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121. The Challenge of Aid in Pakistan: Is Cash on Delivery Part of the Solution?

Author:
Wren Elhai
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
A thorny set of obstacles stands in the way of the United States and other donors as they try to scale up development spending in Pakistan. The sheer scale of the country's population and development challenges requires effective mobilization of local resources and local institutions. Incentives for politicians to push for reform are weak. Monitoring spending is difficult, especially when it is spent through Pakistan's own government. Donors and local stakeholders may disagree about which development projects are most needed. A possible solution to these problems is Cash on Delivery Aid. In COD Aid, funders pay for measured and verified progress against an agreed-upon development outcome. The approach has been most clearly thought out in application to the education sector, but it can be applied whenever a donor and recipient can agree on a clear, measurable metric for assessing progress. This brief examines options for a COD Aid contract in Pakistan's education sector and its potential benefits for improving the relationship between official donors and the government of Pakistan, and for increasing the effectiveness of aid spending in Pakistan.
Topic:
Demographics and Development
Political Geography:
Pakistan, United States, and South Asia

122. Population Growth, Reproductive Health and Sustainable Development

Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Sustainable development "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." In the 20thcentury, a tripling of human numbers was accompanied by dramatic gains in development, as measured in food production and economic growth. But much of that development was unsustainable—it focused on the needs of the present at the expense of future generations. Today, the world's nations must provide for an ever-growing population against a backdrop of food and water shortages, depleted resources, and a changing climate. Slower population growth would make that challenge easier to meet.
Topic:
Climate Change, Demographics, Development, Natural Resources, Food, and Health Care Policy

123. Social Security: The House that Roosevelt Built

Author:
Pamela J. Perun and Patricia E. Dilley
Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Critics of the Social Security program are fond of disparaging it as a "Ponzi" scheme or as a redistributive transfer of income from the young to the old. Others go even further, labeling the Social Security trust fund as a fiction or claiming the program is bankrupt. Some also suggest that the government bonds held in the trust fund are mere IOUs. Still others say that the program's legal basis is ephemeral, subject to the whims of Congress.
Topic:
Demographics, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
United States

124. FREE CORSICA ! A Study of Contemporary Chinese Nationalism

Author:
James Pearson
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:
In April 2008, the combination of a threat by French president Nicholas Sarkozy to boycott the Olympic Games and a disrupted Olympic torch relay in Paris caused outcry and prompted an online call by Chinese netizens to boycott French pro-ducts. In the events that followed, the French supermarket Carrefour become the target of out-bursts of nationalist and anti-French sentiment and a small campaign to promote Corsican independence to outline French hypocrisy briefly be-came a popular cause. But how did events in Paris evolve Into a mass protests against a seemingly unrelated French company in China? Do the events of the Carrefour boycott fit within the existing theories of Chinese nationalism or did they present a new direction in its evolution? This study first looks at existing academic work on Chinese nationalism in order to create the framework within which to debate the developments of the Carrefour case. In an effort to uncover its origins, the boycott itself is analysed through online posts and text messages from the time. Additionally, by using a four-step formula to address the pattern by which protests in Paris led to boycotts in China, this study suggests that such a formula could be used in the anticipation of future outbursts of nationalist sentiment. Indeed, through this formula, the author agrees with existing academic work that posits Chinese nationalism is continually used as a method for the CCP to promote its own political agenda and academic work that links the formation of Chinese national identity with Chinese historiography is also found to be relevant to the development of this movement. However, in conclusion, this study also suggests that including all mass movements in China under an umbrella of nationalism is arguably misleading as, without further scrutiny of the manner in which online networks and social media are used to propagate such causes, we run the danger of misinterpreting all popular unrest as aggressive nationalism.
Topic:
Demographics and Nationalism
Political Geography:
China and France

125. The Effect of Coresidence with an Adult Child on Depressive Symptoms among Older Widowed Women in South Korea: An Instrumental Variable Estimation

Author:
Young Kyung Do and Chetna Malhotra
Publication Date:
11-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:
The objective of this paper is to estimate the causal effect of coresidence with an adult child on depressive symptoms among older widowed women in South Korea. Data from the first and second waves of the Korea Longitudinal Study of Aging were used. Analysis was restricted to widowed women aged ? 65 years with at least one living child (N=2,449). We use an instrumental variable approach that exploits the cultural setting where number of sons predicts the probability of an elderly woman's coresidence with an adult child but is not directly correlated with the mother's depressive symptoms. Our models adjust for age, education, total assets, residence, functional limitations, self-rated health, and various illnesses. Our robust estimation results indicate that, among older widowed women, coresidence with an adult child has a significant protective effect on depressive symptoms, but that this effect does not necessarily benefit those with clinically relevant depressive symptoms. Future demographic and social transitions in South Korea portend that older women's increasing vulnerability to poor mental health is an important though less visible public health challenge.
Topic:
Demographics, Gender Issues, and Health
Political Geography:
Israel and South Korea

126. The Russian Federation in an Era of Demographic Crisis: The Special Challenges of Population Aging and Social Security Policy

Author:
Jeffrey Mankoff
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Like much of the world, Russia has been in the midst of a serious economic crisis since the late summer of 2008. Although the worst appears to be over, Russia will continue to feel its effects longer than many other industrialized countries, largely because of a rigid economy burdened with an overweening state role. The recognition that Russia faces serious long-term challenges has emboldened President Dmitry Medvedev and others to call for far-reaching economic restructuring. If successful, their economic policies could undermine the semi-authoritarian, state- capitalist model developed under Prime Minister and former president Vladimir Putin. Although concrete reforms have so far been limited, Medvedev's demands for change (seconded in some cases by Putin) have acquired increasing momentum in recent months. The speed of Russia's recovery and obstacles along the way will play a major role in determining both the success of Medvedev's call for modernization and the course of Russia's foreign policy since a quicker recovery would diminish the pressure for fundamental reform and lessen the need for caution internationally.
Topic:
Demographics, Human Welfare, and Population
Political Geography:
Russia

127. Very Low Fertility in Asia: Is There a Problem? Can It Be Solved?

Author:
Sidney B. Westley, Robert D. Retherford, and Minja Kim Choe
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Fifty years ago, women in Asia were having, on average, more than five children each, and there was widespread fear of a “population explosion” in the region. Then birth rates began to fall—in several countries more steeply than anyone had anticipated. This unexpected trend has now raised concerns about the social and economic impact of extremely low fertility. Today, four of Asia's most prosperous economies—Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan—have among the lowest birth rates in the world. With women having, on average, only one child each, these societies have expanding elderly populations and a shrinking workforce to pay for social services and drive economic growth. And in Japan, overall population numbers are already going down. Why are women choosing to have so few children? How are policy- makers responding to these trends? Government leaders have initiated a variety of policies and programs designed to encourage marriage and childbearing, but to what effect? Given current social and economic trends, it is unlikely that Asia' s steep fertility decline will be reversed, at least not in the for eseeable future.
Topic:
Demographics, Health, and Population
Political Geography:
Japan, Taiwan, Asia, South Korea, and Singapore

128. Beyond Population: Everyone Counts in Development

Author:
Joel E. Cohen
Publication Date:
07-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
This essay reviews some of the most important demographic trends expected to occur between 2010 and 2050, indicates some of their implications for economic and global development, and suggests some possible policies to respond these trends and implications. The interactions of population, economics, the environment, and culture are central. In the past decade, for the first time in history, old people outnumbered young people, urban people outnumbered rural people, and women of reduced fertility outnumbered women of high fertility. The century from 1950 to 2050 will have included the highest global population growth rate ever, the largest voluntary fall in the global population growth rate ever, and the most enormous shift ever in the demographic balance between the more developed regions of the world and the less developed ones. In the coming half century, according to most demographers, the world's population will grow older, larger (albeit more slowly), and more urban than in the 20th century, but with much variance within and across regions. No one knows what numbers and demographic characteristics of humans are sustainable, but it is clear that the prodigious stain of a billion or so chronically hungry people at present results from recent and ongoing collective human choices, not biophysical necessities. Concrete policy options to respond to demographic trends include providing universal primary and secondary education, particularly education for global and household civility; eliminating unmet needs for contraception and reproductive health; and implementing demographically sensitive urban planning, particularly construction for greater energy efficiency and friendliness to older people.
Topic:
Demographics, Development, Economics, and Environment
Political Geography:
Washington

129. Never an Empty Bowl: Sustaining Food Security in Asia

Author:
Dan Glickman and M.S. Swaminathan
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
Asia's ability to feed itself is of fundamental importance not only to the people living in the region, but also to the world. One of the bright spots over the past half-century has been Asia's capacity to lift many of its citizens out of poverty and ensure that they have plentiful, inexpensive supplies of food, including rice, the region's main staple. But Asia still accounts for about 65% of the world's hungry population, and the historical gains from the Green Revolution are increasingly at risk. Declining trends in agricultural research and rural investment may lead to long-term food supply shortages and increased vulnerability to the famines that used to plague the region.
Topic:
Security, Climate Change, Demographics, Poverty, Food, and Famine
Political Geography:
Asia

130. All That Is Solid Melts Into Air

Author:
Anthony Olcott
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Abstract:
It is eerie to reread The Communist Manifesto while contemplating the profound and deeply unpredictable effects of the new information revolution. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels saw dialectical materialism and the iron laws of history as driving change, not the Internet and the digitization of information, but their jeremiad, that “all that is solid melts into air,” looks startlingly prescient in regard to huge swaths of the information industry. Book publishing, TV network news, newspapers, and even traditional universities are, if not melting into air, then at least finding their revenue bases eroding, their customer bases migrating, and the positions of prestige they once occupied shrinking toward nothingness.
Topic:
Demographics, Economics, Industrial Policy, Science and Technology, Social Stratification, and Culture