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The 'Family-in-Focus' Approach: Developing policy-oriented monitoring and analysis of human development in Indonesia
2001
Socio-economic and political turmoil in Indonesia has had an impact on the country's thirty years of progress in social development. However, it has also opened up new avenues for participation and region-specific policy formulation alongside growing demand for new approaches to the monitoring and analysis of social change. This paper examines the Family-in-Focus Approach - a comprehensive lifespan-based concept of human development.
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The Two Faces of Education in Ethnic Conflict: Towards a peacebuilding education for children
2000
The Two Faces of Education in Ethnic Conflict challenges a widely-held assumption - that education is inevitably a force for good. While stressing the many stabilizing aspects of good quality education, editors Kenneth Bush and Diana Saltarelli show how education can be manipulated to drive a wedge between people, rather than drawing them closer together.
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Targeting Social Assistance in a Transition Economy: the Mahallas in Uzbekistan
1998
Falling output and living standards have pushed countries in transition from the socialist system to re-consider how best to target public resources on those in need. The paper investigates the workings of a new social assistance benefit in Uzbekistan, the largest of the former Soviet Central Asian republics, administered by community organizations, the Mahallas.
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The Transition in Georgia: From collapse to optimism
1996
This working paper documents the economic and social crises in Georgia during the 1990s, their structural causes and the survival strategies adopted by the Georgian population - the vast majority of whom became impoverished, with large families particularly vulnerable.
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Tax Reforms and Equity in Asia: The experience of the 1980's
1994
The 1980s witnessed a number of important shifts in fiscal policy in both the developed and the developing world. This paper examines the Asian experience of this process of change - identifying key reforms and assessing their effectiveness. Particular emphasis is placed throughout upon the equity implications of the various tax systems.
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Tax Reforms and Equity in Latin America: A review of the 1980s and proposals for the 1990s
1994
This paper focuses on the equity aspects of tax systems in Latin America. Aftrer reviewing quantative characteristics regarding the level and composition of tax structures, the paper analyses recent country experiences of tax reforms and attempts to show how the design of instruments has coped with distributional issues in taxation.
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The Best Interests of the Child: Reconciling culture and human rights
1994
The 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is the world's most widely ratified international human rights treaty. It thus provides an ideal context in which to examine the relationship between different cultural values and the interntional community's oft-stated aspiration to achieve universal human rights standards. This volume focuses upon a widely accepted family law principle according to which "the best interests of the child" shall be "a primary consideration...in all actions concerning children." Through a combination of broad theoretical analyses and country-specific case studies the distinguished contributors demonstrate that cultural values are inevitably a major factor in the interpretation and application of many human rights norms.
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The Decentralization of the National Programme of Action: A case study of Sudan
1994
The birth of the Sudanese National Programme of Action took place in an adverse context characterised by economic isolation and frequent situations of chronic emergency. This paper chronicles the country’s experience of the subsequent ‘decentralisation’ of the programme.
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The Difficult Road: The case of NPA decentralization in Argentina
1994
The birth of the Argentine NPA took place in a context of profound institutional reform, with the federal government placing responsibility for health care, education and social policy in the hands of the provinces.
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The Right to Child Health: The development of primary health services in Chile and Thailand
1994
Traditional methods of assessment of the success of a nation in meeting the obligations of the CRC have centred upon an analysis of comparative ‘social indicator’ statistics. This paper showcases an attempt at a more ad hoc approach in its analysis of the development of health care systems in Chile and Thailand. This ‘historical’ method - with its emphasis upon the unique experience of the individual country - reveals that despite adverse economic circumstances both countries have shown an impressive level of commitment to child rights.
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