Resources search

Contents: Overview 1. Why invest in nutrition? 2. How serious is malnutrition and why does it happen? 3. Routes to better nutrition 4. Getting to scale 5. Accelerating progress in nutrition: next steps

This briefing summary draws attention to the relation between disability and poverty, and outlines the World Bank's activities in the area of inclusive development. High disability prevalence (often misreported) in developing countries and high poverty rate among disabled people create a vicious circle, with poor people more at risk of acquiring disability. This memo contains a keynote speech by Amartya Sen on disability and justice

This paper reviews some of the evidence for the link between telecommunications and the Internet and economic growth, the likely impact of the new ICTs on income inequality and anecdotal evidence regarding the role of the Internet in improving government services and governance. It looks at methods to maximise access to the new ICTs, and improve their development impact both in promoting income generation and in the provision of quality services. The authors also note that the implementation of ICTs must be part of a broader reform agenda

This report approaches inclusive education from a holistic perspective. It takes into consideration policy aspects, the philosophy behind education in general and the historic developments in the fields of education and special needs education.
The report highlights best practice examples and lessons from the north and the south. It also describes the different international frameworks, the economic and policy implications of education for all.
It concludes that inclusive education requires decentralisation, the allocation of sufficient financial resources, accessibility and participation and must be set into the general Human Rights framework

This paper draws attention to the fact that disability insurance needs to broaden its focus and cover more people than just the person with impairment. Many other people, including family members and friends, may have to make practical, financial and psychological adjustments to support the person with impairment.
This paper sees disability insurance as a multidimensional and complex system that should include governmental, private and social insurance aspects

This paper surveys health reform in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, in the aftermath of their independence and transition from the Soviet command economy. Socio-economic, epidomiological and institutional realities face the countries. Section 2 sets out demographic and epidemiological trends, which suggest the scope and priorities for health services. The next section analyzes recent economic performance, highlighting worsening financial constraints. The existing health systems are evaluated in Section 4, centering on their primary strengths and weaknesses. Section 5 addresses critical institutional elements of the reform process, including decentralization and staffing issues. The reform agenda facing health policymakers in Central Asia is then investigated in Section 6, focusing upon empirical and descriptive aspects, in order to provide a reliable basis for discussing future options. Section 7 concludes that the large declines in real health spending signal that each country will have to do more with less. Consequently, current public health programs like maternal and child health programs will need to be restructured; improvement incentives to induce consumers and providors to behave more efficiently will have to be issued; and modorn management and quality assurance systems will have to be introduced. Although the reform debate focuses on financial sustainability, particularly attempts to bring in additional non-budget revenues, equally important is the need to focus on basic public health activities and delivery system restructuring.