The extractive industries sector has been vital to the local economy of Papua New Guinea for over 20 years. Extractives have contributed substantially to government revenues but also face challenging social issues and significant environmental impacts in many areas.
... See More + A persistent challenge has been ensuring that extractives benefits reach local communities, including women and children. Research shows that benefits tend to be captured by men, while the impacts of social disruption and environmental harm fall most heavily on women and children.
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The main objective of the UYEP is to provide disadvantaged urban youth between the ages of 16 and 35 in the National Capital District (NCD) with income from temporary employment opportunities, and to increase their employability.
... See More + This will be done through three components: (1) Youth Job Corps: Community awareness, mobilization and screening campaign followed by basic life skills training and 40 days of labor-intensive employment for eligible youth; (2) Skills Development and Employment Scheme: Additional Pre-Employment Training (PET) and a further five months of on-the-job placements/training for eligible youth; and (3) Project Management: Implementation and technical support to NCDC. The project aims to impact 10,500 beneficiaries in the NCD and produce more than one-million work days. Eighty percent of the projects budget will be invested directly into the economy in the form of training, youth stipends, goods, and services through contracted public works. The project will issue mobile phones and establish BSP Kundu bank accounts for almost all youth participants with the help of Bank of South Pacific, Digicel, and PNG Telikom. Exxon Mobil will provide supervision and monitoring support, valuable to improve the delivery of the project, the project's youth and the future of PNG.
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Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) is one of five areas of focus of the World Banks Reproductive Health Action Plan 20102015 (RHAP), which recognizes the importance of addressing ASRH as a development issue with important implications for poverty reduction.
... See More + Delaying childbearing and preventing unintended pregnancies during adolescence has been shown to improve health outcomes and increase opportunities for schooling, future employment, and earnings (Greene & Merrick, 2005). Knowledge of family planning (FP) methods and how to access them is an important precursor to use of a method and, in turn, the prevention of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) during adolescence (Agha, 2002; Piotrow, Kincaid, Rimon, Rinehart, and Samson, 1997). Communication campaigns are designed to reach men and women through use of radio, television, magazines, and other media to transmit FP information, as well as information about HIV testing and treatment, among other health issues (Hutchinson and Wheeler, 2006; Van Rossem and Meekers 2007). Health workers also share family planning information in clinic settings through community health worker models (Argaw, 2007; Lehman and Sanders, 2007; Mmari and Magnani, 2003).
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Brief 93551 JAN 01, 2015
Cortez, Rafael; Brindis, Claire; Decker, Mara; Yarger, Jennifer
Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) is one of five areas of focus of the World Bank's Reproductive Health Action Plan 2010 - 2015 (RHAP), which recognizes the importance of addressing ASRH as a development issue with important implications for poverty reduction.
... See More + Delaying childbearing and preventing unplanned pregnancies during adolescence has been shown to improve health outcomes and increase opportunities for schooling, future employment, and earnings (Greene and Merrick, 2005). Delaying childbearing and preventing unplanned pregnancies improves health outcomes and increases opportunities for schooling, future employment, and earnings. A couple of key messages were relayed in this brief. An analysis of data from six countries showed that adolescent childbearing is closely tied to marital status. Around half (ranging from 42 percent in Nepal to 55 percent in Nigeria) of ever-married adolescent women have given birth. In comparison, non-marital adolescent childbearing is rare in all countries studied. In Bangladesh and Burkina Faso, childbearing among ever-married adolescent women is positively associated with rural residence, less wealth, and less education.
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Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) is one of five areas of focus of the World Bank's Reproductive Health Action Plan 2010 - 2015 (RHAP), which recognizes the importance of addressing ASRH as a development issue with important implications for poverty reduction.
... See More + Delaying childbearing and preventing unintended pregnancies during adolescence has been shown to improve health outcomes and increase opportunities for schooling, future employment, and earnings (Greene & Merrick, 2005). The key messages relayed in this brief are as follows: Early age at sexual debut puts young people - particularly females - at an increased risk for unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, maternal mortality and morbidity; An analysis of data from six countries showed that adolescent sexual activity is closely tied to marital status. In all six countries studied, nearly all ever-married adolescent women have had sexual intercourse, but almost all those never-married have abstained, except in Burkina Faso and Nigeria where less than one quarter of never-married women have had sexual intercourse; The age at sexual debut is also closely linked to age at marriage. Over one third of ever-married women had sexual intercourse before age 15 in Nigeria (38 percent), Bangladesh (37 percent), and Niger (37 percent); In Burkina Faso and Nigeria, sexual activity is lowest among never-married adolescent women with no education (15 percent and 7 percent, respectively).
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This paper summarizes rigorous impact evaluation results from the Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls Project (EPAG) in Liberia and presents long-term project results gathered in an end-line survey.
... See More + The project's pilot phase was implemented in two rounds and included six months of classroom training, followed by six months of placement and support. The aim of the project was to increase wage and self-employment for young women in Liberia. Seventy percent of girls were trained in business development skills (BDS) and thirty percent in job skills (JS) targeted to sectors with high demand for workers. All participants receive life skills training specifically designed for Liberian girls. The EPAG impact evaluation employed a randomized pipeline research design in which trainees were randomly assigned to rounds. The paper summarizes rigorous evaluation results showing the impact of the project on the treatment group (round 1 trainees from March 2010 to February 2011), as compared to a statistically similar control group (round 2 trainees from July 2011 to June 2012). Impacts are estimated using a difference-in-difference regression model. Outcomes are measured by a baseline survey completed in March 2010 and a midline survey completed in May 2011, six months after the treatment group (round 1 trainees) completed the classroom training. It was found that the project led to a forty-seven percent increase in employment among trainees, compared to those in the control group. EPAG's economic impact also appears to be long-lasting. The positive employment outcome was stronger among the business skills trainees. On average, the probability that participants in the BDS track found employment increased twice as much as among those in the JS track. Areas for further research are articulated.
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Violence against women and girls (VAWG) has negative impacts on physical and mental health. Health care settings provide a unique opportunity to identify VAWG survivors, provide critical support services, and prevent future harm.
... See More + VAWG has intergenerational effects: boys who witness intimate partner violence (IPV) at home are more likely to grow up to perpetrate violence themselves. And girls with childhood exposure to IPV are more likely to experience violence in later relationships. The health sector can play a role in educating clients and the broader community about VAWG as a human rights violation and major public health issue.
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Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is one of the most oppressive forms of gender inequality and stands as a fundamental barrier to equal participation of women and men in social, economic, and political spheres.
... See More + Such violence impedes gender equality and the achievement of a range of development outcomes. VAWG is a complex and multifaceted problem that cannot effectively be addressed from a single vantage point. The prevention of, and response to, such violence requires coordinated action across multiple sectors. This resource guide was developed through a partnership between the Global Womens Institute (GWI) at George Washington University, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the World Bank Group (WBG). The primary audiences for the guide are IDB and WBG staff and member countries, as well as other development professionals who do not yet have experience addressing VAWG. The purpose of this guide is to provide the reader with basic information on the characteristics and consequences of VAWG, including the operational implications that VAWG can have in several priority sectors of the IDB and WBG. It also offers guidance on how to integrate VAWG prevention and provide quality services to violence survivors across a range of development projects. Lastly, it recommends strategies for integrating VAWG prevention and response into policies and legislation, as well as sector programs and projects.
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Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is one of the most oppressive forms of gender inequality and stands as a fundamental barrier to equal participation of women and men in social, economic, and political spheres.
... See More + Such violence impedes gender equality and the achievement of a range of development outcomes. VAWG is a complex and multifaceted problem that cannot effectively be addressed from a single vantage point. The prevention of, and response to, such violence requires coordinated action across multiple sectors. This resource guide was developed through a partnership between the Global Womens Institute (GWI) at George Washington University, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the World Bank Group (WBG). The primary audiences for the guide are IDB and WBG staff and member countries, as well as other development professionals who do not yet have experience addressing VAWG. The purpose of this guide is to provide the reader with basic information on the characteristics and consequences of VAWG, including the operational implications that VAWG can have in several priority sectors of the IDB and WBG. It also offers guidance on how to integrate VAWG prevention and provide quality services to violence survivors across a range of development projects. Lastly, it recommends strategies for integrating VAWG prevention and response into policies and legislation, as well as sector programs and projects.
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Despite international support for adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and rights (SRHR) (for example, the 1994 International Conference on Population in Development), young people consistently face high levels of unmet need for contraception, unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortions, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and maternal mortality and morbidity.
... See More + At the global level, adolescent females 10 to 14 years of age are twice as likely to die in childbirth as adult women, and half of all new HIV infections occur in young people between 15 and 24 years of age (Pathfinder International, 2011). Young people, particularly adolescent girls and young women, continue to face challenges in meeting their SRH needs and rights, impeding their ability to contribute to the countrys development. Within this context, the World Bank conducted a quantitative and qualitative study in El Salvador to understand how the country is addressing adolescent SRH and SRHR, among 1,495 adolescents 10 to 19 years of age. The study was funded by the Nordic Development Trust Fund (NTF) within the Banks Operations Policy and Country Services (OPCS) Units knowledge and learning program. The study aimed to: (a) evaluate associations between adolescent SRH, human rights, and economic development among adolescents and youth; (b) assess the operational implications of integrating human rights instruments into SRH services; and (c) systematize and disseminate the results of these activities in order to support a regional and multi-sectoral dialogue on adolescent SRHR. This knowledge brief summarizes the results of this study.
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Violence against women and girls (VAWG) has negative impacts on physical and mental health. Health care settings provide a unique opportunity to identify VAWG survivors, provide critical support services, and prevent future harm.
... See More + VAWG has intergenerational effects: boys who witness intimate partner violence (IPV) at home are more likely to grow up to perpetrate violence themselves. And girls with childhood exposure to IPV are more likely to experience violence in later relationships. The health sector can play a role in educating clients and the broader community about VAWG as a human rights violation and major public health issue.
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Violence against women and girls (VAWG) has negative impacts on physical and mental health. Health care settings provide a unique opportunity to identify VAWG survivors, provide critical support services, and prevent future harm.
... See More + Ample studies have shown that natural disasters, including tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods, disproportionately affect women and girls, who are at greater risk of violence and exploitation than men and boys in the face of uprooted housing and traditional support structures, disrupted access to services, and both structural and social obstacles to accessing food, relief, supplies, and latrines. A study conducted four years after Hurricane Katrina occurred in the United States found that the rate of new cases of VAWG among displaced women also increased and did not return to the pre-hurricane baseline during the protracted phase of displacement.
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Working Paper 92967 DEC 01, 2014
Gennari, Floriza; Arango, Diana; Hidalgo, Nidia; McCleary-Sills, Jennifer
For every three years a country is affected by major violence (defined as deaths due to war or excess homicides comparable to a major war), economic growth lags behind by 2.7 percentage points.
... See More + Citizen security issues impact women and men differently. For example, women are more likely to be assaulted or murdered by someone they know - in fact, worldwide the share of homicides by an intimate partner was six times higher for female victims compared with male victims (39 percent versus 6 percent, respectively). Boys who witness intimate partner violence (IPV) during childhood are more likely to exhibit delinquent behavior and to perpetrate IPV in adulthood. And girls who witness violence are more likely to experience IPV in adulthood.
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Experiencing violence in schools can negatively impact girlsapos; enrollment as well as the quality of the education they receive. Evidence suggests that sexual harassment is widespread in educational settings in many parts of the world.
... See More + Children who have witnessed violence at home or experienced violence have lower educational attainment. In Zambia, girls who experienced sexual violence were found to have more difficulty concentrating on studies, some students transferred to another school to escape harassment, and others dropped out of school because of pregnancy. Few ministries of education around the world have explicit policies on sexual violence and harassment as unacceptable, and few have developed guidelines on the definition of harassment and how educational institutions should respond.
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The definition of social protection (SP) programs varies widely, as do the types of interventions included and the specific outcomes sought. These programs can be implemented through public and/or private sectors, with the involvement of single or multiple government sectors, or by some combination of these actors.
... See More + This brief will specifically focus on four types of social protection interventions: social assistance, social insurance, labor market programs, and early childhood development. It will offer suggestions for integrating violence against women and girls (VAWG) prevention efforts within these interventions. These areas of focus are meant to be illustrative of different social protection programs, rather than to reflect the full breadth of SP programs. In general, SP programs are public interventions that support the poorest populations and assist individuals, households, and communities to better overcome social and economic risks. Examples of programs include: a) social assistance (social safety nets): cash transfers, school feeding, and targeted food assistance; b) social insurance: old-age and disability pensions and unemployment insurance; c) labor market programs: skills-building programs, job-search and matching programs, and improved labor regulations; and d) early childhood development. Other program interventions, which fall under what is referred to as social protection, aim to strengthen families abilities to respond to hardships by promoting gender equality. Examples include early childhood development, projects that focus on at-risk youth, or targeted poverty alleviation programs.
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Working Paper 92970 DEC 01, 2014
Gennari, Floriza; Arango, Diana; McCleary-Sills, Jennifer; Hidalgo, Nidia; Hill, Amber
Violence against women and girls (VAWG) affects survivorsapos; ability to achieve individual potential and contribute to the economy. Unequal gender norms within a household can limit a womans control over and access to economic resources.
... See More + Restraining womenapos;s ability to access economic resources is a form of intimidation and coercion. Although microfinance projects can reduce household vulnerability, merely offering resources to women does not enable and empower them to exert control over those resources or make decisions about their lives. Providing women with an income can contribute to disrupting household and gender dynamics, potentially contributing to VAWG.
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Incentive-based policies have been shown to be powerful in many areas of behavior, but have rarely been tested in the sexual domain. The Rewarding Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention and Control in Tanzania (RESPECT) study is a randomized controlled trial testing the hypothesis that a system of rapid feedback and positive reinforcement that uses cash as the primary incentive can be used to reduce risky sexual activity among young people, male and female, who are at high risk of HIV infection.
... See More + The study enrolled 2,399 participants in 10 villages in rural southwest Tanzania. The intervention arm received conditional cash transfers that depended on negative results of periodic screenings for sexually transmitted infections, an objectively measured marker for risky sexual behavior. The intervention arm was further divided into two subgroups, one receiving a high value payment of up to $60 over the course of the study ($20 payments every four months) and the other receiving a lower value payment of up to $30 ($10 payments every four months). At the end of the one year of intervention, the results showed a significant reduction in sexually transmitted infections in the group that was eligible for the $20 payments every four months, but no such reduction was found for the group receiving the $10 payments. The effects were stronger among the lower socioeconomic and higher risks groups. The results of a post-intervention follow-up survey conducted one year after discontinuing the intervention indicate a sustained effect among males, but not among females.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7099 NOV 01, 2014
In an effort to integrate operational and analytical work on adolescents and youth sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and Human Rights in Nicaragua, the World Bank, in coordination with the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) conducted the study titled: sexual and reproductive health among youth in Latin America: adding a human rights perspective. The study was conducted within the umbrella of the ongoing Family Community Health World Bank project.
... See More + To gain a better understanding of the SRH and Human Rights in the country, the study, funded by the Nordic Development Trust Fund (NTF), reviewed the national legal framework and the school curricula; consulted focus groups for adolescents from representative samples in four geographic regions; and integrated the results of the study into a national multi-sectoral strategy on adolescents sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). The strategy will inform the Banks operational plans and agreements for the next five years.
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Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are a set of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and diabetes that are on the rise in Cambodia.
... See More + Meanwhile, injuries include those due to traffic accidents, which are becoming a major source of mortality and morbidity in Cambodia. NCDs are increasing in Cambodia as a result of smoking, unhealthy diet, harmful use of alcohol, and physical inactivity, all resulting in a sharp increase in the rates of obesity and high blood pressure. NCDs are affecting Cambodians in their productive years. Over half men and over a third of women dying from NCDs are younger than 60 years. The high cost of long-term health care and medicines, along with loss of income, pushes many Cambodian families deeper into poverty. It also overburdens the country's health system, constraining efforts to improve maternal and child health and tackle infectious diseases. Because of the nature of NCDs, which are rooted in multiple causes, strengthening the health system alone will not reduce the burden of NCDs. Many of the actions needed to prevent and control these diseases require the participation of numerous ministries and government agencies, as well as the private sector. For Cambodians to continue enjoying the fruits of economic growth, a strong commitment by the government, the people, and the international community is becoming increasing important. Improved coordination among all ministry of health (MOH) task forces will maximize financial and human resources and help implement priority NCDI-related interventions as part of, and not separate from, other ongoing programs. The application of the measures will benefit from clear procedures for joint planning, programming, budgeting, training, reporting, and monitoring and evaluation (M and E) of all programs.
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Bangladesh is among the most densely populated countries in the world. Poverty remains high at 43 percent of the population subsist on less than United States (U.S.) $1.25 per day (2010).
... See More + Bangladesh achieved several millennium development goal (MDG) targets in education, health, and poverty reduction. Gender equality and women's empowerment are important determinants of reproductive health. While fertility and contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) are evenly distributed, wide gaps in access to maternal health services remain. Bangladesh will need to focus on increasing political commitment to adolescent health; focusing interventions on high-fertility and high maternal mortality ratio (MMR) areas; addressing human resources constraints; and harnessing the use of technology.
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