The future of Asian and Pacific cities : transformative pathways towards sustainable urban development

The cities of 2030, 2050 and 2100 will be very different from today. They will be cities transformed in their demographic composition, in their implementation of technology and in their wider ecological contexts. The challenges of building cities sustainable enough to meet the chang ing needs of the future will require new ways of thinking and working, as well as new kinds of multi-stakeholder initiatives and partnerships. The Future of Asian and Pacific Cities report 2019 makes the case for four priorities and four approaches to realize a sustainable urban future in Asia and the Pacific. A sustainable future occurs when urban and territorial planning lays a foundation; resilience guards against future risk; smart cities deploy the best technology for the job; and financing tools help pay for it all. Getting these essentials right in Asian and Pacific cities today is vital in order to adapt to the demands of tomorrow and to deliver on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda. The Future of Asian and Pacific Cities report 2019 was jointly developed by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in partnership with the Asian Development Bank, Centre for Livable Cities Singapore, the European Union, The Rockefeller Foundation and the United Nations Development Programme.</p

Explaining varieties of corruption in the Afghan justice sector

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. Judicial reform in Afghanistan is seriously undermined by systemic corruption that has resulted in low legitimacy of the state and weak rule of law. This article reviews the main shortcomings in the Afghan justice system with reference to 70 interviews conducted in Kabul. Building on legal pluralism and a political economic approach, the shortcomings and causes and consequences of corruption in the Afghan justice sector are highlighted. These range from low pay, resulting in bribery; criminal and political intrusion into the judiciary; non-adherence to meritocracy, with poorly educated judges and prosecutors; and low funding in the judicial sector resulting in weak case tracking and human rights abuses in the countryside. This is followed by sociological approaches: understanding corruption from a non-Western approach and emphasis on religion, morality and ethics in order to curb it

The analytical framework of water and armed conflict: a focus on the 2006 Summer War between Israel and Lebanon

This paper develops an analytical framework to investigate the relationship between water and armed conflict, and applies it to the ‘Summer War’ of 2006 between Israel and Lebanon (Hezbollah). The framework broadens and deepens existing classifications by assessing the impact of acts of war as indiscriminate or targeted, and evaluating them in terms of international norms and law, in particular International Humanitarian Law (IHL). In the case at hand, the relationship is characterised by extensive damage in Lebanon to drinking water infrastructure and resources. This is seen as a clear violation of the letter and the spirit of IHL, while the partial destruction of more than 50 public water towers compromises water rights and national development goals. The absence of pre-war environmental baselines makes it difficult to gauge the impact on water resources, suggesting a role for those with first-hand knowledge of the hostilities to develop a more effective response before, during, and after armed conflict

Social protection in Nepal : labour markets outcomes and fiscal sustainability

Nepal is now in a post-conflict period. As is well established, social exclusion perpetuated along gender, caste and geography lines 2 was one of the instrumental factors that causedthedecade long conflict from 1996to 2006(ADB, 2012). Living conditions arestill very difficult owing to limited employment opportunities and limited access to quality basic services and physical infrastructure (Holmes and Uphadya, 2009).Despite a decline in the poverty level, poverty intensity among the most vulnerable population remains amajor challenge. Poor growth performance;the lack of adequate productive employment; prolonged political instability and social exclusion in terms of gender, caste,ethnicity and language; and unfavourablegeography and poor infrastructure, among others, are the major sources ofvulnerabilityand socio-economic insecurity in Nepal (Koehler, 2011).1. Introduction2. Review of existing and proposed social protection programmes in Nepal3. Assessment of impact of social protetction on labour market4. Findings of stakeholders survey5. Social protection and fiscal sustainability</p

Impacts of vocational education and training on employment and wages in India manufacturing industries

The study reveals that Vocational education and training (VET) significantly enhances participation in the manufacturing sector of India across all social groups. But, the impact of VET on employment varies across manufacturing industries to some extent. Moreover, for OBCs and SCs, VET (inclusive of VET in any form) and formal VET, respectively, increase participation by significantly lesser extent than for General Caste people in Indian manufacturing sector as wage labourers. VET is found to be also helpful in enhancing wages of workers in the manufacturing sector at aggregate level. Nevertheless, at individual industry level, VET is found to be ineffective in certain manufacturing industries. On the other hand, the impact formal VET on wages is found to be more intense in the manufacturing sector as a whole as well as at individual industry level. The study also reveals that in certain cases, the impacts of VET on wages vary across workers belonging to different caste or ethnicity in Indian manufacturing sector.&nbsp;</p

The quest for achieving universal social protection in Nepal : challenges and opportunities

With the new millennium, social protection has emerged as a new priority area in the international development agenda with social protection policies now considered a preferred instrument for poverty reduction, human development, and for securing the rights of the poor. This shift in the development paradigm signifies a major departure from the previous discourse which regarded social protection programmes as being unsuitable for developing countries. Even then, access to social protection is very limited&mdash;only 20 per cent of the world&rsquo;s population has adequate social security coverage, and more than half lack any coverage at all.</p

Social protection in Sri Lanka : current status and effect on labor market outcomes

There are many social protection programs in Sri Lanka targeting vulnerable groups such as the poor, elderly, disabled, children and women. These programs vary from cash and in-kind transfers to pensions, insurance and livelihood development programs. Despite the multitude of programs, the current social protection system has many weaknesses. This study provides a detailed analysis of Sri Lanka&rsquo;s social protection system and further examines the relationship between social protection and labour market outcomes such as the labor force participation and employment status. The study uses both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The quantitative analysis reveals that social protection income as a share of household expenditure has a marginal negative effect on the probability of an individual&rsquo;s labour force participation. This relationship holds for the prime age (25-59 years) and the elderly categories of both genders while no significant effect is observed on the youth. With regard to the effect on employment status, the study reveal a positive effect on employment categories like own account workers, but the marginal effects are very small, hence no conclusive interpretations could be made. The study stresses the need for improving the current social protection system, particularly its efficiency and resource allocation within the system.&nbsp;</p

Economic impact of social protection programmes in India : an illustrative exercise in the SAM framework

This study attempts to evaluate the economic impact of a few major social protection programmes in India. Using the Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) framework, this study computes the output, employment, income, and revenue impacts of government expenditure on three social security measures&mdash;the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the Indira Awas Yojana, and the National Social Assistance Programmes&mdash;in 2011-12. The study has constructed a 32-sector SAM for India for the year 2007-08. The household categories are based on expenditure classes. The exercise shows that these programmes have a significant impact on output across different sectors of the economy, on incomes of different household classes in urban and rural areas, employment across different sectors of the economy, and even on revenue generation to the government.</p

Enhancing local medicine production in east and southern Africa

The policy brief identifies the barriers to local medicine production in East and Southern Africa (ESA) as: lack of supportive policies, capital and skills constraints, gaps in regulatory framework, small market size and weak research and development capacities. It provides highlights from case study work in selected countries, and references potential opportunities for strengthening local production. The paper proposes that African countries strengthen domestic capacities, co-operation between domestic private and public sectors within ESA countries, and regional co-operation across ESA countries to address bottlenecks

Care and communication between health professionals and patients affected by severe or chronic illness in community care settings: a qualitative study of care at the end of life

Background: Advance care planning (ACP) enables patients to consider, discuss and, if they wish, document their wishes and preferences for future care, including decisions to refuse treatment, in the event that they lose capacity to make decisions for themselves. ACP is a key component of UK health policy to improve the experience of death and dying for patients and their families. There is limited evidence about how patients and health professionals understand ACP, or when and how this is initiated. It is evident that many people find discussion of and planning for end of life care difficult, and tend to avoid the topic. Aim: To investigate how patients, their relatives and health professionals initiate and experience discussion of ACP and the outcomes of advance discussions in shaping care at the end of life. Design and data collection: Qualitative study with two workstreams: (1) interviews with 37 health professionals (general practitioners, specialist nurses and community nurses) about their experiences of ACP; and (2) longitudinal case studies of 21 patients with 6-month follow-up. Cases included a patient and, where possible, a nominated key relative and/or health professional as well as a review of medical records. Complete case triads were obtained for 11 patients. Four cases comprised the patient alone, where respondents were unable or unwilling to nominate either a family member or a professional carer they wished to include in the study. Patients were identified as likely to be within the last 6 months of life. Ninety-seven interviews were completed in total. Setting: General practices and community care settings in the East Midlands of England. Findings: The study found ACP to be uncommon and focused primarily on specific documented tasks involving decisions about preferred place of death and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, supporting earlier research. There was no evidence of ACP in nearly half (9 of 21) of patient cases. Professionals reported ACP discussions to be challenging. It was difficult to recognise when patients had entered the last year of life, or to identify their readiness to consider future planning. Patients often did not wish to do so before they had become gravely ill. Consequently, ACP discussions tended to be reactive, rather than pre-emptive, occurring in response to critical events or evidence of marked deterioration. ACP discussions intersected two parallel strands of planning: professional organisation and co-ordination of care; and the practical and emotional preparatory work that patients and families undertook to prepare themselves for death. Reference to ACP as a means of guiding decisions for patients who had lost capacity was rare. Conclusions: Advance care planning remains uncommon, is often limited to documentation of a few key decisions, is reported to be challenging by many health professionals, is not welcomed by a substantial number of patients and tends to be postponed until death is clearly imminent. Current implementation largely ignores the purpose of ACP as a means of extending personal autonomy in the event of lost capacity. Future work: Attention should be paid to public attitudes to death and dying (including those of culturally diverse and ethnic minority groups), place of death, resuscitation and the value of anticipatory planning. In addition the experiences and needs of two under-researched groups should be explored: the frail elderly, including those who manage complex comorbid conditions, unrecognised as vulnerable cases; and those patients affected by stigmatised conditions, such as substance abuse or serious mental illness who fail to engage constructively with services and are not recognised as suitable referrals for palliative and end of life care. Funding: The National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme