The Consequences of Child Market Work on the Growth of Human Capital

Child labor is a phenomenon that has attracted a great amount of attention and research. theoretical propositions suggest that child labor is inefficient if it adversely affects future potential earning ability. this paper contributes to the literature on the effects of child market work on human capital by focusing on the long-term growth in human capital, which is widely known to significantly affect earning ability. the paper also uses better measures of human capital by focusing on the output of the human capital production function: numeracy skills, cognitive skills, and pulmonary function. using a rich longitudinal dataset on Indonesia, we find strong negative effects of child labor on the growth of both numeracy and cognitive skills in the next seven years. in addition, we find a strong and negative effect on pulmonary function as measured through lung capacity. comparing the effects by gender and type of work, we find that female child workers suffer from more adverse effects on their mathematical skills growth, while male child workers experience a much smaller growth in their pulmonary function. we also find that child workers who work for a wage outside the family bear worse effects compared to child workers who work in the family business. keywords: child labor, human capital, skills, health, Indonesia jel classifications: i12, i21, j13, j22, o1

Monitoring and Evaluation of Development Programs in Five Ministries: a Study on the System and Implementation

The system of planning and budgeting in Indonesia is undergoing a change, from an input-based system to one based on output and outcome. information accountability in monitoring and evaluation is a must to support the implementation of a performance-based system as mandated by law no. 17/2003 on state finance, and government regulation no. 21/2004 on formulating ministerial/institutional work plans and budgets. an evaluation needs to be conducted on government regulation no. 39/2006 on procedure of monitoring and evaluation of development plan implementation to accommodate the output – and outcome –based planning and budgeting system. this study presents snapshots of the monitoring and evaluation system of government programs which have been implemented in five selected ministries. the methods used include conducting in-depth interviews with staff members and collecting secondary ministerial-level data at both the planning bureau (bpkln) and directorate general/program executing directorate; distributing questionnaires on budget absorption and achievement of targeted output/outcome indicators of selected programs; and conducting a field study on monitoring and evaluation systems and processes of data validation at the local level. this study recommends that the monitoring and evaluation process should be placed parallel with the planning, budgeting, and implementation processes of the programs/activities. therefore a regulation regarding monitoring and evaluation management in national and local level government agencies is needed. it should provide clear definitions of monitoring and evaluation and address the need for an independent monitoring and evaluation unit; reward and punishment mechanisms; a feedback mechanism; and simplification of forms, number of reports, and indicators of programs/activities. keywords: monitoring, evaluation, programs, ministr

Baseline Study for the Socioeconomic Impact of Tamadera Insurance Program in Jakarta

Coordinator: bambang soelaksono researchers: bambang soelaksono, asri yusrina, rika kumala dewi, armand arief sim, rahmitha, rachma indah nurbani, herry widjanarko, rina rozana advisor: widjajanti i. suharjo editor: stephen girschik abstract the tamadera insurance program is a female-targeted multifunctional micro-endowment saving plan with integrated life insurance and critical illness coverage that was launched in october 2010. given the pioneering nature of the program, this study is being carried out as the first stage of an impact assessment study of tamadera. the study is conducted in Jakarta timur and Jakarta utara. using quantitative and qualitative surveys, the study found that sampled household heads are generally well educated as most of them are graduates from senior high school. family size of the sampled households is higher than the bkkbn's ideal family size. family size is found to have a positive correlation with the position of the household within the quintile per capita expenditure. health and education are found to be important aspects in influencing a household's financial position. in accessing funds for medical treatment and their children's education, sampled households tend to be dependent on the availability of their own money. indeed, Jakarta utara is found to be lagging behind Jakarta timur. large household sizes, high numbers of households receiving raskin, and low education levels of household heads are some of the conditions found commonly in Jakarta utara. meanwhile, a widely held perception among households in Jakarta timur about their ability to finance their children's education shows that they regard this more highly than households in Jakarta utara. the level of financial knowledge and ability of the community remains low. respondents in the first quintile have the lowest percentage score in a financial literacy test compared to respondents in the other quintiles. moreover, the respondents' educational attainment and age are statistically significant in regard to their financial literacy score. most of the respondents are interested in a savings program that provides health insurance and a death benefit. amongst those who are interested in the program, the first priority for their tamadera savings would be to provide finance for their children's education. however, one of the rules of the program is that savings accounts can only be withdrawn from after five years and that there is a 15% reduction penalty if they decide to withdraw their savings before the end of the five year term. this penalty has shown to discourage respondents from joining the program. keywords: baseline survey, life insurance, poverty reduction progra

Dry-air-stable lithium silicide-lithium oxide core-shell nanoparticles as high-capacity prelithiation reagents

Rapid progress has been made in realizing battery electrode materials with high capacity and long-term cyclability in the past decade. However, low first-cycle Coulombic efficiency as a result of the formation of a solid electrolyte interphase and Li trapping at the anodes, remains unresolved. Here we report LixSi-Li2O core-shell nanoparticles as an excellent prelithiation reagent with high specific capacity to compensate the first-cycle capacity loss. These nanoparticles are produced via a one-step thermal alloying process. LixSi-Li2O core-shell nanoparticles are processible in a slurry and exhibit high capacity under dry-air conditions with the protection of a Li2O passivation shell, indicating that these nanoparticles are potentially compatible with industrial battery fabrication processes. Both Si and graphite anodes are successfully prelithiated with these nanoparticles to achieve high first-cycle Coulombic efficiencies of 94% to 4100%. The LixSi-Li2O core-shell nanoparticles enable the practical implementation of high-performance electrode materials in lithium-ion batteries.open6

Discovery and Preclinical Pharmacology of INE963, a Potent and Fast-Acting Blood-Stage Antimalarial with a High Barrier to Resistance and Potential for Single-Dose Cures in Uncomplicated Malaria.

A series of 5-aryl-2-amino-imidazothiadiazole (ITD) derivatives were identified by a phenotype-based high-throughput screening using a blood stage Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) growth inhibition assay. A lead optimization program focused on improving antiplasmodium potency, selectivity against human kinases, and absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity properties and extended pharmacological profiles culminated in the identification of INE963 (1), which demonstrates potent cellular activity against Pf 3D7 (EC50 = 0.006 μM) and achieves artemisinin-like kill kinetics in vitro with a parasite clearance time of \u3c24 h. A single dose of 30 mg/kg is fully curative in the Pf-humanized severe combined immunodeficient mouse model. INE963 (1) also exhibits a high barrier to resistance in drug selection studies and a long half-life (T1/2) across species. These properties suggest the significant potential for INE963 (1) to provide a curative therapy for uncomplicated malaria with short dosing regimens. For these reasons, INE963 (1) was progressed through GLP toxicology studies and is now undergoing Ph1 clinical trials

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

The Consequences of Child Market Work on the Growth of Human Capital

Child labor is a phenomenon that has attracted a great amount of attention and research. Theoretical propositions suggest that child labor is inefficient if it adversely affects future earning ability. This paper contributes to the literature on the effects of child market work on human capital by focusing on the long-term growth in human capital, which is widely known to significantly affect earning ability. The paper also uses better measures of human capital by focusing on the output of the human capital production function: numeracy skills, cognitive skills, and pulmonary function. Using a rich longitudinal dataset on Indonesia, we find strong negative effects of child labor on the growth of both numeracy and cognitive skills in the next seven years. In addition, we find a strong and negative effect on pulmonary function as measured through lung capacity. Comparing the effects by gender and type of work, we find that female child workers suffer more adverse effects on mathematical skills growth, while male child workers experience much smaller growth in pulmonary function. We also find that child workers who work for pay outside the family bore worse effects compared to child workers who work in the family business.child labor, human capital, skills, health, Indonesia