Böcker utgivna av World Bank Publications

Water scarcity is increasingly becoming a threat to water security in different countries or areas of East Asia, driven by water over-withdrawal and pollution, and aggravated by climate change and variability. The "Green Water Defense in East Asia" study, as part of the driver for green growth in the water sector of East Asia region, seeks to find a sustainable solution to this challenge.

Ghana is one of only several African countries to enact legislation and earmark financing for universal health insurance coverage for its entire population. Seven years into its implementation the Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has made significant progress in transitioning to universal coverage, but faces significant fiscal and coverage challenges. This study reviews Ghana's health financing system with a special emphasis on its National Health Insurance Scheme. Such an assessment is important because Ghana is often considered a global 'good practice' in terms of earmarking significant amounts of its general revenues for health insurance coverage, providing formal coverage to its vulnerable population groups, and extending coverage by transitioning its existing community health insurance schemes into a national health insurance program. In addition to the global interest in the Ghana 'model', this review is timely in view of recent critiques of the system and questions about its financial sustainability. The study is also unique in terms of evaluating Ghana's NHIS in terms of basic health system goals of health outcomes, financial protection, consumer satisfaction, equity, efficiency, and financial sustainability. The strengths and weaknesses of Ghana's health financing system are assessed on the basis of these performance goals to provide the current health policy reform baseline. The assessment is also based on several new and updated sources of information on: total health spending, inputs, outcomes, household spending, and the macro economy. It also undertakes for the first time an extensive international benchmarking analysis; assesses the financial protection/equity of the system at both macro and micro levels; and, contains an extensive fiscal space analysis based on Ghana's new macroeconomic realities (i.e., the revaluation of Ghana's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) upward by some 60 percent in November 2010, making Ghana a lower middle income country). The study concludes with an assessment of potential structural and operational reform options to assure NHISs long-term efficacy and sustainability in the context of its future available fiscal space.

Reviews the development status of zero- to six-year olds in China, assesses the equity of access to services, and explores policy options to serve disadvantaged children. It concludes that although China has achieved good indicators on health and education, there is a major gap in the provision of services to this age group.

Describes the impact of shocks on human development from diverse disciplinary perspectives, and explores interventions to protect young people and promote healthy development through a crisis.

Breaks down the various types of cities and evaluates the key factors used to look at cities, such as innovation, green growth, spatial concentration, and smart cities in order to understand how cities work. Why is it that certain cities attract talent? How do some cities become business hubs? Why is it that few cities become increasingly competitive while others remain stagnant?

Examines the characteristics of trade intermediated by a network of bazaars in Central Asia and its significance for local economies. It uncovers the dynamic phenomenon of bazaars in propelling trade. The book examines the public policy implications of bazaar or non-standard trade and actions that could be taken to foster such trade.

In the past fifteen years, Brazil has made great strides in increasing its population's access to early child education, with both preschool and creche enrolment increasing by over fifty per cent. Education programs for young children have consistently been shown to have long-term positive effects on life outcomes of participants.

For two decades now, experiences in decentralization and federalization have been in progress in many countries, particularly in Sub Saharan Africa. How can these processes be understood and improved? Focusing on four Sub-Saharan countries (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal), this volume applies an original approach to address such questions.