Urbanization is occurring at a rapid pace in Bangladesh, accompanied by the proliferation of slum settlements, whose residents have special health needs given the adverse social, economic, and public
While the Philippines has achieved remarkable progress in raising the education level of its labor force, the standard proxy for educational attainment—years of formal schooling—is increasingly inadeq
Data is an important ingredient in any successful education system. Building and sustaining a data system are challenging tasks. Many countries around the world have spent significant resources but st
This book brings together a set of experiences from Central American countries. In each case, behavioral insights are applied to different areas of public policy, in some cases trough randomized contr
China is aging at an unprecedented rate. Improvements in life expectancy and the consequences of the decades-old family planning policy have led to a rapid increase in the elderly population. Accordin
Despite a spectacular expansion of the higher education sector in Sub-Saharan Africa, the supply of tertiary education has generally failed to keep pace with demand and the region continues to lag all
The Skills Toward Employment and Productivity (STEP) Survey is an initiative of the World Bank in cooperation with other development partners and nongovernmental agencies and carried out in more than
A country’s education system plays a pivotal role in promoting economic growth and shared prosperity.Sri Lanka has enjoyed high school-attainment and enrollment rates for several decades. However, it
Higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean has expanded dramatically in the past 15 years, as the average gross enrollment rate has more than doubled, and many new institutions and programs h
Central America has come a long way both in terms of economic and political stability. Increasingly the region is focusing on implementing productivity-enhancing reforms as well as supporting reductio
A growing body of research suggests that the quantity and quality of structural inputs of education and healthcare services such as infrastructure, classroom and medical supplies, and even teacher and
Ghana was, until very recently, a success story in Africa, achieving high and sustained growth and impressive poverty reduction. However, Ghana is now facing major challenges in diversifying its econo
Ukraine’s economic progress since its independence in the early 1990s has been uneven, in part due to the slow pace of reforms, unfavorable demographic factors, and low productivity. One of the key fa
This publication uses data from the World Bank’s Skills Towards Employability and Productivity (STEP) Household Skills Survey to explore patterns of educational mismatch in 12 developing countries. Th
This book, produced jointly by the World Bank, the University of California, Berkeley, and the WHO, aims to provide decision-makers at sub-national, national, regional and global levels with additiona
The Targeted Social Assistance Program of Georgia is a last resort social program that is considered a best practice among proxy-means-tested (PMT) programs. It achieves high targeting accuracy for a
This book represents a systematic review of the documented impacts of programs aimed at fostering socio-emotional skills in developed and developing countries. It uses a life-cycle approach to organi
The health workforce must be able to cope with shifts in the pattern of causes of death and disease that are being seen worldwide—particularly with the rise in noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This re
Strong science, technology, and innovation links between universities and industry are of critical importance to Sri Lanka as it strives to become an upper-middle-income country.This report presents a
Investing in skills has risen to the top of the policy agenda today in rich and poor countries alike. The World Bank supports its partner countries on this agenda in multiple ways: development financ
The population of Uruguay is undergoing a slow but sustained aging process, driven by the demographic transition that started early in the twentieth century. While this reflects significant improvemen
Cameroon has strong goals for its growth and development. By 2035, it aims to be an emerging economy. The country’s medium-term goals are focused on alleviating poverty, consolidating democracy, and a
The Shanghai basic education system has garnered significant attention since its extraordinary performance in the 2009 and 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a global assessme
Teachers and Teacher Performance in Bihar: Implications for Teacher Education is a study undertaken in the low income state of Bihar in India to create effective teacher perfomance measuring standards
This World Bank report is a rich compilation of information on teaching learning materials (TLM) in Africa based on the extensive and multi-faceted experience of the author's work in the education sec
The 1992 creation of the National HIV/AIDS Program was a fundamental step for Argentina to reach the second lowest burden of HIV/AIDS in South America. From 2000 to 2010, Argentina further reduced the
This report provides a status update on the human resources for health (HRH) sub-system in six Latin American and Caribbean countries: Colombia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay. The rep
Human capital refers to a broad range of knowledge, skills, and capabilities that are needed for life and work and that are typically build through quality education. Countries that fail to invest con
Over the past three decades, many countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have recognized health as a human right. Since the early 2000s, 46 million more people in the countries studied are cover
Portraits of Labor Market Exclusion presents “profiles” or “portraits” of individuals who have limited labor-market attachment. It is widely accepted that those with limited attachment to the labor ma
Argentina is passing through a demographic transition that constitutes a window of economic and socialopportunities and challenges. Argentina’s working-age population represents the largest proportion
The economic and social prospects are daunting for the 89 million out-of-school youth who comprise nearly half of all youth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Within the next decade, when this cohort becomes the
This study documents the effects of the 2008–09 global financial crisis on poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). In doing so, it describes and decomposes the effects of the crisis on pover
Over the past two decades Vietnam has made enormous progress towards achieving universal coverage (UC) for its population. Significant challenges remain, however, in terms of improving equity with con
This publication is part of the Bank’s multiyear program to enhance its knowledge of HRH policies. The program’s ultimate objective is to strengthen knowledge and capacity to collect evidence, analyze
Education has played an important role in making Vietnam a development success story over the last twenty years. In the 1990s and early 2000s Vietnam experienced rapid economic growth and poverty redu
Entrepreneurship has attracted global interest for its potential to catalyze economic and social development. Research suggesting that certain entrepreneurial mindsets and skills can be learned has gi
For the past decade, most South Asian countries have directed their efforts towards achieving universal access to elementary education. While these investments have led to more children being retained
Despite armed internal conflict and the global financial crisis, Sri Lanka has made remarkable progress in recent years, enjoying healthy economic growth and substantially reducing poverty. Moreover,
Bangladesh is undergoing a double transition—demographic and epidemiological. Increasing life expectancy and declining fertility entail a demographic transition fueling a shift in the disease burden t
