Quentin Wodon - Böcker

Household vulnerability to weather shocks and changing climatic conditions has become a major concern in developing countries. Yet the empirical evidence remains limited on the impact that changing environmental conditions have on households. This book explores climate change adaptation using a social resilience approach.The book is based on primary data from the Sundarbans, a densely populated area located across parts of Bangladesh and India (West Bengal) which is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events and climate change. The focus is on assessing how households are affected by cyclones: whether they are able to cope with, adapt to and recover from events and changes; whether they are warned ahead of time; whether they benefit from government safety nets and other social programs; and finally whether they are driven to either temporary or permanent migration. This assessment leads to a better understanding of how exposure to an area of climate change vulnerability and risk affects and shapes human responses.

While consumer utility subsidies are widespread in both the water and electricity sectors, their effectiveness in reaching and distributing resources to the poor is the subject of much debate. Water, Electricity, and the Poor brings together empirical evidence on subsidy performance across a wide range of countries. It documents the prevalence of consumer subsidies, provides a typology of the many variants found in the developing world, and presents a number of indicators useful in assessing the degree to which such subsidies benefit the poor, focusing on three key concepts: beneficiary incidence, benefit incidence, and materiality. The findings on subsidy performance will be useful to policy makers, utility regulators, and sector practitioners who are contemplating introducing, eliminating, or modifying utility subsidies, and to those who view consumer utility subsidies as a social protection instrument.

While public-private partnerships in education in the United States have received a lot of attention, research on such partnerships elsewhere has been limited-even though such partnerships have been steadily gaining prominence, particularly in developing countries. Aiming to fill this gap, this book presents fresh, technically sound empirical evidence on the effectiveness and cost of various public-private education partnerships from around the world, including voucher programs and faith-based schools. The evidence on the impact in terms of school performance, targeting, and cost of public-private partnerships is mixed. Some evidence suggests that voucher schools outperform public schools, but the difference between both types of schools is not as large as one might think, and is often smaller than simple statistics suggest. Evidence on faith-based schools tends to show slightly better performance than public schools, but this is not the case in all countries. While in some countries faith-based schools reach the poor better than public schools, in other countries the reverse is observed. As for the private costs of education, evidence shows that costs depend on the systems in place in each country, but that when school choice is limited, parents can still influence the performance of their children through private expenditure for tutoring. More rigorous studies on such partnerships, particularly in developing countries, are necessary.

This volume is devoted to an assessment of the performance and selected aspects of the management and pedagogical practices of Fe y Alegría, a federation of Jesuit schools serving approximately one million children in 20 countries, mostly in Latin America. Many observers consider Fe y Alegría a successful organization, but very few rigorous evaluations have been conducted.The available quantitative evidence suggests that the federation's schools often do reach the poor, and that students in Fe y Alegría schools tend to perform as well on test scores, if not slightly better, than comparable students in other schools. Qualitative data and case studies suggest that the factors that lead to good performance are complex and related not only to the types of 'inputs' or resources used by the schools in the education process, but also to the management of these resources and the ability to implement and test innovative programs. Other factors that support this argument include the capacity and fl exibility to implement and test innovative programs that take into account the local realities.This volume will be of interest to researchers, policy makers, and practitioners working on education and public-private partnerships, and especially to those interested in what is now commonly being referred to as the 'science of delivery.'

Despite substantial progress towards peace, economic growth, and better governance since 2003, Liberia remains one of the poorest countries in the world. The objective of this study is twofold. First it is to provide a basic diagnostic of both consumption-based poverty and human development (especially education and health) in the country using the 2007 CWIQ (Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire) survey. Second, it is to assess the likely impact on the poor of the recent economic crisis, and especially the increase in rice prices, and to document the targeting performance of various measures taken by the government in 2008/09 to help the poor cope with the crisis. These measures included a reduction in import taxes for rice, a reform of the personal income tax, and the implementation of a cash for work temporary employment program.

This study provides a diagnostic of the benefit incidence and targeting performance of a large number of social programs in Ghana. Both broad-based programs (such as spending for education and health, and subsidies for food, oil-related products and electricity) as well as targetd programs (such as LEAP, the indigent exemption under the NHIS, school lunches and uniforms, or fertilizer subsidies) are considered. In addition, the study provides tools and recommendations for better targeting of those programs in the future. The tools include new maps and data sets for geographic targeting according to poverty and food security, as well as ways to implement proxy means-testing. The purpose of this introductory chapter is to provide a brief synthesis of the key findings and messages from the study.This volume discusses the level of Dutch individual involvement in culture (various forms of arts and cultural heritage). Trends in participation are treated against the background of what the cultural field offers the Dutch population. In addition to "cultural consumption" (visiting a theater or going to the movies) this work also views active creative activity (painting, playing music, acting) and the use of the mass media for cultural purposes. Women appear to be more interested in most cultural forms than are men; highly educated people participate more than those with lower levels of education, although participation levels of the higher educated are declining somewhat; and, among the middle aged, popular rather than high arts are on the rise. The book concludes by discussing scenarios for a future in which the cultural field faces increased competition over the leisure time of Dutch citizens.Frank Huysmans, Andries van den Broek and Jos de Haan are part of the research group on Time, Media and Culture of the Social and Cultural Planning Office in The Hague, Netherlands.

In the past decade the global financial assistance for AIDS responses increased tremendously and the donor community provided greater resources to community responses. Yet little is known about the global magnitude of these resources and their allocation among HIV and AIDS activities and services. To address this knowledge gap, this report pulls together evidence from several different sources (donor data bases, surveys of civil society organisations, country funding profiles) to determine, among other things, how funds are reaching civil society and community-based organisations, how these funds are being used, and the degree to which these organisations rely on other sources of funding. The analysis suggests that funding flows have increased dramatically for civil society organisations (CSOs), reaching at least $690 million per year on average during the period 2003 - 2009. However, much smaller funding is reaching organisations at local level. The report documents the impact achieved by this funding. Traditionally, civil society organisations have been perceived at times to be providers of humanitarian aid, innovators in implementing responses adapted to local needs, or inefficient actors diverting public funds from more effective uses. The report argues that current evidence shows that community responses play a useful complementary role to national AIDS programs that has been achieved with relatively little funding. Contrary to a widespread view, the report highlights that community responses add resources to national programs. In Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, substantial mobilisation of resources in the form of volunteers are mobilised by communities. There is a strong risk that in the current environment of increased resource scarcity, prevention programs implemented by civil society organisations would be cut unless there is strong evidence of value for money being generated. Community-based organisations are ill equipped to answer that question, but there is scope for improving the results that they generate. The report argues that improving coordination with national programs, strengthening consistency between local activities and HIV epidemics, building stronger network of civil society organisations, and mobilising sustainable funding are the most important ways for community responses to move forward and address the challenges faced by community responses.

The purpose of this study is to build a stronger evidence base on the role of faith-inspired, private secular, and public schools in sub-Saharan Africa using nationally representative household surveys as well as qualitative data. Six main findings emerge from the study: (1) Across a sample of 16 countries, the average market share for faith-inspired schools is at 10-15 percent, and the market share for private secular schools is of a similar order of magnitude; (2) On average faith-inspired schools do not reach the poor more than other groups; they also do not reach the poor more than public schools, but they do reach the poor significantly more than private secular schools; (3) The cost of faith-inspired schools for households is higher than that of public schools, possibly because of a lack of access to public funding, but lower than that of private secular schools; (4) Faith-inspired and private secular schools have higher satisfaction rates among parents than public schools; (5) Parents using faith-inspired schools place a stronger emphasis on religious education and moral values; (6) Students in faith-inspired and private schools perform better than those in public schools, but this may be due in part to self-selection.

Climate change and migration are major concerns in the MENA region, yet the empirical evidence on the impact of climate change and extreme weather events on migration remains limited. Information is broadly lacking on how households in vulnerable areas perceive changes in the climate, how they are affected by extreme weather events, whether they benefit from community and government programmes to help them cope with and adapt to a changing climate, and how these conditions influence the decision of household members to migrate, either temporarily or permanently. This introductory chapter summarises briefly the main results of the study which relied on existing data as well as focus groups and new household surveys collected in 2011 in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, and Yemen. The results suggest that households do perceive important changes in the climate, and that many households are being affected by extreme weather events resulting in losses in income, crops, and livestock. The coping and adaptation strategies used by households to deal with weather shocks are diverse, but also limited, with most households not able to recover from the negative impact of weather shocks. The ability of community level responses and government programmes to support households is also very limited. Finally, while climate change is not today the main driver of migration flows, it does appear to contribute substantially to these flows, so that worsening climatic conditions are likely to exacerbate future migration flows.

The Economics of Faith-Based Service Delivery provides the first ever comprehensive empirical assessment of the role that faith-inspired institutions (FIIs) play in the supply of health care and education services in sub-Saharan Africa.

Membership in Service Clubs provides the first rigorous assessment of the activities of Rotary, a global service organization founded in 1905 that implements projects and helps build goodwill and peace throughout the world.

Household vulnerability to weather shocks and changing climatic conditions has become a major concern in developing countries. Yet the empirical evidence remains limited on the impact that changing environmental conditions have on households. This book explores climate change adaptation using a social resilience approach.The book is based on primary data from the Sundarbans, a densely populated area located across parts of Bangladesh and India (West Bengal) which is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events and climate change. The focus is on assessing how households are affected by cyclones: whether they are able to cope with, adapt to and recover from events and changes; whether they are warned ahead of time; whether they benefit from government safety nets and other social programs; and finally whether they are driven to either temporary or permanent migration. This assessment leads to a better understanding of how exposure to an area of climate change vulnerability and risk affects and shapes human responses.

This study provides a diagnostic of the state of school infrastructure in Paraguay, its investments needs, its current budget allocations, and the targeting performance of investments to the schools most in need.

This report presents findings on early childhood development policies in Indonesia at the national, provincial, and district levels. In addition, the authors compare Indonesia's early childhood development policies to other countries that have comparable policy data on early childhood development.

This study provides a diagnostic of residential network water in Uganda, focusing on access and affordability for the poor, and using data from the latest national household survey.

This study provides a diagnostic of access to and affordability of water and sanitation in Uganda, focusing on services for the poor, and using the most recent qualitative and household survey data.

Countries regularly track gross domestic product (GDP) as an indicator of their economic progress, but not wealth—the assets such as infrastructure, forests, minerals, and human capital that produce GDP. In contrast, corporations routinely report on both their income and assets to assess their economic health and prospects for the future. Wealth accounts allow countries to take stock of their assets to monitor the sustainability of development, an urgent concern today for all countries. The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018: Building a Sustainable Future covers national wealth for 141 countries over 20 years (1995–2014) as the sum of produced capital, 19 types of natural capital, net foreign assets, and human capital overall as well as by gender and type of employment. Great progress has been made in estimating wealth since the first volume, Where Is the Wealth of Nations? Measuring Capital for the 21st Century, was published in 2006. New data substantially improve estimates of natural capital, and, for the first time, human capital is measured by using household surveys to estimate lifetime earnings. The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018 begins with a review of global and regional trends in wealth over the past two decades and provides examples of how wealth accounts can be used for the analysis of development patterns. Several chapters discuss the new work on human capital and its application in development policy. The book then tackles elements of natural capital that are not yet fully incorporated in the wealth accounts: air pollution, marine fisheries, and ecosystems. This book targets policy makers but will engage anyone committed to building a sustainable future for the planet.

This book examines the evolution of poverty and human development outcomes since the end of the 10-year civil war in 2001 and asks if the foundations for creating shared prosperity and addressing persistent poverty in Sierra Leone have been laid down through key policies in these sectors.

This edited collection is the first part of a two-volume set., which focuses on leadership in Catholic education settings in the United Kingdom. It includes an overview of the importance of different types of leadership, including ‘servant-leadership’, in understanding and framing Catholic school practice, a critical survey of why leadership matters to ensuring the success of Catholic education, and a discussion of what counts as the defining characteristics of leadership in Catholic education and how this relates to the aims or philosophy of Catholic education. The chapters in this book draw from the insights and experiences of serving Catholic school leaders as well as from academics and researchers in Catholic education studies. The final two chapters provide a comparative analysis for the United Kingdom in a global perspective using data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) . Together, the chapters argue that there is an urgent need to find, nurture, and sustain outstanding leaders for Catholic schools and colleges.