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Begin New Search Topic Human Development Publication Year within 25 Years

1. Pakistan's Declining Human Development Index (HDI) and the Requisite Policy Reforms

Author:
Shehla Saleem Mughal and Zaheer Liaqat Baig
Publication Date:
07-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
This paper is an attempt to study the Human Development Index (HDI), its components and trend over the last ten years. It has strived to understand the relationship between policy choices adopted by the policy makers to devise economic policies and their impact on the standards of living or per capita income. Similarly, it has conducted to study how the budget expenditures in the health and education sectors in Pakistan impact the key human development indicators like life expectancy and average levels of education. At a time when Pakistan faces ongoing challenges in these sectors, understanding how public spending affects human development is not doubt, of critical importance for informed policymaking. The analysis focuses on secondary data obtained from government budget reports, health statistics, and education assessments. It examines trends in budget allocations and explores how differences in funding levels affect public health outcomes and educational attainment. Research highlights that, inadequate educational funding contributes to lower mean education levels while inadequate investment in health can lead to lower life expectancy rates. The key findings suggest that prioritizing public needs, in the form of increased public spending on health and education and provision of favorable environment for sustainable standard of living, is positively associated with improvements in life expectancy and educational outcomes. This relationship underscores the importance of prioritizing these sectors within national budget frameworks. The findings encourage the policy makers to understand that strategic investments in human capital are fruitful and yield long-term benefits for the economy and society. The study is significant as it emphasizes the need for efficient allocation of resources and calls for a shift in policy priorities to improve standard of living along with up-lifting the health and education services. Hence, the research serves as a valuable resource for advocacy groups seeking increased funding for these vital areas of human development in Pakistan. This study solicited for a adopting a comprehensive approach towards public policy and investment. Moreover, it intends to supplement the existing research by establishing a relationship between policy measures including human development indicators and budgetary expenditures with a special emphasis to improvement in standards of living and fostering social and economic progress in Pakistan.
Topic:
Development, Reform, Economic Policy, Human Development, and Budgeting
Political Geography:
Pakistan and South Asia

2. The Impact of Clubfoot Intervention on Dimensions of Human Flourishing: Evidence from the Organization Hope Walks in Ethiopia

Author:
Bruce Wydick, Gianna Camacho, and Patrizio Piraino
Publication Date:
09-2024
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
We study the impact of clubfoot disability and its treatment on multiple dimensions of human flourishing among children. Working with Hope Walks, a faith-based development organization that funds clubfoot interventions in numerous countries, we use a quasi difference-indifferences approach on data collected from 564 children in Ethiopia. To generate counterfactuals to clubfoot status and treatment, we use outcomes from nearest-age siblings of children born with clubfoot nested within a family-level fixed effect. We find that clubfoot status (early treatment) results in a disability (restoration) of -1.44σ (0.91σ) in physical mobility, -1.17σ (0.79σ) in mental health, -1.07σ (0.64σ) in social inclusion, -0.48σ (0.98σ) in an education index, -0.76σ (0.42σ) in religious faith, and -1.19σ (0.79σ) in an aggregate index of human flourishing (all p < 0.05). We attribute the large, broad, and significant impacts from clubfoot treatment to (i) a highly effective medical intervention that is (ii) carried out in an impoverished setting with scarce existing support for children born with disabilities, which (3) generates spillover effects into multiple facets of human flourishing.
Topic:
Health, Disability, Human Development, and Dignity
Political Geography:
Africa and Ethiopia

3. Structural change and the National Initiative for Human Development in Morocco

Author:
Al-mouksit Akim and Wissal Sahel
Publication Date:
06-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
This paper aims to revisit the pace and patterns of structural change in Morocco with a renewed perspective focusing on subnational trends to document the macro patterns. In that perspective, we first build a within-country sectoral longitudinal dataset covering employment and value added (VA) that expands the international databases mostly used in the literature. Based on this novel dataset, our results shed light on the different contributions of subnational units (regions) to labour productivity growth and, subsequently, structural change. Taking advantage of this novel dataset, we use an instrumental variable (IV) strategy to estimate the impact of the National Initiative for Human Development (NIHD) programme on labour productivity growth and both of its components: the between (structural change) and the within components. We find that the NIHD programme positively affects productivity growth overall, mainly through structural change. The results are driven by urban areas and the participation of local actors such as associations or cooperatives in the management of NIHD projects.
Topic:
Labor Issues, Economy, Human Development, Productivity, and Structural Transformation
Political Geography:
North Africa and Morocco

4. What Drives Religious Politicking?

Author:
Amy Erica Smith and Emma Rosenberg
Publication Date:
04-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
In the last decade, scholars have begun to elaborate the diverse ways religion manifests in democracies. We draw on theories related to modernization, secularism, and religious competition, as well as survey data from the Comparative National Elections Project, to explain individual-level and country-level variation in religious politicking—religious leaders’ and organizations’ engagement in electoral campaigns. At the country level, though human development depresses the rate at which citizens receive political messages from religious organizations and clergy, both secularism and religious pluralism boost it. At the individual level, “civilizational” differences across religious groups are muted and inconsistent. However, across the globe, citizens with higher levels of education are consistently more likely to receive political messages—an effect that is stronger where religious politicking is more common. A case study of Mozambique further confirms the insights obtained when we unpack modernization and secularization theories.
Topic:
Civil Society, Democratization, Politics, Religion, Developing World, Democracy, Citizenship, and Human Development
Political Geography:
Africa, Mozambique, Global Focus, and Global South

5. Buddhist Contributions to Human Development

Author:
Tshering Tobgay
Publication Date:
11-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Bhutan Studies
Institution:
Centre for Bhutan & GNH Studies (CBS)
Abstract:
The birth, enlightenment and passing of the Buddha all happened in the second month of the Buddhist calendar, which is known in Sanskrit as Vaisakha. The Vesak Day has been known by different names in different countries and it has been celebrated for the last two thousand years by all Buddhists around the world to remind them of these three most sacred events in Buddha’s life. Vesak Day is a great occasion for an international gathering to meet, celebrate, remember and learn from the life of Buddha. Several global issues were discussed in the previous Vesak Day celebrations. In particular, the past Vesak celebrations have brought out certain future directions for all Buddhist communities. This year’s Vesak celebrations will be similarly fruitful and stimulating, with its theme on Buddhist contributions to human development.
Topic:
Religion, Buddhism, and Human Development
Political Geography:
South Asia and Bhutan

6. An Interdisciplinary Forum on Time and Globalization

Author:
Christopher Breu
Publication Date:
09-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
How do globalization and temporality relate to one another? This was the question addressed by a 2011 workshop sponsored by Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition (IGHC) at McMaster University. In the past, globalization and temporality have both been characterized as moving forward independently of human volition, carrying all of us along in their flow. Now there are large literatures challenging this view, and showing how globalization and time are constructed and modified by humans. However, with some important exceptions (Harvey 1990, Sassen 2000, Appadurai 2005, Bauman 2000), the literatures on globalization and on temporality have developed separately from one another. It is important to bring these literatures into closer dialogue, because a great many urgent issues in contemporary human affairs involve interactions between temporality and globalization. These range from individual-level questions, such as managing the accelerated pace of everyday life, to large epochal problems, such as climate change, that may not always be readily apprehended, but are no less significant. The workshop participants, drawing on their backgrounds in a variety of academic disciplines, addressed the relationship between temporality and globalization in a variety of settings. Six of the papers presented at this workshop are gathered in this IGHC Working Paper. The assembled papers, individually and jointly, identify a number of themes of particular relevance to any comprehensive discussion of globalization and time. By way of introduction, it is useful to briefly consider how the most prominent of these themes are addressed by the contributors.
Topic:
Globalization, Human Development, and Time
Political Geography:
Global Focus