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For the past four decades MSS has been conducting original research and designing implementation projects to accelerate employment generation in different countries and regions of the world. The following is a summary of some of the major employment studies conducted.
Strategy for Full Employment in India
In 1991, MSS conducted a study of the commercial potentials of Indian agriculture in collaboration with the International Commission on Peace and Food (ICPF) in order to evolve a strategy to generate full employment in India during the succeeding ten years. The study examined the technological and commercial potentials of cash crops and animal husbandry and identified missing organizational linkages needed to full exploit India’s capacities. The study concluded that 100 million new jobs could be created within a ten year period by accelerated development of commercial agriculture, agro-industry and agro-exports.
In December 1991 and early 1992, the strategy was presented to the Indian Prime Minister, the Planning Commission of the Government of India, and Secretaries of 20 departments of the Government. It was approved and incorporated in the financial budget for 1992. A special organization was established by GOI to implement the programme and district level studies were initiated by the Government in 12 districts around the country.
In 1994, Society staff worked with Agriculture Finance Corporation to apply the strategy in Pune District, Maharashtra. The study focused on the potentials for stimulating development of commercial agriculture in areas such as flower cultivation, vegetable and fruit production and processing, inland fish culture, mushrooms, etc. The study concluded that this strategy could generate additional employment of 750,000 in the district. In 1996, the Society organized a national conference on India’s economic potentials in Chennai to discuss strategies to stimulate employment generation and economic growth. In 1997, the Society applied the Prosperity 2000 strategy to identify opportunities for stimulating employment generation in the Union Territory of Pondicherry. This study identified potentials for increasing total job creation in the state by 15%.
In the national parliamentary elections conducted in the Spring of 2004, the issue of employment was raised to the top of the agenda and the winning coalition led by the Indian National Congress (I) Party was elected on a platform the included a commitment to introduce legislation to guarantee a minimum level of employment to all job seekers in the country. It is noteworthy that the goal of creating 10 million jobs a year was revived at this time. In the summer of 2004, MSS conducted a review of the original strategy and found that a number of the potentials it had identified had been successfully exploited and employment growth had outstripped growth of the labor market, leading to a tighter labor market and rapid wage escalation in many parts of the country.
Global Employment Prospects
In 1992-94, MSS chaired a task force of the International Commission on Peace & Food to examine the prospects and strategies for accelerating employment generation in both industrialized and developing countries and at the global level. Our findings formed the basis for the chapter on employment in Uncommon Opportunities: Agenda for Peace & Equitable Development, ICPF’s report to the United Nations which was submitted to the Secretary General and all members of the UN. The report was heralded as an original contribution to meeting the global employment challenge.
Employment in the Middle East
In 1995, MSS collaborated with the International Commission on Peace & Food and the Noor al Hussein Foundation of Jordan to organize an international symposium on employment strategies in the countries of the Middle East.
Development Potentials for Okinawa, Japan
In 1997, MSS began a study of development strategies for the island community of Okinawa, Japan. Society researchers participated in a joint mission to Okinawa to gather information and present recommendations to officials of the prefecture and municipal governments and to leading public individuals on the island. The society’s recommendations focused on the potentials for generating employment in multimedia computer-based software and in high-tech agriculture.
World Youth Summit on Employment
At the request of the World Youth Summit, in 2002 MSS prepared a background discussion paper on strategies to generate sufficient jobs for the world’s youth which was circulated to 10,000 organizations and individuals around the world for review and commentary. The responses to this paper were used by the summit secretariat to prepare the documentation for the summit.
Employment in a Global Society
In 2005, MSS conducted research on the potential for generating full employment in the emerging global economy and co-chaired a session at the General Assembly of the World Academy of Art & Science in Zagreb, Croatia on this subject. The study concluded that the rate of employment growth has exceeded the rate of population growth over the last decade. Demographic trends indicate an increasing shortage of labor in industrialized countries and a worldwide shortage of skilled workers over the last few decades. While technological development and globalization do result in elimination of some jobs, overall, their impact is to create far more jobs than they destroy. The quadrupling of employment in the USA over the past 100 years, the world’s most open and technologically advanced economy supports this view. MSS is now working on the outlines of a global employment model incorporating demographic, economic, technological, educational, social, political and commercial factors.
Employment in Europe
In 1997, MSS prepared a strategy for eliminating the high level of unemployment in Germany. In 2007, MSS participated in a workshop conducted by the South East Asian Division of the World Academy of Art & Science in Zagreb, Croatia on strategies to promote employment generation in SEE countries. Subsequently, MSS prepared a paper on employment strategies for Europe.
Internet-Based Employment Generation
In 2007-08, the Society launched a pilot initiative to generate internet-based self-employment opportunities. MSS researchers identified hundreds of self-employment opportunities for publication on www.seekluck.com. More than 50,000 Indian youth have registered with the site in order to benefit from this research project. In addition, the Society sponsored several new websites by internet-based entrepreneurs. More than 100 articles on the subject were published in New Indian Express.
Conference on Global Employment Challenge
In 2009-10, MSS collaborated with the World Academy of Art & Science to conduct a six month e-conference on the Global Employment Challenge in which more than fifty experts participated.
Global Prospects for Full Employment
In 2011 MSS co-authored a research paper on Global Prospects for Full Employment summarizing the Society’s approach to achieving full employment in developing and industrially advanced nations. The paper was also published as a discussion paper of the Club of Rome and in abridged form by the Geneva Association. MSS also made a presentation at an international conference in Bern on Employment organized by Club of Rome in October 2011.
United Nations in Geneva
In 2013 MSS research on the global employment challenge focused on formulation of suitable strategies to reduce the rising levels of unemployment at the global level. Emphasis was placed on understanding the impact of international factors on national employment markets. MSS presented papers on this subject for an international conference at the United Nations in Geneva on June 3, 2013 and at a conference of the Club of Rome in Ottawa on September 19-20, 2013.
Employment in Bosnia
In 2014 MSS co-sponsored a conference in Sarajevo in collaboration with the Government of Bosnia Herzegovina and the World Academy of Art & Science on strategies for full employment.
Global Employment Challenge
MSS continued its research on the global employment challenge in 2014-15 focusing on formulation of suitable strategies to reduce the rising levels of unemployment. MSS conducted research on strategies to address the very high levels of unemployment in Bosnia & Herzegovina and presented its findings at an international conference in Sarajevo on July 1, 2014.
In 2015-16, MSS staff met with the Director of Employment Research at International Labor Organization Geneva and discussed areas for collaboration on research to address global employment challenges. MSS also conducted research and participated in the conference on the impact of technological advances on employment conducted at Podgorica, Montenegro in May 2016. In 2016-17, MSS began a study of the skills gap confronting business in major economies and the educational gap between what educational institutions are preparing students for and what employers say they actually are looking for in new employees. Findings of this study will be presented at international conferences and published in 2017-18
New Paradigm in Human Development
Based on the enthusiastic response to a research paper co-authored by MSS staff and published in October 2012 issue of Cadmus Journal, the Society joined in collaboration with the World Academy on a project to examine the root causes of the multiple challenges facing humanity today in order to formulate an integrated perspective, a comprehensive strategy and detailed policy framework attuned to the realities, needs and emerging opportunities of the 21st century. The project seeks to explore the linkages and interdependencies between issues related to economy, employment, ecology, education, global governance, rule of law, international security, social stability and human welfare. The project was launched at an international conference on “Impact of Science & Technology on Society & Economy” in Trieste, Italy in March 2013, followed by a major international conference on “Opportunities and Challenges for the 21st Century: Search for New Paradigm” held at the United Nations in Geneva on June 3, 2013 and a seminar at the Library of Alexandria on June 5 & 6, 2013, a roundtable in Bucharest in July, two workshops in Washington DC and Ottawa in September 2013, an international conference on “Transition to a New Society” held in Montenegro in March 2014 and a preparatory meeting on a “New Paradigm for Human Development” of 30 leaders of 10 international organizations in Baku, Azerbaijan on April 30, 2014. MSS staff conducted research and made presentations in all these conferences. A series of articles authored/co-authored by MSS staff were also published in Cadmus Journal entitled “In Search of a New Paradigm for Global Development” in May 2013; “A Revolution and a New Paradigm in Education” and “New Paradigm in Human Development: A Progress Report” in October 2013; and “New Paradigm: The Necessity and the Opportunity”, “The Coming Revolution in Education” and “Towards a New Paradigm in Education” in May 2014.
Governance & Global Rule of Law
In 2013 MSS conducted research in collaboration with Professor Winston Nagan, Chair of the Board of Trustees of WAAS and Director, Institute for Human Rights, Peace and Development at the University of Florida. The research focused on the problems of governing an increasingly globalized world community in which legal and political power still reside largely with nation states that claim principles of national sovereignty, even over actions which impact on the entire world community. An article on “The Evolution of Sovereignty” appeared in Eruditio Journal in September 2013. Discussions on the relationship between social process, political process and constitutive process were conducted at several international conferences related to the New Paradigm Project.
International Security & Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
In 2013 MSS conducted its collaboration with the World Academy of Art & Science to evolve new approaches for international security and nuclear disarmament. Staff participated in an international conference on “Actions to Enhance Global Security” organized by WAAS, the European Leadership Network and Dag Hammarskjold University College of Diplomacy at Zagreb on May 3-4, 2013 and at the NATO Conference on “IX Annual NATO Conference on WMD Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation” in Split, Croatia, on May 6-7, 2013. Our presentation focused on the need to evolve a truly global system of cooperative security that would include Russia and Western countries within a common system. An article “Actions to Enhance Global Security” co-authored by MSS, WAAS and ELN was published in Fall 2013 issue of Cadmus. MSS also conducted research on cultural diplomacy and the history of the Arabs and the Jews in the Middle East and presented a paper “Cultural Diplomacy: Strategies for Psychological Evolution of the Levant” at the international conference on “Levant, Cradle of the Cultural Diplomacy: Rediscovering the Mediterranean”, on May 23-25, 2013, in Bucharest, Romania.
Role of Values in Human Development
In 2013 MSS participated in an international conference organized by the Club of Rome on the role of values in human development and co-authored an article with Winston Nagan which was published in Eruditio Journal.
European Integration and End of the Cold War
In 2012 MSS completed a study of the role of European Integration in leading to an end of the Cold War and published an article in Eruditio Journal.
Peace & Global Development
In November 2004 WAAS and MSS were co-sponsors of an international symposium on peace and development convened in New Delhi to examine the relevance in today’s world of recommendations contained in the report of the International Commission on Peace & Food, Uncommon Opportunities: Agenda for Peace & Equitable Development, which was submitted to the UN in 1994. The conference was inaugurated by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, President of India. The keynote address was delivered by Mr. Natwar Singh, Minister of External Affairs. The meeting was convened in collaboration with the International Centre for Peace & Development (USA), the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (India), the National Farmers Commission (Government of India), and the UN World Food Program. The conference explored the inextricable mutual interdependence between peace, social stability, democracy, employment and food security.
In September 2005, WAAS and MSS convened a workshop on nuclear disarmament in Washington DC. Robert McNamara, former President of World Bank and US Defencee Secretary, participated together with Fellows of WAAS and three staff members of MSS.
In November 2005, MSS co-sponsored the World Academy’s General Assembly in Zagreb, Croatia. MSS co-chaired and presented papers at a plenary session on Global Employment in a Knowledge Society, and in two workshops on Money and Rising Expectations.
In July 2006, MSS presented a paper at a WAAS workshop on Elimination of Nuclear Weapons at the annual conference of World Future Society in Toronto.
In October 2006, MSS sponsored a WAAS workshop on Nuclear Disarmament in New York City in collaboration with the Global Security Institute and Middle Powers Initiative.
In April 2007, MSS participated in a workshop conducted by the South East Asian Division of the World Academy of Art & Science in Zagreb, Croatia on strategies to promote employment generation in SEE countries.
Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, inaugurated an international conference in New Delhi on June 9-10, 2008 to mark the 20th anniversary of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s historic speech to the United Nations calling for complete nuclear disarmament. The conference was organized by WAAS Fellow Jasjit Singh, head of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, and sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India. Other keynote speakers included India’s President, Pranab Mukherjee; the Vice President of India, Mohamad Hamid Ansari; Minister Mani Shankar Iyer; Canadian Senator Douglas Roche; Australian Ambassador Richard Butler; senior Indian diplomats and military officers; as well as Fellows Jonathan Granoff of Global Security Institute (USA) and Garry Jacobs of the Society.
On February 7-8, 2011 the Center for Air Power Strategy, New Delhi and WAAS conducted a two day international symposium in New Delhi on strategies to abolish nuclear weapons. The meeting included delegates from USA, Europe and India. Garry Jacobs presented a paper during the conference representing the Society.
WAAS organised an international conference along with The European Leadership Network and Inter-University Center at Dubrovnik, Croatia on September 14-16, 2012, which was sponsored by The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Garry Jacobs participated in the conference as a speaker, representing the Society.
Development & Environment—Myths & Realities
The relationship between economic development and environmental problems is extremely complex. In 2008, MSS undertook a study of historical trends to determine the likely impact of environmental constraints on the future of global development. MSS organized and chaired a session on this topic at the General Assembly of the World Academy of Art & Science in Hyderabad in October 2008.