This introductory paper presents the results of an international multi-disciplinary research project on the measurement of food consumption in national household surveys.
... See More + Food consumption data from household surveys are possibly the single most important source of information on poverty, food security, and nutrition outcomes at national, sub-national and household level, and contribute building blocks to global efforts to monitor progress towards the major international development goals.The paper synthesizes case studies from a diverse set of developing and OECD countries, looking at some ofthe main outstanding research issues as identified by a recent international assessment of 100 existing nationalhousehold surveys (Smith et al., 2014). The project mobilized expertise from different disciplines (statistics,economics, food security, nutrition) to work towards enhancing our understanding of how to improve the qualityand availability of food consumption and expenditure data, while making them more valuable for a diverse set of users. The individual studies summarized in this paper analyze, both theoretically and empirically, how different surveys design options affect the quality of the data being collected and, in turn, the implications for statistical inference and policy analysis. The conclusions and recommendations derived from this collection of studies will be instrumental in advancing the methodological agenda for the collection of household level food data, and will provide national statistical offices and survey practitioners worldwide with practical insights for survey design, while providing poverty, food and nutrition policymakers with greater understanding of these issues, as well as improved toolsfor and better guidance in policy formulation.
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Ratings for the Information Technology (IT) Industry Development Project for Guatemala were as follows: outcomes were high, the risk to development outcome was low, the Bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and the Borrower performance was also moderately satisfactory.
... See More + Some lessons learned included: the rapid pace in which IT Industry evolves translates into constant changes of the set of skills firms demand. On the other hand, universities ability to agilely adapt curricula to IT industry needs is limited. In order to bridge this skill gap, entities such Mexico FIRST, in the form of broker entities that can easily adapt and update a large portfolio capacity building offerings, emerge as a solution. For maximizing impact and relevance of IT capacity building programs a main lessons emerged from the Project: a constantly updated curriculum to cater to latest industry needs is required. Another lesson connected to skills relates to Mexico FIRST’s dual scheme of incentives, with a focus on certifications given its higher impact for better access to markets. First, the scheme only funded beneficiary institutions when a minimum ratio of 80 percent of students certified over trained was achieved. This ensured vested interest in completion of certifications. Secondly, incentives focused on providing bonuses to capacity building institutions, rather than for individual students. Thus, monetary risk of failure was borne by capacity building facilitators, instead of beneficiaries. Capacity building institutions confirmed adequacy of the target ratio and comfortability with bearing this risk. Therefore, grants aiming skills development can be more effective when incentives for beneficiaries: (i) include a clear commitment of certifications over capacity building, and (ii) remove the potential threat of economic hardship a certain certification level is not achieved.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR3790 JUN 24, 2016
The development objective of the Second Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project for India is to accelerate the development of the core road network through leveraging public sector outlays with private sector financing and improving the institutional effectiveness of the road sector agencies to deliver effective and safe roads to users.
... See More + The restructuring includes following changes: (a) extension of the loan closing date to December 28, 2018; (b) reallocation of loan proceeds across expenditure categories; (c) extension of the due date for two loan covenants; and (d) corresponding changes to the results framework and disbursement projections.
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In this paper on knowledge building environmentally sustainable infrastructure platform the authors state that during the first phase of this initiative, it has worked on the design of the conceptual model of the knowledge platform.
... See More + In addition to the analysis of other platforms / web pages and meetings with potential users, developers and managers of platforms, were carried out conducted a series of workshops. These workshops were mainly intended to gather information from potential users so on one hand it can adapt the design to the needs expressed and secondly to test whether the content decisions were going the right way. Workshop objectives included: Receive input, suggestions and ideas to improve the design of the conceptual model of Knowledge Platform; create interest in the potential users, collaborators or partners and assess their needs and; outline the key points that must be present in the conceptual model of the platform.
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The key messages in this brief are as follows: 1) Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)-related research output and impact are related to a regions long-run economic development. 2) The overall publication output by Sub-Saharan Africa has increased over the past ten years, but not all subregions have grown at the same pace. 3) While relative output in the Health Sciences has increased, relative output in the Physical Sciences/STEM has been stagnant. 4) The impact of research in the Health Sciences is much greater than that in Physical Sciences/STEM, even after controlling for differences in citation norms. 5) Science is an international enterprise, and research collaboration is an important driver of success.
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The development objective of the Support to Development of Kaliakoir Hi-Tech Park Project for Bangladesh is to facilitate investment in growth centers in the emerging manufacturing and services sectors of the economy with the aim of generating employment.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: (1) earthworks should be scheduled as far as possible within the dry season to minimize the potential for runoff; (2) adequate drainage system should be kept so that water can pass easily; (3) construction vehicles, machinery, and equipment shall move or be stationed in designated areas; (4) measures will be taken to prevent the untreated wastewater produced during construction from entering into creeks and streams; (5) produced wastes should be disposed of properly; (6) approved pollution control devices to be fitted to equipment and machinery; and (7) water will be sprayed to suppress dust on an as required basis in construction phase.
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This report presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations of a study exploring the resilience of the education community in Urrao, Anitoquia in Colombia.
... See More + It uses the Conflict and Education Resilience Assessment tool (Valoración del Conflicto y la Resiliencia Educativa, CREA).
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This report presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations of a study exploring the resilience of the education community in Urrao, Anitoquia in Colombia.
... See More + It uses the Conflict and Education Resilience Assessment tool (Valoración del Conflicto y la Resiliencia Educativa, CREA).
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This research study on resilience in educational systems in Nicaragua was conducted to support the delivery of social services, especially coping strategies of children and adolescents (NNA) at social risk.
... See More + For this, two objectives were established. The first was the identifying of the risks faced by children and adolescents in the contexts and meanings of violence for children and adolescents at risk. The second objective was to determine the relationship between resilience and educational community, particularly the benefits of institutional services the children and adolescents who were in the street and returned to school thanks to the Ministry of Love Program Family, Youth and Children (MIFAMILIA) received. Optics resilience proposed in this study focuses on state responsibility and other social agencies to provide resources and opportunities for children and adolescents in situations of risk, while the capacity of families and educational institutions are encouraged to provide the same, and the ability of children and adolescents to navigate and negotiate for these services relevant and meaningful to their own welfare. In this regard, resilience is defined as the ability of individuals to: i navigate resources that sustain their well-being; ii provide these resources in their own contexts; and iii negotiate with their families and community and culturally accepted efficient ways to obtain these resources.
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This research study on resilience in educational systems in Nicaragua was conducted to support the delivery of social services, especially coping strategies of children and adolescents (NNA) at social risk.
... See More + For this, two objectives were established. The first was the identifying of the risks faced by children and adolescents in the contexts and meanings of violence for children and adolescents at risk. The second objective was to determine the relationship between resilience and educational community, particularly the benefits of institutional services the children and adolescents who were in the street and returned to school thanks to the Ministry of Love Program Family, Youth and Children (MIFAMILIA) received. Optics resilience proposed in this study focuses on state responsibility and other social agencies to provide resources and opportunities for children and adolescents in situations of risk, while the capacity of families and educational institutions are encouraged to provide the same, and the ability of children and adolescents to navigate and negotiate for these services relevant and meaningful to their own welfare. In this regard, resilience is defined as the ability of individuals to: i navigate resources that sustain their well-being; ii provide these resources in their own contexts; and iii negotiate with their families and community and culturally accepted efficient ways to obtain these resources.
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Large-scale simulation-based studies rely on at least three properties of pseudorandom number sequences: they behave in many ways like truly random numbers; they can be replicated; and they can be generated in parallel.
... See More + There has been some divergence, however, between empirical techniques employing random numbers, and the standard battery of tests used to validate them. A random number generator that passes tests for any single stream of random numbers may fail the same tests when it is used to generate multiple streams in parallel. The lack of systematic testing of parallel streams leaves statistical software with important potential vulnerabilities. This paper shows one such vulnerability in Stata's rnormal function that went unnoticed for almost four years, and how to detect it. It then shows practical implications for the use of parallel streams in existing software.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6278 NOV 01, 2012
One approach to improve the trade environment for food staples that has gained considerable momentum and widespread support in recent years has been to harmonize quality standards across countries and with international ones.
... See More + Various policy papers on commodity trade in Africa have pointed to the lack of consistency in quality requirements as a non-tariff barrier and called for the harmonization of standards as a prerequisite for improved trade. The East African Community (EAC) has been especially active in pursuing harmonization with international standards in an effort to facilitate trade between member states and ensure global markets remain open to EAC exporters. Discussions are now underway aimed at extending harmonized standards to Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) as part of an agreement to establish a tripartite free trade area between the three regional blocks. This note looks at the tradeoffs of different approaches to regional standards management. Despite a widespread perception that standards harmonization is required by the World Trade Organization-Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (WTO SPS) Agreement, other trade facilitation instruments are allowed that can be easier to negotiate and have more immediate benefit to African countries. Standards harmonization can also be pursued in a variety of ways.
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In the past two years, the publication of three impact evaluations of microcredit programs in India, the Philippines, and Morocco precipitated a spate of press reports questioning the value of microcredit and whether it had positive outcomes for poor people (Karlan and Zinman 2009 and Duflo and Banerjee 2009 and 2010).
... See More + The impact evaluations used randomized controlled trials (RCTs), an evaluation methodology that randomly assigns an intervention to a treatment group and withholds it from a control group. Widely used in medical trials and particularly in drug trials, the RCT approach is growing in popularity among academics and evaluation specialists alike in the social sciences. There are now more than 300 RCTs completed or ongoing in sectors such as education, health, governance, finance, and the private sector.
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