Population and development

Several studies have documented unprecedented growth in the work force in India mainly attributable to demographic transition. However, with the growth in the working age population, concerns regarding their quality also arise. The types of works engaging the labours and their quality characteristics are often left behind; but the internal profile of the workers matters as a critical dimension of inclusive development. Most of the aspects of decent employment are evidentially related to education which is a thread that gives form to the fabric of society. In India, a growing body of economic evidence suggests social progress as a key component for achieving sustainable economic development. Using data from 66th round (Schedule 10.0) of national Sample Survey, this paper investigates current state of education level among Indian labours, difference between the contribution of general and technical education in work and earnings. Six main categories of work status are identified in the whole population and the education attainment variable combines both general and technical education. Analysis reveals that Indian labour force is mainly absorbed in self employment and casual labours. Salaried employment is prominent only among urban males. The role of general and technical education is clearly different, especially among females.

Our main interest is to study the determinants of health inequalities among Argentinean women and the access to quality health services by vulnerable urban women.We focus on the role of financial, economic and family characteristics in addition to the local health systems. We use data from two sources— a nationwide representative survey and a micro/targeted survey. Our micro survey goes deeply into many aspects of the lives of women in a medium size urban area in Norwest Argentina .This area belongs to a large northern region of the country that has been labeled as “critical” by the UNDP because of the serious problems it faces and the need to device innovative policies to improve living conditions. This new data set allows us to investigate issues that are not feasible to study with the current nationwide surveys. We obtain not only a detailed picture of the economic and social aspects but also data on health history (woman and youngest child), preventive practice/access to health services, evaluation of health providers, willingness to pay for health services/insurance, borrowing/lending experience. Our preliminary results show sharp differences in health outcomes/preventive practices according to location, income and occupation both within the country and the area increasing our understanding of the causality directions.

Against the backdrop of India’s transformation from a majority rural to an increasingly urban society, this paper seeks to understand how patterns of inequality vary across city size. We use ward level data from the Indian Census to examine residential segregation by caste in small, medium and large cities within the state of Kerala. Restricting the analyses to cities in one region allows us to control for the tremendous socio-political diversity in India. Our findings resonate with other recent scholarship on caste inequalities in urban India, with small cities demonstrating the highest degree of residential segregation by caste. In contrast, larger cities show comparatively lower levels of residential segregation; perhaps due to intermixing of diverse linguistic, ethnic and regional identities that reconfigure caste relations and diminish caste based inequalities.

Unprecedented population growth attended equally unprecedented land use and land cover changes in Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century, affecting the food security of thousands of agriculturally based communities. The more than doubling of the population of Latin America was accompanied by rural migration to urban areas, and extensification of agricultural land at the expense of forest and natural environments (Carr, Lopez, and Bilsborrow 2009). As population growth continues and the most suitable potential agricultural land diminishes, has intensification followed on the heels of extensification and, if so, has production risen concomitantly? We use data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO) to examine trends in population, agricultural intensification and food production Latin America from 1961-2011. Results indicate rising population (with slowing growth rates) accompanied by soaring intensification in the form of increased fertilizer and mechanization. However, there is no linear relationship between agricultural input and output. Rather, the results point to a Malthusian pattern: inputs increasing exponentially, while outputs increase at best arithmetically.

Migration, its volume, and characteristics have many implications to population and development plans. In effect, studies comparing characteristics of comers with goers and both with stayers, which can reveal both the origin and destination’s gains and losts via migration, are not many! This is what the present paper is going to examine.
This paper utilizes a 2 percent sample of all population enumerated in 2006 Iranian National Population and Housing Census. Preliminary findings show that around 17 percent of the country’s population has changed its place of residence during 1996-2006. Among 336 districts of the country, net migration rates (percentages) ranges from -17 to 34, Immigration rates from around 1 to over 57, and Emigration rates from .4 to 44 percent. A very compounding picture is appears when the characteristics of immigrants comparing to emigrants are taken into consideration at district level. According to the development level, less developed districts are great losers (where immigrants are less educated and are from lower SES groups comparing to Emigrants), and developed districts are great gainers (where immigrants are more educated and are from higher SES groups comparing to Emigrants).

Despite the consistent effort to reduce hunger and poverty, a sizeable proportion of the population in India is living below the poverty line and 36% women and 34% men were underweight (IIPS & Macro International, 2007). Malnutrition and poverty form a vicious circle of poverty which needs to be removed through government intervention. In the context, using data from the national representative “level and pattern of consumer expenditure survey” (66th Round 2009-10) of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) we have tried to establish the association between nutrition status and household income. In order to take into account the heterogeneous effect of the calorie intake across the income distribution and endogeneity of the calorie consumption we have applied instrumental variable quantile regression. Regression result confirms the heterogeneous impact of per-capita calorie intake across household income distribution. Result shows that the marginal effect of per consumer unit calorie intake on income decreases with the increase in income. Calorie intake elasticity of income gain is 2.077 at the lowest 10th quantile than the 1.755 at the highest 90th quantile of income distribution. Study clearly shows that public intervention at the low level of nutrition intake will have relatively higher gain in income.

Merapi is one of 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia. Mount Merapi eruption repeats every 4 years. The 2010 was the biggest eruption in the last 100 years. The first eruption was on 26 October 2010 continue its peak on 4 November 2010 with about 386 people died, 2,856 houses damaged, thousands hectares of forest and farm business heavily damaged and tens of sub villages destroyed. The affected area located at four districts Magelang, Boyolali, Klaten and Sleman with 350,000 refugees. Total value of damage and losses are Rp 3.62 Trillions (USD 402 millions), in all sectors including housing, infrastructures, productive livelihood etc.
Policy maker see the need for measure to monitor and evaluate the progress rehabilitation and recontruction activities over time.For this reason the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) supported the conduct of a longitudinal Study of Merapi in 2012. This study aimed to periodically monitor performance and progress of Rehabilitation and Recontruction activities after Merapi Eruption 2010 in the high-risk area of Merapi and provide data and recomendation for development of goverment policy and rehabilitation and recontruction after disaster focusing on disaster risk reduction. The major expected outcome of this study is the measurement of Disaster Recovery Index.This paper present the

The association between population growth and economic development has been debated for a long time. This effect is expected to be strongest in developing countries with persistent high fertility and population growth rates, such as Uganda. This paper investigated whether or not Uganda will experience a demographic dividend and if so when this is likely to occur. The paper also investigated the likely effects of Uganda’s youthful population on the education and health sectors. The paper used the cohort component projection to project the population of Uganda and assess whether or not it would achieve the demographic dividend. The results show that at the current level of fertility Uganda’s population will continue to grow and will reach a high of 125 million by 2072 under the low fertility assumptions and Uganda will not begin to enjoy demographic dividend until after 2072. This could adversely affect the attainment of the demographic dividend.

In 2009-2011 UNFPA supported the Government of Saratov region in development of the regional strategy on ageing.
The Strategy intends to fill an essential gap in policy and services for older persons at the regional level in Russia. The Strategy sets concrete recommendations for supporting work force participation of older persons, promoting educational and training programmes for older persons, and facilitating their cultural and recreational engagement. The Strategy suggests a double-faceted approach to addressing the needs and expectations of older persons: the humanitarian needs of older persons and measures for including older persons into regional economic policy.
The Strategy is based on rusults the representative survey thus pursuing the evidence based approach to formulating policy options and avoiding an often prevailing opinion-based approach.
Significantly, that the Strategy development was based on wide participatory approach including policy makers, service providers, international and local experts, NGOs and elderly people. This approach is the key to success. The innovative approaches of the Strategy can make it valuable model for developing policy responses to the challenges and opportunities of population and individual ageing in Russia and other countries.

In terms of water access, sub-Saharan African cities are some of the worst off in the world, with 20 % of their populations supplied by an unimproved water source. This situation is even worst in informal settlements. In light of the expected growth of urban populations, there is concern that the gap between the supply and demand for clean water will widen. At first glance, Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso, portrays a counter example since 99 % of the residents having access to an improved water source. Yet, by going beyond the single statistical measure of supply and more precisely providing for the means of water accessibility (i.e. the distance, the time taken to collect water, the quantity and the quality of the water consumed, etc.), we can argue that the indicator using in the MDG target hugely underestimates the need for water accessibility and the persistent social and health issues relate thereto.