Forest resources of the Pacific Northwest

Gerald W. Williams Collectio

Remittances, Human Capital, and Economic Growth: Panel Data Evidence from Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa

We examine the impact of remittances on economic growth using panel data (1975-2014) for 18 countries in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) that are similar in size and development level. We allow for heterogeneous production functions across countries and calculate the average marginal effects of remittances using the panel dynamic ordinary least squares estimator. The estimation results show that remittances increase growth significantly, especially through investments in human capital. In addition we find that: (i) remittances have a modest impact on growth when controlling for physical and human capital channels through which remittances potentially affect output growth; (ii) when we do not control for human capital the effect is larger regardless of the sub-samples considered − the elasticity of output with respect to remittances is 7.3 percent in the full sample, and 18.6 percent among Asian countries; (iii) remittances have a significant positive long-run effect on human capital formation regardless of the sub-samples considered but the effect on physical capital accumulation is significant only among middle income and Asian countries. The findings suggest that channeling the remittances towards investments in physical capital and adoption of new knowledge, skills and technology is crucial for high economic growth in low income countries.JEL Classification Codes: C24, O15The authors acknowledge financial support from the GRIPS’s Policy Research Center through the project "International Remittances and Investment in Education in Nepal."http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/leon_gonzalez_roberto

The Quest for Quality Education： International Remittances and Rural-Urban Migration in Nepal

Despite a large growth in domestic and international migration and remittances in recent decades, there are limited works that systematically identify and establish interactions between internal and international migration. Using primary data from new urban areas of Nepal, we identify households that had migrated from rural to urban areas, explore their migration practices and educational investment behaviors, and analyze the effects of international migration and remittances on investment in education. The results show that, despite their lower income and consumption, migrant households that have members abroad have higher human capital investment measured by the level and budget share of expenditure on children’s education and the time their children spend for studying at home than do urban-native and other types of migrant households. Our findings suggest that searching for better education is one important motivation for migrating to urban areas among rural households having members abroad.JEL Classification Codes: F22, F24, C24, O15The financial supports for the field survey was provided by Fuji Xerox Setsutaro Kobayashi Memorial Fund, Japan. The authors also acknowledge financial support from GRIPS’s Policy Research Center through the project entitled "International Remittances and Investment in Education in Nepal".http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/leon_gonzalez_roberto/http://doi.org/10.24545/0000133

The expanded public works programme : perspectives of direct beneficiaries

Abstract: Scholarship on the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in South Africa tends to focus on quantitative evaluation to measure the progress made in the implementation of EPWP projects. The number of employment opportunities created by EPWP, demographic profiling, skills acquired by beneficiaries and training opportunities related to the Programme form the basis of typical statistical evaluations of it, but exclude comment by the workers who participate in its projects. Based on primary sources, including in-depth interviews, newspaper reports and internet sources, this article seeks to provide a qualitative review of the EPWP from the perspective of the beneficiaries of municipal EPWP projects. Various South African government sectors hire EPWP workers to provide local services such as cleaning and maintaining infrastructure, but the employment of these workers can still be regarded as precarious, in the sense that they have no job security, earn low wages and have no benefits such as medical aid or pension fund. The interviewees indicated that, although they appreciate the temporary employment opportunities provided by the EPWP, they also experience health and safety risks and lack the advantages of organised labour groupings. Their main disadvantage, however, is that they cannot access permanent employment, which offers better wages and concomitant benefits

Engagement in agriculture protects against food insecurity and malnutrition in peri-urban Nepal

BACKGROUND: Urbanization is occurring rapidly in many low- and middle-income countries, which may affect households’ livelihoods, diet, and food security and nutritional outcomes. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of our study was to explore whether agricultural activity amongst a peri-urban population in Nepal was associated with better or worse food household security, household and maternal dietary diversity, and nutritional outcomes for children and women. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey administered to 344 mother-child pairs in Bhaktapur district, Nepal, including data on household agricultural practices, livestock ownership, food security, dietary diversity and expenditures, anthropometric measurements of children (aged 5–6 years old), maternal body mass index (BMI), and maternal anemia. Multivariable adjusted and unadjusted odds ratios (AOR and OR respectively) were calculated using logistic regression. RESULTS: Our findings suggest that in this sample, cultivation of land was associated with a lower odds of child stunting (AOR 0.55, 95% CI 0.33,0.93) and household food insecurity (AOR 0.33, 95% CI 0.18, 0.63), but not low (or high) maternal BMI or anemia. Livestock ownership (mostly chickens) was associated with lower of food insecurity (AOR 0.34, 95% CI 0.16, 0.73) but not with nutrition outcomes. Women in farming households were significantly more likely to eat green leafy vegetables than women in non-farming households, and children living in households that grew vegetables had a lower odds of stunting than children in households that cultivated land but did not grow vegetables (AOR 0.49, 95% CI 0.25, 0.98). CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that households involved in cultivation of land in peri-urban Bhaktapur had lower odds of children's stunting and of food insecurity than non-cultivating households – and that vegetable consumption is higher among those households. Given Nepal's rapid urbanization rate, more attention is needed to the potential role of peri-urban agriculture in shaping diets and nutrition.Funding was provided by the USAID Feed the Future Security Innovation Lab for Nutrition - Asia [award number AIDOAA-l-10-00005] through a sub-contract to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University; and by the GC Rieber Foundation.https://academic.oup.com/cdn/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cdn/nzy078/5154906Accepted manuscrip

A European lens upon adult and lifelong learning in Asia

In this article, we seek to assess the extent to which adult and lifelong learning policies and practices in Asia have distinctiveness by comparison to those found in western societies, through an analysis of inter-governmental, national and regional policies in the field. We also inform our study through the analysis of the work of organisations with an international remit with a specific focus on Asia and Europe. In one case, the Asia–Europe Meeting Lifelong Learning (ASEM LLL) Hub has a specific function of bringing together researchers in Asia and Europe. In another, the PASCAL Observatory has had a particular focus on one aspect of lifelong learning, that of learning cities, with a concentration in its work on Asia and Europe. We focus on learning city development as a particular case of distinction in the field. We seek to identify the extent to which developments in the field in Asia have influenced and have been influenced by practices elsewhere in world, especially in Europe, and undertake our analysis using theories of societal learning/the learning society, learning communities and life-deep learning. We complement our analysis through assessment of material contained in three dominant journals in the field, the International Journal of Lifelong Education, the International Review of Education and Adult Education Quarterly, each edited in the west

Socially-marketed rapid diagnostic tests and ACT in the private sector: ten years of experience in Cambodia.

Whilst some populations have recently experienced dramatic declines in malaria, the majority of those most at risk of Plasmodium falciparum malaria still lack access to effective treatment with artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) and others are already facing parasites resistant to artemisinins.In this context, there is a crucial need to improve both access to and targeting of ACT through greater availability of good quality ACT and parasitological diagnosis. This is an issue of increasing urgency notably in the private commercial sector, which, in many countries, plays an important role in the provision of malaria treatment. The Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria (AMFm) is a recent initiative that aims to increase the provision of affordable ACT in public, private and NGO sectors through a manufacturer-level subsidy. However, to date, there is little documented experience in the programmatic implementation of subsidized ACT in the private sector. Cambodia is in the unique position of having more than 10 years of experience not only in implementing subsidized ACT, but also rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) as part of a nationwide social marketing programme. The programme includes behaviour change communication and the training of private providers as well as the sale and distribution of Malarine, the recommended ACT, and Malacheck, the RDT. This paper describes and evaluates this experience by drawing on the results of household and provider surveys conducted since the start of the programme. The available evidence suggests that providers' and consumers' awareness of Malarine increased rapidly, but that of Malacheck much less so. In addition, improvements in ACT and RDT availability and uptake were relatively slow, particularly in more remote areas.The lack of standardization in the survey methods and the gaps in the data highlight the importance of establishing a clear system for monitoring and evaluation for similar initiatives. Despite these limitations, a number of important lessons can still be learnt. These include the importance of a comprehensive communications strategy and of a sustained and reliable supply of products, with attention to the geographical reach of both. Other important challenges relate to the difficulty in incentivising providers and consumers not only to choose the recommended drug, but to precede this with a confirmatory blood test and ensure that providers adhere to the test results and patients to the treatment regime. In Cambodia, this is particularly complicated due to problems inherent to the drug itself and the emergence of artemisinin resistance