Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of how life skills are conceptualized and taken up in curriculum, teaching, and measurement in different educational settings around the world, as discussed in the chapters in this book. We focus on life skills programming in low- and middle-income countries because bilateral and multilateral aid organizations have significantly shaped discourse and programming in life skills education. We intentionally included studies utilizing a variety of research methodologies, which allow for a deep understanding of both the micro level (curriculum, pedagogy, and youth engagement and outcomes) and macro level (organizational processes and assumptions) in life skills programming and policy. Chapters in the book highlight a disconnect between the dominant individualistic behavioral approach used by many organizations and programs and the life skills that youth and local communities emphasize as important to change social and economic problems. To respond to this disconnect, this chapter provides an overview of a capabilities approach to life skills, with the purpose of focusing on wellbeing. We suggest that life skills education should develop the capabilities that societies and individuals have reason to value.

Impact of Institutional Quality on Multilateral Aid in Nigeria

The linkage between quality of institutions and economic performance of nations has generated a lot of interest among scholars, due to their influence on development of many countries and effective use of resources including foreign aid from multilateral organizations. Two strands of theories emerge on the institutions-multilateral aids nexus: those for benefits of aid to growth and development; and those for harms caused by aid. The research objective is to investigate the impact of institutional quality on multilateral aid in Nigeria. To do this, the study applied auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach. Data for the study were sourced from the ICRG data, WGI data, QoG database, Transparency International, and World Development Indicators (WDI). The findings show that institutional quality variables do not have any influence on the multilateral aid in Nigeria, except the ‘independence of judiciary’ which appeared statistically significant. In the short-run analysis, the disequilibrium in the long-run equilibrium is corrected for in the next quarter period by about 25%; almost all the variables are statistically and significantly influencing multilateral aid. It is therefore recommended that donor agencies should consider other factors that negatively influence official development assistance (ODA) such as politics, location and colonial history.

Lessening procurement deviations using procurement post reviews: evidence from Ghana

Purpose Multilateral aid agencies generate most of their funds from taxpayers, and therefore, it is necessary to ensure that recipients or borrowers use the funds for the intended purposes. The World Bank is one of the major multilateral aid agencies that fund infrastructure projects in developing countries. Like other multilateral aid agencies, the World Bank uses oversight instruments/auditing tools to manage procurement risk on their funded projects. However, empirical insight about the effectiveness of these auditing tools is limited. This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of one of such multilateral aid agencies’ auditing tools (i.e. World Bank’s procurement post review [PPR]) in procurement risk mitigation on funded projects in a developing country context. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on secondary data obtained from the World Bank PPR reports carried out in the 2014, 2015 and 2016 financial years. Five projects with the highest loan amounts and five with the lowest loan amounts for the three-year period were selected from the 24 active World Bank projects during the time of the study. A purposive sampling technique was used to select a representative sample from a list of contracts under the 10 projects. Findings The results of the analysis showed a clear decline in the number of both major and minor deviations over the three-year period while an increase in the number of contracts with “No Deviation”. The study therefore concludes that procurement risk experienced a decline amongst the World Bank projects in Ghana where post reviews were carried out on yearly basis. Originality/value The study identifies the need for more frequent PPR and makes a case for the need to investigate whether PPR is a superior auditing tool compared to the other tools.

Foreign Aid Movements in Nepal

Purpose: Development needs fund and foreign aid is one of the majour source of fund for developing countries. The Paper aims to analyse the trends and composition of foreign aids with case reference to the Swiss aid. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study is based on secondary data from 2001/02 to 2014/15.Descriptive statistics has been applied to develop the trends and compositions. Findings/Result: In FY 2014/15, the total foreign aid commitment increased by totaling to Rs.1195.5 million as compared to Rs.2125.9 million in FY 2014/15. Of the total commitment in FY 2014/15 the contribution of bilateral aid was totaling and multilateral aid contributed. While categorizing the total foreign aid the share of grant assistance constituted and loan assistance million. In FY 2014/15 the foreign grant assistant subsequently increased by whereas foreign loan assistance decreased. The bilateral aid disbursement was out of total bilateral aid commitment. Multilateral aid disbursement was 56 percent. The amount of loan is increasing in the economy. This condition also indicates that in future debt burden in budgetary system is directly reducing the development expenditure which decreases the flow of budget in poverty reduction sectors. In amount Swiss aid is much less but is efficiency is widespread in increasing people's living standard. Due to 100% grant Swiss aid doesn't create fiscal burden in the economy. Originality/Value: it is an empirical research to signify the urgency of increasing Swiss aid and Swiss project in Nepal for sustained and broad-based economic development. Paper Type: Analytical Policy Research

US Multilateral Aid in Transition: Implications for Development Cooperation

The United States, whose leadership through the Marshall Plan created the basis for modern-day development cooperation, has veered abruptly from its traditional role. An analysis of US funding trends shows that it has increasingly shifted from collective to specific interests, even as it has increased its multilateral aid. The United States is now actively shunning multilateral settings as part of its America First foreign policy, even when multilateral policies reinforce the international development priorities of the Trump administration, and its growing geopolitical competition with China is spilling into development assistance. This chapter explores the implications for development cooperation and whether these changes signal a more durable shift in US perspective.

Abinader faces major challenges in Dominican Republic

Significance The scale of his win reflects widespread popular frustration with the outgoing Partido de la Liberacion Dominicana (Dominican Liberation Party, PLD) administration and a split in that party, which undermined its electoral chances. Impacts The Dominican Republic will struggle to bring COVID-19 under control while cases continue to rise in neighbouring Haiti. Any surge in cases in the Dominican Republic could lead to renewed lockdown measures, further undermining economic activity. Abinader may need to seek further multilateral aid in his early months as president.