Over the last decade the issues concerning higher education quality have become very important in European countries. Therefore the article presents a comparative analysis of the experience of Western and Central Eastern European countries in the field of higher education accreditation with emphasis on the two aspects of this process: the factors that influenced introduction of accreditation systems into higher education sector and models of quality indicators.

The currently formed system of the agricultural sector in Ukraine in recent years has been characterized by low social and economic problems due to the insufficient level of prognostic indicators of the development of agricultural enterprises. For agricultural enterprises, maintaining a competitive position in the information market is one of the successes, so forecasting their activities ensures a reliable need for it. Several factors were investigated for their influence on the variability of net earnings, including the number of enterprises, the area of farmland, the number of employees, and the complete expenditure on agricultural products and services.. The forecast showed the growth of net profit with small reductions and its further stabilization until 2030. Scientifically innovative research is the substantiation of the possibility of using the STELLA program for a further attempt to forecast the progress of agrarian business entities. The assessment of the cumulative effect of factors on the change in the net profit of agricultural enterprises has been carried out.

The problem dealt with in the paper is the impact of manager's emotional intelligence (EI) on the economic, social, and ecological sides of the organisational activity and the qualitative criteria of the evaluation of the organisational performance from the viewpoint of sustainable development (SD) of the organisation. The aim of the paper is to justify the interrelationship of the EI of the manager of an organization and the performance of the organization in terms of its sustainable development. Methodology: to evaluate EI, the methodology proposed by J. N. Hall (2005) was adopted as a basis, by means of which the EI of the respondents – the heads of eight organisations that provided a wide range of services (logistics, ICT, etc.) – has been measured. To evaluate the effectiveness of the organisational performance, the indicators of effectiveness proposed by R. S. Kaplan and D. P. Norton (1992, 2001) and supplemented by the author – a balanced scorecard (BS) – has been applied. It was established that, in the evaluation of any organisation, the existing BS of economic indicators should be supplemented by social-cultural and environmental instruments. The EI of managers was found to be closely related both to the individual indicators of the organisational performance and with the integrated BS.

The article examines, identifies and studies the key types of infrastructure (industrial, housing and communal, social, transport, agricultural and energy) and their state for the territories` development of Luhansk region, which controlled by the Government of Ukraine, in order to create appropriate conditions for effective management of its development and counteract the negative impact of the pandemic. The article uses methods of comprehensive and auxiliary factor method, analysis and synthesis, statistical, comparative analysis, modelling, which made it possible to research the significant problems and opportunities for the infrastructural regional support. The main results of scientific research reveal on substantiate conceptual provisions of the infrastructural support for the post-conflict territories development to identify problematic hot spots in the state of the infrastructure that hinder the sustainable development of the Luhansk region, which made it possible to reveal unsatisfactory results of the state of infrastructure subsystems in the region. It proposes to adjust the strategic and operational purposes of the long-time regional development and focus on housing and social infrastructure facilities. For solve identifying problems it offers to form and implement the Concept provisions for the socio-economic development of post-conflict territories, especially the Luhansk region in the conditions of war conflict and COVID-19 pandemic.

Effective management of any system is impossible without a clear definition of its elements, hierarchical levels and desired performance indicators. Considering this problem in the context of food security management, the authors set out to create a system of food security criteria at different hierarchical levels. In this work, the basis of theoretical and methodological research is based on two principles: (1) the principle of interdependence of indicators, criteria and content of food security; (2) the principle of compliance of food security criteria with CSD2030 measurements and management levels. As a result, a critical analysis of scientists' approaches to the definition of the system of food security criteria is carried out. The expediency of the methodological approach, in which the essence of the concept is formed, based on the defined criteria for achieving food security, is substantiated. The author's vision of essential content of categories is offered: criterion, component and indicator of food security. Determinants of each hierarchical level are established as criteria for achieving food security. The results obtained are of great practical importance in shaping national and regional food security policies (programs) on a sustainable development basis.

Almost LVL 1.7 billion has been paid as support for agriculture and rural development in Latvia in the period of 2004-2010, which positively affected the development of agricultural industry. The value added of the industry reached LVL 460 million in 2010, accounting for 4% of total value added in the country, which was the pre-crisis level. The research aim is to assess the effect of support payments on the economic performance indicators of farms of various sizes in Latvia in the period of 2004-2009. The methods of analysis and synthesis, the logical and constructive method, and the statistical analysis methods – correlation and regression were employed to perform the research tasks. The paper presents an assessment of the effect of support payments on the economic performance indicators of farms of various sizes based on the FADN data for the period of 2004-2009. The total annual amount of support per farm was LVL 10.7 thousand on average in 2009 and ranged from LVL 3.6 thousand for very small farms to LVL 315 thousand for very large farms. The use of financial support is more efficient on large farms, as a larger quantity of agricultural goods is produced by means of a smaller amount of support. Over the recent years, the financial dependence of farms on support payments increases with the rise of the share of support in the net turnover of farms, and it exceeds the net income of farms several times. The strength of relationships between the amount of support payments and nine economic performance indicators was determined for farm groups of various sizes by means of correlation and regression analyses.

The research aim is to assess the effects of the measure “Payments to farmers in areas with handicaps, other than mountain areas” under the Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 on and its relation to various socio-economic indicators in Latvia in the period 2004-2010. To achieve the aim, first, the indicators of this kind of support in Latvia were assessed and its relation to other socio-economic indicators of Latvian municipalities were analysed. The purpose of this support measure is to promote the maintenance of rural landscapes and provide and stimulate sustainable economic activity by employing environmentally friendly methods in the territories in which agricultural activity is handicapped. The funding for this measure totalled LVL 2001.5 mln in the period 2004- 2010 or on average LVL 26-27 mln a year, and its role in the total amount of support decreased, yet, this support promoted the use of agricultural land and affected the total number of farms and the number of crop, grazing livestock, dairy, and mixed livestock farms as well as the number of employees in agriculture and the number of grazing livestock.

The article discusses analytical aspects of the economic approach to the problem of food security. Food security measurement and indicators are analysed and world food security situation is assessed with reference to theoretical and empirical literature, and principles of environmental economics and sustainable development. The first part of this article discusses food security measurement and indicators, and how they are estimated at the national level. There are five methods that can be used to assess food insecurity: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization method, household expenditure surveys, dietary intake assessment, anthropometry and experience-based food insecurity scales. Food insecurity factors can be grouped in four clusters: 1) the socio-economic and political environment; 2) food economy; 3) care practices; 4) health and sanitation. The second part of this article analyzes the current food security situation in the world. W ith reference to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization data it can be stated that the increase of hunger in the world is not a result of poor crop harvest, but rather of insufficient investment in agriculture, high local food prices, lower income and higher unemployment do to economic slowdown witch followed on the heals of food price crises. Rising international cereal prices and drop in national crop production have increased food prices in many countries of the world. The biggest increase in food prices were in developing countries. The third part of this article discusses the causes of world food price crisis. Many factors contributed to resent food security situation and food price rise. Long term trends in agricultural production, population growth, economic growth in developing countries, oil prices have slowed food production growth and strengthened demand.[...].

The article evaluates the sustainable development concept and possibilities for assessment of sustainable development. The concept of sustainable development and assessment of it and its dimensions are reviewed from the viewpoint of principles of environmental economics and sustainable development.

The article discusses the assessment of sustainable development. According to the collected theoretical and practical material, the possibilities of assessment of sustainable development are reviewed from the viewpoint of principles of environmental economics and sustainable development.