Human Development Perspectives – serie

This book is about the threats to education quality in the developing world that cannot be explained by lack of resources. It reviews the observed phenomenon of service delivery failures in public education: cases where programs and policies increase the inputs to education but do not produce effective services where it counts – in schools and classrooms. It documents what we know about the extent and costs of such failures across low and middle-income countries. And it further develops the conceptual model posited in the World Development Report 2004: that a root cause of low-quality and inequitable public services - not only in education - is the weak accountability of providers to both their supervisors and clients.The central focus of the book, however, is a new story. It is that developing countries are increasingly adopting innovative strategies to attack these problems. Drawing on new evidence from 22 rigorous impact evaluations across 11 developing countries, this book examines how three key strategies to strengthen accountability relationships in developing country school systems have affected school enrollment, completion and student learning.The book reviews the motivation and global context for education reforms aimed at strengthening provider accountability. It provides the rationally and synthesizes the evidence on the impacts of three key lines of reform: (1) policies that use the power of information to strengthen the ability of clients of education services (students and their parents) to hold providers accountable for results; (2) policies that promote school-based management–that is increase schools’ autonomy to make key decisions and control resources, often empowering parents to play a larger role; (3) teacher incentives reforms that specifically aim at making teachers more accountable for results, either by making contract tenure dependent on performance, or offering performance-linked pay. The book summarizes the lessons learned, draws cautious conclusions about possible complementarities across different types of accountability-focused reforms if they are implemented in tandem, considers issues related to scaling up reform efforts and the political economy of reform, and suggests directions for future work.

Creating jobs and increasing productivity are at the top of agenda for policymakers across the world. This report brings new ideas on how to build and upgrade job relevant skills, focusing on three types of training programs relevant for individuals who are leaving the formal general schooling system or are already in the labor market:pre-employment technical and vocational education and training (TVET)on-the-job training (OJT)training-related active labor market programs (ALMPs)Several previous studies have discussed some of the flaws in current systems and outlined options for reform. But, overall policies at these three levels of the training systems remain disconnected and there has not been an integrated framework linking them to the market and government failures that need to be addressed.This book makes two important contributions. First, it takes an in-depth look at the types of market and government failures that can result in underinvestment in training or the supply of skills that are not immediately relevant to the labor market. Second, building on the analysis of the limitations of both markets and governments and the results of case studies and recent impact evaluations, the report develops new ideas to improve the design and performance of current training programs, which often involve interventions outside the education and training systems.

Behaviours that pose risks for an individual’s health and that also represent important threats for public health, such as drug use, smoking, alcohol, unhealthy eating causing obesity, and unsafe sex, are highly prevalent in low income countries, even though they are traditionally associated with richer countries. Individual choices are an important part of the risky behaviours. Risking Your Health: Causes, Consequences, and Interventions to Prevent Risky Behaviors explore how those choices are formed and what are their consequences. Why do people engage in risky behaviours? Many different explanations have been proposed by psychology, sociology, economics or public health. One trait common to all these behaviours is that there is a disconnect – a function of both delay and uncertainty - between the pleasure or satisfaction provided by them and their consequences. Another characteristic of risky behaviours is that they rarely occur in isolation. Peer-pressure, parental influences, networks and social norms often play an important role in initiating, continuing, or quitting those behaviours. Even if they might often be the first to suffer, the consequences of risky behaviours are also rarely limited to the individuals engaging in them. In certain cases, such as second-hand smoking or HIV transmission, the link is direct. In other cases, the link is less direct but not necessarily less real: the long term health consequences of many of these behaviours are costly to treat and could stretch households’ finances and worsen poverty. Finally, these risky behaviours have consequences for society as a whole since they often trigger a non-trivial amount of public health expenditures and lead to declines in aggregate productivity through premature death and morbidity. Changing behaviours is tricky -- public health interventions via legislation with strong enforcement mechanisms can be more effective than simple communication campaigns informing consumers about the risks associated with certain behaviours, since translating knowledge into concrete changes in behaviour seems to be hard to achieve. Economic mechanisms such as taxes (especially on alcohol and tobacco products), subsidies (such as free condoms), and conditional/unconditional cash transfers are also used to reduce risky behaviours (for example in HIV prevention). Of great interest to policy makers, academics and practitioners, this book assesses the efficiency of those interventions designed to reduce the prevalence of behaviours that endanger health.

This white paper focuses on the policy interventions made to help people manage risk, uncertainty and the losses from events whose impacts are channelled primarily through the labour market.

Obesity is a global ticking time-bomb with huge potential negative economic and health impacts, especially for the poor. Countries and global partners need to act urgently to address this ensuing epidemic with emphasis highlighting interventions that require corrective public action rather than one of individual responsibility.

The Eastern Europe and Central Asia region has the world's fastest-growing HIV epidemic. Although still concentrated, the epidemic has diversified, affecting several key populations in many countries. This change has increased the number of people in need, the ways the epidemic can spread, and the complexity of formulating an effective strategy to combat it. At the same time, international funding is insufficient to cover the growing need, and domestic plans to cover the funding gaps, in many cases, fall short. In this environment, the need to use data to make the best possible decisions about using available funds is essential. Tackling the World's Fastest-Growing HIV Epidemic tells the story of how, in 11 countries across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, small groups of decision-makers and experts came together to carry out innovative, groundbreaking analyses for each country. It details the steps these nations have taken to strengthen their HIV programs based on the findings while highlighting critical issues for the road ahead. In so doing, the book also shows the potential of what can be done with a mathematical model and how it can support real-life improvements in policy and more efficacious budget allocations. It is the record of a unique undertaking to improve public health investments that offers lessons for many communities.

The Quality Early Learning volume synthesizes the latest relevant knowledge from multiple disciplines on how young children learn and what skills are most crucial for school-readiness.

As countries consider how they will invest in essential improvements to their defenses against future health threats, we propose a three-layer investment framework approach for the most effective use of their resources.