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A key concern of the global value chain (GVC) and global production network (GPN) literature relates to whether and how actors, especially in the Global South, upgrade by generating and capturing more value. To date, such research has predominantly focused on the economic and social aspects of upgrading. In this article, we leverage selected insights from economic geography to advance our understanding of the environmental dimensions of upgrading and downgrading in GVCs and GPNs. We develop an analytical framework that distinguishes the processes of environmental upgrading, in terms of value creation and appropriation, from the resultant outcomes (biophysical manifestations, impacts on market access, and reputation). Furthermore, the framework is considered from the upgrading perspectives of multiple actors instead of focusing only on lead firms and other powerful actors. We illustrate how to apply this framework through a case study of the Kenya–UK horticulture value chains. We show that despite the uptake of environmental upgrading practices, as required by UK supermarkets and transmitted by Kenyan export firms with the facilitation of government agencies, Kenyan farmers have mostly experienced environmental downgrading, with some negative effects also affecting farmers and other resource users beyond the value chain.

Environmental exposures are increasingly investigated as possible drivers of health behaviours and disease outcomes. So-called exposome studies that aim to identify and better understand the effects of exposures on behaviours and disease risk across the life course require high-quality environmental exposure data. The Netherlands has a great variety of environmental data available, including high spatial and often temporal resolution information on urban infrastructure, physico-chemical exposures, presence and availability of community services, and others. Until recently, these environmental data were scattered and measured at varying spatial scales, impeding linkage to individual-level (cohort) data as they were not operationalised as personal exposures, that is, the exposure to a certain environmental characteristic specific for a person. Within the Geoscience and hEalth Cohort COnsortium (GECCO) and with support of the Global Geo Health Data Center (GGHDC), a platform has been set up in The Netherlands where environmental variables are centralised, operationalised as personal exposures, and used to enrich 23 cohort studies and provided to researchers upon request. We here present and detail a series of personal exposure data sets that are available within GECCO to date, covering personal exposures of all residents of The Netherlands (currently about 17 M) over the full land surface of the country, and discuss challenges and opportunities for its use now and in the near future.

This study investigates the impact of improved maize varieties and inorganic fertilizer on productivity and consumption expenditure of smallholder farmers in Eastern Ethiopia. The study uses primary data of maize farmers and a multinomial endogenous switching regression model to account for selection bias. The findings show that combining the two technologies boosts maize yield and consumption expenditure significantly than adopting the technologies in isolation. As a result, policies targeted at improving farm household welfare and productivity should promote the adoption of a combination of agricultural technologies rather than a single technology.

Persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals that originate primarily from industrial areas in temperate climates are ubiquitous in the Arctic. The people of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, have never directly benefited from the industries that made and profited from use of these chemicals. This striking example of environmental injustice is discussed.

Background: Reward sensitivity has been associated with adolescents&rsquo, intake of unhealthy snacks and sugar-sweetened beverages. However, so far, there are no studies published describing the impact of parenting practices on this relationship. The present study will, therefore, investigate whether food parenting practices can moderate the association between reward sensitivity and diet intakes. Method: A cross-sectional research study was conducted among 14- to 16-year old Flemish adolescents (n = 867, age 14.7 &plusmn, 0.8 y, 48.1% boys) and a subset of their parents (n = 131), collecting data on daily intakes, reward sensitivity, and food parenting practices. Linear regression was used to assess the moderation effect of parenting practices (both adolescent- and parent-reported) on the relationship between reward sensitivity, and diet using SPSS 25.0. Results: In the main analysis (adolescent-reported), no significant moderation effects were found for parenting practices on the relationship between reward sensitivity and diet. However, the sensitivity analysis (parent-reported) showed a moderation effect for health-reducing parenting practices on the association between reward sensitivity and unhealthy snack intake (&beta, = 0.297, 95% CI = 0.062, 0.531, p = 0.01). Conclusion: Given the difference in the effect of parenting practices between the adolescent- and parent-reported data, our inconclusive findings warrant more research in larger adolescent-parent dyad samples.

This paper is an attempt to broaden economic discourse by importing insights into human behavior not just from psychology, but also from sociology and anthropology. Whereas the concept of the decision-maker in standard economics is the rational actor and, in early work in behavioral economics, the quasi-rational actor influenced by the context of the moment of decision-making, in some recent work in behavioral economics the decision-maker could be called the enculturated actor. This actor's preferences, perception, and cognition are subject to two deep social influences: (a) the social contexts to which he has become exposed and, especially, accustomed; and (b) the cultural mental models—including categories, identities, narratives, and worldviews—that he uses to process information. The paper traces how these factors shape individual behavior through the endogenous determination of preferences and the lenses through which individuals see the world—their perception and interpretation of situations. The paper offers a tentative taxonomy of the social determinants of behavior and describes the results of controlled and natural experiments that only a broader view of these determinants can plausibly explain. The perspective suggests more realistic models of human behavior for explaining outcomes and designing policies.

The influence of a person’s environment and its modifying potential on participation is well recognized for most childhood disabilities, but scarcely studied for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A scoping review was conducted, the aim of which was to map the existing literature about supporting and hindering environments for the participation of adolescents with ASD. Sources of scientific evidence were searched for in four databases. Inclusion criteria were the perspectives of adolescents between 12 and 21, families, peers, or significant others; ecologic validity; and a clear connection between environment and participation. The publication dates ranged from 2001 to 2014 and partly up to 2018. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) served as the guiding framework for inclusion/exclusion during the selection process. Thematic analysis was performed by five independent reviewers. Results were additionally validated by stake holders. This scoping review identified 5528 articles, and finally included 31 studies. Two main themes were found: “providing security” indicates how the environment, and specifically the parental, physical, and informational environments, have a securing or intimidating effect. The second theme, “helping to connect”, indicates which environments support or hinder social relationships or social activities, and hence participation. An additional third main theme, “tension in participation”, relates to ambiguities that seem essential to under stand participation or isolation of adolescents with ASD. Results show that participation is a value-laden concept. This research widens the field of dealing with adolescents with ASD, as it directs attention towards the responsibility of the environment regarding participation.

Food production is associated with various environmental impacts and the production of meat is highlighted as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. A transition toward plant-based and low-meat diets has thus been emphasised as an important contribution to reducing climate change. By combining results from a consumer survey, focus group interviews and an in-store field experiment, this article investigates whether Norwegian consumers are ready to make food choices based on what is environmentally sustainable. We ask how consumers perceive the environmental impacts of food consumption, whether they are willing and able to change their food consumption in a more climate-friendly direction, and what influences their perceptions and positions. The results show that there is uncertainty among consumers regarding what constitutes climate- or environmentally friendly food choices and that few consumers are motivated to change their food consumption patterns for climate- or environmental reasons. Consumers&rsquo, support to initiatives, such as eating less meat and increasing the prices of meat, are partly determined by the consumers&rsquo, existing value orientation and their existing consumption practices. Finally, we find that although providing information about the climate benefits of eating less meat has an effect on vegetable purchases, this does not seem to mobilise consumer action any more than the provision of information about the health benefits of eating less meat does. The article concludes that environmental policies aiming to transfer part of the responsibility for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to food consumers is being challenged by the fact that most consumers are still not ready to make food choices based on what is best for the climate or environment.

The aim was to assess the association between physical activity and screen-based activities in adolescents and selected school factors and urbanization and whether these associations were modified by degree of urbanization.We obtained data regarding the fifth-ninth grade students from 130 schools in 2014 via the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children cross-sectional study in Slovakia (n = 9743, mean age = 13.5, 50.3% boys). We explored the associations using multilevel logistic regression.We found significant associations between physical activity and the accessibility of an area for skating/tennis court [odds ratio (OR) = 1.20 and 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01-1.42], and between physical activity and active breaks (OR = 0.83 and 95% CI 0.69-0.99). The rates of screen-based activities were higher in small towns (OR = 1.63, 95% CI 1.29-2.06), towns (OR = 1.30, 95% CI 1.08-1.57), and cities (OR = 1.40, 95% CI 1.04-1.87) than in villages.School environment and degree of urbanization are associated with adolescents' physical activity and screen-based activities. This holds positively for access to an area for skating/tennis court and negatively for active breaks regarding physical activity and for living in villages regarding less use of screens.

Caldeira and Leggett (CL), in a seminal paper, derived a master equation describing Markovian quantum Brownian motion. Such an equation suffered from not being completely positive, and many efforts have been made to solve this issue. We show that when a careful mathematical analysis is performed, the model considered by CL leads to a nondissipative master equation. We argue that the correct way to understand the master equation derived in the CL regime is to consider it non-Markovian. Moreover, we show that if one wants to provide a microscopic description of quantum Brownian motion with the CL model, one always needs to consider a non-Markovian dynamics. We conclude that dissipation is a genuinely non-Markovian feature. © 2017 American Physical Society.

When organisms encounter environments that are heterogeneous in time, phenotypic plasticity is often favored by selection. The degree of such plasticity can vary during an organism’s lifetime, but the factors promoting differential plastic responses at different ages or life stages remain poorly understood. Here we develop and analyze an evolutionary model to investigate how environmental information is optimally collected and translated into phenotypic adjustments at different ages. We demonstrate that plasticity must often be expected to vary with age in a nonmonotonic fashion. Early in life, it is generally optimal to delay phenotypic adjustments until sufficient information has been collected about the state of the environment to warrant a costly phenotypic adjustment. Toward the end of life, phenotypic adjustments are disfavored as well because their beneficial effects can no longer be fully reaped before death. Our analysis clarifies how patterns of age-dependent plasticity are shaped by the interplay of environmental uncertainty, the accuracy of perceived information, and the costs of phenotypic adjustments with life-history determinants such as the relative strengths of fecundity and viability selection experienced by the organism over its lifetime. We conclude by comparing our results with expectations for alternative mechanisms, including developmental constraints, that promote age-dependent plasticity. © 2014 University of Chicago Press

Cameroon is a lower-middle income country with social indicators and levels of poverty which are below those for comparator countries. Large and rising inequalities between north and south, inefficiencies in public resource allocation and an adverse business environment explain this. While insecurity due to Boko Haram activities and rapidly rising public debt constrain efforts at poverty reduction, there exists a huge potential for economic growth and poverty reduction. This potential remains mostly untapped. Realizing it will require far reaching reforms, particularly with respect to the business environment and public financial management, and require politically courage to accomplish. The remainder of this document explores how to achieve the twin goals of ending poverty and improving shared prosperity by 2030 in a sustainable manner. The document identifies a limited number of binding constraints which would need to be lifted to achieve the poverty objective. The next four chapters present background material to chapter six, which presents binding constraints to poverty reduction. The micro-foundations to poverty reduction are discussed in chapters two and three. Chapter two discusses poverty, equity and vulnerability. Chapter three discusses human capital and its role in poverty reduction. Chapter four considers poverty reduction from a macro-economic perspective. It discusses opportunities for growth and economic transformation as well as the status of various cross-cutting economic services. Chapter five, considers governance, fragility and the institutional environment. Binding constraints to sustainable poverty reduction are identified in chapter six.

This Country Partnership Framework (CPF) presents the World Bank Group (WBG) program and the associated results framework for Lebanon for the period FY17-FY22. In a fragile and conflict-prone environment, this CPF aims at mitigating the immediate, and potentially long-lasting impact of the Syria crisis on Lebanon, while strengthening state institutions, addressing existing vulnerabilities, and bolstering efforts on longer term development challenges, all through interventions that foster inclusion and shared prosperity. The CPF will work through two focus areas as a way to renew the social contract between the state and the citizens: (i) expand access to and quality of service delivery; and (ii) expand economic opportunities and increase human capital. Through these two focus areas, the WBG will help Lebanon mitigate the economic and social impact of the Syria crisis, safeguard the country’s development gains, and enhance the prospects for stability and development in the coming years. The CPF will contribute to strengthening the relationship between the state and its citizens, a critical ingredient for peace and stability. The CPF will contribute to strengthening the relationship between the state and its citizens, a critical ingredient for peace and stability. The CPF benefited from a series of stakeholder consultations, including those held in connection with the Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) and the WBG Gender Strategy.

The MEM is the World Bank's biannual flagship publication on Malaysia. It provides analysis of recent economic developments and the near-term outlook for Malaysia. Each publication also focuses on a special topic related to Malaysia's transformation into a high-income economy. Malaysia is at the forefront of a "new generation" of trade agreements that will shape trade and investment over the next decade. The 14th MEM focuses on how Malaysia can use trade agreements to bring new opportunities to the Malaysian economy and accelerate its transition to high income status.

Sustainable development goals (SDGs) placed access to basic services at the center of international development in 2016-2030. Out of 17 goals, five address the access of poor people to basic services: to health in SDG3, to education in SDG4, and SDG5, to water and sanitation in SDG6, to energy in SDG7, and to urban services in SDG11. The mutually reinforcing relationship between electricity access, economic development, and poverty reduction is well established. The SDGs framed access to basic services as a matter of dignity. The SDG synthesis report promotes self-reliance of developing countries rather than just the North-to-South aid, as the challenge of poverty and exclusion extends beyond charity to the hungry and the most deprived. Directly or otherwise, access to electricity results in progress in all dimensions of human welfare and development including education, health care, access to water, essential communications and information as well as simple financial transactional services, income generation, and environmental sustainability. Also, a positive relationship can be seen between electricity access and the human development index (HDI).

The new Country Partnership Framework (CPF or framework) presents the engagement of the World Bank Group (WBG) in Sri Lanka over the next four years (fiscal years 2017-20 (FY17–20)). The CPF aims to support the achievement of some of the government’s medium-term goals in areas that are critical for reducing extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity, and that are consistent with the WBG’s comparative advantage. Notably, the CPF provides the framework for engagement in several key policy areas. Following presidential and parliamentary elections in 2015, the new coalition government, the National Government of Consensus, has set out an ambitious vision for Sri Lanka. It focuses on supporting job creation in the private sector, advancing the country’s global integration, improving governance, enhancing human development and social inclusion, and balancing development with environmental conservation. The vision has been captured in the Prime Minister’s Economic Policy Statement of November 5, 2015. The new government’s development agenda is well aligned with the findings of the 2015 Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) for Sri Lanka. The SCD identified the most critical constraints and opportunities facing Sri Lanka in accelerating progress toward the twin goals of ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity in a sustainable manner. The analysis concluded that key priorities are to address the country’s fiscal, competitiveness, and inclusion challenges, as well as cross-cutting governance and social, economic, and environmental sustainability challenges. The CPF is anchored in this analysis.

This Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) explores how Uzbekistan can consolidate its recent achievements and accelerate progress on the twin goals of eradicating extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. The SCD is organized into five chapters. Chapter one frames the issues of poverty reduction and shared prosperity, and situates them in the context of Uzbekistan’s recent development. It reviews the status and drivers of progress in these areas, identifies analytical constraints, and highlights areas for further study. Chapter two describes the necessary conditions for sustaining rapid economic growth and robust quality job creation. It underscores the importance of expanding private-sector participation and investment in key economic sectors. Chapter three considers how a well-functioning labor market and access to essential public services can enhance the inclusiveness of growth. Chapter four analyzes threats to the sustainability of Uzbekistan’s recent gains over both the medium and the long term. Chapter five concludes by examining the constraints to growth and development revealed by the analysis, and it proposes a framework for prioritizing policy actions designed to address them.

This Country Partnership Framework (CPF) covers the five-year period FY16-20. Anchored in the government’s medium-term development plan as outlined in a January 2015 Cabinet of Ministers Program of Action, it also reflects the analysis and recommendations of the World Bank Group’s (WBG) 2015 Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) for Uzbekistan and the lessons learned from the Completion Report of the previous CPS. The CPF’s objectives and program, which focus on developing the conditions for faster job creation, are consistent with the WBG’s twin goals of eliminating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. The Uzbekistan Systemic Country Diagnostic (SCD) identified ten priority areas that would need to be addressed to eliminate poverty, boost shared prosperity, and enable Uzbekistan to reach upper middle-income status. The government’s strategic objectives are for Uzbekistan to achieve upper middleincome status by 2030, implying income growth averaging 6 percent annually, and in particular to create 500,000 jobs annually. Building country systems for statistical, fiduciary, safeguard, and statistical capacity underlie the foundation of this CPF. The CPF program will remain flexible as circumstances change and new opportunities may arise.

Urban sanitation remains a significant challenge for most low- and middle-income countries. While sanitation coverage has been increasing across both the 48 least developed countries (LDCs) and developing regions as a whole, progress has been relatively slow. In many cities, even where improved on-site facilities are used to contain excreta, the level of quality and access to services for the emptying, conveyance, treatment, and disposal of the resulting fecal sludge is usually limited. These services are collectively called fecal sludge management (FSM) services. FSM services are the focus of this study, within the broader context of urban sanitation and integrated urban water management (IUWM). This document provides a summary of the diagnostic tools developed for assessing FSM services and is based on field work carried out in the five cities of Balikpapan in Indonesia, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Hawassa in Ethiopia, Lima in Peru, and Santa Cruz in Bolivia. It summarizes the tools themselves, lessons learnt about their use, and general policy recommendations.

This paper explored whether the association between green space and mental health is moderated by age and gender. Questionnaires on psychopathology and quality of life were filled out by 4924 individuals from the general Dutch population and regressed on greenness levels. Green space was associated with better mental health, but only in specific age and gender groups, and only in a 3 km, not a 1 km buffer. The moderating effects of age and gender may be explained by whether or not people have the opportunity to make use of their green living environment.

This Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Tunisia, prepared jointly by International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) covers the period Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 through FY 2020. The CPF is anchored in the Government of Tunisia’s September 2015 Note d’Orientation Stratégique and the WBG’s October 2015 Strategy for the Middle East and North Africa Region. It builds on extensive discussions with a wide range of stakeholders, and is underpinned by WBG analytics, including the June 2015 Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD). The Government’s “Note d’Orientation Stratégique” outlines Tunisia’s development vision for the next five years. Its main premise is that Tunisia will maintain its strong partnerships with the international community; rely on the private sector to lead economic growth and job creation; and promote a vibrant civil society. Technical ministries and regions are in the process of preparing their five-year sectorial plans based on this vision, for which financing will be sought during an international donor conference in late 2016.

In most countries, the private sector owns the vast majority of the buildings and a considerable portion of the infrastructure at risk. However, most investment in disaster risk management is made by the public sector, with the private sector lagging far behind. The situation represents missed opportunities for businesses to capture not only higher levels of the direct benefits of disaster risk management, but also a broader set of co-benefits to themselves and society as a whole. These co-benefits include ways of lowering production costs, improving the health of workers, and contributing to general economic stability. Ironically, many of these co-benefits are more tangible and immediate than ordinary disaster risk management benefits, which may not appear until a disaster has struck many years after the investment has been made. This study analyzes several important facets of private sector investment in disaster risk management, primarily from an economic perspective. It is intended as a first step toward promoting greater investment in disaster risk management by identifying potential co-benefits, explaining why they are not always pursued, and suggesting ways to integrate them into private sector decision-making. The latter includes government incentives, justified on the grounds that many private sector investments have extensive co-benefits, many of which pay dividends to society as a whole.

Land rights and the systems that administer them can vary significantly across the world and within countries (World Bank 2003). For a number of reasons, land rights may be unclear or insecure. Securing land rights plays an important role in driving economic growth and poverty reduction. In recent years there has been increasing awareness of the relevance of land tenure issues to food security, climate change, rapid urbanization, informality, and indigenous peoples’ rights. The World Bank Group has a long history of developing and implementing projects aimed at securing land rights through a variety of interventions. This note synthesizes cross-cutting findings from 14 Independent Evaluation Group assessments of land administration projects that the World Bank has supported from 1998 to 2014. The project-level assessments reviewed for this report contain a wealth of information about how the Bank Group approached different problems related to strengthening land administration systems in diverse environments. This information is relevant to both land administration specialists and experts in other fields whose work is impacted by land tenure issues.

Bleak short-term economic outlook raises the risk that social and environmental achievements may not be sustained. The changed economic circumstances have exposed shortcomings in Brazil’s development model, epitomized by the struggle to achieve a sustainable fiscal policy. Against this background, some Brazilians are now asking whether the gains of the past decade might have been an illusion, created by the commodity boom, but unsustainable in today’s less forgiving international environment. Brazil thus finds itself at an important juncture and, to a certain extent, the policy course set today will determine whether the country can sustain the gains of the past and return to a path of solid, inclusive and environmentally sustainable growth. This Systematic Country Diagnostic offers a contribution to the debate about Brazil’s future development.

Transformational engagements are a critical pillar of the World Bank Group’s strategy for achieving its twin goals of extreme poverty elimination and shared prosperity. This learning product uses evaluative evidence from the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) to understand the mechanisms and conditions for transformational engagements and the implications for the World Bank Group if it seeks to rely on such engagements to more effectively pursue its goals.

The WBG’s Colombia Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) analyzed key constraints and opportunities that will impact Colombia’s development in the context of three defining country characteristics. They include uneven territorial development, a long standing armed conflict and a growth process led by extractive industries. The Colombia Country Partnership Framework (CPF) proposes to address these complex development challenges with a flexible, six-year (FY16-21) engagement that builds on the strong and trusted client relationship established over recent years. On the basis of client country demand, the development challenges highlighted in the SCD, and World Bank Group (WBG) comparative advantage, the CPF focuses on eight critical objectives to guide WBG engagement over the CPF period. These objectives are organized within three pillars of engagement: (a) fostering balanced territorial development; (b) enhancing social inclusion and mobility through improved service delivery; and (c) supporting fiscal sustainability and productivity. Cutting across all pillars, the CPF aims to ‘assist in constructing the peace’ in response to Colombia’s historic opportunity to reach a Peace Accord after more than 50 years of conflict.

Jordan is an upper middle income country which has proven remarkably resilient despite decades of turmoil in its neighborhood. Even with economic stability in the face of massive shocks, the Jordanian government - reflecting the views of the population - has made clear the need for improvement in the current growth trajectory. Public dissatisfaction coalesced around a perception, which the government acknowledges, that previous reform efforts had struggled with implementation, while discretionary decisions and unequal opportunities remain entrenched. In response, the government is moving to the implementation phase of its Jordan 2025 strategic blueprint, a new ten-year strategy formally launched in May 2015. The Bank’s systematic country diagnostic (SCD) is therefore unfolding at a critical inflection point for the government. Given existing reform momentum around the energy sector and investment, the substantive engagement of the Bank Group and other development partners, the SCD will seek added value by providing an integrative and concise perspective on what Jordan can do to better meet the expectations of its citizens. As a multi-sector evidence-based diagnostic, the SCD relies upon consistent and integrated analysis of data from various sources.

Afghanistan is a deeply fragile and conflict affected state. It has been in almost constant conflict for over 35 years since the Soviet invasion of 1979. Today the country is at a crossroads in its development with economic growth down sharply and poverty incidence stubbornly high. Afghanistan faces tremendous development challenges. Gross domestic product (GDP) per-capita is among the lowest in the world, poverty is deep and widespread, and social indicators are still at very low levels. The new government has declared its commitment to address Afghanistan’s development challenges, through its paper realizing self-reliance: commitments to reforms and renewed partnership presented at the London conference in December 2014. The purpose of this systematic country diagnostic (SCD) is to provide an evidence-based diagnostic within an objective framework to help in the identification of development priorities. Countries in conflict often face rapidly evolving circumstances and flexibility to adjust quickly is a necessity. The SCD is thus intended to set forth a broad and flexible framework for thinking about choices, prioritization, and sequencing.

Ethiopia has many advantages as a destination for mining investment. These include promising geology, a well-designed fiscal regime, stable government and a growing domestic market. Additionally, it has a well-managed and successful artisanal and small scale mining sector. Under the second phase of Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation Plan, Ethiopia has the ambitious target for the mining sector to contribute 10% of GDP by 2025. Ethiopia must overcome significant challenges to achieve this target. These challenges range across simplifying the licensing regime, developing its investment promotion efforts and clarifying institutional responsibilities for social and environmental management to enhancing stakeholder engagement in the governance of the sector.

This Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) covers eight small Pacific island countries (PIC8): Kiribati, Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. The objective of the SCD is to identify the most critical constraints and opportunities facing the PIC8 to meet the global goals of ending absolute poverty and boosting shared prosperity in a sustainable manner. The report is intended to help these countries, the World Bank and other development partners establish a dialogue to focus their efforts around the key priorities and activities that have high impact and are aligned with the two goals. The regional approach of this SCD is driven by the similarity of development challenges faced by these countries and the importance of regional solutions to these challenges. The SCD also highlights that economic opportunities available to the Pacific island countries are limited. While these opportunities have been known for a long time, the experience of most of these countries in realizing these opportunities has been disappointing, reflected in the poor growth performance of the PIC8. A realistic assessment of these opportunities as well as of the measures needed to realize them is essential. In this context, deep sea mining is seen by some of the PIC8 as the next big opportunity, while at the same time many raise concerns about its possible environmental impacts. This is thus an area that would benefit from an objective assessment of risks and opportunities that could inform policy choices in the PIC8. With the liberalization of telecoms markets and investments in fiber-optic cables that connect many of the PIC8, new opportunities to overcome the tyranny of distance through a focus on knowledge products may become available and deserve a critical assessment. The Pacific Possible research program led by the World Bank Group is providing new insights into the potential of these game-changers.

Once concentrated among a few large economies, global flows of goods, services, and capital now reach an ever-larger number of countries worldwide. Global trade in goods and in services both increased 10 times between 1980 and 2011, while foreign direct investment (FDI) flows increased almost 30-fold. A value chain is global when some of these stages are carried out in more than one country, most notably when discrete tasks within a production process are fragmented and dispersed across a number of countries. Southern African Customs Union (SACU) - region global value chains (GVCs) are both a new reality and significant opportunity for expanding non-commodity exports to support growth, diversification, and job creation in the region. The task-based nature of GVCs creates opportunities for developing countries to establish very quickly a position in global trade within a sector in which they may have had no previous experience. For South Africa, GVCs are seen as a route to higher manufacturing exports and greater value addition. For other SACU countries, GVCs are seen as a route to diversification and global integration, and to leverage the possibility of greater investment from South Africa itself. The main objectives of the study are as follows: (i) to understand trends of GVC participation and competitiveness of South Africa and the wider SACU region, the outcomes from this participation (exports, jobs, and productivity), and the factors that determine competitiveness; (ii) to map the extent of value chain integration across the region and identify barriers to deeper integration; and (iii) to identify policies and actions that will be required to develop a globally competitive, high value-adding factory Southern Africa.

The objective of the Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) is to assess the adequacy and performance of the policy, legal, and institutional framework for environmental management in Ukraine, in light of the decentralization process of environmental governance and wider reform objectives, and to provide recommendations to government to address the key gaps identified. Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe and has a population of 43 million, the majority of whom live in urban areas. It is a lower middle income country, with the services, industry and agriculture sectors being main contributors to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Ukraine faces a number of environmental challenges, as identified in its National Environmental Strategy 2020 (NES). Key among these are: air pollution; quality of water resources and land degradation; solid waste management; biodiversity loss; human health issues associated with environmental risk factors; in addition to climate change. The scope of Ukrainian environmental legislation is quite broad and comprehensive (more than 300 legal acts) and covers most areas of environmental protection and natural resources management. However, the environmental legislation faces a number of weaknesses:The environmental legislation is largely declaratory in nature and does not have all the essential enforcement mechanisms for the implementation of legal acts and international agreements; Many of the acts are not coordinated with each other; and Legislation undergoes limited analysis of its impact—for example, no in-depth analysis such as Regulatory Impact Analysis is conducted for proposed pieces of legislation.

Policies that enable rural communities to participate in expanding economic opportunities can be central to inclusive growth in Myanmar. Rural communities are home to the majority of Myanmar’s population, the majority of its many ethnic groups, and 70 percent of its poor. Development in rural areas is constrained by low returns to agriculture, and significantly lower levels of public service delivery and human development outcomes relative to urban areas. Reforms to enhance agriculture productivity are necessary though not sufficient for improving the welfare and livelihoods of rural communities. These have to be complemented with increased access to social and economic services that can raise human and physical capacity to create the conditions necessary for the growth of a dynamic rural non-farm sector. These reforms could help to not only reduce the drag on rural growth and poverty reduction, but also contribute to structural economic transformation so that the welfare of all people in Myanmar can grow together.

Building effective cooperation on transboundary waters is always a lengthy and complex journey. Embracing cooperation is no simple task for a nation state, not least because of the perceived costs of the erosion of sovereignty, however small that erosion might be. While there are many examples of where cooperation is non-existent or weak, there are also examples – across countries and across time – of effective cooperation. This essay examines these issues through a practitioner’s lens to draw a few lessons from experience on why countries cooperate and how cooperation can be achieved.

In this study using cross-sectional survey data from suburban and rural Scania, Sweden (N=24,847), we assessed how the recently validated index score of area-aggregated perceived green neighborhood qualities (Scania Green Score; SGS), and the five distinct qualities within this index were associated with three self-reported indicators of well-being: neighborhood satisfaction, physical activity and general health. Effect sizes were compared with objective (GIS-based) assessments of the same five qualities. Area-aggregated SGS was positively associated with neighborhood satisfaction, physical activity and general health. The association with general health was mediated by physical activity and neighborhood satisfaction. Three perceived qualities had salutogenic potential: historical remains (culture), silence such that sounds of nature can be heard (serene) and species richness (lush). Spacious and wild were not appreciated. Some independent positive effects of the GIS-based index were noted, but could not be consistently attributed to specific qualities. Perceived qualities within green areas, not merely quantity, are related to aspects of well-being in suburban and rural areas. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The present study attempts to characterize the environmental conditions that prevailed along the western shores of the Central Paratethys and its hinterland during the early middle Miocene at the same time t primates reached their peak in species diversity in Central Europe. Based on faunal structure (using cenograms), paleotemperature reconstruction (using cricetid diversity), and dietary reconstruction of ruminants (using molar micro-wear analyses), four faunal assemblages are used to characterize the regional environmental context. The cenograms for Göriach and Devínska Novà Ves Zapfe's fissure site support the presence of mosaic environments with open areas under rather humid conditions. This is also supported by the dental micro-wear analyses of ruminants. The species of Palaeomerycidae were most probably the only predominant browsers. Surprisingly, the three cervids, Dicrocerus, Heteroprox, and Euprox, were highly involved in grazing. Pseudoeotragus seegrabensis was likely a generalist and the two specimens assigned to the second bovid, Eotragus clavatus, were browsers. The two species of tragulids plot between fruit browsers and generalists. Moreover, paleotemperatures based on cricetid diversity estimate mean annual temperature at about 18 °C with potential high seasonal variations. These data support the predominance of mosaic landscapes along the western shores of the Central Paratethys and its hinterland during the Miocene Climatic Optimum as primates reach a peak in species diversity. This result lends credence to the hypothesis that environmental heterogeneity favours radiation among mammals, and that the specific environmental context of the Central Paratethys western border might explain the high diversity of the middle Miocene primates.

This prospective study analyses change in self-rated health of chronically ill people in relation to green space in their living environment at baseline. Data on 1112 people in the Netherlands with one or more medically diagnosed chronic disease(s) were used. The percentage of green space was calculated for postal code area. Multilevel linear regression analysis was conducted. We found no relationship between green space and change in health; however, an unexpected relationship between social capital at baseline and health change was discovered.