Publication: Bhutan Human Development Indicators : Analysis of Current Situation using the BLSS
Loading...
Published
2005-05
ISSN
Date
2012-06-18
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report lays out the challenge of human development in Bhutan. It is based on the first nationally-representative household survey, the Bhutan Living Standard Survey (BLSS), collected between April 2003 and June 2003. The report's primary objective is to inform the Bank of the current situation regarding some human development indicators. The report is partly filling in the knowledge gap on key human development indicators in Bhutan and will hopefully guide future policy directions. Some sections of the report have already been used as an input for the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS). On the demand side, the Ministry of Education in Bhutan had requested World Bank's assistance to help cost the Education Millennium Development Objective (MDG) and other sector objectives. This analysis was competed and delivered in Thimphu in January 2005 (and the analysis of the education sector laid out in the first chapter of this report formed an integral part of this presentation). The Ministry of Health did not express interest in the Bank's assistance in the analysis of the health sector using the BLSS data. However, the RGOB did express interest in Bank input addressing old age security and emerging youth unemployment and the report constitutes an initial step informing the dialogue.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2005. Bhutan Human Development Indicators : Analysis of Current Situation using the BLSS. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8269 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Achieving Shared Prosperity in Kenya(Washington, DC, 2013-08)This book is organized around three overarching themes under which various topics are aggregated. The first concerns human development and resilience, and discusses issues related to poverty, education, health and social safety nets. This is the human chapter, dealing with crucial areas that are central for the successful development of individual Kenyans. The second theme, growth and competitiveness, delves into the structural issues that need attention for the economy to grow and become more competitive in the international scene. This section of the book discusses needs for infrastructure investments and energy development, along with steps Kenya needs to take to unleash its export potential. The third theme, governance, addresses issues around strengthening public financial management, improving transparency and accountability, and consolidating judicial reform.Publication Honduras Social Expenditures and Institutional Review(Washington, DC, 2014-12)Honduras has experienced moderate economic growth in the past decade, in line with the rest of the region. Despite this growth track record, limited opportunities for decent jobs for the majority of workers have resulted in stagnant poverty and inequality rates that are still the highest in Central America (CA). In parallel, progress in human development indicators has also been mixed in the last decade. In education, while primary enrollment has significantly increased, low coverage at all other levels of education, inequalities in access and low quality persist. In health, Honduras is close to achieving the 2015 child mortality Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but maternal mortality, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and violence pose additional challenges. And despite advances in setting up a social protection system, fiscal sustainability and lack of coordination among interventions prevail, undermining poverty reduction efforts. The ability of the Honduras government to expand safety nets, to increase the access and quality of public education and health services, to engage in active labor market policies, and to improve human development indicators in general, remains limited for a number of reasons. First, overall real social public spending has been on the decline in the last few years. Second, low revenues and fiscal deterioration pose challenges to adequately financing needed social sector improvements. Third, challenges in budget formulation and execution (mainly due to institutional factors) also diminish the impact of social spending. But more importantly, Honduras needs to significantly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its social spending. This note argues that moving forward Honduras should prioritize three main aspects: a) to rationalize and increase the effectiveness of social public spending by enhancing the pro-poor features of targeting mechanisms; b) to significantly redress the imbalance between recurrent spending, especially the wage bill, and capital expenditure; and c) to continue strengthening information systems tools, legislation, and institutions in an effort to consolidate programs into fewer and higher impact interventions.Publication China Early Child Development : Early Childhood Education in Yunnan(Washington, DC, 2013-11-18)Yunnan is a medium-sized and relatively poor Chinese province on the southwestern border of China. In 2012, the Yunnan department of education formally requested Bank support in conducting a review of early childhood education policies and programs in order to gain an in-depth and evidence-based understanding of the challenges the province faces in expanding early childhood education-in particular to rural and mountainous regions. The Bank's China education team embarked on raising funds, designing and implementing a rather elaborate research agenda around early childhood education. The goal was to investigate key challenges, and to propose policy interventions for expanding the Early Child Development (ECD) coverage in rural Yunnan. This report presents the findings from the background studies, and draws potential policy implications for improving the access to and quality of preschool education in Yunnan province. China has now almost achieved universal 9-year basic education. Over the last decade, the country has devoted increasing attention to policy development in early childhood education. Even though China does not yet have a specific early childhood education law, it has established a rather elaborate set of guidelines and regulations pertaining to early childhood education. Early childhood education has expanded significantly within the last few years. There are two main types of preschool programs for 3-6 year olds including: a regular 3-year program which is called kindergarten, and a one-year program attached usually to primary schools. The rapid growth of preschool teacher supply has contributed to the drop in pupil-teacher ratios across the nation. In Yunnan in particular, the ratio has decreased from approximately 30 to 20 in recent years. However, urban areas still enjoy a more favorable pupil-teacher ratio, as well as a higher proportion of qualified teachers compared to rural areas. Rural areas account for 50 percent of total preschool enrollment, but only 22 percent of all trained teachers serve in rural areas.Publication Education Reform in Mozambique : Lessons and Challenges(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012)The report opens with a brief description of the conceptual framework that guided the analysis as well as the data used. The next chapter presents the analysis of changes in household behavior and educational outcomes related to the implementation of the reforms, at both the primary and secondary levels. The descriptive nature of this analysis does not allow for inferences regarding the effects of the reforms on enrollment and demand for education. The following chapter presents the results of an econometric impact analysis of the reforms to quantify the magnitude of the effects on enrollment. In considering priorities for the future, the Government is paying increasing attention to the impact of the investments in education on growth, jobs, and poverty reduction, as measured by increased earnings from employment, and particularly by improving opportunities for the labor force to move to higher productivity activities and livelihoods. The next chapter presents the results on the changing structure of employment in Mozambique between 2003 and 2008, the impacts of education on employment opportunities, and the implications of these changes for education policy. The final chapter integrates the education and labor force analyses and provides strategic recommendations as Mozambique continues to improve educational outcomes, particularly for those population groups that have had the most difficulty entering and remaining in school.Publication Snakes and Ladders : Factors Influencing Successful Primary School Completion for Children in Poverty Contexts(Washington, DC, 2004-09)The World Bank (New Delhi) commissioned this qualitative study in June 2002 with the objective of exploring various factors that facilitate or impede successful primary school completion, with special reference to children living in diverse poverty situations. The study looks at children from conception to 11 years - tracking key milestones of children in diverse poverty situations in one district each in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. It explores the synergy between health, education and nutritional inputs in the overall development of children in different poverty situations and reflects on whether the proximal and distal environment promotes a holistic development of the child. This study includes the following headings: executive summary; background; through the life cycle of children; emerging issues; and policy implications.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication World Bank Annual Report 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-25)This annual report, which covers the period from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, has been prepared by the Executive Directors of both the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA)—collectively known as the World Bank—in accordance with the respective bylaws of the two institutions. Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, has submitted this report, together with the accompanying administrative budgets and audited financial statements, to the Board of Governors.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Digital-in-Health(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-08-18)Technology and data are integral to daily life. As health systems face increasing demands to deliver new, more, better, and seamless services affordable to all people, data and technology are essential. With the potential and perils of innovations like artificial intelligence the future of health care is expected to be technology-embedded and data-linked. This shift involves expanding the focus from digitization of health data to integrating digital and health as one: Digital-in-Health. The World Bank’s report, Digital-in-Health: Unlocking the Value for Everyone, calls for a new digital-in-health approach where digital technology and data are infused into every aspect of health systems management and health service delivery for better health outcomes. The report proposes ten recommendations across three priority areas for governments to invest in: prioritize, connect and scale.