Pension systems for the informal sector in Asia

This paper looks at the experiences of various Asian countries in expanding the coverage of the pension system to informal sector workers. The paper argues that given aging and growing informality, a rapid forward-looking response from governments in the region is necessary to provide protection against the risk of poverty in old age. This risk is particularly acute in the case of informal sector workers, as is the difficulty of reaching them through traditional formal-sector pension approaches. From the analysis of various case studies the paper concludes that expanding coverage to informal sector workers through mandatory systems is unlikely to work. Alternative, voluntary arrangements are need. However, because informal sector workers tend to have lower savings capacity and high discount rates, targeted subsidies might be required to encourage enrollment. The paper discusses some of the issues related to the design of these programs - including those related to administration and the collection of contributions. In all cases, the paper emphasizes the need to resolve difficult tradeoffs between these transfers to prevent poverty during old-age and expenditures in other social programs.,Pensions&Retirement Systems,Emerging Markets,Debt Markets,Access to Finance

Economic Development Problems of Landlocked Countries

Do landlocked countries face special economic development problems? Whereas traditional neoclassical theory is ambiguous, more recent directions in trade theory and the theory of economic growth suggest reasons why landlocked countries might be at a disadvantage. Our empirical evidence confirms the hypothesis that landlocked countries experience slower economic growth.Economic growth, Geography, Trade, Landlocked

Global public goods and the global health agenda: problems, priorities and potential

The 'global public good' (GPG) concept has gained increasing attention, in health as well as development circles. However, it has suffered in finding currency as a general tool for global resource mobilisation, and is at risk of being attached to almost anything promoting development. This overstretches and devalues the validity and usefulness of the concept. This paper first defines GPGs and describes the policy challenge that they pose. Second, it identifies two key areas, health R&D and communicable disease control, in which the GPG concept is clearly relevant and considers the extent to which it has been applied. We point out that that, while there have been many new initiatives, it is not clear that additional resources from non-traditional sources have been forthcoming. Yet achieving this is, in effect, the entire purpose of applying the GPG concept in global health. Moreover, the proliferation of disease-specific programs associated with GPG reasoning has tended to promote vertical interventions at the expense of more general health sector strengthening. Third, we examine two major global health policy initiatives, the Global Fund against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) and the bundling of long-standing international health goals in the form of Millennium Development Goals (MDG), asking how the GPG perspective has contributed to defining objectives and strategies. We conclude that both initiatives are best interpreted in the context of traditional development assistance and, one-world rhetoric aside, have little to do with the challenge posed by GPGs for health. The paper concludes by considering how the GPG concept can be more effectively used to promote global health

Covid-19 and the Global Demographic Research Agenda

This volume contains sixteen thoughtful essays on how Covid-19 could shape global demographic research needs over the next five to ten years. These reflections from recent Population and Development Review authors joined by Population Council researchers offer a time capsule of current thinking in the field

COVID-19: Demography, economics, migration and the way forward

The current mantra “Nothing will ever be the same again” is hyperbole, but COVID-19 without doubt marks a caesura requiring migration policymakers and practitioners to reflect on the future. In this article, the author sets out the epidemiological basics of pandemics, then offers views on the demographic, economic, and migration impacts of COVID-19. A closing section reflects on the choices it imposes

Priorities in Global Assistance for Health, Aids and Population (HAP)

In this paper, trends in official development assistance (ODA) for Health AIDS and Population (HAP) are analysed to gain information about revealed priorities. The major findings are as follows: HIV/AIDS is clearly the top priority in international health assistance. While the share of HAP in total ODA has increased significantly over the last decade, however, if HIV/AIDS is excluded, health assistance is actually losing, not gaining share in total ODA. Even more striking, apart from HIV/AIDS, the health sub-sectors generally considered pro-poor are losing share in health ODA. These trends, inconsistent with the emphasis placed on health as a key sector in development and with growing recognition of the links between health and poverty, are true both for aid-recipient countries as a whole and for least-developed countries. They help to explain and underscore the urgency of warnings emanating from the international public health community that international support for health development is insufficient. They also raise the issue of whether HAP assistance is being effectively allocated to address the needs of the poor.... Ce document se propose d’analyser l’évolution de l’aide publique au développement (APD) consacrée à la santé, au sida et à la population (HAP) afin de collecter des informations sur les priorités identifiées. Plusieurs conclusions s’imposent. Le VIH/sida apparaît clairement comme la première priorité de l’aide internationale en matière de santé. Si la part globale de l’aide HAP dans le total de l’APD a sensiblement augmenté au cours des dix dernières années, l’assistance à la santé perd en fait du terrain dès lors que l’on exclut les données relatives au VIH/sida. Mais il y a plus : les sous-secteurs de la santé (hors VIH/sida), qui sont en général considérés comme « favorables aux pauvres », perdent en importance dans l’APD en matière de santé. Ces évolutions — qui contredisent la place officielle accordée à la santé en tant que secteur primordial du développement et la reconnaissance croissante des liens entre santé et pauvreté – se retrouvent autant chez les pays bénéficiaires de l’aide pris dans leur ensemble que chez les pays moins avancés. Elles permettent d’expliquer et de souligner l’importance des mises en garde de la communauté internationale chargée de la santé publique, qui estime que l’aide internationale en matière de santé reste insuffisante. Elles soulèvent également une interrogation quant à l’efficacité de l’allocation de l’aide HAP par rapport aux besoins des pauvres...

COVID-19, the Russo-Ukrainian War, the global sustainable development project and post-crises demography

The global sustainable development project as currently conceived is foundering, and the twin crises of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian War have driven a stake through its heart. Some of the reasons for this failure are fundamental design flaws, while others are practical. The resources to bring the project – or its successor, and any other global sustainable development project of similar design and ambition that might emerge – to a successful conclusion do not exist, and never did. What lessons are we learning, and how can they inform post-2030 sustainable development goals? In this essay, the effects of the catastrophes of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the global sustainable development project are enumerated, SDG by SDG, with special attention being paid to the implications for demography. In closing, recommendations for reforms of the project are presented, as are some suggestions for the field of demography in the changed global context. The most concrete, feasible immediate recommendations are to make up recently lost ground, specifically in the areas of vaccination and education; and to reform the profoundly flawed international asylum and refugee system