While public-private partnerships in education in the United States have received a lot of attention, research on such partnerships elsewhere has been limited--even though such partnerships have been steadily gaining prominence, particularly in developing countries. Aiming to fill this gap, this book presents fresh, technically sound empirical evidence on the effectiveness and cost of various public-private education partnerships from around the world, including voucher programs and faith-based schools. The evidence on the impact in terms of school performance, targeting, and cost of...

Women's earnings are a fraction of male's earnings in several African countries. It is tempting to conclude that this wage gap is a sign of discrimination against women in the labor market. Yet this book uses new datasets to show that the gap is not simply the result of discrimination in the labor markets, but rather the result of multiple factors, including access to education and credit, cultural values and household duties, and, above all, labor market conditions. It shows that gender disparities grow when economies are not functioning well and labor markets are tiny. More than the effect...

La mayoria de los observadores consideran que Fe y Alegria es una organizacion exitosa, pero pocas evaluaciones de caracter riguroso se han realizado hasta el momento. Las contribuciones a este volumen estan dedicadas a la evaluacion del desempeno y de algunos aspectos de la gestion y las practicas pedagogicas de la federacion Fe y Alegria, un movimiento impulsado por la Compania de Jesus que presta servicios a aproximadamente un millon de personas en 20 paises, en su mayoria en America Latina. La evidencia cuantitativa disponible sugiere que las escuelas de la federacion frecuentemente...

This volume is devoted to an assessment of the performance and selected aspects of the management and pedagogical practices of Fe y Alegria, a federation of Jesuit schools serving approximately one million children in 20 countries, mostly in Latin America. Many observers consider Fe y Alegria a successful organization, but very few rigorous evaluations have been conducted. The available quantitative evidence suggests that the federation's schools often do reach the poor, and that students in Fe y Alegria schools tend to perform as well on test scores, if not slightly better, than comparable...

Despite substantial progress towards peace, economic growth, and better governance since 2003, Liberia remains one of the poorest countries in the world. The objective of this study is twofold. First it is to provide a basic diagnostic of both consumption-based poverty and human development (especially education and health) in the country using the 2007 CWIQ (Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire) survey. Second, it is to assess the likely impact on the poor of the recent economic crisis, and especially the increase in rice prices, and to document the targeting performance of various measures...

This study provides a diagnostic of the benefit incidence and targeting performance of a large number of social programs in Ghana. Both broad-based programs (such as spending for education and health, and subsidies for food, oil-related products and electricity) as well as targetd programs (such as LEAP, the indigent exemption under the NHIS, school lunches and uniforms, or fertilizer subsidies) are considered. In addition, the study provides tools and recommendations for better targeting of those programs in the future. The tools include new maps and data sets for geographic targeting...

Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Comparing Faith-Inspired, Private Secular, and Public Schools is part of the World Bank Studies series. These papers are published to communicate the results of the Bank's ongoing research and to stimulate public discussion. The purpose of this study is to build a stronger evidence base on the role of faith-inspired, private secular, and public schools in sub-Saharan Africa using nationally representative household surveys as well as qualitative data. Six main fi ndings emerge from the study: 1. Across a sample of 16 countries, the average market share for...

Climate change and migration are major concerns in the MENA region, yet the empirical evidence on the impact of climate change and extreme weather events on migration remains limited. Information is broadly lacking on how households in vulnerable areas perceive changes in the climate, how they are affected by extreme weather events, whether they benefit from community and government programmes to help them cope with and adapt to a changing climate, and how these conditions influence the decision of household members to migrate, either temporarily or permanently. This introductory chapter...

Infrastructure and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa analyzes the extent to which, how, and how fast the infrastructure needs of the poor have been met in Sub-Saharan Africa. Estache and Wodon explore the extent to which some key policies have hurt or helped progress in trying to speed the expansions of coverage so clearly needed in the region. They focus on electricity, water, sanitation, and other services at the core of the day-to-day needs of the population, examining the extent to which reforms of the last 15-20 years have managed to reduce the infrastructure gap. They anchor their analysis...

La infraestructura escolar de Paraguay parece estar relativamente en mal estado y menos desarrollada que la de otros paises de America Latina. Entonces, Cual es el estado de la infraestructura escolar para la educacion primaria y secundaria en Paraguay? Cuanto invierte el gobierno con el fin de mejorar la infraestructura escolar y como han evolucionado estas inversiones a traves del tiempo? Cual es el marco legal para este tipo de inversiones y es este marco adecuado? Dadas las limitaciones presupuestarias, que tipos de inversiones son posiblemente las mas necesarias para ayudar a mejorar el...