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Nepal Early Childhood Development: SABER Country Report 2013
No full textThis report presents an analysis of the early childhood development (ECD) programs and policies which affect young children in Nepal and recommendations to move forward. It is part of a series of reports prepared by the World Bank using the systems approach for better education results (SABER)-ECD framework and includes analysis of early learning, health, nutrition, and social and child protection policies and interventions in Nepal, along with some regional and international comparisons. SABER-ECD identifies three core policy goals that countries should address to ensure optimal ECD outcomes: establishing an enabling environment, implementing widely, and monitoring and assuring quality
Promoting Shared Prosperity in South Asia
No full textThe geography of poverty has changed. More than 70 percent of the world s poor live not in low-income countries, but in middle-income countries. In 2008, nearly 570 million people lived on less than US$1.25 a day in South Asia, compared to 385 million in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, nearly 70 percent of the poor people in South Asia live in the lagging regions. Improving the living standards of these regions is crucial to achieving the goal of shared prosperity. Economic growth is not sufficient to enable the lagging regions of South Asia to catch up with the leading regions, in terms of proportional reductions in poverty rates. Policies must be specifically targeted toward achieving greater growth and poverty reduction in these regions. One particular policy channel to achieve shared prosperity is pro-poor fiscal transfers. For the most part, interstate fiscal transfers in South Asian countries do promote equity through transfer of resources to poorer regions, but this outcome usually occurs when pro-poor redistribution has explicit rules and transparency. Further, simply directing financial resources to lagging regions may not be sufficient, and may need to be complemented with increases in capacity, transparency, and participation to facilitate accountability at the local level. Policy makers need to boost shared prosperity and take another look at the millennium development goal paradigm. A new lens is needed- one that shifts the focus of policy from national to subnational level, and from leading to lagging regions, where poverty, gender disparity, and human misery are concentrated
Promoting Women's Economic Participation in India
No full textDespite rapid economic growth, gender disparities in women's economic participation have remained deep and persistent in India. What explains these gender disparities? Is it poor infrastructure, limited education, or the composition of the labor force and industries? Or is it deficiencies in social and business networks and a low share of incumbent female entrepreneurs? This note analyzes the spatial determinants of female entrepreneurship in India in the manufacturing and services sectors. It finds that good infrastructure and education predict higher female entry shares. Gender networks also influence women's economic participation, as strong agglomeration economies exist in both manufacturing and services. A higher female ownership among incumbent businesses within a district-industry predicts a greater share of subsequent female entrepreneurs. Moreover, higher female ownership of local businesses in related industries (similar labor needs, input-output markets) predicts greater relative female entry rates. Unlocking female empowerment and entrepreneurship is a direct path to shared prosperity and a more dynamic and sustainable growth
Reducing Poverty by Closing South Asia's Infrastructure Gap
No full textDespite recent rapid growth and poverty reduction, the South Asia Region (SAR) continues to suffer from a combination of insufficient economic growth, slow urbanization, and huge infrastructure gaps that together could jeopardize future progress. It is also home to the largest pool of individuals living under the poverty line of any region, coupled with some of the fastest demographic growth rates of any region. Between 1990 and 2010, the number of people living on less than US$1.25 a day in South Asia decreased by only 18 percent, while the population grew by 42 percent. If South Asia hopes to meet its development goals and not risk slowing down, or even halting, growth and poverty alleviation, it is essential to make closing its huge infrastructure gap a priority. But the challenges on this front are monumental. Many people living in SAR remain unconnected to a reliable electrical grid, a safe water supply, sanitary sewerage disposal, and sound roads and transportation networks. This region requires significant infrastructure investment (roads, rails, power, water supply, sanitation, and telecommunications) not only to ensure basic service delivery and enhance the quality of life of its growing population, but also to avoid a possible binding constraint on economic growth owing to the substantial infrastructure gap
Rebel or stakeholder? No need for a Pakistani Tahrir Square for Qadri's people's democratic revolution
No full textPakistan's political parties are highly factionalised and personalised organisations in which loyalty is more important than efficient agenda setting and implementation
Taliban and democracy: the unequal equation
No full textOn June 18th the Taliban opened a liaison office in Doha, the capital city of the State of Qatar, a close ally of the US in the Persian Gulf region
The international context of Bangladesh Liberation War
No full textThe National Liberation Struggle of the Bengali people against the oppression of West Pakistan coincided with and became enmeshed in a major structural transformation of the international political system
Climate Change in the Himalayas: Current State of Knowledge
No full textThis paper reviews the literature on the potential biophysical and economic impacts of climate change in the Himalayas. Existing observations indicate that the temperature is rising at a higher rate in Nepal and Chinese regions of the Himalayas compared with rest of the Himalayas. A declining trend of monsoon in the western Indian Himalayas and an increasing trend in the eastern Indian Himalayas have been observed, whereas increasing precipitation and stream flow in many parts of Tibetan Plateau are noted. Glaciers in both the eastern and western Himalayas are mostly retreating, but the majority of the glaciers in Karakorum are either stable or advancing slowly. Expansion of glacier lakes is reported, with the highest rate in Nepal and Bhutan. Most literature predicts increases in temperature and monsoon precipitations and decreases in winter precipitations in the future thereby leading to monsoon flooding and increased sediments in stream flow. Available hydrological simulations indicate reduced rainfall and shrinkage of glacier thereby leading to shortage of water supply for power generation and irrigation in winter particularly in highly glaciated basins. Projected economic impacts of glacial lake outburst floods can be substantial on the developed river basin with infrastructures and population centers. However, there is a clear gap in knowledge of economic impacts of climate change in the Himalayas
Expanding Health Coverage for Vulnerable Groups in India
No full textIndia's health sector continues to be challenged by overall low levels of public financing, entrenched accountability issues in the public delivery system, and the persistent dominance of out-of-pocket spending. In this context, this case study describes three recent initiatives introduced by the central and state governments in India, aimed at addressing some of these challenges and improving the availability of and access to health services, particularly for the poor and vulnerable groups in the country. This includes two federal schemes introduced by the Government of India-the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) of the Ministry of Labor and Employment-and the Rajiv Aarogyasri scheme launched by the state government of Andhra Pradesh. The three schemes discussed in this case study were designed and implemented by different agencies almost in parallel, over the same time period, and used different financing and delivery approaches. A discussion of the mechanics and operational features of these programs has been undertaken to unravel the underlying complexities, interactions, and interdependencies of these programs within the country's health system. The remainder of this case study on India's march toward universal health coverage focuses on three recent, prominent programs, and includes a discussion on the institutional structure of these programs and their interactions within the country's health system, their mechanisms for beneficiary targeting and enrolment, the benefits packages covered by them, accompanying innovations in public financial management, and their information environment. Annex one presents an overview of the health system and health financing in India, and annex two discusses the evolutionary context of India's Government sponsored health insurance schemes. The discussion of the mechanics and operational features of these programs has been undertaken to unravel the underlying complexities, interactions, and interdependencies within these programs. The case study also aims to contribute to the ongoing debate within the Indian health sector, with opinions divided between investments in traditional input-based health spending for publicly managed health facilities versus demand-side financing, purchasing of care, and involving private providers and intermediaries in delivering services financed by public money. The case study also aims to share how the lessons learned by one program can be applicable more widely within the Indian health system and beyond
Nepal: Small Area Estimation of Poverty, 2011
No full textSmall area estimates of poverty have become useful tool in targeting poverty reduction by geographic areas. For Nepal, this is the second poverty map produced after a gap of seven years in collaboration with the Central Bureau of statistics, Nepal. This report presents 2010/11 small-area estimates and maps for Nepal at the 75 district, 967 ilaka and 2344 'target area' level, of poverty incidence, poverty gap, and poverty severity. The report also provides maps of the number of poor and their average consumption. As the newly introduced target areas are generally smaller than conventional aggregation levels, special attention is devoted to investigating the precision of the point estimates and to interpretation of the results. The poverty maps could usefully be expanded to other indicators of welfare such as nutrition and food security like in 2006. Detailed spatial distribution of poverty offers an opportunity to explore further the causes of poverty trends in Nepal. When combined with the spatial distribution of correlates of poverty such as access to roads, schools and health facilities, and other variable of economic geography, one can further our understanding of the persistence of pockets of poverty in Nepal. The present report updates the 2006 results for Nepal in three ways. First, it uses the recently published 2010/11 round of the Nepal Living Standards Survey (NLSS) and 2011 population census in order to produce an updated description of the spatial patterns of poverty. Second, it incorporates new methodological refinements aimed at improving modeling of the standard error. Third, in an effort to improve practical usability of the results, estimates are produced at the sub-ilaka or Village Development Committees (VDC) level - where possible-instead of sticking with the ilaka level that was used in 2006