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This blog is maintained by the Growth and Crisis (GC ) Program of the World Bank Institute.

We bring you timely news, resources, tools, ideas and commentaries on issues related to the global economic crisis and growth.

December 2007

Fridays Academy: Gender and Macroeconomic Policy

Submitted by Ignacio on Fri, 12/21/2007 - 08:49

As usual on Fridays, based on Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes.

 

Gender and Macroeconomics

 Disaggregating indicators of well-being by gender informs on the level of gender equality or inequality at a given time for a given place. When we examine gender issues we are interested in the meaning of these gender equalities or inequalities and their implications for development, both at the personal level and at the level of the economy.   

As noted by the WB (2001), foremost among the costs of gender inequality is its toll on human lives and the quality of those lives.  Some of the findings from this report are summarized here.

Facelift

Submitted by Ignacio on Tue, 12/18/2007 - 08:57

PGPblog got a small facelift for the new year. It should now be more user friendly.

Stay tuned for new features in January.

Fridays Academy: Gender and Macroeconomics

Submitted by Ignacio on Fri, 12/14/2007 - 11:37

We continue with our new course on Gender and Macroeconomic Policy, as usual based on Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes.

Gender and Macroeconomics

Despite the improvements made in recognizing gender as an analytical category at the microeconomic level, the macroeconomic implications of gender remained underdeveloped until recently. Ça?atay (Engendering Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Policies, 1998) identifies three reasons for the emergence of interest in macroeconomics and gender:

The Democratic Presidential Candidates and Global Development

Submitted by Ignacio on Thu, 12/13/2007 - 18:13

Democratic presidential candidates wrapped-up their series of debates a few hours ago. Global Development is a topic rarely (if ever) discussed in the debates, but the three main democratic candidates have made some promises during their campaigns. It is good to have them on record.

Barack Obama's Strategy to Promote Global Development and Democracy

Hillary Clinton's Plan to Combat Disease and Poverty around the World

John Edwards' Plan to Restore "America's Moral Leadership" by Fighting Worldwide Poverty

 

The Global Development Matters blog has a summary of where the candidates, democrats and republicans, stand on Global Development.

K4D - Video presentation

Submitted by Ignacio on Thu, 12/13/2007 - 16:31

The World Bank Institute launched recently its publication Building Knowledge Economies: Advanced Strategies for Development, produced by our K4D (Knowledge for Development ) program.

The video presentation of that event is now available on-line.

Fridays Academy: Gender and Macro Economic Policy

Submitted by Ignacio on Fri, 12/07/2007 - 01:00

We start a new course in our Fridays Academy series. Starting today, every Friday we will cover one topic related to Gender and Macroeconomic Policy. These postings are based on Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes.

 

 Introduction

Gender refers to the social meanings given to biological differences between the sexes and is therefore shaped by the mores and norms of each culture.  It is a social category similar to other social categories like race, ethnicity, class and age, although some aspects remain common such as child-bearing and rearing for women and military service for men. 

 Gender extends beyond the realms of ideology and culture to economics.  For example, the division of labor within most societies was based on gender.  Differentiating between productive activities – income generating activities normally linked to the market – and reproductive activities – non-income generating activities such as the care and development of people – traditionally followed a gender divide with females traditionally bearing the responsibility for reproductive activities as well as contributing to productive activities (Ça?atay, Engendering Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Policies, 1998).

 Yet mainstream economic analysis has not allowed for gender – the individual as the basic category of analysis has no gender and expected to follow a utility-maximizing course in a rational manner.  Over the last few decades however, it has come to be accepted that using gender as a category of analysis yields informative and important insights to the growth and development of an economy.

Climate Change and Poverty

Submitted by Ignacio on Tue, 12/04/2007 - 01:00

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The latest UNDP's Human Development Report: Fighting Climate Change, was launched last week. 

 This gloomy report defines Climate Change as the defining human development challenge of the 21st Century, and asks for urgent measures now.

 

Failure to respond to that challenge will stall and then reverse international efforts to reduce poverty. The poorest countries and most vulnerable citizens will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks, even though they have contributed least to the problem.

 The Human Development Report 2007/2008 shows that climate change is not just a future scenario. Increased exposure to droughts, floods and storms is already destroying opportunity and reinforcing inequality. Meanwhile, there is now overwhelming scientific evidence that the world is moving towards the point at which irreversible ecological catastrophe becomes unavoidable. Business-as-usual climate change points in a clear direction: unprecedented reversal in human development in our lifetime, and acute risks for our children and their grandchildren.

A summary and the complete report are available on-line.

Today is the International Day of Disabled Persons

Submitted by Ignacio on Mon, 12/03/2007 - 01:00

Today is the 25th International Day of Disabled Persons.

 We recently blogged about a manual on how to make Poverty Reduction Strategies inclusive.

 For more information on how to include disable people in development efforts, check also the Global Partnership for Disability and Development (GPDD).