Academic literature on the topic 'New Zealand. Ministry of Works and Development'

The tourism sector is now New Zealand’s number one export earner, contributing 17.4 percent to New Zealand’s total exports of goods and services [1]. In addition, the sector directly employs 8.4 percent of New Zealand’s workforce and a further 6.1 percent are indirectly employed [2]. Given the obvious importance of hospitality and tourism to both the national economy and local communities, one would expect that a potential career in the industry would be something for a young person to aspire to. Sadly, this is not the case, and recent research has found that much of the poor perception of a career in hospitality and tourism stems from the delivery of hospitality and tourism education in New Zealand secondary schools [3]. In the New Zealand secondary school curriculum, secondary students gain New Zealand’s Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) by working towards a combination of achievement or unit standards. The Ministry of Education is the only developer of achievement standards, which are derived from the achievement objectives of the New Zealand Curriculum. Unit standards are developed by industry training organisations [4]. Both hospitality and tourism are deemed to be ‘vocational’ rather than ‘academic’ subjects in the NCEA structure and are delivered as unit standards. In a review of the list of approved subjects for University Entrance (UE) in 2011, only subjects delivered as achievement standards were eligible, hence the removal of hospitality and tourism after the revisions came into effect in 2014 [5]. Students are often introduced to the study of hospitality and tourism at secondary school and therefore their early perceptions of a potential career are formed at this stage. These perceptions can be influenced by several factors, including the position that studying hospitality and tourism does not prepare students for further or higher education as effectively as other subjects might. Criticisms of hospitality and tourism as secondary school subjects include that the curriculum lacks both serious and relevant content and academic rigour. The idea that hospitality and tourism classes are used as a ‘dumping ground’ for the less academically able students is damning. The attitudes of teachers, career advisors, school management and parents also play a significant role in the development of a positive or negative perception of the industry, with some actively discouraging students’ interest. The removal of hospitality and tourism as UE approved subjects has only contributed to this poor perception both by students and the larger community, including parents [3]. There is an evident disparity between the importance of hospitality and tourism to the economy and local communities, and the perception of a career in the industry. Tourism Industry Aotearoa’s People and Skills 2025 report [6] identifies that an extra 36,000 full-time equivalent workers (approx. 47,000 jobs) could be required to service the visitor economy by 2025. The current delivery of hospitality and tourism education in secondary schools does nothing to enhance the perception of the industry, but instead contributes to its struggle for recognition and credibility. To address this disparity, there is an urgent need for discussion and strategic planning by all stakeholders. The government’s current review of the education system, including NCEA, provides this opportunity. Corresponding author Helen Andreassen can be contacted at helen.andeassen@aut.ac.nz References (1) Tourism New Zealand. About the Industry, 2018. https://www.tourismnewzealand.com/about/about-the-industry/ (accessed Mar 8, 2018). (2) Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE). New Zealand Tourism Dashboard, 2018. https://mbienz.shinyapps.io/tourism_dashboard_prod/ (accessed Mar 8, 2018). (3) Roberts, M. D.; Andreassen, H.; O’Donnell, D.; O’Neill, S.; Neill, L. (2018). Tourism Education in New Zealand’s Secondary Schools: The Teachers’ Perspective. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education 2018. https://doi.org/10.1080/10963758.2017.1413380 (4) New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). Standards, 2018. http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/ncea/understanding-ncea/how-ncea-works/standards/ (accessed Apr 26, 2018). (5) New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). Processes for Maintaining the Approved Subjects List for University Entrance. http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualifications-standards/awards/university-entrance/processes-for-maintaining-the-approved-subjects-list-for-university-entrance/ (accessed Jun 12, 2018). (6) Tourism Industry Aotearoa. People & Skills 2025, 2015. http://www.tourism2025.org.nz/assets/Uploads/People-Skills-2025.pdf (accessed Mar 8, 2018).

HOW TO REGULATE THE FAMILY GROUP CONFERENCE IN CROATIA Taking into account the proclaimed aim of the Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy 2019 − 2021, namely, social empowerment and protection of families, children and young people through enhancing family protection and supporting families at risk as a preventive measure of institutionalisation, this paper seeks to discuss the question of how law and legal forms can be used to strengthen families at risk, activate their resources, create a family group network and plan to address family law conflicts of interest and problems. This is done through determining and analysing the procedure and principles of a family group conference, as an alternative to the administrative and/or judicial one in matters of family law and social protection of children and families. For the purpose of reflection and projection, de lege ferenda, on the family group conference in the field of (administrative and judicial) family law and social protection of family members in Croatia, the New Zealand family group conference model, as a starting point for the development of this procedure, and certain European comparative law systems and good practices (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway) are analysed and discussed in the paper. In particular, open questions about the »right« to the family group conference, the assessment and criteria for referring family members to the conference, including the fact of initiation of the court procedure or if the proceedings are already pending, as well as the legal force or effectiveness of the plans achieved in the family group conference will be discussed. Key words: family group conference; child, family; social welfare center; court

This commentary provides a former principal’s perspective on contemporary educational issues and the role of the Ministry of Education in addressing these. In the author’s experience, when the Ministry of Education works with principals, positive changes have begun to happen, although often not to the stage of embedding these changes. Problems can emerge when the Ministry of Education makes decisions without involving the sector.

Seismic isolation of structures has been applied in New Zealand since 1973. To date approximately 45 bridges, 3 large buildings and a few other structures have been protected with this technique. These include 40 bridges and 2 buildings designed by Works and Development Services Corporation (NZ) Ltd (WORKS). Numerous energy dissipating devices have been developed and tested by New Zealand researchers. Six of these designs have proved to be convenient and economical and have been incorporated in the seismic isolation systems of the structures built. Development work on seismic isolation devices is continuing in New Zealand and contact with specialists from other countries - in particular from Japan and the United States of America - is being maintained. Seismic isolation has been found to be a cost effective means of mitigating earthquake effects, particularly if the long term benefits of reduced seismic damage and disruption are taken into consideration.

In 1992, the author of this paper was invited to New Zealand to work within the Ministry of Education on the development of a New Zealand National Languages Policy. Prior to the arrival of the author, Waite (1992a) had prepared a comprehensive document laying out the language issues in New Zealand (see also Peddie 1991). A search of the documentation available in New Zealand (see, e.g., Kaplan 1981, National Language Policy Secretariat 1989) suggests that the notion of a National Languages Policy has been under discussion in New Zealand for more than a quarter of a century. Largely, that discussion has produced a great number of seminars, retreats, symposia, colloquia, and other meetings, and a plethora of reports, most now overtaken by time.

This article describes the Ministry of Education’s Inclusive Education Capability Building Project (2013-2014). Project members were tasked with creating resources for professional development that would be used to grow inclusive practice in New Zealand schools. This article also shares the learning journey of some members of the project team as they engaged in the inquiry process around inclusive practice. A key understanding for this project was that all students can be successful learners and belong in The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007), also referred to in this article as NZC.

The dawning of a new national public health system in Aotearoa New Zealand offers opportunities and challenges for psychotherapists. This paper discusses these against three data sets, namely, a 2022 national District Health Board psychotherapy workforce survey, a video recording of the Psychotherapy and Public Worlds panel event at the 2022 New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists’ (NZAP) conference, and psychotherapist registration statistics supplied by The Psychotherapists Board of Aotearoa New Zealand (PBANZ). The expansion of short-term, risk-based, manualised interventions during the former DHB era did not improve mental health at a community level (Mulder et al., 2022) nor promote equity and sustainability (Berg et al., 2022). Placing Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Treaty of Waitangi (1840) (Te Tiriti) at the centre of the new health system suits psychotherapy, whose wholistic worldview of health and wellbeing aligns with te ao Māori better than most other Western psychological approaches. Kōrero about the indigenising of psychotherapy in Aotearoa has been around since at least the 1980s. The Ministry of Health (the Ministry) has recently invited psychotherapists’ advice on workforce policy development and how to promote psychotherapy in the new health system. This task will largely fall on the psychotherapy associations and some psychotherapy training organisations. A major challenge may be whether these entities can sustain the expenditure of human and other resources necessary to represent their memberships in continuing dialogue with the Ministry and its operational partners, Te Whatu Ora, Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora) and Te Aka Whai Ora, Māori Health Authority (Te Aka Whai Ora). Key opportunities include the recruitment of overseas psychotherapists and the greatly expanded provision of psychotherapy student placements in public health services to stimulate new psychotherapy training programmes and workforce growth.

Background: Rates of suicide in New Zealand are high compared with those of other countries. International evidence suggests that the reporting of suicide may influence rates of suicidal behavior. No research exists, however, on the reporting of suicide by New Zealand media. Aims: This study provides the first baseline picture of the reporting of suicide by New Zealand media. The overall objective was to use the findings to inform future development of media guidelines by the Ministry of Health. Method: Newspaper, Internet, television and radio news items on suicide were collected over 12 months. Descriptive statistical data on the nature and extent of the reporting of suicide were generated through content analysis of applicable items. A random sample of 10% was then subjected to a quality analysis to determine whether items aligned with the Ministry of Health’s guideline for the reporting of suicide. Results: A total of 3,483 items were extracted, most of which reported on an individual’s attempted or completed suicide, while suicide methods were not often mentioned. Few items focused on people overcoming their difficulties or provided information to assist people struggling with suicidal ideation. Conclusions: The reporting of suicide by New Zealand media was extensive and generally of good quality. Better collaboration between the media and mental health professionals is needed, however, to increase information supplied within items on support services. More succinct guidelines and increased journalist awareness of their existence would also contribute to the quality of reporting on suicide.

In 1960s Aotearoa New Zealand the response to a post war energy shortage was to look to the country's rivers, lakes, and geothermal areas as a source of electric power. The Ministry of Works began a programme of dam building which peaked in the 1960s and made irreversible changes our lakes, rivers, and landscapes. Although New Zealand now produces about 80% of its electricity through renewable energy, the 1960s also saw a rise in environmental activism and a revaluing of the natural "wilderness." Professor John Salmon's influential book, Heritage Destroyed: The Crisis in Scenery Preservation in New Zealand (1960), drew public attention to the environmental degradation caused by large-scale engineering projects, and the decade ended with the "Save Manapōuri" campaign which, in the early 1970s, prevented the raising of lakes Manapōuri and Te Anau to guarantee power to the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. This paper considers the legacy of the 1960s power generation schemes, including changes to the physical landscape; new legislation for the preservation of the built and natural environments; and alternative ways to consider the cultural and natural landscapes that prioritise Te Mana o te Wai.

This paper examines the relation between corporate governance mechanisms and earnings management. Using data collected from New Zealand listed companies for the financial year ending in 2005, the results show that the size of the board of directors is significantly positively associated with earnings management. This suggests that larger boards seem to be ineffective in their oversight duties relative to smaller boards. On the other hand, the independence of the board of directors, the independent role of the board chair and chief executive officer, and the independence of audit committees are not significantly associated with earnings management. Thus, these three corporate governance mechanisms are ineffective at monitoring the discretionary choices of management. The lack of effective corporate governance in New Zealand, particularly with regard to boards of directors, is mainly due to the lack of “experience and skills required to oversee the scale, complexity, and characteristics of finance operations” (Ministry of Economic Development, 2009, p.8)

<p>The Thorndon Container Wharf sustained severe damage in the November 2016 M7.8 Kaikoura earthquake. Substantialworks, of a temporary nature, were required to restore thewharf for container handling operations. The temporary securing works included gravel columns within the reclamation fill and restraining and underpinning of the wharf. All of these works were designed and constructed over a 9-month period to provide a temporary facility for container handling operations for a period of up to 3 years. The temporary securingworks were required to secure the container cranes, maintain support to the wharf structure, and ensure the reclamation behind the wharf had sufficient strength to support lateral loads imposed by the restraining system. This was to enable container operations to recommence and to maintain business continuity, pending action on replacement or reinstatement of the container wharf. This paper outlines the development of the design of the temporary works to secure and return to operations a 125- m working length of wharf and reclamation.</p>

Involving parents and the community in children’s learning has always been a difficult challenge. The New Zealand Ministry of Education has identified the value of this involvement and has directed schools to develop links with parents and the community. Learning Management Systems are seen as a way where this can be effectively achieved. This chapter will provide a case study of one of the first schools in New Zealand to take up the challenge of linking with parents by utilising their school learning management system. Examples will be used to provide evidence of the ways the school utilised their parent portal to enable parent and community interaction to assist with children’s learning.

Chapter Abstract: This chapter moves to the second phase of development in Calvin’s doctrine of baptismal efficacy by examining the writings from his first ministry stint in Geneva and his three years in Strasbourg (1536–41). These writings include his first catechism of 1537/1538, the second edition of the Institutes (1539), and his commentary on Romans (1540). During this period, Calvin took a major step forward by explicitly identifying a connection between the sign of baptism and that which it signifies. That notwithstanding, the paucity of instrumental terminology, the fairly even balance between positive and negative references to the sacraments as instruments, and the much heavier emphasis on baptism as a means of assurance than a means of salvation are much the same as we find them in the Institutes of 1536.

Chapter Abstract: This chapter explores the third phase of development in Calvin’s doctrine of baptismal efficacy by examining six major works from the early years of his second ministry period in Geneva (1541–48): the Catechism of the Church of Geneva (1542/1545), the baptismal liturgy in The Form of Prayers (1542), the second revision of the Institutes (1543), his commentary on 1 Corinthians (1546), a polemical treatise, Acts of the Council of Trent: With the Antidote (1547), and his commentaries on Paul’s epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians (1548). The evidence adduced in this chapter shows that although Calvin did not move in a substantially new direction in his understanding of the efficacy of baptism during this period, he did shift to an entirely positive use of the term “instrument” and to a heavier emphasis on baptism as a means of grace.

The quantity of human skin in Brazilian's skin center is insufficient to attend less than 1% of treatments of burning. Therefore, new studies were appointed to use biological bandages based on aquatic animals with a choice of treatment of 2° degree burns. Initiated the study of the use of xenograft of tilapia on second-degree burns about therapeutics and clinical surgical results. This is a systemic review of literature realized through article surveys on a database of Revista Brasileira de Burns, Revista Brasileira de Cirurgia Plastica, LILACS, and PubMed. Through the search on identified bases, 19 articles were considered eligible and underpin the construction of this review. In addition, the present study was based on literary works on semiology and dermatology and the Ministry of Health booklet on the emergency treatment of burns. Comparative research between human and Nile tilapia skin proves good results in histological, histochemical aspects, tensiometric properties, and manipulation related to the characteristics of this material. In addition, studies show that the use of biological occlusive dressings should reduce hydro electrolytic losses, avoid bacterial contamination, and promote reepithelialization of burned skin. Thus, it is concluded that xenografts be considered a solution in the therapeutic and socioeconomic scope of burns. It is, therefore, an innovative product, of easy application and high availability, which may become the first animal skin nationally studied and registered by the National Health Surveillance Agency.

Abstract The Octagon, the central plaza of the city of Dunedin in New Zealand’s South Island, is dominated by the Sir John Steell statue of Robert Burns. The city is also home to the Robert Burns Hotel and the Burns Building at the University of Otago, which sponsors the Robert Burns Fellowship, New Zealand’s premier literary residency. In part, the prominence of the Burns name in Dunedin testifies to a family connection: the Rev Thomas Burns, the poet’s nephew, who cofounded the settlement of Otago. But it also testifies to the ongoing cultural legacy of Scotland’s national poet in Aotearoa New Zealand. This chapter will discuss the influence of Burns on the Scots vernacular poetry of New Zealand—and also on the vernacular prose of works like Vincent Pyke’s 1884 Scots language novel, Craigielinn—with particular reference to the development and establishment of New Zealand literary and cultural identities. Beyond the colonial period, the chapter will assess the profound engagement with Robert Burns’s poetry in the work of New Zealand’s pre-eminent twentieth-century poet, James K. Baxter while also considering Burnsian encounters in the work of contemporary New Zealand writers. The chapter will also discuss the Burnsian contribution to NZ’s associational culture, looking in particular at the Dunedin Burns Club, as well as recent attempts to renovate the tradition of Burnsian poetry and song in contemporary Aotearoa. In so doing, it will provide a detailed and nuanced account of important aspects of Robert Burns’s Australasian afterlife.

This chapter addresses the situation where the traditional approach to education involves using foreign concepts and practices to the exclusion of authentic indigenous ideas. The history of Trinidad and Tobago and many islands of the Caribbean includes the rich cultural experiences of the original inhabitants. The authors propose that these cultural artifacts are genuine sources that can be used effectively as instructional approaches in multidisciplinary contexts. To further develop this argument, the researchers explore the concept of indigenous education as opposed to traditional education exemplified by apprenticeship, mentorship, and internship. They cite examples from educators in the Caribbean, New Zealand, and Australia, where indigenous practices are implemented and valued. Key concepts of inclusion, international collaboration, and multidisciplinary perspectives enhanced by digital technologies, underscore this innovative thrust in education. To balance their argument, the authors discuss relevant challenges and suggest ways for minimizing them. The formulation of the Innovative Initiative is framed by the theories and works of Bethel, Bronfenbrenner, Chesney and Bristol, Fullan, Gay, Ladson-Billings, Smith, Vygotsky, and Caribbean researchers such as Craig and Joseph. The chapter concludes with a call for the sustainability of indigenous educational practices as an important thrust in 21st century education and development.

Railways is a transportation model that has been attracting increasing attention in recent years due to its environmental awareness, long-term fixed price guarantee unlike other modes of transportation, being the most suitable type of transportation for heavy tonnage and bulky loads in terms of physical and cost, being reliable, not being affected by bad weather conditions, etc. The global rail transport industry is growing, pushing the demand of the rolling stock industry to growth in recent years. An increasing momentum is expected to continue in the next few years, due to the increase in both passenger and rail freight transport. In Türkiye, TCDD Taşımacılık A.Ş. needs 233 high-speed train/high-speed train sets, 125 Electric Train Sets (EMU), 930 electric locomotives, 146 diesel locomotives, 24.000 freight wagons, 62 sets of urban vehicles (Başkentray and Marmaray) by 2050. The total cost of all these vehicles is estimated to be at least 17.4 billion Euros. Investments to be made in rail system vehicles in the medium and long term will contribute greatly to the development of the local and national rail system vehicle industry in our country. In order to develop the R&D, design and production capabilities of the domestic industry, to manufacture, maintain and repair all kinds of rail system vehicles and their sub-components, based on the domestic and national production and design of rail system vehicles and increasing the rate of domesticity in their critical components, TÜRASAŞ, which was established as the relevant institution of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure by merging of TÜLOMSAŞ, TÜVASAŞ and TÜDEMSAŞ, the three subsidiaries of TCDD, set out with the mission of ensuring stable growth by reaching a wider product range with technology-intensive productions that steer the sector with a new perspective and synergy consisting of the merger of three subsidiaries and it has become the biggest representative of the rail systems sector in our country with its experience of more than a hundred years, knowledge, approximately 4000 trained manpower, integrated facilities producing national and domestic technologies, 2 R&D Centers located in Eskişehir and Sakarya Regional Directorate in a total area of 400 thousand m². TÜRASAŞ, which has a wide product range, carries out domestic and national design and production studies of rail system vehicles such as various types of shunting locomotives (diesel electric, diesel hydraulic, electric, hybrid), mainline locomotives (diesel electric, diesel hydraulic, electric), train sets (diesel, electric), suburban trains, wagons (passenger, freight) and TÜRASAŞ is also working to localize many critical subcomponents of these vehicles, especially systems such as diesel engine, traction motor, traction converter, TCMS (Train Control and Management System) or to increase their localization rates. With the domestic and national production of these works, imports will be prevented and a large amount of foreign currency will be kept in our country. When the maintenance and spare parts costs are taken into consideration, the profit provided by domestic and national production increases even more.

Stanley Brandes is an American sociocultural anthropologist whose work spans both European and Latin American peasantries. In this article Brandes describes a kind of Catholicism characteristic of peasant villages of the Iberian peninsula: locally inflected by rites and practices particular to specific regions, and organizationally overlapping with kinship and territorial corporate groups. At the broadest level, the essay offers a set of reflections about processes of modernization and secularization, viewed through a classic set of anthropological oppositions: collective/individual, rural/urban, great/little. More specifically, however, it tells us something interesting about the impact of Vatican II reforms on the ground. Brandes argues that what might be read as “secularization” is, in the village of Becedas, a function of processes internal to religion itself. Today, in light of works such as Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age, this line of argument has become quite familiar. Yet as Brandes’s ethnography suggests, ruminations around the polemic between belief and unbelief have not merely been the preserve of scholars and philosophers; they have inflected the lives of ordinary Catholic peasants as well. Through Brandes we see how Becedas villagers narrate, in their own idiom, the development of the idea of “the secular” as something that is contingent upon the history of Christianity in the West. By exploring the disjuncture between Catholic “great and little” traditions Brandes touches on one of the most interesting pressure points within the anthropology of Catholicism: the division of labor between the clergy and the lay. Such a division may map with varying intensities onto other distinctions, such as those between elite and folk, or educated and uneducated, and even onto distinctly differing ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. Whether or not clergy are perceived as “cultural outsiders” in the communities they serve, where a person stands within the institutional hierarchy matters. That is, Catholic subjectivities are incontrovertibly shaped by an individual’s relationship to or position in relation to the church. Belonging to the priesthood thus diminishes the possibilities for certain abstractions and sensorial trajectories, just as it makes others imminently actualizable. In the particular context being described here, the priest, Don Sixto, sees “folk Catholicism” a bit the way a radical Protestant sees Roman Catholicism: as a Christianity contaminated. His work is one of purification: separating true belief from “blind adherence to custom.” For parishioners, however, there is no a priori concept of a religion “contaminated.” There is only a corpus of devotions whose gradual elimination leaves a sense of spiritual vacuum. By foregrounding a “perspectival” approach split between the view of the priest, the people, and the anthropologist, Brandes allows us to grasp the structural tensions that propel different versions of what is correct and what is proper in Christian forms of practice. Brandes’s article might be read in some ways as a tentative exploration of the interesting and often fraught role Catholic priests perform in their day-to-day ministry as mediators between the center and the periphery, and old and new, in the great march of Christian modernity.

For some time, New Zealand has been leading the world in terms of the focus and scope of its statistics curriculum in schools. The curriculum is characterised by its data handling, and in more recent years, data visualisation approach. In 2013 bootstrapping and randomisation will be added to the curriculum achievement objectives for the senior secondary school (Ministry of Education, 2012). This paper gives an historical perspective of the people and groups that have influenced the development of the New Zealand curriculum and outlines the influence and impact of some of these New Zealanders, such as Professors David Vere-Jones and Chris Wild together with Maxine Pfannkuch and John Harraway, on the International Association for Statistical Education (IASE). The roles of both the IASE and the local professional statisticians’ association, the New Zealand Statistical Association (NZSA), are discussed together with the possible long-term impact of new statistical literacy based school curriculum in New Zealand on tertiary statistics teaching.

In the current century the extreme or ‘ultra’ position on the university campus has been to argue for its dissolution or abolition. University leaders and campus planners in Australia have mostly been unmoved by that position and ploughed on with expansive capital works campaigns and ambitious reformulations of existing campuses. The pandemic, however, provided ideal conditions for an unplanned but thoroughgoing experiment in operating universities without the need for a campus. Consequently, the extreme prospect of universities after the era of the modern campus now seems more likely than ever. In this paper we raise the question of the dematerialised or fully digital campus, by drawing attention to the traditional dependence of universities on material and architectural identities. We ask, what is the nature of that dependence? And consider how the current uncertainties about the status of buildings and grounds for tertiary education are driving new campus models. Using material monikers to categorise groups of universities is something of a commonplace. There is the American Ivy League, which refers to the ritualised planting of ivy at elite colleges in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The English have long referred to their “red brick” universities and to a later generation as the “plate glass” universities. In Australia, the older universities developed in the colonial era came to be known as the “sandstones” to distinguish them from the large group of new universities developed in the postwar decades. While some of the latter possess what are commonly called bush campuses. If nothing else, this tendency to categorise places of higher learning by planting and building materials indicates that the identity of institutions is bound up with their materiality. The paper is in two parts. It first sketches out the material history of the Australian university in the twentieth century, before examining an exemplary recent project that reflects some of the architectural and material uncertainties of the present moment in campus development. This prompts a series of reflections on the problem of institutional trust and brand value in a possible future without buildings.

In 1984 HM King Charles III, then HRH The Prince of Wales, gave the infamous speech to the RIBA in which he was critical of a proposed new extension to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The fervour unleashed in the press signified a unique moment when architecture, conservation, planning and development became a much – and still – talked about part of the public discourse in Britain. Conservation theory had dictated since its early guidelines of practice that new additions to historic works should be clearly distinguished from their original host or the existing environment. Historicism, imitating the existing architecture within an urban setting was taboo, a notion that went back to Ruskin and the anti-scrape lobby of Morris. Unravelling the events of the 1980s, however, reveals that the desire to copy past forms as a means of retaining the past maintained an ongoing and strong legacy. It had become a method of seeking refuge from the failures of modernism and the divergence between traditional and modern forms, language and techniques. Openly acknowledged that modernism was anti- historic and anti-urban, classicism and medieval towns and forms offered the example of outdoor rooms and a predominance of solids over voids. For the then Prince and his many followers, including vast members of the public, the use of a traditional architectural style as infill in a classically inspired building setting was “good” design practice. At this point, ironically, the retreat to historicism also comprised not only mimicking traditional details but also their playful reinterpretation through an esoteric postmodernism. But the topic of new into old had become confused: the critical issue was one of urban design and not the language of infill architecture. Three case studies within the historic core of the City of London, the basis of criticism in Charles’ speeches of 1984 and 1987, will be explored through the popular press in order to understand their lessons and relevance to the complexity of current contemporary conflicts in historic urban areas.

To make comprehensive plans for the development of New Arts Disciplines, the Ministry of Education issued the "Declaration on the Construction of New Liberal Arts" on November 3, 2020. In order for a strong cultural nation to be achieved by 2035, the development of the "New Arts" as well as the promotion of high quality and high level development of the arts disciplines is of the utmost importance. The "newness" of the "New Liberal Arts" is not only the newness of forms, but also the newness of thinking and theory, and the newness of application and practice. Likewise, the "new arts" need to discover new research objects, explore new research paradigms, and adapt to new social needs. As the Internet and intelligent media have empowered multiple aspects of art, the field has undergone fundamental changes in production methods, expression forms, and dissemination methods as a result of cross-fertilization and technology-driven innovation. As a result, art boundaries have been broken, with integration and innovation becoming the new focus. Different fields and disciplines have accelerated their operations due to technological advances, while the deep embedding of technology has changed people's cognitive mode and the application scenarios of art. Design disciplines in particular should conform to technological changes and integrate across borders to create design works that serve society and have foresight.

100 years since the Establishment of the State Meadow Institute the Federal Williams Research Center of Forage Production & Agroecology celebrates in June 2022. The State Meadow Institute creation was event of the most important state significance. This event is extremely important for rational nature management, increasing soil fertility, obtaining high and sustainable crop yields, and preserving the productive longevity of our lands. In 1922 the Station for the study of forage plants and forage area was transformed into the State Meadow Institute (SMI). 1930 – SMI was transformed into the All-Union Williams Fodder Research Institute. 1992 – transformation into the All-Russian Williams Fodder Research Institute. 2018 transformation into the Federal Williams Research Center of Forage Production & Agroecology. Throughout its history, the Institute has proudly borne the name of its founder – W. R. Williams. Such famous scientists as V. R. Williams, A. M. Dmitriev, L. G. Ramensky, I. V. Larin, S. P. Smelov, T. A. Rabotnov, A. A. Zubrilin and many others worked at the Institute. The Institute's works (books, articles) have been published in England, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, USA, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Switzerland, Sweden, and Japan. Scientific and practical achievements of the Institute were awarded 7 times with State prizes of the USSR and the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology, as well as Prizes of the government of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of agriculture of the Russian Federation, diplomas of Exhibitions and other awards. For services to the country, the Institute was awarded the order of Labor Red Banner.

A promising Fiber-Optic Differential Pressure (DP) Transmitter is under development in Flexible Maintenance System (FMS) Projects that supported by Ministry of Economic, Trade, and Industries of Japan. The object of FMS projects is to improve maintenance works at nuclear power plants with latest technology. The new DP Transmitter uses optic-fiber technology of Extrinsic Fabry-Perot Sensor and Fizeau White-Light Cross-Correlator. Validation tests were performed to evaluate the tolerance of the DP transmitter in Nuclear Power Plant conditions. General requirements of PWR are accuracy (repeatability and linearity) of within +/−0.5%, pressure-proof of maximum 17.16MPa, Irradiation of 100Gy, and temperature range of 10–50 degrees centigrade at normal condition. The test results show the new DP transmitter can be expected as the next generation instrumentation in Nuclear Power Plants.

Informal studies in Vanuatu indicate that ICT training is promoted but centralized in the urban areas (Port Vila and Luganville), with 70 % of the population coming from rural communities to the urban areas just to access the ICT services. ltuani Vocational Skills Centre (VSC) was established in 2015 to take ICT services and training to rural and remote communities, targeting orphans; girls and women; and people with disabilities. Ituani VCT is the first rural training centre to be registered under the Vanuatu Qualification Authority (VQA) to deliver accredited computer courses through outreach program to target rural schools and communities called ICT to schools and communities. // The major challenges experienced in the outreach programme is the travelling situations, since the provinces and islands are scattered in six different provinces, making it difficult and costly to travel by air, sea, and land due to the bad conditions of the roads and sea. To address these challenges, blended learning approaches was identified as key ensure that the rural communities access the digital skills. Given that the trainers at Ituani did not have relevant skills for blended learning, the TVET Professional Development Online Toolkit for the Pacific was used as a basis for upskilling the staff. The Toolkit was developed through collaboration between the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and the Pacific Centre for Flexible and Open Learning for Development (PACFOLD) with funding from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade. // Project team was set up, project design workshop was held to develop a detailed project plan, relevant stakeholders were identified and included in project activities. The Toolkit was used to identify training gaps among trainers and develop strategies for upskilling the trainers. Baseline data was collected, five(5)trainers including three(3) males and two (2) females were upskilled with support from COL consultants, the trainers conducted training to fifthy (50) learners including thirty (30) women/girls and twenty (20) men/boys using the knowledge and skills acquired for blended learning, and endline data was gathered, and the Vanuatu VQA recognized skills acquired through the outreach programme.

The first works on the act on housing cooperatives appeared in mid-2019. Work on the project of the then Ministry of Investment and Development was interrupted by the election calendar. The second attempt took place in 2020 (draft act of April 9, 2020 on housing cooperatives). The project is part of the concept contained in the National Housing Program. During the consultations, a number of comments and opinions were received. According to, inter alia, The original draft of the Government Legislation Center contained the statutory privilege of cooperatives over other entities operating in the field of housing construction. For this reason, it was necessary to prepare a new draft act on housing cooperatives and the rules for the sale of real estate belonging to the municipal real estate resource in order to support the implementation of housing investments, which appeared on July 21, 2021. on a voluntary association of people who pursue their housing goals. The project relates not only to housing cooperatives, but also to newly established housing cooperatives.

Toi Ohomai | Te Pūkenga engaged artificial intelligence (AI) developers in mid-2021 to help kaiako (teachers) convert existing subject content into self-generating adaptive learning material. The AI-generated content helped students learn at their individual levels and paces. Feedback highlighted improved student comprehension, and time savings and positive professional development for kaiako. However, considerations in the design and use of AI requires clarity about the range of open risks, exploitative processes in data extraction and training, and how these applications can encode bias and impact Indigenous and creator rights. This essay is an introduction to unresolved issues in AI design, and for decision makers to consider three key questions when choosing or using AI: how the application is built; who owns the knowledge created; and whose values shaped the training data and application design. Responsible use of AI requires very considered and transparent selection of any training data and model development, even prior to designing the AI application that is built on the model. Importantly, companies designing or deploying AI applications in Aotearoa New Zealand need to consider the Waitangi Tribunal recommendations for practical changes to the law, to include consent and protection for taonga and mātauranga Māori, to protect Māori cultural works, language, arts and heritage against unauthorised access or use.

Developing of cognitive competencies in scientific, mathematical and technological fields is one of the most important goals for educational systems across the world. In this paper, we present a way in which new computational technologies can support learning in some interdisciplinary lessons at the upper secondary level. We will refer to a new kind of classrooms equipped with multi-touch technology, available in eight schools in Romania, thanks to a project implemented by the Project Management Unit with Foreign Finance-Education Ministry in partnership with SIVECO ROMANIA and "Carol I" National Defence University. This new technology allows an integrated approach, is suitable for studies of complex issues and fosters collaborative activities. We want to present one of the ways in which the multi-touch laboratory of the National College "Mihai Eminescu" Satu Mare is used for teaching and learning in scientific field. We refer to the manner in which the use of computer simulations improve the understanding of scientific concepts. During the engagement with the model, there is an interaction between students' current understanding and the computational models they use, facilitated by the visualization of different states that the system can have. Students can modify variables of the model, question and test hypotheses. In a constructivist learning approach the students create their own models and simulations in order to express their conceptions on how a given scientific process works. By working in team, students learn both from the teacher and from the other students. The assessment is formative and takes into account not only students' products, but the entire process. This interdisciplinary approach aims developing computational and analytical thinking, as well as the development of the capacity of investigation and working in a team.

In 2012-14 Unitec Institute of Technology (in partnership with The Innovation Workshop) carried out research into the application process for New Zealand Government Research & Development [R&D] co-funding administered by the Ministry of Science & Innovation (now Callaghan Innovation Ltd). This research revealed widespread applicant frustration with the application criteria and process. A significant problem perceived by High Value Manufacturing and Service Small Medium Enterprises (HVMS SME) businesses is the focus of R&D funding on product innovation followed by a lack of funding to support later stage commercialisation of products. This later stage of product and market development is excluded from Callaghan Innovation co-funding, leading to ‘prototypes-on-a-shelf’. Applicants also found the process time consuming, due to the complexity of the application questions and the delays in response from the funding network of regional funding partners and the Government Ministry. HVMS SME often used consultants to help manage the application, which is frowned upon by both the regional funding partners and Callaghan Innovation, despite the high levels of co-funding success from these applicants. This work has been carried out during the establishment period of Callaghan Innovation Ltd and some of the above issues may be historic and/or transitional as the institutional arrangements change. This research records the HVMS SME experience in applying for R&D co-funding. Consideration of the user experience, captured in this research, may reveal opportunities to improve the process with better outcomes for the applicants and the economy.

The arts do not exist in vacuum and cannot be valued in abstract ways; their value is how they make people feel, what they can empower people to do and how they interact with place to create legacy. This research presents insights across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand about the value of arts and culture that may be factored into whole of government decision making to enable creative, vibrant, liveable and inclusive communities and nations. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a great deal about our societies, our collective wellbeing, and how urgent the choices we make now are for our futures. There has been a great deal of discussion – formally and informally – about the value of the arts in our lives at this time. Rightly, it has been pointed out that during this profound disruption entertainment has been a lifeline for many, and this argument serves to re-enforce what the public (and governments) already know about audience behaviours and the economic value of the arts and entertainment sectors. Wesley Enoch stated in The Saturday Paper, “[m]etrics for success are already skewing from qualitative to quantitative. In coming years, this will continue unabated, with impact measured by numbers of eyeballs engaged in transitory exposure or mass distraction rather than deep connection, community development and risk” (2020, 7). This disconnect between the impact of arts and culture on individuals and communities, and what is measured, will continue without leadership from the sector that involves more diverse voices and perspectives. In undertaking this research for Australia Council for the Arts and Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture & Heritage, New Zealand, the agreed aims of this research are expressed as: 1. Significantly advance the understanding and approaches to design, development and implementation of assessment frameworks to gauge the value and impact of arts engagement with a focus on redefining evaluative practices to determine wellbeing, public value and social inclusion resulting from arts engagement in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. 2. Develop comprehensive, contemporary, rigorous new language frameworks to account for a multiplicity of understandings related to the value and impact of arts and culture across diverse communities. 3. Conduct sector analysis around understandings of markers of impact and value of arts engagement to identify success factors for broad government, policy, professional practitioner and community engagement. This research develops innovative conceptual understandings that can be used to assess the value and impact of arts and cultural engagement. The discussion shows how interaction with arts and culture creates, supports and extends factors such as public value, wellbeing, and social inclusion. The intersection of previously published research, and interviews with key informants including artists, peak arts organisations, gallery or museum staff, community cultural development organisations, funders and researchers, illuminates the differing perceptions about public value. The report proffers opportunities to develop a new discourse about what the arts contribute, how the contribution can be described, and what opportunities exist to assist the arts sector to communicate outcomes of arts engagement in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

In Paraguay, for the past three years the Ministry of Education and Culture and the IDB have jointly studied what works in math and science education in Paraguay. During this time we have been fortunate to develop meaningful partnerships with hundreds of school districts, as well as with the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Organization of Ibero-American States. With this publication we hope to invite other actors from the private and nongovernmental sectors and from the donor community to partner with us in promoting math and science learning for all Paraguayan children.

How can a socially defined project facilitate meaningful knowledge transfer between community, corporate and institution? In order to address this question, this paper focuses on an ongoing live project in suburban Auckland New Zealand begun in 2010, undertaken by a post-graduate student and researcher collective. The collective currently creates subtle interventions sited within local cyberspace, and through this current project will employ impermanent and small-scale design to advocate for a series of neglected and disputed sites. It explores the impact and value the presence of artists and designers working within local communities can have, and “champions the role of the artist in the development of the public realm, and their intuitive response to spaces, places, people and wildlife” (Wood 2009, p.26). The significance of this project is that it promotes a collaborative and multidisciplinary methodology that works with community groups to advocate to corporate entities for a wider social and environmental awareness of specific sites. This paper aims to explain the processes and findings of the project to date through both its successes and failures. It also proposes the possibility of the methodology being transferred to undergraduate and post-graduate study as a tool to promote multi-disciplined collaborate project briefs that focus on community well being.

How can a socially defined project facilitate meaningful knowledge transfer between community, corporate, and institution? In order to address this question, this paper focuses on an ongoing live project in suburban Auckland New Zealand began in 2010, undertaken by a post-graduate student and researcher collective. The collective currently creates subtle interventions sited within local cyberspace, and through this current project will employ impermanent and small-scale design to advocate for a series of neglected and disputed sites. It explores the impact and value the presence of artists and designers working within local communities can have, and “champions the role of the artist in the development of the public realm, and their intuitive response to spaces, places, people and wildlife” (Wood 2009, p.26). The significance of this project is that it promotes a collaborative and multidisciplinary methodology that works with community groups to advocate to corporate entities for a wider social and environmental awareness of specific sites. This paper aims to explain the processes and findings of the project to date through both its successes and failures. It also proposes the possibility of the methodology being transferred to undergraduate and post-graduate study as a tool to promote multi-disciplined collaborate project briefs that focus on community well being.

Overview Skin cancer prevention is a component of the new Cancer Plan 2022–27, which guides the work of the Cancer Institute NSW. To lessen the impact of skin cancer on the community, the Cancer Institute NSW works closely with the NSW Skin Cancer Prevention Advisory Committee, comprising governmental and non-governmental organisation representatives, to develop and implement the NSW Skin Cancer Prevention Strategy. Primary Health Networks and primary care providers are seen as important stakeholders in this work. To guide improvements in skin cancer prevention and inform the development of the next NSW Skin Cancer Prevention Strategy, an up-to-date review of the evidence on the effectiveness and feasibility of skin cancer prevention activities in primary care is required. A research team led by the Daffodil Centre, a joint venture between the University of Sydney and Cancer Council NSW, was contracted to undertake an Evidence Check review to address the questions below. Evidence Check questions This Evidence Check aimed to address the following questions: Question 1: What skin cancer primary prevention activities can be effectively administered in primary care settings? As part of this, identify the key components of such messages, strategies, programs or initiatives that have been effectively implemented and their feasibility in the NSW/Australian context. Question 2: What are the main barriers and enablers for primary care providers in delivering skin cancer primary prevention activities within their setting? Summary of methods The research team conducted a detailed analysis of the published and grey literature, based on a comprehensive search. We developed the search strategy in consultation with a medical librarian at the University of Sydney and the Cancer Institute NSW team, and implemented it across the databases Embase, MEDLINE, PsycInfo, Scopus, Cochrane Central and CINAHL. Results were exported and uploaded to Covidence for screening and further selection. The search strategy was designed according to the SPIDER tool for Qualitative and Mixed-Methods Evidence Synthesis, which is a systematic strategy for searching qualitative and mixed-methods research studies. The SPIDER tool facilitates rigour in research by defining key elements of non-quantitative research questions. We included peer-reviewed and grey literature that included skin cancer primary prevention strategies/ interventions/ techniques/ programs within primary care settings, e.g. involving general practitioners and primary care nurses. The literature was limited to publications since 2014, and for studies or programs conducted in Australia, the UK, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, Western Europe and Scandinavia. We also included relevant systematic reviews and evidence syntheses based on a range of international evidence where also relevant to the Australian context. To address Question 1, about the effectiveness of skin cancer prevention activities in primary care settings, we summarised findings from the Evidence Check according to different skin cancer prevention activities. To address Question 2, about the barriers and enablers of skin cancer prevention activities in primary care settings, we summarised findings according to the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). The CFIR is a framework for identifying important implementation considerations for novel interventions in healthcare settings and provides a practical guide for systematically assessing potential barriers and facilitators in preparation for implementing a new activity or program. We assessed study quality using the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) levels of evidence. Key findings We identified 25 peer-reviewed journal articles that met the eligibility criteria and we included these in the Evidence Check. Eight of the studies were conducted in Australia, six in the UK, and the others elsewhere (mainly other European countries). In addition, the grey literature search identified four relevant guidelines, 12 education/training resources, two Cancer Care pathways, two position statements, three reports and five other resources that we included in the Evidence Check. Question 1 (related to effectiveness) We categorised the studies into different types of skin cancer prevention activities: behavioural counselling (n=3); risk assessment and delivering risk-tailored information (n=10); new technologies for early detection and accompanying prevention advice (n=4); and education and training programs for general practitioners (GPs) and primary care nurses regarding skin cancer prevention (n=3). There was good evidence that behavioural counselling interventions can result in a small improvement in sun protection behaviours among adults with fair skin types (defined as ivory or pale skin, light hair and eye colour, freckles, or those who sunburn easily), which would include the majority of Australians. It was found that clinicians play an important role in counselling patients about sun-protective behaviours, and recommended tailoring messages to the age and demographics of target groups (e.g. high-risk groups) to have maximal influence on behaviours. Several web-based melanoma risk prediction tools are now available in Australia, mainly designed for health professionals to identify patients’ risk of a new or subsequent primary melanoma and guide discussions with patients about primary prevention and early detection. Intervention studies have demonstrated that use of these melanoma risk prediction tools is feasible and acceptable to participants in primary care settings, and there is some evidence, including from Australian studies, that using these risk prediction tools to tailor primary prevention and early detection messages can improve sun-related behaviours. Some studies examined novel technologies, such as apps, to support early detection through skin examinations, including a very limited focus on the provision of preventive advice. These novel technologies are still largely in the research domain rather than recommended for routine use but provide a potential future opportunity to incorporate more primary prevention tailored advice. There are a number of online short courses available for primary healthcare professionals specifically focusing on skin cancer prevention. Most education and training programs for GPs and primary care nurses in the field of skin cancer focus on treatment and early detection, though some programs have specifically incorporated primary prevention education and training. A notable example is the Dermoscopy for Victorian General Practice Program, in which 93% of participating GPs reported that they had increased preventive information provided to high-risk patients and during skin examinations. Question 2 (related to barriers and enablers) Key enablers of performing skin cancer prevention activities in primary care settings included: • Easy access and availability of guidelines and point-of-care tools and resources • A fit with existing workflows and systems, so there is minimal disruption to flow of care • Easy-to-understand patient information • Using the waiting room for collection of risk assessment information on an electronic device such as an iPad/tablet where possible • Pairing with early detection activities • Sharing of successful programs across jurisdictions. Key barriers to performing skin cancer prevention activities in primary care settings included: • Unclear requirements and lack of confidence (self-efficacy) about prevention counselling • Limited availability of GP services especially in regional and remote areas • Competing demands, low priority, lack of time • Lack of incentives.

Banco de la República is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2023. This is a very significant anniversary and one that provides an opportunity to highlight the contribution the Bank has made to the country’s development. Its track record as guarantor of monetary stability has established it as the one independent state institution that generates the greatest confidence among Colombians due to its transparency, management capabilities, and effective compliance with the central banking and cultural responsibilities entrusted to it by the Constitution and the Law. On a date as important as this, the Board of Directors of Banco de la República (BDBR) pays tribute to the generations of governors and officers whose commitment and dedication have contributed to the growth of this institution.1 Banco de la República’s mandate was confirmed in the National Constitutional Assembly of 1991 where the citizens had the opportunity to elect the seventy people who would have the task of drafting a new constitution. The leaders of the three political movements with the most votes were elected as chairs to the Assembly, and this tripartite presidency reflected the plurality and the need for consensus among the different political groups to move the reform forward. Among the issues considered, the National Constitutional Assembly gave special importance to monetary stability. That is why they decided to include central banking and to provide Banco de la República with the necessary autonomy to use the instruments for which they are responsible without interference from other authorities. The constituent members understood that ensuring price stability is a state duty and that the entity responsible for this task must be enshrined in the Constitution and have the technical capability and institutional autonomy necessary to adopt the decisions they deem appropriate to achieve this fundamental objective in coordination with the general economic policy. In particular, Article 373 established that “the State, through Banco de la República, shall ensure the maintenance of the purchasing power of the currency,” a provision that coincided with the central banking system adopted by countries that have been successful in controlling inflation. In 1999, in Ruling 481, the Constitutional Court stated that “the duty to maintain the purchasing power of the currency applies to not only the monetary, credit, and exchange authority, i.e., the Board of Banco de la República, but also those who have responsibilities in the formulation and implementation of the general economic policy of the country” and that “the basic constitutional purpose of Banco de la República is the protection of a sound currency. However, this authority must take the other economic objectives of state intervention such as full employment into consideration in their decisions since these functions must be coordinated with the general economic policy.” The reforms to Banco de la República agreed upon in the Constitutional Assembly of 1991 and in Act 31/1992 can be summarized in the following aspects: i) the Bank was assigned a specific mandate: to maintain the purchasing power of the currency in coordination with the general economic policy; ii) the BDBR was designatedas the monetary, foreign exchange, and credit authority; iii) the Bank and its Board of Directors were granted a significant degree of independence from the government; iv) the Bank was prohibited from granting credit to the private sector except in the case of the financial sector; v) established that in order to grant credit to the government, the unanimous vote of its Board of Directors was required except in the case of open market transactions; vi) determined that the legislature may, in no case, order credit quotas in favor of the State or individuals; vii) Congress was appointed, on behalf of society, as the main addressee of the Bank’s reporting exercise; and viii) the responsibility for inspection, surveillance, and control over Banco de la República was delegated to the President of the Republic. The members of the National Constitutional Assembly clearly understood that the benefits of low and stable inflation extend to the whole of society and contribute mto the smooth functioning of the economic system. Among the most important of these is that low inflation promotes the efficient use of productive resources by allowing relative prices to better guide the allocation of resources since this promotes economic growth and increases the welfare of the population. Likewise, low inflation reduces uncertainty about the expected return on investment and future asset prices. This increases the confidence of economic agents, facilitates long-term financing, and stimulates investment. Since the low-income population is unable to protect itself from inflation by diversifying its assets, and a high proportion of its income is concentrated in the purchase of food and other basic goods that are generally the most affected by inflationary shocks, low inflation avoids arbitrary redistribution of income and wealth.2 Moreover, low inflation facilitates wage negotiations, creates a good labor climate, and reduces the volatility of employment levels. Finally, low inflation helps to make the tax system more transparent and equitable by avoiding the distortions that inflation introduces into the value of assets and income that make up the tax base. From the monetary authority’s point of view, one of the most relevant benefits of low inflation is the credibility that economic agents acquire in inflation targeting, which turns it into an effective nominal anchor on price levels. Upon receiving its mandate, and using its autonomy, Banco de la República began to announce specific annual inflation targets as of 1992. Although the proposed inflation targets were not met precisely during this first stage, a downward trend in inflation was achieved that took it from 32.4% in 1990 to 16.7% in 1998. At that time, the exchange rate was kept within a band. This limited the effectiveness of monetary policy, which simultaneously sought to meet an inflation target and an exchange rate target. The Asian crisis spread to emerging economies and significantly affected the Colombian economy. The exchange rate came under strong pressure to depreciate as access to foreign financing was cut off under conditions of a high foreign imbalance. This, together with the lack of exchange rate flexibility, prevented a countercyclical monetary policy and led to a 4.2% contraction in GDP that year. In this context of economic slowdown, annual inflation fell to 9.2% at the end of 1999, thus falling below the 15% target set for that year. This episode fully revealed how costly it could be, in terms of economic activity, to have inflation and exchange rate targets simultaneously. Towards the end of 1999, Banco de la República announced the adoption of a new monetary policy regime called the Inflation Targeting Plan. This regime, known internationally as ‘Inflation Targeting,’ has been gaining increasing acceptance in developed countries, having been adopted in 1991 by New Zealand, Canada, and England, among others, and has achieved significant advances in the management of inflation without incurring costs in terms of economic activity. In Latin America, Brazil and Chile also adopted it in 1999. In the case of Colombia, the last remaining requirement to be fulfilled in order to adopt said policy was exchange rate flexibility. This was realized around September 1999, when the BDBR decided to abandon the exchange-rate bands to allow the exchange rate to be freely determined in the market.Consistent with the constitutional mandate, the fundamental objective of this new policy approach was “the achievement of an inflation target that contributes to maintaining output growth around its potential.”3 This potential capacity was understood as the GDP growth that the economy can obtain if it fully utilizes its productive resources. To meet this objective, monetary policy must of necessity play a countercyclical role in the economy. This is because when economic activity is below its potential and there are idle resources, the monetary authority can reduce the interest rate in the absence of inflationary pressure to stimulate the economy and, when output exceeds its potential capacity, raise it. This policy principle, which is immersed in the models for guiding the monetary policy stance, makes the following two objectives fully compatible in the medium term: meeting the inflation target and achieving a level of economic activity that is consistent with its productive capacity. To achieve this purpose, the inflation targeting system uses the money market interest rate (at which the central bank supplies primary liquidity to commercial banks) as the primary policy instrument. This replaced the quantity of money as an intermediate monetary policy target that Banco de la República, like several other central banks, had used for a long time. In the case of Colombia, the objective of the new monetary policy approach implied, in practical terms, that the recovery of the economy after the 1999 contraction should be achieved while complying with the decreasing inflation targets established by the BDBR. The accomplishment of this purpose was remarkable. In the first half of the first decade of the 2000s, economic activity recovered significantly and reached a growth rate of 6.8% in 2006. Meanwhile, inflation gradually declined in line with inflation targets. That was how the inflation rate went from 9.2% in 1999 to 4.5% in 2006, thus meeting the inflation target established for that year while GDP reached its potential level. After this balance was achieved in 2006, inflation rebounded to 5.7% in 2007, above the 4.0% target for that year due to the fact that the 7.5% GDP growth exceeded the potential capacity of the economy.4 After proving the effectiveness of the inflation targeting system in its first years of operation, this policy regime continued to consolidate as the BDBR and the technical staff gained experience in its management and state-of-the-art economic models were incorporated to diagnose the present and future state of the economy and to assess the persistence of inflation deviations and expectations with respect to the inflation target. Beginning in 2010, the BDBR established the long-term 3.0% annual inflation target, which remains in effect today. Lower inflation has contributed to making the macroeconomic environment more stable, and this has favored sustained economic growth, financial stability, capital market development, and the functioning of payment systems. As a result, reductions in the inflationary risk premia and lower TES and credit interest rates were achieved. At the same time, the duration of public domestic debt increased significantly going from 2.27 years in December 2002 to 5.86 years in December 2022, and financial deepening, measured as the level of the portfolio as a percentage of GDP, went from around 20% in the mid-1990s to values above 45% in recent years in a healthy context for credit institutions.Having been granted autonomy by the Constitution to fulfill the mandate of preserving the purchasing power of the currency, the tangible achievements made by Banco de la República in managing inflation together with the significant benefits derived from the process of bringing inflation to its long-term target, make the BDBR’s current challenge to return inflation to the 3.0% target even more demanding and pressing. As is well known, starting in 2021, and especially in 2022, inflation in Colombia once again became a serious economic problem with high welfare costs. The inflationary phenomenon has not been exclusive to Colombia and many other developed and emerging countries have seen their inflation rates move away from the targets proposed by their central banks.5 The reasons for this phenomenon have been analyzed in recent Reports to Congress, and this new edition delves deeper into the subject with updated information. The solid institutional and technical base that supports the inflation targeting approach under which the monetary policy strategy operates gives the BDBR the necessary elements to face this difficult challenge with confidence. In this regard, the BDBR reiterated its commitment to the 3.0% inflation target in its November 25 communiqué and expects it to be reached by the end of 2024.6 Monetary policy will continue to focus on meeting this objective while ensuring the sustainability of economic activity, as mandated by the Constitution. Analyst surveys done in March showed a significant increase (from 32.3% in January to 48.5% in March) in the percentage of responses placing inflation expectations two years or more ahead in a range between 3.0% and 4.0%. This is a clear indication of the recovery of credibility in the medium-term inflation target and is consistent with the BDBR’s announcement made in November 2022. The moderation of the upward trend in inflation seen in January, and especially in February, will help to reinforce this revision of inflation expectations and will help to meet the proposed targets. After reaching 5.6% at the end of 2021, inflation maintained an upward trend throughout 2022 due to inflationary pressures from both external sources, associated with the aftermath of the pandemic and the consequences of the war in Ukraine, and domestic sources, resulting from: strengthening of local demand; price indexation processes stimulated by the increase in inflation expectations; the impact on food production caused by the mid-2021 strike; and the pass-through of depreciation to prices. The 10% increase in the minimum wage in 2021 and the 16% increase in 2022, both of which exceeded the actual inflation and the increase in productivity, accentuated the indexation processes by establishing a high nominal adjustment benchmark. Thus, total inflation went to 13.1% by the end of 2022. The annual change in food prices, which went from 17.2% to 27.8% between those two years, was the most influential factor in the surge in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Another segment that contributed significantly to price increases was regulated products, which saw the annual change go from 7.1% in December 2021 to 11.8% by the end of 2022. The measure of core inflation excluding food and regulated items, in turn, went from 2.5% to 9.5% between the end of 2021 and the end of 2022. The substantial increase in core inflation shows that inflationary pressure has spread to most of the items in the household basket, which is characteristic of inflationary processes with generalized price indexation as is the case in Colombia. Monetary policy began to react early to this inflationary pressure. Thus, starting with its September 2021 session, the BDBR began a progressive change in the monetary policy stance moving away from the historical low of a 1.75% policy rate that had intended to stimulate the recovery of the economy. This adjustment process continued without interruption throughout 2022 and into the beginning of 2023 when the monetary policy rate reached 12.75% last January, thus accumulating an increase of 11 percentage points (pp). The public and the markets have been surprised that inflation continued to rise despite significant interest rate increases. However, as the BDBR has explained in its various communiqués, monetary policy works with a lag. Just as in 2022 economic activity recovered to a level above the pre-pandemic level, driven, along with other factors, by the monetary stimulus granted during the pandemic period and subsequent months, so too the effects of the current restrictive monetary policy will gradually take effect. This will allow us to expect the inflation rate to converge to 3.0% by the end of 2024 as is the BDBR’s purpose.Inflation results for January and February of this year showed declining marginal increases (13 bp and 3 bp respectively) compared to the change seen in December (59 bp). This suggests that a turning point in the inflation trend is approaching. In other Latin American countries such as Chile, Brazil, Perú, and Mexico, inflation has peaked and has begun to decline slowly, albeit with some ups and downs. It is to be expected that a similar process will take place in Colombia in the coming months. The expected decline in inflation in 2023 will be due, along with other factors, to lower cost pressure from abroad as a result of the gradual normalization of supply chains, the overcoming of supply shocks caused by the weather, and road blockades in previous years. This will be reflected in lower adjustments in food prices, as has already been seen in the first two months of the year and, of course, the lagged effect of monetary policy. The process of inflation convergence to the target will be gradual and will extend beyond 2023. This process will be facilitated if devaluation pressure is reversed. To this end, it is essential to continue consolidating fiscal sustainability and avoid messages on different public policy fronts that generate uncertainty and distrust. 1 This Report to Congress includes Box 1, which summarizes the trajectory of Banco de la República over the past 100 years. In addition, under the Bank’s auspices, several books that delve into various aspects of the history of this institution have been published in recent years. See, for example: Historia del Banco de la República 1923-2015; Tres banqueros centrales; Junta Directiva del Banco de la República: grandes episodios en 30 años de historia; Banco de la República: 90 años de la banca central en Colombia. 2 This is why lower inflation has been reflected in a reduction of income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient that went from 58.7 in 1998 to 51.3 in the year prior to the pandemic. 3 See Gómez Javier, Uribe José Darío, Vargas Hernando (2002). “The Implementation of Inflation Targeting in Colombia”. Borradores de Economía, No. 202, March, available at: https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/5220 4 See López-Enciso Enrique A.; Vargas-Herrera Hernando and Rodríguez-Niño Norberto (2016). “The inflation targeting strategy in Colombia. An historical view.” Borradores de Economía, No. 952. https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/6263 5 According to the IMF, the percentage change in consumer prices between 2021 and 2022 went from 3.1% to 7.3% for advanced economies, and from 5.9% to 9.9% for emerging market and developing economies. 6 https://www.banrep.gov.co/es/noticias/junta-directiva-banco-republica-reitera-meta-inflacion-3