Directions in Development - Human Development

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

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

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

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

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

Given the labor market challenges that countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are facing (notably high unemployment, prevalence of skills mismatches, low labor market mobility, an

本書特色★台灣第一本長篇軍事小說！道盡基層官兵心聲，戳破國軍諱莫如深的禁忌！★IDF神秘失蹤，美軍核潛艦負傷遁台，海軍鄭和艦誓死追兇，漣漪效應震盪整片台海，即將掀起驚天波濤！序▍推薦序 《決戰日：兩岸最終戰》是台灣第一本長篇軍事小說。 它以台海戰爭為背景，雖長達15 萬字，但情節緊湊扣人心弦，讀來欲罷不能。即使情節是虛構的，基本的資料卻是活生生的事實，而且大局背景與目前國際環境緊密結合。 台灣長期遭受中國武力威脅，理應是最適合軍事小說寫作的環境，就像美國在冷戰時期就出版過大量美蘇軍事對抗主題的暢銷小說，甚至在冷戰結束至今30 年，類似題材的小說大賣者仍所在多有。但是台灣，很可惜，卻沒有出版過一本跟自身安全相關的軍事小說。原因有二：軍事事務高度專業，一般無軍事背景的作家縱有文筆，很難涉足其中；此外，軍人雖然具備軍事專業，平日任務繁忙，無暇磨練文筆。戰鬥文藝和文宣寫作，並不能真正感動讀者內心。 基層官兵如何看待台海戰爭這本小說跟媒體熱門人物最大的不同，是從國軍基層官兵的角度來看台海戰爭。這是一個長期被掌權者、被社會忽略的角度，但卻是對於戰爭成敗最具影響力的關鍵！裴洛西女士訪台至今，兩岸情勢緊張升級，媒體輿論關注的焦點都在執政當局的政策立場、朝野政客的政治表態、以及名嘴網紅的表演，鮮少注意到站在第一線的國軍官兵內心的想法。兩岸一旦開戰，基層官兵首當其衝必須奔赴火線，他們怎麼看待這場攸關個人生死的戰爭？如何解答為誰而戰為何而戰？是值得執政者、社會輿論共同思考的問題。 《決戰日：兩岸最終戰》生動描述了基層官兵在大敵當前時的心態，其中有無懼個人生死奮戰到底者，也有顧慮身家性命猶豫不前者，更有臨陣脫逃返家照應家人妻小者。這是這本小說珍貴之處！一般寫軍事文章者，字裡行間只會表彰歌頌軍人氣節，如此寫作難免脫離人性。《決戰日：兩岸最終戰》的作者卻是在情節中真實呈現出軍人性格的原貌，加入了人性，軍人血肉之軀便與一般人無異。趨利避凶乃是人性，軍人氣節之所以為人稱頌，是在於其在面對生死時，基於職責必須作出違背人性的決定。並不是每一位軍人都能夠做到這點，作者龍飛將從人性面描述國軍官兵面對戰爭時的反應，還原了軍人原本的真實樣貌。 打破禁忌探討國軍長期存在問題這本小說另一個特點就是打破了軍方禁忌，探討國軍內部長期存在的問題，包括掩蓋問題粉飾太平和形式主義作風、基層部隊武器裝備老舊後勤補

本書特色▌一本結合文學、哲思、性別與倫理研究的深度剖析專書。▌解析魯迅銳利的筆鋒內隱藏起的關懷與溫情。序 無論是在中國與台灣，幾乎沒有不認識魯迅筆下的孔乙己，也還算熟悉阿Q「兒子打老子」的「精神式勝利法」（《狂人日記》）。可是，我也認為在台灣的絕大多數人，即便高中時都曾讀過魯迅的《孔乙己》，大抵都會懵懵懂懂，一知半解，囫圇吞棗。進入大學後，走理工與醫學的大多扔開國語課本，就此分道揚鑣，老死不相往來。即便是在人文社會科學領域，對於魯迅的認識僅止於是民國時期的文學家，而且透過陳西瀅、梁實秋、蘇雪林作品中所呈現的魯迅形象還是高度負面。魯迅被斥之為刻毒不寬容、陰險尖刻的紹興師爺外，還「不尊重底層人民，而是抱著一種藐視的心理來訓斥」（顧曉軍2015：11）。魯迅的心理人格「心胸過於仄隘，把自己世界縮小得無以復加，竟致弄得有無處可去之苦」（蘇雪林1979）。更甚者，在《李敖有話說》的談話性節目中，李敖言之鑿鑿地指出魯迅對提拔他的陳獨秀（創辦中國共產黨），在其政治受難時不僅不能夠如胡適努力營救，還要撰文諷刺將其比喻為吃了滿嘴馬糞的焦大（紅樓夢），儼然是「過河拆橋，落井下石」，李敖帶風向的問道：「大家不覺得魯迅這個人的所謂的文學家、思想家、革命家的這個風骨，有點問題嗎？」（房向東2014：3-4）。 陳芳明（1992）在《魯迅在台灣》一文中（中島利郎編2000），深刻的剖析了為何魯迅在台灣人文學界長期缺席的三個因素，第一、1947年的228事件，使台灣知識分子從此保持沉默。第二、1948年許壽棠在台北遭到暗殺，使得介紹魯迅作品的最大力量從此斷絕（臺靜農、黎烈文分別留在台大中文系、外文系執教、終身不談魯迅）。第三、1949年國民黨逃到台灣，展開積極的反共政策，從此出現長達了40年的反魯迅傳統（國民黨官方的三位御用文人：陳西瀅、梁實秋、蘇雪林；還有台灣反共的另一批打手：鄭學稼與劉心皇）。所以，即使陳芳明的研究結論之一是「從台灣文學發展的實施來看，魯迅對台灣作家的影響是否有那麼巨大，誠令人懷疑。」但是陳芳明對於未來台灣的魯迅研究抱持高度的期待，他在文末中寫道： 相對於中共文藝政策下魯迅的神話，國民黨顯然是過於貶低魯迅的文化地位。身為台灣的作家，如果要正確認識魯迅作品，就必須有能力擺脫國、共兩黨文藝政策的影響。國共兩黨為魯迅附加上去的面具，使後人很難看見魯迅的真貌。魯迅的文學成就，並