time and know-how.

The UN System has been the major player of development assistance in Romania for the last decades, and it still keeps this role at international level. It is part of UN’s mission to promote its principles and aims and to encourage the young generation to take up its goals and, as Romania is undergoing a historical shift to its new status of emerging donors, the UN System gradually decreases its activity in the country. It is a new generation of Romanian development professionals that will implement Romania’s ODA policies and represent the country in international organizations such as UN. However, as youngsters take up their most important decisions on their career orientation during their higher education period, it is of utmost importance that they have a chance to meet the professionals and that could help and inspire them fulfill their choice.

So why are we telling you all of this? Because this is your chance to find out exactly what makes the UN tick. Whether its about development aid, health issues or refugies Econosofia’s “Discover the UN” Programme will give you a glimpse of the international organisation, and a unique interdisciplinary perspective into what the UN deals with.

 ”Discover the UN” will start with the following series of conferences:

18th November – Conference on building a career in the UN, the UN system worldwide and development aid at the Academy of Economic Studies.

24th November – Conference on health policies, poverty, epidemics and the UN’s role throughout at the University of Medicine and Pharmaceutics “Carol Davila”

26th of November – Conference on emmigration and immigration, refugees and relating policies at the University of Bucharest.

If you want to take part in the conferences please send an email with your name, the major you are studying and the conference/conferences you would like to take part in to contact@econosofia.org until the 17th of November.

The conferences will be followed by the ODA (Official Development Assistance) School which will take place between the 7th – 13th of December. The  ODA School will include a series of presentations and workshops on official development assistance, followed by case studies on Romania’s priority countries which will be tackled by interdisciplinary teams of young people studying economics, medicine, law and related disciplines. To find out more about the ODA School join us at the conferences.

Crisis aftermath

Everyone’s talking about it – it’s been a year since the crisis officially started and while any possible aspect of it has been deeply covered in the media, in politics and just about anywhere else its truly surprising effects are just making themselves known.

The Economy’s on Prozac…

 … Curious to know why?

 In the current context, which no longer matches the parameters of a simple cyclic change, the chronic economic crisis seems to respond to the stimuli coming from different anti-depressing policies. Therefore, in a discouraged economic environment, in order to find a solution for more than just the circumstances, the Econosofia club, part of the student organization Volunteers for Ideas and Projects organizes, between May 4 and 8, 2009, the 6th edition of the project Economics through a Macrofying Glass.

Is it really snowing in Europe?

A new trend, and also a fear, has been born in the scientific arena: demographic winter, which means the disappearance of the human race by slowly decreasing the number of people.
I remember few years ago (like 7 years) watching a documentary on Discovery where was shown how Earth would look like in future: cities on sees, huge blocks, every square meter was used to build something because ground wouldn’t be enough for the population.

What is sustainable development?

The concept appeared in earlier decades due to a high number of environmental movements. It was first defined by World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) as the development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This definition is clear enough, no need for further explanations. But there are two more questions worth thinking about: Why should we think about the future generations and how do we implement a sustainable development?

Is economics a science?

This question, apparently silly, is one that people have been asking themselves throughout time. To decide if economics, as a science, is solid enough to explain/predict  the effects of different actions, we must first know what exactly science is. According to an academic definition, science can be defined as the organized body of knowledge that is derived from observations of natural events and conditions and that can be verified or tested by further investigations. Even if we take into consideration that science is just “the belief in ignorance of experts” one thing is certain: because in large part economics reflects human beliefs we might think that it is not a science in the way that physics, chemistry or mathematics are. 

Isn’t it ironic?

Isn’t it ironic that, in the past, when emergent countries from Asia were confronted with financial crisis, the Western-trained economists advised them to perform a complete restructuring of the financial system (explicitly favoring bank closures or mergers and not supporting any more liquidity injections that would prolong the existence of a vulnerable system), but now, when the West has its own chance to make an example of how capitalism can handle any challenge, the biggest step it has been done to solve the present distress is represented by bail out money?

Migration in the EU

Migration within, to and from the European Union is a matter of great interest with serious cultural and economic implications that need to be studied in the current context. The issues of social diversity and cultural conflict, intensified by the strong wave of globalization that we are experiencing worldwide, can be redefined through the prism of the integration efforts carried out by economic groupings of countries such as the European Union.  “Unity in Diversity” is the guiding principle of the object of our analysis and it is under this slogan that common efforts are made to oil the 50-year old wheels of the EU from both an economic and a cultural point of view.

Iceland-the rise and fall of a nation

Besides those countries that have built their economic systems in hundreds of years, there are countries with no background, whose importance on the international scene rose almost imperceptibly in the last decade.  It is often said that the real strength of the nations should not  be indicated only by their economic growth and political notoriety, but mostly by the way they respond to international disturbances, such as wars, gas shortages and economic crisis. An impossible situation often puts you face to face with the reality, just like a financial crisis puts countries face to face with the sustainability of their systems.

Russian Capitalism

Russian capitalism is a very interesting animal as prof Lajos Bokros of the CEU would say. As opposed to its EU neighbours and its long time arch enemy the US, who had capitalism first and democracy a hundred years later Russia got both at the same time. And obviously didn’t come out of it unscathed. After a long economic slump during the 90’s following the aftermath of communism Russia is once again one of the major players on the international stage. One of the world’s 10 largest economies, the EU’s 3rd trade partner and an essential energy supplier Russia is now in one of the strongest positions it has ever been in relations with Europe ( and not only ).