Can I bargain with the Mayor?

The municipality of Gaza is one of the largest in the Gaza Strip . This town took a new step to address the eight-year-long Israeli siege that greatly affected the work of all service sectors. The municipality’s civil servants found a solution to overcome the lack of municipals cars: bicycles. The project welcomed by Gazans and environmental institutions. First, transportation has been an ongoing problem for years, prompting engineers to consider alternatives. Those presented the idea to provide a bicycle for each of the fifty inspectors at the town hall as an interim solution. This project was approved and implemented in September 2014 by local authority. Each bicycle has a unique serial number and bears the Gaza municipality’s logo. They were all painted orange to distinguish them from other bicycles in the city.  Now, citizens are happy to see the inspectors make their rounds in their neighborhoods. They please with the continuous attention by the inspectors in ensuri...

The conduct of hostilities and violations of the Minsk ceasefire agreements has resulted in repeated damage to the water pipe system in eastern Ukraine, putting tens of thousands of civilians living on both sides of the contact line without access to piped water. The current shortages in water in the conflict ‐ affected areas of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions could leave civilians bitterly cold throughout the coming winter as central heating systems break down and have lasting consequences on food production. The thematic report, Access to Water in Conflict ‐ affected Areas of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions, says that the situation has been exacerbated by the fact that the existing water infrastructure was already in need of repairs even before the fighting commenced in spring 2014. Hostilities prevented further repair works from taking place. Moreover the functionality of essential water pumps has decreased due to the shelling of the electrical systems which powered them. Acce...

Illegal immigrants living in Spain will once again have the right to free primary healthcare with a general practitioner (GP), after losing access in 2012.Undocumented residents will not be getting their health cards back, however. Health Minister Alfonso Alonso said the Popular Party (PP) government has decided to backtrack on its earlier decision “for public health reasons,” because it is “more practical” and “in order to not saturate the emergency services.” Under the health reform of 2012, free access to all public health services was taken away for illegal immigrants. Instead, general care was restricted to minors and pregnant women, although any migrant could still visit a hospital’s emergency room in the event of an accident or if they had an infectious disease. “We see it very clearly now, and we are working on it,” said the minister in an interview with Efe news agency. “It makes no sense for them not to be seen in primary care.” The decision attracted strong cri...

In Albania today, Bledar Çuçi, the Minister of State for Local Issues, who also serves as Albania’s National Co-ordinator on Anti-corruption, and the OSCE Presence presented the draft Anti-corruption Action Plan 2014-2017. The Action Plan was put together with the support and co-operation of the OSCE Presence in Albania. Attending the presentation of the Plan were some 70 representatives of government and independent institutions, civil society, business community and international organizations. Most of the participants have been involved in the drafting of the Action Plan or were consulted during the drafting process. “Corruption hinders development. Public resources are diverted to the pockets of corrupt individuals instead of being used for investments in transport, energy, environment, health and education,” said Ambassador Florian Raunig, Head of the OSCE Presence, as he presented the plan. “It is important to undertake harmonised efforts and concrete actio...