Publication

In this note, the authors benchmark the tertiary education system of Indonesia against others in ASEAN. They examine how trade policies affect the development of the higher education sectors in Indonesia. These are not the only policies that matter, but international experience shows that increased openness to foreign service providers can help upgrade the domestic tertiary education sector. Indonesia has a less open and more restrictive policies relative to Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

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.

Teach differs from other classroom observation tools in that it captures (i) the time teachers spend on learning and the extent to which students are on task, and (ii) the quality of teaching practices that help develop students’ socio-emotional and cognitive skills. As part of the Time on Task component, 3 “snapshots” of 1–10 seconds are used to record both the teacher’s actions and the number of students who are on task throughout the observation.

Education has a large untapped potential to contribute to human capital, well-being, and wealth in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA). In fact, it has been at the heart of the region's history and civilizations for centuries. In the 20th century, education was central to countries' struggles for independence, to building modern states and economies, and to defining national identities. Today, MENA has the lowest share of human capital in total wealth globally (Lange, Wodon, and Carey 2018).

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.

The Changing Nature of Work studies how the nature of work is changing as a result of advances in technology today. Fears that robots will take away jobs from people have dominated the discussion over the future of work, but the World Development Report 2019 finds that on balance this appears to be unfounded. Work is constantly reshaped by technological progress. Firms adopt new ways of production, markets expand, and societies evolve. Overall, technology brings opportunity, paving the way to create new jobs, increase productivity, and deliver effective public services.

he brief examines the existing evidence and the potential for bringing together cash transfer programs and parenting interventions on early child stimulation to improve child development outcomes, notably cognitive and language skills. The brief also provides lessons learned from implementation.

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).