Items in this collection
Youth Unemployment in the Caribbean
Global economic shocks coupled with natural disasters left most Caribbean countries with zero to negative growth and high unemployment rates. The Caribbean region was strongly affected by the last great financial crisis, which resulted in a regional average of zero economic growth in 2010. The purpose of this note is to evaluate the nature of youth unemployment in order to propose policy options to address it. It is organized in three sections. The first section describes the trends and patterns of total unemployment. The second section focuses on youth unemployment. The third and final section discusses policy considerations.
Teenage Pregnancy and Opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean : On Teenage Fertility Decisions, Poverty and Economic Achievement
The pregnancy project sought to expose the existence, and challenge the validity, of stereotypes about Hispanic women. The charade explored the underlying motivations of the many who responded with a wide range of reactions. The specific objectives of this regional study are: to establish a thorough description of the magnitude of the issue and its potential implications for social advancement; to advance the understanding of the risk factors, motivations and impacts at the household level-as a determinant of poverty and a cause of intra-and intergenerational poverty traps; to illuminate the coping mechanisms and their individual and social implications; to highlight the gender-related issues that have historically provoked asymmetric costs to boys and girls; and to provide elements that support specific policies on this matter. In the last decade, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have been moving in the right direction and the region has experienced important gains in gender equality of endowments (assets) and economic opportunities. In most LAC countries, girls have been achieving gender parity in primary school enrollment and even outperforming boys at the secondary and tertiary level. The present report reviews the factors associated with teenage pregnancy and early childbearing and builds a framework to explore these issues systematically, towards the design of effective policy interventions in LAC. Teen pregnancy and early childbearing remain a challenge in the region, particularly given the association of these phenomena with poverty and lack of opportunities, and the concern that it may prevent women from taking full advantage of their human development assets and opportunities. The main message of the report is that poverty and lack of opportunities are key factors associated to early childbearing.
Youth at Risk in Latin America and the Caribbean : Understanding the Causes, Realizing the Potential
Realizing the potential of Latin America and the Caribbean's (LAC) youth is essential not only to their well-being, but also to the long-term welfare of the whole region. Young people's families, communities, and governments as well as private, nonprofit, and international organizations, have a responsibility to help youth reach their potential. There have been many successes but also important failures. How to build on the successes and correct the failures is the subject of this report. This book has two objectives: to identify the at-risk youth in LAC, and to provide evidence-based guidance to policy makers in LAC countries that will help them to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their youth investments. The book concludes that governments can be more effective in preventing young people from engaging in risky behavior in the first place and also in assisting those who already are engaged in negative behavior. To support governments in this endeavor, the book provides a set of tools to inform and guide policy makers as they reform and implement programs for at-risk youth.
Grenada Workforce Development: SABER Country Report 2013
Grenada has faced various socioeconomic challenges within the last decade, including the destruction wrought by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and the global financial crisis. As a result, economic indicators for Grenada illustrate unfavorable. Increases in the poverty and unemployment rates, especially among the youth and young adults. This report presents an assessment of the regulatory, legislative, and institutional landscape governing workforce development (WfD) in Grenada. The results of this analysis are based on a newly designed analytical tool developed by the World Bank under the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) initiative. The aim of this initiative is to garner data so as to provide systematic documentation and assessment of the policy and institution factors that influence the performance of education and training systems of SABER-participating countries. The SABER-WfD tool encompasses initial, continuing, and targeted vocational education and training that are offered through multiple channels, and focus largely on programs at the secondary and post-secondary levels. The results of the assessment presented in this report are expected to assist in clarifying priorities. They classify the WfD system according to four stages of maturity in policy and institutional development, as follows: (1) Latent, (2) Emerging, (3) Established, and (4) Advanced.
Gender-Sensitive Approaches for the Extractive Industry in Peru : Improving the Impact on Women in Poverty and Their Families - Guide for Improving Practice
In the companion report to this guide, gender-sensitive approaches to the extractive industry in Peru: improving impacts on women in poverty and their families, ward and strongman present solid, evidence-based arguments leading to the conclusion that Extractive Industry (EI) companies could significantly improve their sustainable development impact on women and families by making some practical and simple changes in their working practices. The report also provides extensive evidence of weaknesses in company and government policies and practices that contribute to a previously under recognized issue: men are capturing more of the benefits of EI projects, which are not necessarily reaching the wider family; while women and children experience more of the risks that arise from EI projects.
Early Identification of At-Risk Youth in Latin America : An Application of Cluster Analysis
A new literature on the nature of and policies for youth in Latin America is emerging, but there is still very little known about who are the most vulnerable young people. This paper aims to characterize the heterogeneity in the youth population and identify ex ante the youth that are at-risk and should be targeted with prevention programs. Using non-parametric methodologies and specialized youth surveys from Mexico and Chile, the authors quantify and characterize the different sub-groups of youth, according to the amount of risk in their lives, and find that approximately 20 percent of 18 to 24 year old Chileans and 40 percent of the same age cohort in Mexico are suffering the consequences of a range of negative behaviors. Another 8 to 20 percent demonstrate factors in their lives that pre-dispose them to becoming at-risk youth - they are the candidates for prevention programs. The analysis finds two observable variables that can be used to identify which children have a higher probability of becoming troubled youth: poverty and residing in rural areas. The analysis also finds that risky behaviors increase with age and differ by gender, thereby highlighting the need for program and policy differentiation along these two demographic dimensions.
Is the Baby to Blame? An Inquiry into the Consequences of Early Childbearing
Teenage pregnancy has been a cause of concern for policy makers because it is associated with a complex and often adverse social context for women. It is seen as the cause of lower social and economic achievement for mothers and their children, and as the potential determinant of inter-generational poverty traps. However, the question of whether pregnancy -- and the subsequent rearing of a child -- is actually the trigger of poverty, higher dependence on social welfare and/ or other undesirable social and economic consequences has not been studied in developing countries with enough rigor to establish a causal relation. This paper follows a methodology previously applied in the United States, using Mexican data from the National Survey of Demographic Dynamics, to exploit information about miscarriages as an instrument to identify the long-term consequences of early child bearing. Thus, the paper takes the advantage of a natural experiment: it compares the outcomes of women who became pregnant in adolescence, and gave birth, to outcomes of women who became pregnant in adolescence and miscarried. This approach only allows for estimating the costs of adolescent childbearing for teenagers in a risk group, that is, teenagers who are likely to experience a pregnancy. The results are consistent with findings in the United States, suggesting that, contrary to popular thinking, adolescent childbearing does not hamper significantly the lifelong opportunities of the young mothers. Actually, women who gave birth during their adolescence have on average 0.34 more years of education, and are 21 percentage points more likely to be employed, compared with their counterparts who miscarried. The results also suggest, however, greater dependence on social welfare among women who gave birth during adolescence: their social assistance income is 36 percent higher, and they are more likely to participate in social programs, especially the conditional cash transfer program Oportunidades.
Equity, Access to Health Care Services and Expenditures on Health in Nicaragua
Nicaragua has embarked on an ambitious health sector program, which has contributed to significant progress in the health sector over the past decade. Health indicators show gradual but steady improvements: access to basic services such as clean water and sanitation facilities has improved, as have other related performance indicators such as life expectancy, infant/child mortality, immunization rates, and child nutrition among others. Despite these achievements, there are still large inequities in access and quality of health services across socioeconomic groups and regions. Poor individuals living in rural areas (especially in the Central and Atlantic regions), the indigenous population, and individuals living in households engaged in agriculture have average access to health care services and preventive care. The lack of risk mitigation mechanisms such as insurance and social security is causing users in Nicaragua to spend, out-of-pocket, a significant share of their income on health care, especially to buy medications and other non-consultation items such as medical tests. Long distances, lack of medicines, and high costs and other demand-side factors (such as self-prescription) constitute the main constraints causing poor and sick individuals to seek informal care or not to seek care at all.
Caribbean Youth Development : Issues and Policy Directions
This report examines youth development in the Caribbean today. The objectives of the report are threefold, it aims to 1) identify the risk and protective factor and determinats of youth behaviors and development, 2) demonstrate that the negative behaviors of youth are costly, not only to the youth themselves but to society as a whole, and 3) identifies key intervention points for youth development, taking into account identified risk and protective factors for the Caribbean. For the purpose of the study, youth is defined as spanning the adolescent period from 10 to 24 years of age. Youth or adolescent development thus refers to the physical, social, and emotional processes of maturation from childhood to adulthood, with biological processes riving the initiation of adolescence and social factors largely determining the initiation of adulthood. The study uses an "ecological" framework to demonstrate the linkages between a) the under-lying risk and protective factors of youth behaviors, b) youth outcomes, and c) subsequent adult outcomes. It is termed "ecological" because the framework shows the relationship between the individual adolescent and his or her environment. Risk factors are those factors that increase the likelihood of experiencing negative outcomes. Protective factors counterbalance the risk factors.