This paper provides estimates of the costs of organic agriculture (OA) programs, and sets them in the context of the costs of attaining the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It analyzes the costs of OA programs in four case studies: Wanzai, PRC; Wuyuan, PRC; Kandy, Sri...

The record of aid to fragile and poorly-performing states is the real test of aid effectiveness. Rich countries can justify aid to fragile states both through altruism and self-interest. But, with some exceptions, donors have appeared at the wrong times and with the wrong attitudes, even...

They analyse the aid portfolio of various bilateral and multilateral donors, testing whether they have prioritized aid in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Employing Tobit models that combine sectorally disaggregated aid data with various indicators reflecting the situation of...

In this study attempt has been made to link the gender differences in parental resource allocation in demand for education at primary, secondary and tertiary level of education to gender differences in returns to education in these respective categories in Pakistan. The hypothesis was that if we...

The experience of childhood is increasingly urban. Over half the world’s people – including more than a billion children – now live in cities and towns. This report adds to the growing body of evidence and analysis, from UNICEF and partners, that scarcity and dispossession...

The WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) for Water and Sanitation, which tracks progress towards the water and sanitation targets of the Millennium Development Goals, estimates that 36% of the world's population, or 2.5 billion people, lack access to an improved sanitation facility, defined...

There are many nutrition policies in developing countries. What are the challenges faced by these malnutrition policies? There are many countries which have successfully included nutrition in their development agenda. Malnutrition should be given policy priority in the development programmes of...

This paper aims at discussing some of the important issues relating to sustainable urban form that would lead to sustainable urban development with possible references to India. The paper is based on available literature and secondary data. The study discusses the compact city debate and also...

Using data from a survey of clients of a microfinance bank, Khushhali Bank, in 2005, the study revisited the survey data and found that despite the Bank’s strict poverty-targeting program used in client selection and despite the survey’s design to address the selectivity bias, the...

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have lofty expectations regarding the impact of official development aid. Are these expectations valid? This paper surveys the literature on aid and growth. It finds that practically all aid studies since the late 1990s conclude that aid increases economic...