Innovative financing for out-of-school children and youth

Este folleto tiene como objetivo servir de referencia rápida para los responsables políticos en la región que deseen familiarizarse en enfoques no tradicionales de financiación educativa. Compila casos exitosos extraídos de diversos sectores que no sólo abren nuevos caminos sino que ofrecen factible soluciones fiscales para apoyar mejor las intervenciones educativas para los niños no escolarizados

Learn from the past, prepare for the future: Impacts of education and experience on disaster preparedness in the Philippines and Thailand

This study aims at understanding the role of education in promoting disaster preparedness. Strengthening resilience to climate-related hazards is an urgent target of Goal 13 of the Sustainable Development Goals. Preparing for a disaster such as stockpiling of emergency supplies or having a family evacuation plan can substantially minimize loss and damages from natural hazards. However, the levels of household disaster preparedness are often low even in disaster-prone areas. Focusing on determinants of personal disaster preparedness, this paper investigates: (1) pathways through which education enhances preparedness; and (2) the interplay between education and experience in shaping preparedness actions. Data analysis is based on face-to-face surveys of adults aged ≥15 years in Thailand (N = 1,310) and the Philippines (N = 889, female only). Controlling for socio-demographic and contextual characteristics, we find that formal education raises the propensity to prepare against disasters. Using the KHB method to further decompose the education effects, we find that the effect of education on disaster preparedness is mainly mediated through social capital and disaster risk perception in Thailand whereas there is no evidence that education is mediated through observable channels in the Philippines. This suggests that the underlying mechanisms explaining the education effects are highly context-specific. Controlling for the interplay between education and disaster experience, we show that education raises disaster preparedness only for those households that have not been affected by a disaster in the past. Education improves abstract reasoning and anticipation skills such that the better educated undertake preventive measures without needing to first experience the harmful event and then learn later. In line with recent efforts of various UN agencies in promoting education for sustainable development, this study provides a solid empirical evidence showing positive externalities of education in disaster risk reduction

A complex formula : girls and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in Asia

This report reveals that gender differences in STEM fields do not start in the labour market, nor even in higher education – they begin in student performance as young as 15 years old. In countries where the gender gap in student performance at the secondary education level is at the expense of girls, women tend to be underrepresented in STEM fields of study in higher education and in the labour market. Girls also tend to do relatively better in science as opposed to mathematics at the secondary level, which may explain why females prefer to choose science-related fields of study in higher education and occupations, such as biology, chemistry and medicine as opposed to more mathematics-oriented fields such as physics and engineering. Although these differences are impacted by wider sociocultural and labour market preconceptions, education has a significant role to play to address this problem: 1) by stimulating interest among female students in STEM-related subjects, 2) by ensuring that educators are equipped to take more gender-responsive approaches and encourage female students to pursue STEM fields, and 3) by taking policy measures that are conducive to increasing the number of women in these fields. Stimulating, encouraging and supporting fair and equal opportunities for girls and boys to perform in STEM-related subjects at school, therefore, would equate to more girls and women in STEM fields of study in higher education and the world of work

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