Forestry contributes 7-10 percent of Lao Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 15-20 percent of non-agricultural GDP. In rural areas forest exploitation is one of the few available economic activities, ...and non-timber products provide more than half of family income. The sector contributes 34 percent of total export value, and even more of net foreign exchange. Forestry royalties as a share of government revenues have decreased from 20 percent in the mid-1990s to 6 percent of tax revenues and 5 percent of all revenues last year. Collection rates are low, around 50 percent, and royalty revenues have been declining since mid-1990s. Over the last five years, Treasury has realized only about one-third of the estimated market value of the timber harvested. Current wood industries' capacity exceeds long-term sustainable AAC, and despite heavy investment, their performance has not met expectations. There is no evidence that wood production has had a positive impact on rural poverty; rather it has had a negative one by destroying the environment on which the poor depend. This report concludes that fundamental problems in the forest policy framework can, and must be corrected for forestry to make its full contribution to national development. This Review focuses on proposing a narrow and select set of priority policy and implementation initiatives: improving production forest management and utilization, community participation in forest management, and controlling illegal logging. With interlinked and mutually reinforcing efforts in these areas, the production forestry sub-sector could be put on a sustainable path, greatly enhancing prospects or success in biodiversity conservation, watershed management and upland rural development. The blend of policy institutional and investment action needed, and priority for implementation is indicated in the attached summary Forest Policy Matrix and Proposed Action Plan.
This report is an attempt to assess the validity of poverty reduction strategies as an effective tool to manage poverty brought about by disability, by reviewing the disability policy content of ...poverty reduction strategy papers. In doing so, the report focuses on whether the specific poverty dimensions of disabled persons are acknowledged and the critical interventions for improving the economic and social integration of disabled persons are included in poverty reduction strategy papers. There is a wide consensus that disabled persons, being disproportionately poor, are among the population groups that should benefit from the poverty reduction programs of poverty reduction strategy papers. The issue, however, is whether they are de facto excluded from benefiting from current poverty reduction strategies. Poverty reduction strategy papers do not meet the needs of disabled persons because they are based on a limited social protection policy that conveys a wrong impression about the abilities and aspirations of the majority of disabled persons. Furthermore, they do not reflect the basic principles of the modern approach to disability adopted by the United Nations. Progress across regions and in developing the various components of the disability strategy has remained uneven. Partly for historical and institutional reasons related to the importance of pensions and transfers for the government budget, disability issues have received more attention among Eastern European countries. They have received the least attention in the Africa region.
Pharmaceuticals have a major impact on health, on government and household spending, and on health systems. Despite the fundamental role of pharmaceuticals, there remains a profound gap between the ...benefit which pharmaceuticals have to offer and the reality that for millions of people -- particularly poor and disadvantaged people -- medicines are unavailable, unaffordable, unsafe or improperly used. This World Bank Pharmaceuticals Discussion Paper provides a pragmatic analysis of some of the causes for this gap and strategic directions to help close this gap. The strategic directions outlined in this Pharmaceuticals Discussion Paper complement and reinforce the objectives outlined in the WHO Medicines Strategy: 2000-2003 (World Health Organization, Geneva, 2000, WHO/EDM/2000.1). The WHO strategy describes specific objectives, expected outcomes, and progress indicators in the areas of drug policy, access to essential drugs, quality and safety, and rational use of medicines. Both the World Bank and the WHO initiatives rest on a fundamental commitment to work with governments, on governmental organizations, the private sector, professional bodies, and other key actors to help strengthen the pharmaceutical sector and its ability to contribute to improved health outcomes.. The current burden of disease falling on the two billion people living on less than one dollar per day undermines both individual well-being and collective economic development. Much of this burden of disease can be reduced by securing the availability, affordability, and rational use of essential drugs of assured quality. Yet this aim can not be achieved by governments alone, by individual multilateral organizations working alone, or by any other individual organization. It can only be achieved when committed governments and local organizations are supported by clear, consistency, and mutually compatible approaches by agencies such as the World Bank, WHO, UNICEF, others in the UN family, bilateral donors, and the broader development community. This discussion paper provides an important contribution to this process.
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 the realities of their lives. It outlines the multidimensional aspects of well-being, and how poor people see it, highlighting that in material terms, "enough" is not a lot for a good life, and, analyzes social well-being, security, and freedom of choice and action, in contrast to the "ill-being" aspects of material absence, reflecting on the experiences of humiliation, shame, anguish. and grief. The struggle for livelihoods is described through the scarcity of rural production, the diversified cities' bondage, and, the limited opportunities of life, and individual breakthroughs challenging their livelihoods. Further analysis reflect on the inadequacy, isolation, and lack of access to infrastructure; on the health aspects of mind and body; on gender relations in troubled subjugation; on social exclusion; and, on the uncertainties for survival. It finally challenges the meaning of development, and of power, calling for change, from material poverty to adequate assets and livelihoods, from exclusion to inclusion, organization, and empowerment.
An effective strategy is critical for the successful development of e-Government. The leading nations in the e-Government rankings include Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. Their leading role ...makes them interesting to study when looking for reasons to successful e-Government. The purpose of this research paper is to describe the e-Government development strategies of Nordic countries, which rank highly on the international stage. In particular it aims to study the foci of these strategies. The approach is a document study of the e-Government development strategies of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland was carried out using a qualitative content analysis inductive method. The results show that the major focus of Nordic e-Government strategies is on public sector reforms. Other focus areas include economic reforms and, to a lesser extent, e-Democracy efforts. Sweden, Finland and Norway have set ambitious policy goals in order to achieve global leadership in e-Government development. In response to the question posed by this paper’s title, we can say that Nordic e-Government strategies, except for Norway, focus more on reforming public sector services than on economic reforms. E-Democracy reforms are hardly focused on at all.
Practical implications: Public sector policy makers can relate their policy foci to some of the more successful e-Government countries in the world. Research implications/originality is that this paper can apart from the findings also provide a means on how to identify the actual foci of a country’s e-Government policy.
