Explore the vast range of titles available.

The global textile and apparel sector is critically important as an early phase in industrialization for many developing countries and as a provider of employment opportunities to thousands of low-income workers, many of them women. The goal of this book is to explore how the lifting of the Multi-fibre Arrangement/ Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (MFA/ATC) quotas has affected nine countries Bangladesh, Cambodia, Honduras, India, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam with the broader aim of better understanding the links between globalization and poverty in the developing world. Analyzing how employment, wage premiums, and the structure of the apparel industry have changed after the MFA/ATC can generate important lessons for policy makers for economic development and poverty reduction. This book uses in-depth country case studies as the broad methodological approach. In-depth country studies are important because countries are idiosyncratic: differences in regulatory context, history, location, trade relationships, and policies shape both the apparel sector and how the apparel sector changed after the end of the MFA. In-depth country studies place broader empirical work in context and strengthen the conclusions. The countries in this book were chosen because they represent the diversity of global apparel production, including differences across regions, income levels, trade relationships, and policies. The countries occupy different places in the global value chain that now characterizes apparel production. Not surprisingly, the countries studied in this book represent the diversity of post-MFA experiences. This book highlights four key findings: The first is that employment and export patterns after the MFA/ATC did not necessarily match predictions. This book shows that only about a third of the variation in cross-country changes in exports is explained by wage differences. While wage differences explain some of the production shifts, domestic policies targeting the apparel sector, ownership type, and functional upgrading of the industry also played an important role. Second, changes in exports are usually, but not always, good indicators of what happens to wages and employment. While rising apparel exports correlated with rising wages and employment in the large Asian countries, rising exports coincided with falling employment in Sri Lanka. Third, this book identifies the specific ways that changes in the global apparel market affected worker earnings, thus helping to explain impacts on poverty. Fourth, in terms of policies, the countries that had larger increases in apparel exports were those that promoted apparel sector upgrading; those that did not promote upgrading had smaller increases or even falling exports.

The objective of the Nepal Investment Climate Assessment (ICA) is to evaluate the investment climate in Nepal in all its dimensions and promote policies to strengthen the private sector. The investment climate is made up of many dimensions that shape the opportunities for investments, employment creation, and growth of private firms. Such dimensions include factor markets, product markets, infrastructure services, and the macroeconomic, legal, regulatory, and institutional framework. The report's key finding is that while there are some niche sectors growing and expanding employment in Nepal (including tourism and certain educational and other services), there are many constraints to the investment climate in Nepal that are hindering the development and growth of the private sector. In particular, political instability, poor infrastructure, poor labor relations, poor access to finance, and declining exports plague Nepal's private sector. To overcome many of these issues and move forward, many reforms are needed. Given the extent of the challenge, effective public-private dialogue is required so that the government and the private sector can work in partnership to address these constraints. The pervasiveness and impact of political instability in Nepal makes the investment climate in the country comparable more to Afghanistan than other countries in the region or the comparator countries used in the analysis. While this comparison is unflattering, it is true. Political instability has stifled growth and limited Nepal's ability to exploit its hydropower and tourism potential. Interestingly, many firms do not perceive access to land and finance as major obstacles. This could be a reflection of lack of dynamism: Nepalese firms are simply not planning to invest, expand, and grow in their unstable and unpredictable environment. The peace dividend is not difficult to measure. As the surveys show, ending civil unrest alone would give back to enterprises 44 working days a year. The effects on economic activity, investment, growth, and job creation could be potentially huge.

In the past 30 years, China has reached the target of lifting 500 million people out of poverty. The rate of increase in human development indicators has become the second fastest in the world, allowing China to enter the ranks of middle-income countries. As the most populous country, accounting for one-fifth of the world's population, its transformation has been unprecedented in human history. Scientific evidence and international experience in the past 10 years have found that early child development (ECD) is key to human development, as it lays the foundation for the rest of life. Early child development includes physical, psychological, emotional, language, behavioral, and social development. Experience in the early years of life will determine healthy development and happiness in the rest of life. Research has found that investment in ECD is the most cost effective strategy to improve human development. In China's demographic transition, the population of children and youth is declining in absolute numbers, and the investment of raising them can increase on a per capita basis. This study has been in the making since 2009. It was prepared during a time when China was charting its course of development under the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015). The study began with an agreement between the World Bank and China's National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) for a collaborative study on ECD. Concurrently, China's Ministry of Education invited the World Bank to conduct an overall review of the education sector, in order to provide it with inputs and suggestions as it prepared China's national plan for medium- and long-term education reform and development (2010-2020). In reviewing achievements and challenges in the education sector, the Bank found that there was much room for expanding and improving preprimary education for children ages 3-6. The Ministry of Education appreciated the Bank's identification of this need and set ambitious goals for preprimary education in the national education plan.

This chapter explores the fertility levels in China and how government-sponsored family planning programs have affected total fertility rates. The government is seen as a big factor in Chinese fertility rate, as is seen in their implementation of the “one child per family” program. The issue of whether fertility in China has truly dropped remains a subject of controversy, however, due to statistical problems from the State Family Planning Commission affected by underreporting. The objective of China is clear in that there is a desire to slow population growth, which in turn has made China into an “aging society,” making it the first major country to grow old before growing rich. There are increasing concerns as to the negative effects that low fertility may have on China, and talks on modifying China’s family planning regulations have been more rigorous as of late, as these policies will indeed influence China’s economy and social institutions.

Today, the world is at a conjuncture where issues of exclusion and inclusion are assuming new significance for both developed and developing countries. The imperative for social inclusion has blurred the distinction between these two stylized poles of development. Countries that used to be referred to as developed are grappling with issues of exclusion and inclusion perhaps more intensely today than they did a decade ago. And countries previously called developing are grappling with both old issues and new forms of exclusion thrown up by growth. Nonlinear demographic transitions, global economic volatility, shifts in the international balance of power, and local political movements have had a large part to play in these shifting sands. These changes make social inclusion more urgent than it was even a decade ago. This report tries to put boundaries around the abstraction that is \"social inclusion.\" Placing the discussion of social inclusion within such global transitions and transformations, the report argues that social inclusion is an evolving agenda. It offers two easy-to-use definitions and a framework to assist practitioners in asking, outlining, and developing some of the right questions that can help advance the agenda of inclusion in different contexts. This report builds on previous analytical work, especially by the World Bank, on themes that touch upon social inclusion, including multidimensional poverty, inequality, equity, social cohesion, and empowerment. There are seven main messages in this report: (1) excluded groups exist in all countries; (2) excluded groups are consistently denied opportunities; (3) intense global transitions are leading to social transformations that create new opportunities for inclusion as well as exacerbating existing forms of exclusion; (4) people take part in society through markets, services, and spaces; (5) social and economic transformations affect the attitudes and perceptions of people. As people act on the basis of how they feel, it is important to pay attention to their attitudes and perceptions; (6) exclusion is not immutable. Abundant evidence demonstrates that social inclusion can be planned and achieved; and (7) moving ahead will require a broader and deeper knowledge of exclusion and its impacts as well as taking concerted action. The report is divided into three parts. Part one is framing the issues. Part two focuses on transitions, transformations, and perceptions. Part three is change is possible. Incluir a los excluidos es un desafío complejo. Afrontar la necesidad de inclusión social será esencial para alcanzar la meta de crear prosperidad compartida para todos. Si bien es cierto que se ha avanzado mucho en la reducción de la pobreza extrema, en un país tras otro, diversos grupos siguen excluidos de los logros en materia de desarrollo. En este informe se presenta un marco de referencia para ayudar a entender lo que es la inclusión social y avanzar hacia su realización. Está destinado a los responsables de las políticas públicas, académicos, activistas y socios en el desarrollo. Aunque no aporta respuestas definitivas, ofrece una definición y un marco de referencia para ayudar al progreso de la agenda de la inclusión social. Se fundamenta en la labor analítica previa del Banco Mundial acerca de temas que han tratado la inclusión social. También se apoya en una reseña de la bibliografía pertinente, en el análisis de los datos de encuestas, en algunos trabajos cualitativos nuevos y en compromisos de política con algunos países. Este informe es el primer examen integral hecho por el Banco sobre inclusión social. Au sein des pays, les investissements dans le domaine du développement produisent des avantages inégaux. Des groupes présentant certaines caractéristiques distinctives restent systématiquement à l’écart des progrès d’un pays. Ces groupes comptent parmi les plus pauvres d’un pays, mais ne sont pas systématiquement les plus pauvres. Souvent, mais pas toujours, il s’agit de minorités. Ce qui les distingue des autres est qu’ils appartiennent à des groupes exclus —des populations autochtones, des nouveaux immigrants, des personnes handicapées, des personnes de couleur de peau différente, des personnes s’exprimant de manière imparfaite dans la langue officielle. Ce rapport fournit un cadre de référence pour comprendre et progresser sur la voie de l’inclusion sociale. Sans fournir de réponses définitives, il propose une définition et un cadre pour aider à faire avancer l’agenda de l’inclusion sociale. Il s’appuie sur des travaux analytiques précédemment réalisés par la Banque mondiale sur des thématiques qui ont abordé l’inclusion sociale. Ce rapport contient sept messages principaux: 1. Les groupes exclus existent dans tous les pays. 2. Les groupes exclus se voient systématiquement refuser des opportunités. 3. Des transitions intenses au niveau mondial conduisent à des transformations sociales qui créent de nouvelles opportunités d’inclusion sociale et exacerbent, dans le même temps, les formes existantes d’exclusion. 4. Les populations prennent part à la société à travers les marchés, les services et les espaces. 5. Les transformations sociales et économiques affectent les attitudes et perceptions des peuples. Dans la mesure où les personnes agissent sur la base de leur ressenti, il est important d’accorder de l’attention à leurs attitudes et perceptions. 6. L’exclusion n’est pas immuable. De nombreux éléments démontrent que l’inclusion sociale peut être planifiée et réalisée. 7. Pour progresser, il faudra avoir une connaissance plus vaste et plus profonde de l’exclusion et de ses répercussions et prendre des mesures concertées.

Although average incomes in China have risen dramatically since the 1980s, concerns are increasing that the rural elderly have not benefited from growth to the same extent as younger people and the urban elderly. Concerns about welfare of the rural elderly combine spatial and demographic issues. Large gaps exist between conditions in coastal and interior regions and between conditions in urban and rural areas of the country. In addition to differences in income by geography, considerable differences exist across demographic groups in the level of coverage by safety nets, in the benefits received through the social welfare system, and in the risks of falling into poverty. This book aims to do two things: first, it provides detailed empirical analysis of the welfare and living conditions of the rural elderly since the early 1990s in the context of large-scale rural-to-urban migration, and second, it explores the evolution of the rural pension system in China over the past two decades and raises a number of issues on its current implementation and future directions. Although the two sections of the book are distinct in analytical terms, they are closely linked in policy terms: the first section demonstrates in several ways a rationale for greater public intervention in the welfare of the rural elderly, and the second documents the response of policy to date and options to consider for deepening the coverage and effects of the rural pension system over the longer term.

Effective, quality reproductive, maternal, and child health services including family planning, and female education and empowerment are likely to accelerate demographic transition and yield a demographic dividend. Nigeria's lower life expectancy is partially due to having more deaths in children of 5 years and younger than any other country in the world, including more populous India and China and countries experiencing widespread long-term conflict, such as Somalia. Interventions are needed to improve child nutrition, reduce indoor and outdoor air pollution, address unmet family planning needs, and improve access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Nigeria needs better manufacturing capacity for essential health products, medicines and vaccines, the provision of diagnostics, surveillance and preventive public health measures in health facilities and community settings, as well as other preventive and curative measures.

China is characterized by a low fertility intention, a strong preference for sons, as well as a stringent birth control policy. In this study, we used data from a Fertility Intention and Behavior Survey of 2101 questionnaires conducted in 2013 in Shaanxi Province of northwestern China, and event history analysis methods to examine the effect of fertility intention and preference for sons on the probability of having a second child. The results not only validate the correlation of fertility intention with having a second child empirically, even in the low fertility intention and stringent birth control context of China, but also show that women with a preference for sons were less likely to have a second child. Women with son preference turn to sex-selective abortion to ensure that their first child is a son, thus reducing the likelihood of a second child and decreasing the fertility rate. Our findings also shed light on China’s potential fertility policy adjustment.

Objective To examine the associations between living arrangements and the psychological well‐being and life satisfaction of Chinese older adults, as well as the mediating role of social support. Background China has the largest elderly population of any nation, and the country's overall population is rapidly aging. At the same time, China is experiencing substantial changes in living arrangements, particularly among older adults, that may have reshaped the types and sources of social support older adults receive. Method Using a nationally representative longitudinal dataset from 5 waves of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (N ≈ 5,000), we carried out structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine our research questions. Results Compared with elders living with their children, living alone was negatively associated with rural elders' life satisfaction, whereas urban elders living in nursing homes were more likely to be satisfied with their lives. Social support not only was important to elders' psychological well‐being and life satisfaction but also played some mediating role through receiving formal financial support. Conclusion Our results indicate that living arrangements had both direct and indirect effects (through social support) on older adults' psychological well‐being and life satisfaction. The mediating role played by social support differed by types and sources of social support. Implications Our results speak to the importance of providing social support from suitable sources for contemporary elders in China.

This study examined barriers to career development planning from the perspective of nurses with master’s degrees in China. The quality of nursing personnel is closely related to clinical nursing quality and patient satisfaction. Assisting highly educated nurses in career planning is crucial for reducing dropout rates. However, no domestic and international research has been done on the barriers to career development faced by highly educated nurses. Investigating these barriers can provide a foundation for developing targeted clinical nursing education and practice strategies. Descriptive qualitative design. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Following the COREQ guidelines. Seventeen nurses (two men and 15 women; age range: 26–29), reaching data saturation. Data analysis revealed eight subcategories in three categories: (1) transition shock, including the gap between nursing education and clinical practice, discrepancy between career growth expectations and clinical training system, and perceived professional crisis; (2) contextual elements, including external higher expectations, influence of leadership style, and limitations of the nursing standardized training system; and (3) lack of necessary support, including limitations of vocational development training programs in hospitals and schools and support requirements for the work environment. The findings offer insights useful for nursing education experts and institutions and clinical nursing departments (especially their managers). Specifically, by clarifying the barriers faced by highly educated nurses in career development planning, the findings can inform the development of training systems and practices for enhancing highly educated nurses’ career satisfaction and professional identity.