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The health minister, Wael Abu Fa3ur, underlined a pressing need for the discipline of nursing in the country in order to meet the increasing demands of hospitals and of the medical sector across Lebanon in addition to its vitality in the labor market. Abu Fa3ur was speaking last Friday during the opening of the premises of the state-run Lebanese University in Rashayya  projected to serve as a branch for the 'nursing sciences department' affiliated with the school of health for the cazas of Rashayya and West Beqaa. The minister disclosed that the academic year will start as of next year after completion of the necessary installations and appointment of staff and faculty.  He also underscored the importance of training, orientation and rehabilitation of the nursing cadres for better provision of health care services. (L'Orient Le jour, September 24, 2016)  

 

The American Association of University Women published a report yesterday entitled "the simple truth about the gender wage gap".  The report talks about the very slow progress in closing the gender wage gap in the USA  since 2001.  According to the report, at this pace, American women will not be able to receive equal pay for equal work till 2152 or in 136 years!  This report and several others have confirmed that women are paid 78 cents for every dollar earned by men.  According to Catherine Hill, the vice-president of AAUW, this is not only the by-product of discrimination but other causes are at play.  According to her, there is currently a debate on how to close this gap which is not only about monetary income but also about hours worked, employment levels as well as family responsibilities bestowed on women. )Daily Star, September 23, 2016)

 

The UNDP programme in Lebanon organize last Tuesday a summit for decent work in Lebanon.  This event is done simultaneously in New York and in 24 other countries where discussions are taking place on meeting the SDGs by the year 2030.  In Beirut, the event was held in Teatro Verdun with the participation of around 200 concerned individuals, activists and NGOs practitioners in additions to media representatives.  The two hour long discussions focused on corruption, violence against women and women's rights.  The UNDP resident representative in Lebanon, Luca Randa, noted that this meeting allows countries to participate in drawing the global agenda.  During the meeting, lawyer Manar Zeaiter from RDFL  highlighted the problem of violence against women and insisted that this has become a complex problem requiring legal protection of the rights of women.  Participants agreed on the key role of the media as well as social networks in raising awareness about this issue.  Corruption was also discussed by Arkan Siblani, director of UNDP’s anti-corruption and integrity development in the Arab world project, who noted the rampant corruption in Lebanon and the absence of peaceful accountability mechanisms. (L'Orient le Jour, September 22, 2016)

 

Utopia, an organization created in 2012 by young people in Tripoli for the purpose of highlighting their rights and eliminating all forms of discrimination, launched yesterday its campaign entitled "what are you still waiting for?".  The campaign targets the National Office of Employment and seeks to highlight its role so that it can help find employment opportunities for young people.  The campaign kicked off through the organization's facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/UtopiaLebanon), and will move to activities at field level in order to relay the message of the campaign and achieve its objectives.  Utopia noted that the "National Office of Employment's objectives is to meet the demand of the job market.  However, the NOE branch in Tripoli plays no role.  It receives requests and these go into oblivion". (Al Diyar, 23 September, 2016).

 

This year 10 Lebanese women were included on the list of the most prominent Arab business women published by Forbes-Middle East.  Lebanon thus occupied the third rank, according to nationality, after Egypt, Kuwait (18 women each) and the UAE (17 women). The Lebanese women in question include:  in 55th place, figures Sana Khater, Waha Capital's Chief Financial Manager, an investment company based in Abu Dhabi, followed by Randa el Assaad, the Arif & Bintoak consultancy firm manager in Dubai to rank the 57 place, while Mona Bawarshi, Head of the Turkish transport company Gezairi in 58th place. Both partners Leap Ventures investment fund, Hala Fadel and Noor Sweid, were ranked 60th and 61st respectively, followed closely by Ingie Shalhub, president of the group specialized in luxury Star in 66th, and Christine Sfeir, CEO Treats Holding (69th). The founder and director of international ClinServ - a medical research company based in Beirut- Nadia Sh3ayb, and Vice President of the Lebanese group distribution Fattal, Caroline Fattal Fakhury, were respectively ranked 82nd and 83rd. Further down the ranking, figures Myrna Sufan, Director of Bank Bemo in 92nd place and Jinan Zoya, Executive Director of Family Business Council, an organization based in Dubai in 97th place. At the Arab world level, President of the Saudi company, "Olayan Financing", Saudi Lubna Olayan, was ranked first, followed by the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, the Egyptian Lubna Helal seconds, and director of the "Gurg, UAE group, Raja Easa Al Gurg, from UAE third. To be noted that this classification which has been adopted by Forbes since 2012 takes into consideration the positions of the business women, the size of t heir companies as well as the level of their impact. (L'Orient le Jour, 20 September 2016)

 

The Minister of Energy, Arthur Nazarian, participated yesterday at the "Seventh Energy Forum in Beirut" organized by the Lebanese Centre for the Preservation of Energy and announced to citizens that Lebanon is witnessing a “great progress” in renewable energy in 2016.  Nazarian boasted that the public sector has put in place three solar energy centres producing each 1 megawatt in addition to another 20 megawatts from central solar energy centres.  According to As Safir newspaper, Lebanon currently needs 3200 megawatts of electricity of which only 1600 megawatts are being produced.  To be noted that the production capacity of each megawatt is circa 4348 amperes which can cover 217 houses.  Thus, three megawatts can serve 651 houses.  Nazarian insisted on the importance of partnership between the private and the public sectors at the level of energy and sustainable development.  He further highlighted the role of the Central Bank which is providing loans to the private sector.  The Minister added that the Ministry of Energy is extending efforts so that the public sector sets up circa 20 megawatts of solar energy by 2020.  He announced that negotiations are currently on-going in collaboration with the Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, so as to set the purchasing cost of energy from the three technically eligible companies so as to undertake a public bidding for 200 megawatts worth of wind energy.  These negotiations are carried out via a ministerial committee including the PM and the Ministry of Finance. (

As Safir, September 22, 2016)

 

Dr. Tamara Al Zein from Lebanon, in addition to 4 other women scientists from Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Egypt, received the L'Oreal-Unesco award for women in science (Egypt and Levant fellowship) for the year 2016. The awards were announced during a celebration organized on September 20th at the ESA in Beirut.  The winners were chosen based on their advanced scientific research in cancer, MRI, Radio diagnosis, ground water research and toxic material. The awardees were the following:

- Dr Tamara Al Zein from Lebanon, Research Associate at the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission- The National Council for Scientific Research. She won the award for her innovative materials that help to remove radioactive contamination, and measure the radioactivity 

- Dr Ghinwa Khaddur from Syria, Researcher at the Natural Resources Research Division of the General Authority for Scientific Agricultural Research, Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Damascus, Damascus.

- Dr May Fathy Tolba from Egypt, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Ain Shams University, Cairo

- Dr Amani Al-Gharaibah from Jordan, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Department of the Faculty of Engineering in Amman Private University

- Dr Shatha A. Shafiq from Iraq, Assistant professor in the Department of Science - Faculty of Science - Mustansiriya University, Baghdad

In its speech pronounced during the celebration, the representative of the awards emphasized the need to challenge barriers which hinder women's participation in the advancement of science.  Indeed, and since the launch of this award, 2530 women scientists have been recognized some of whom are also Nobel prize winners. (As-Safir, September 22, 2016)

 

Whilst farmers continue to face problems in marketing their produce at the onset of every season, the Ministry of Agriculture continues to adopt ad-hoc and erroneous decisions to address the problem.  Indeed, following the decision of the current Minister of Agriculture, Akram Shehayeb, to reverse his earlier decision to freeze import of fruits and vegetables from Syria in view of the inability to apply this decision, the Minister has now decided to impose a prior authorisation for the import of apples, pears, and frozen potato.  This decision should be in force all year long.  However, this improvised decision came about yesterday following the meeting of the Minister with a delegation of farmers presided by Ibrahim Tarshishi and who requested a ban on imports of such produce.  For his part, the president of the association of Lebanese farmers, Antoine Howayek, noted in a statement yesterday that the "responsibility for the crisis in marketing the apple produce rests primarily with Minister Shehayeb" who has not worked seriously to approve a series of measures which would salvage the harvest and bring back the competitiveness of Lebanese apples through decreasing its costs through subsidising its transportation costs to the Arab region as was the practice before.  To be noted, farmers from Akkar had complained of severe losses because of inability to move their produce given the challenges faced in export. On the other hand, statistics of agricultural exports issued by the Chamber of Trade, Industry and Agriculture in Zahleh showed an increase in agricultural exports.  This increase is unprecedented since the start of the Syrian crisis.  Indeed, the agricultural licenses issued by the Chamber in Zahleh reached 3402 between the periods of 2/1/2016 and up to 18/7/2016 compared to 3304 for the same period last year, while the rise in total value of agricultural exports, compared to the same period last year, soared to 97%. According to the Chamber, this increase in due to the monetary increase in the value of agricultural exports as well as the increase in the volume of products exported via maritime means. (Assafir, Al-akhbar, Al-Diyar and L’Orient le Jour 17 & 21 September 2016)

 

In its issue of last Friday, the As Safir newspaper profiled the woman mayor of Hawsh al Harimeh, Maryam Hussein al Adwi, a women in her sixties reputed for her strength in the area.  Al Adwi is proud of her constituency who voted for her giving her a margin of 200 votes more than her competitor.  Al Adwi's reputation is tinted with that of her own neighborhood which is alas a major source of pollution in the Litani plain and lake.  Indeed, residents of this area discharge their sewage into the Litani as the area is yet to be equipped with a sewage system.  In her interview with the newspaper, Al Adwi notes that she planned to run for elections on a women-only list but this was not possible because of a number of local problems namely the assassination of the region's previous mayor.  As such, she has remained in her post whilst awaiting the next elections, but never fails to raise with public officials the issue of the Litani pollution and the situation of poverty which affects all the region's inhabitants. (As Safir, September 16th 2016)

 

The economic crisis in Lebanon continues to escalate given the nebulous political situation at the local, regional and international levels and the escalating national debt.  Meanwhile, the banking sector continues to retain solid and strong indicators. According to the statistics of the Banks' Association and the Ministry of Finance, the national debt has increased by USD 489.55 million, reaching USD 73.38 billion in July 2016 compared to USD 72.89 billion in June 2016.  On annual basis, the national debt grew by USD 4.19 billion in 2016 on top of USD 69.19 billion recorded in 2015.  The performance of various economic sectors remained sluggish especially the real estate sector as well as industrial exports.  According to Byblos Bank real estate indicators, this sector has reached its lowest score during the last 36 quarters.  Industrial exports decreased by 18% during the second quarter of 2016 reaching USD 667 million compared to USD 812.9 million during the same period of last year according to the industrial information bureau of the Ministry of Industry.  The indicator of retail sales noted a decrease during the last summer and which was described as "worrying" by the president of the Lebanese Franchise Association, Charles Arbid.  This decrease was mostly noted within important retail goods and reached some 58% of total retail sales. Meanwhile, the annual newsletter of the Banks' Association noted a 2,65% increase in the aggregate banks budget amounting to LBP 7,444 billion and reaching LBP 287,823 billion, i.e USD190.93 billion, by the end of July 2016. (An-Nahar, Al-Diyar, Al-Mustaqbal 11,12 & 21 September 2016)

 

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