Gender inequality-the differential access to opportunity and security for women and girls-has become an important and visible issue for the economies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Gender equality issues in MENA are usually approached from a social, anthropological, or political...

Social expenditures in Taiwan (China) accelerated during recent decades, in accordance with economic development, social transformation, and democratization. Among the various categories of expenditure, education spending received the highest priority, and continues to do so up to this day....

As the second book in a three-part series entitled Voices of the Poor, "Crying out for Change" accounts for the voices from comparative fieldwork among twenty three countries. Through participatory, and qualitative research methods, the book presents very directly, poor people's own voices, and...

In Europe, and Central Asia, the poor faces three problems: 1) the education system as a whole does not work well, and hence fails to meet adequately their needs; 2) the private cost of education has gone up, so that "education", as a commodity, competes with other consumption goods in shrinking...