Equity and Inclusion

Indonesia has made remarkable strides in key human development indicators over the past few decades. Primary school enrollment is close to universal for both boys and girls, and the child mortality rate has declined rapidly (World Bank 2017). Nevertheless, infant mortality, child malnutrition, maternal mortality, and educational learning quality have all remained challenges in Indonesia compared with other countries in the region (World Bank 2015).

Mali, Chad, Niger and Guinea have some of the lowest rates of secondary school completion in the world for girls. They also have some of the highest rates of child marriage and early childbearing. While some other countries in West and Central Africa are making rapid progress toward better educational attainment for girls and fewer child marriages, progress is uneven across the four focal countries. Among them, Guinea has achieved the largest gains over the last few decades, but progress in Chad, Mali, and Niger has been slow and in some cases inexistent.

This book focuses on how school facilities can affect children’s learning outcomes, identifying parameters that can inform the design, implementation, and supervision of future educational infrastructure projects. It reflects on aspects for which the evidence could be strengthened, and identifies areas for further exploratory work. 

The Malawi Economic Monitor (MEM) provides an analysis of economic and structural development issues in Malawi. This edition was published in November 2018. It follows seven previous editions of the MEM and is part of an ongoing series, with future editions to follow twice each year. The aim of the publication is to foster better-informed policy analysis and debate regarding the key challenges that Malawi faces in its endeavor to achieve high rates of stable, inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

This report documents the challenge of achieving inclusive education in Africa. Primary school completion rates are 10 percentage points lower for girls with disabilities than for girls without disabilities. For boys, the disability gap in primary completion rates is 13 points. Gaps are also large for secondary education completion and children with disabilities are much more likely to never enroll in school at all. Across the board disability gaps have been steadily increasing over the last 20 years.

Sri Lanka is a lower-middle income country with an impressive record of achievements in economic and human development. Despite 26 years of conflict, Sri Lanka, an island country with a population of 20.6 million has stood out from its regional counterparts with high levels of human development. Sri Lanka’s score in the Human Development Index (HDI) is 0.766—which put the country in the high human development category (UNDP 2016).