This policy note is an attempt to systematically analyze and document emerging trends in the evolution of students' learning outcomes in Tanzania's primary schools. The note is based on two rounds of the Service Delivery Indicators Survey in Tanzania, 2014 and 2016, and provides guidance to the...

Tanzania became one of the first low-income countries to abolish fees for lower secondary education (grades 8-12) in 2015. One of the pledges of a new, reformist government, the policy built on the country's previous experience of abolishing primary fees in 2002. The new Fee-Free Basic Education...

There is an increasing amount of literature discussing the integration of humanitarian assistance into social protection systems or the linkage of disaster risk responses with specific social safety net programmes. The nexus maybe seen through synergies via common frameworks, platforms and...

Home to over 735,000 people, the Kingdom of Bhutan has achieved rapid economic growth and poverty reduction, despite the constraints of being a small, landlocked, and mountainous country. Its neighbors, China to the north and India to the south, are in contrast the two most populous countries in...

Tobacco taxes are recognized as an effective policy tool to reduce tobacco consumption and improve health outcomes; however, policy makers often hesitate to use them because of their possible regressive effects. This report assesses the ability of taxes on tobacco to improve future health and...

As the push to engage in the global knowledge economy becomes increasingly vital to countriesaround the world, higher education institutions (HEIs) are being recognized as valuable centers for research and teaching in support of entrepreneurship, innovation, competitiveness, and economic growth....

In this note, we examine how Cambodian youth's test score performance during lower secondary relates to their success several years later as they transition from schooling to work. Specifically, we explore the association between cognitive skills measured using math and vocabulary test scores...

Cities today face an unprecedented risk of natural hazards compounded by serious governance challenges. How can cities ensure that in building resilience, they address the needs of those most at risk of being excluded? How can they develop strategies that simultaneously foster resilient...

The 2012 national health policy is the overarching health policy framework in Zambia. The policy takes a human rights approach to health care provision, where all citizens are entitled to basic health care (Ministry of Health 2012). The policy is actualized through successive five-year national...

The 18th Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan shifted the administrative paradigm from centralized to decentralized structures. The added obligations require major policy and institutional reforms in an otherwise weak social protection (SP) sector at provincial levels, generally...