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This short paper is a personal reflection on the week-long seminar in Urban Studies organized by the University of Addis Ababa in partnership with the CFEE in March 2010. Taking its cue from the workshop organized for the first graduating cohort of Master students in Planning and Urban Studies, the paper reflects on the need for a critical approach to planning in this country as well as the urgency of teaching planning ethics in developing countries., Didier Sophie. Quelques réflexions sur la première promotion de masters en urbanisme de l’Université d’Addis Abeba (rencontres d’Akaki, mars 2010). In: Annales d'Ethiopie. Volume 27, année 2012. pp. 253-257.

International audience; Socio-political instability remains a threat to development. While concerns are often raised regarding the role foreign investors play in perpetuating this threat, empirical evidence on FDI's internal political effects is scarce and presents mixed results. In line with the literature on the determinants of political risk, this paper posits that by generating economic opportunities, FDI promotes political stability. Unlike the extant literature, which considers overall FDI, I test this hypothesis by focusing on greenfield FDI, given its greater socioeconomic externalities resulting from directly generated new economic activity and jobs. While this literature focuses on armed conflicts, socio-political stability in this paper is approached from an institutional perspective. Based on a large sample of developing countries and instrumental variable techniques, the results show that FDI fosters socio-political stability. Accounting for political repression, the results also highlight that FDIinduced stability is compatible with governmental respect for human rights, thus preserving individual well-being.

International audience; This paper attempts to highlight quantitatively the growth and development of climate change literature in terms of publication output as per Web of Science® (1991–2012, September). The focus of this analysis is to study the literature on climate change published from five developing countries namely Argentina, Brazil, China, India and Mexico. This paper is a comparative study on year wise, document type, most productive authors, subject wise, journal wise, institution wise, and language wise distributions.7065 records have been retrieved for climate change for the studies countries. Country-wise climate change records and most prolific authors for the five countries have been identified. Authorship and collaboration trend was towards multi-authored papers. Institution-wise climate change records for these countries have also been generated. The topper here is Chinese Academy of Science, China (1843 records). We have grouped the listed publications from Web of Science® under “climate change” into six broad subjects among which “Geosciences (multidisciplinary)” has recorded maximum publications (22.4%) followed by “Environmental Sciences” (21.6%) while “Meteorology and atmospheric sciences” has recorded the least (9.3%). English language occupies the first place with 6882 out of 7065 records for the studied countries.

International audience; Urban growth and the development of metropolitan areas are global challenging phenomena putting pressure on the development of transportation systems. In developing countries, its effects are often amplified by exponential growth and limited existing public infrastructures. Therefore, metropolitan growth is strongly linked with private motor vehicle ownership dynamics. In order to assess and quantify this statement, this paper investigates the link between socio-economical characteristics of metropolitan areas and the development of private car ownership to better explain and guide current motorization patterns in developing countries. First, the panel of analyzed metropolitan areas is presented to define the scope of this research. The final perimeter represents a diverse set of metropolitan areas with a focus on developing countries where private motor vehicles ownership dynamics seem to be the most significant. Data from up to 52 metropolitan areas have been used in selected analyses. Second, the identification of relevant indicators of private cars ownership is discussed with concerns about data availability in relation with geographical and temporal scales. This paper especially proposes to focus on metropolitan level indicators that better describe local mobility and socio-economical characteristics instead of the traditional national indicators. A consumption statistical model is applied to explore the dynamic relationship between household income distribution evolutions and private motor cars ownership and to realize general trend forecasts for a shortlist of 17 metropolitan areas. The results confirm the importance of population densities, income distribution and GMP per capita for explaining metropolitan private motorization dynamics, especially for developing countries metropolitan areas.

International audience; Urban growth and the development of metropolitan areas are global challenging phenomena putting pressure on the development of transportation systems. In developing countries, its effects are often amplified by exponential growth and limited existing public infrastructures. Therefore, metropolitan growth is strongly linked with private motor vehicle ownership dynamics. In order to assess and quantify this statement, this paper investigates the link between socio-economical characteristics of metropolitan areas and the development of private car ownership to better explain and guide current motorization patterns in developing countries. First, the panel of analyzed metropolitan areas is presented to define the scope of this research. The final perimeter represents a diverse set of metropolitan areas with a focus on developing countries where private motor vehicles ownership dynamics seem to be the most significant. Data from up to 52 metropolitan areas have been used in selected analyses. Second, the identification of relevant indicators of private cars ownership is discussed with concerns about data availability in relation with geographical and temporal scales. This paper especially proposes to focus on metropolitan level indicators that better describe local mobility and socio-economical characteristics instead of the traditional national indicators. A consumption statistical model is applied to explore the dynamic relationship between household income distribution evolutions and private motor cars ownership and to realize general trend forecasts for a shortlist of 17 metropolitan areas. The results confirm the importance of population densities, income distribution and GMP per capita for explaining metropolitan private motorization dynamics, especially for developing countries metropolitan areas.

Part 3: PLM for Digital Factories and Cyber Physical Systems; International audience; With the advancements in industry technology and applications, many concepts have emerged in manufacturing. Since the term Industry 4.0 was published to highlight a new industrial revolution, many manufacturing organizations and companies in Europe, North and South America are researching on this topic. Even the Industry 4.0 concept is included on government duty, sponsored by national initiatives and research funding. However, developing country like Uzbekistan, with high industrial potential are experiencing a different position and the technology roadmap of accomplishing Industry 4.0 is not clear yet. In the last 20 years, Uzbekistan managed to join the group of lower-middle income countries; the ultimate development goal of the country in the next stage is to reach the development benchmark comparable to the higher-middle income group by 2030. Therefore, this paper aims to depict the current state of manufacturing systems in Uzbekistan and identify the gaps with the Industry 4.0 requirements. The findings of this paper can serve for researches from emerging countries as technological roadmap towards Industry 4.0 paradigm and can assist industrial people in understanding and achieving the requirements of Industry 4.0.

International audience; The present paper aims to contribute to the debate about the temporal relationships between place and health. It explores the notion of 'daycourse of place' echoing the discussion which recently occurred in this journal about the 'lifecourse of place' (Andrews, 2017; Lekkas et al., 2017a, b). When highlighting the importance of time in shaping health within places, most of studies focus either on the trajectories of places over a matter of years or the daily trajectories of people in link with their activity space. However, daily trajectories of places remain a poor cousin in place and health literature. This paper is intended to overcome 'jetlag' which places suffer when they are labelled with frozen attributes over a 24-hour period. It explores the values and feasibility of exploring daily trajectories of places to investigate place effects on health or to design area-based interventions for public health action. More than just a metaphor, the 'daycourse of place' appears to be an inspiring framework to elaborate the importance of daily temporal relationalities for research and action in place-based health inequalities.

In putting forth a view of economic agents as autonomous individuals driven by self-interest, mainstream economics precludes the possibility of gift. Gift could be found in non-market, “collectivist”, societies, where “informal” norms would include gift-giving. In this context, the paper argues that mainstream views regarding the impossibility of the concept of gift are inaccurate, via an analysis of conceptual and empirical contributions of other social sciences, notably sciences of mankind “par excellence” such as anthropology and philosophy. In particular, the paper shows that critiques of mainstream views that are based on simple contrasts and qualifications do not provide conceptual instruments for a rigorous critique (such as “collectivism”, “informality”, “altruism”). This is also the case with the more “heterodox” views that underscore the unrealistic character of mainstream models of social interactions and norms. The mainstream arguments of self-interest and exchanges, based on expectations of future returns as universal traits of human beings, are indeed not easy to refute, including with the conceptual tools of other social sciences. This paper instead argues that a deeper analysis of concepts such as selfishness, interest, exchange, or the individual yields a more relevant critique of mainstream conceptions of gift—“the interest of whom?” and “exchange shaped by what?” being the pertinent questions. Other social sciences show that these concepts actually always presuppose the pre-existence of societies before that of individuals, and this is expressed by the many facets of the conceptualisations of the act of giving, whether societies are market or non-market ones.

International audience; Postal e-services and human capital as a part of intellectual capital are currently two much discussed concepts in the context of developing countries. This paper uses Human Capital Index (HCI) and Postal E-services index (PES index) in order to analyze the level of development of developing countries and to point to the inaccuracy of the developed/developing classification of the World Bank. The paper has two objectives: to discover whether there is a statistical dependence between human capital and postal e-services in developing countries as it is in developed countries, and to create a new subgroup of " more developed " developing countries where this dependence confirms. Results of this paper document that there is a great diversity among developing countries and that additional subgroups may be defined within the rather broad classification of the World Bank, which is based on the GNI per capita indicator only. Human capital is being under scrutiny in numerous contexts but not yet in the context of postal e-services. Our paper presents a new method of analyzing the level of development and widens the range of aspects that must be taken into consideration when implementing measures to promote development.

International audience; This paper reviews the most known international assessment studies that are conducted in the context of poor countries and highlights the lack of empirical evidence on the degree to which the contents of the tests really match countries' curricula. To illustrate, the paper evaluates the sensitivity of an international testing instrument by comparing the responses of students in two consecutive grades on the same battery of tests. Using propensity score matching to control for student and teacher characteristics, the results show that the tests are not grade sensitive, which raises the question of the validity of many empirical works that are based on similar instruments.

Part 5: Research in Progress; International audience; Despite substantial research on electronic health (e-Health) adoption, there still exist vast differences between resource-rich and resource-poor populations regarding Information Technology adoption. To help bridge the technological gulf between developed and developing countries, this research-in-progress paper examines healthcare providers’ intention to adopt e-health technologies from two perspectives 1) contextual factors (i.e. specific to developing world settings) and 2) individual value dimensions (i.e. cultural, utilitarian, social and personal). The primary output of this paper is a theoretical model merging both the contextual factors and value dimensions; this forms a strong baseline to examine and help ensure the successful adoption of e-Health technologies within developing countries. Future research will be performed to validate the model developed in this paper, with a specific focus on mobile Health in Malawi, Africa.

Bank Competition and Credit Constraints in Developing Countries: New Evidence Whether competition helps or hinders small firms' access to finance is in itself a much debated question in the economic literature and in policy circles, especially in the developing world. Economic theory offers conflicting predictions and empirical contributions provide mixed results. This paper considers the consequences of interbank competition on credit constraints using firm level data covering 70 developing and emerging countries. In addition to the classical concentration measures, competition is assessed by computing three non-structural measures (Lerner index, Boone indicator, and H-statistics). The results show that bank competition alleviates credit constraints, while bank concentration measures are not robust predictors of a firm's access to finance. Findings highlight that bank competition not only leads to less severe loan approval decisions but also reduces borrowers' discouragement. In addition, a secondary result of this paper documents that banking competition enhances credit availability more by reducing prices than by increasing relationship lending.

Part 3: Service Design and Improvement; International audience; Developing countries have embarked on e-government initiatives in their modernization activities, as the developed countries. Despite the effort, implementation of e-government in developing countries is still rated as not sufficient. Several literatures, such as the UN 2012 survey, investigate challenges faced by developing countries; poor management and limited availability of resources being the main ones. Developing an e-government system with limited resources and with the challenges developing countries are facing requires careful planning. The ultimate question is the public value generated and the sustainability of e-government initiatives in developing countries. Our main question driving the investigation in this paper is, therefore, whether guidelines exist to develop e-government solutions with the goal of public value generation in mind. The investigations of literature have unveiled many guidelines for designing e-government systems. However, there is still lack of a comprehensive framework that will enable developing countries to design e-government systems whilst generating public value. In this paper, existing guidelines for development of e-government systems are first reviewed followed by a comparison among the guidelines. Then the challenges for designing e-government systems in developing countries are outlined. Through a consolidated view emerging from the comparison and the outlined challenges, the paper brings forth a comprehensive strategic framework for successful design of e-government systems. The proposed framework is for policy makers and e-government coordinators to design e-government systems in a way that the objectives are met and that the investments generate public value.

International audience; Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) were previously considered to only affect high-income countries. However, they now account for a very large burden in terms of both mortality and morbidity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), although little is known about the impact these diseases have on households in these countries. In this paper, we present a literature review on the costs imposed by NCDs on households in LMICs. We examine both the costs of obtaining medical care and the costs associated with being unable to work, while discussing the methodological issues of particular studies. The results suggest that NCDs pose a heavy financial burden on many affected households; poor households are the most financially affected when they seek care. Medicines are usually the largest component of costs and the use of originator brand medicines leads to higher than necessary expenses. In particular, in the treatment of diabetes, insulin -- when required -- represents an important source of spending for patients and their families. These financial costs deter many people suffering from NCDs from seeking the care they need. The limited health insurance coverage for NCDs is reflected in the low proportions of patients claiming reimbursement and the low reimbursement rates in existing insurance schemes. The costs associated with lost income-earning opportunities are also significant for many households. Therefore, NCDs impose a substantial financial burden on many households, including the poor in low-income countries. The financial costs of obtaining care also impose insurmountable barriers to access for some people, which illustrates the urgency of improving financial risk protection in health in LMIC settings and ensuring that NCDs are taken into account in these systems. In this paper, we identify areas where further research is needed to have a better view of the costs incurred by households because of NCDs; namely, the extension of the geographical scope, the inclusion of certain diseases hitherto little studied, the introduction of a time dimension, and more comparisons with acute illnesses.

Part 2: Short Papers; International audience; Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is slowly find its place in many organizations in Macedonia. The primary goal of an ERP implementation is managing and coordinating all resources, information, and business processes from shared data stores. This paper elaborates on an ERP solution implementation in the Macedonian production sector and the effect it has on the company efficiency. A case study was conducted in a small or medium-sized manufacturing company in Macedonia during a period of seven years and compared to empirical findings of ERP systems implementations in developed countries. Findings show almost similar results. ERP systems implementations require time, money and management commitment and the effect to improve efficiency is embryonic. However it was also noticed that ERP system implementation helps in the transformation of the ownership of the company and in establishing better market competitiveness.

This paper investigates the relationship between human capital and economic inequality in the developing countries. The paper analyses an unbalanced panel of 64 countries for the period 1970-2005. The results show that primary, secondary and tertiary level education is negatively associated with inequality (primary being the strongest). Besides, average years of education and government expenditure on education are also found to be inequality reducing, both in the immediate and the medium run. Thus, to give citizens better and more equal opportunities, policy-makers in the developing countries and the development agencies need to give higher importance to primary education. Prenant en considération le manque de consensus dans la littérature sur le sujet, notre article étudie la relation entre le capital humain et les inégalités économiques, en abordant le cas particulier des pays en développement ou les inégalités sont flagrantes. Nous analysons un panel non-équilibré constitué de 64 pays pour la période 1970 à 2005. Les résultats montrent une liaison négative entre l’éducation primaire, ainsi que secondaire et tertiaire, et les inégalités économiques. Les autres indicateurs du capital humain contribuent également à la réduction des inégalités. Donc, afin de réduire les inégalités économiques effectivement pour fournir aux citoyens des opportunités égales, les gouvernements des pays en développement et la communauté internationale devraient se concentrer sur l’éducation primaire et supérieur.

The potential stabilization of output shocks through official assistance flows is investigated is this paper. It contributes to the current debate on aid instability and argues that official assistance might cope with exogenous output shocks in recipient countries and stabilize resources available for national expenditure, including consumption and investment. High aid dependency and vulnerability to output shocks positively affect the stabilization property of aid. Contrasting with the current literature, the paper documents that aid volatility is not a significant determinant of the stabilizing or destabilizing impact of aid.

We examine whether absorptive capacity represents a compulsory reason to reject the proposal of a large aid increase to support a big push. We argue that poverty trap is a probability for many countries, in particular the Least Developed Countries and that an aid increase is relevant for them. Moreover we show that the decrease in marginal aid returns is slower in vulnerable countries, what enhances the rationale to take vulnerability as one of the aid allocation criteria. We then examine the main limits to absorptive capacity, such as disbursement constraints and short term bottlenecks, macro economic troubles, including loss of competitiveness and macroeconomic volatility, as well as institution weakening. The general conclusion we draw to reconcile the two approaches is that absorptive capacity strongly depends on aid itself or on its very modalities. Big push and absorptive capacity approaches cannot be reconciled without an aid reform coming with an aid increase. First, needed is to balance the utilisation of aid between directly productive and social activities, in order to avoid transitory loss of competitiveness. Second, schemes helping to use aid as insurance against exogeneous shocks are to be enhanced because they lower the risk of Dutch disease and contribute to a faster and more equitable long term growth. Finally a performance-based conditionality should be substituted to the traditional policy-based one in order to cope with several absorptive capacity limitations, most importantly the socio-political one. An aid supported big push will not be effective without a new ownership of policy by the recipient countries.

International audience; The paper analyzes the demand and supply characteristics of the Indian telecommunications market, with the aim of contributing to the debate on the effectiveness of universal access policies in developing countries. The discussion is supported by some empirical evidence derived from a small time-series-cross-section dataset, containing mainly information on the fixed-lines segment of the market. The analysis suggests that the price elasticity of demand for fixed lines might be sensibly higher than the levels usually found in developed countries, while the crucial role of income and other sociodemographic variables seems to be confirmed. The paper also studies the impact of cellular penetration on fixed-lines diffusion. The results suggest the existence of a (positive) network effect in low penetration areas, while substitution (displacement) seems to arise in the most developed ones. Finally, the paper analyzes the supply side of the market, to assess the impact of market competition on investment. Competition seemingly helps stimulating investment in the most developed areas, but does not seem to have a significant impact in the less developed ones.

This paper analyzes the effects of trade openness on budget balances by distinguishing the effects of natural openness from those of trade-policy induced openness. Using the GMMsystem estimator, the econometric analysis focuses on 66 developing countries during 1974-98. The results show that trade openness increases a country's exposure to external shocks regardless of its underlying causes. This reinforces the adverse effects of terms of trade instability on budget balances. However, trade openness also influences budget balances through several other channels: corruption, income inequalities, etc. The paper shows that these additional effects of natural openness and trade-policy induced openness on budget balances go in opposite directions: the former deteriorates budget balances whereas the latter improves them.

Foreign Direct Investment flows to developing economies have increased significantly over the last decades, bringing about important changes in the developing world. This paper is interested in the institutional aspect of these changes, a dimension weakly investigated in the development literature. More precisely, it explores how the quality of economic institutions in developing countries responds to changes in FDI inflows. The results, based on extensive data on FDI for a large sample of developing countries over the period 1990-2009, show that economic institutions improve in countries with larger FDI flows. On average, a 10-point increase in FDI inflows as a percent of GDP is associated with a 0.9-point increase in the quality of economic institutions. The results also show that this effect is driven by FDI flows from developed economies while no significant link is detected for FDI from developing economies. Furthermore, they indicate that the positive institutional impact of total FDI is likely to be mitigated in countries where the natural resources sector represents a major driver of FDI. The findings suggest that the quality of the institutions in FDI origin countries matters in the FDI/economic institutions relationship in the developing world. Overall, the results are robust to a series of sensitivity tests including the introduction of additional control variables, the exclusion of outliers, the test of income group and regional effects, and heterogeneity analysis based on the level of institutional development of the origin countries.

This paper sheds light on the effects of giant discoveries of natural resources (oil, natural gas, minerals) on sovereign debt ratings in the short and long run. To do so, it employs 28 developing and emerging countries over the period 1990-2014 and applies a random-effects ordered Probit model on different sets of samples. It shows evidence of the differentiated effects (positive and negative) of giant discoveries on ratings. These differentiated effects are linked to the behavior of macroeconomic and political indicators resulting from the actions and policies taken in the aftermath of the discoveries. It also finds evidence of the learning effects of giant discoveries in countries with increasing sovereign debt ratings. What seems to matter is not only the resources but also how governments respond to the news of the discovery of those resources. Therefore, taking the right actions and policies will help countries to prevent a deterioration of their financial conditions.

Purpose:\ud \ud We investigated the association between food insecurity and fall-related injury among older adults from six low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and the extent to which this association is mediated by mental health.\ud \ud Methods:\ud \ud Cross-sectional, community-based, nationally representative data from the WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) were analyzed. Past 12-month food insecurity was assessed with two questions on frequency of eating less and hunger due to lack of food. Fall-related injury referred to those that occurred in the past 12 months. Multivariable logistic regression analysis and mediation analysis were conducted to assess associations.\ud \ud Results:\ud \ud Data on 14,585 adults aged ≥65 years [mean (SD) age 72.5 (11.5) years; 54.9% females] were analyzed. After adjustment for potential confounders, severe food insecurity (versus no food insecurity) was associated with 1.95 (95%CI = 1.11–3.41) times higher odds for fall-related injury. Moderate food insecurity was not significantly associated with fall-related injury (OR = 1.34; 95%CI = 0.81–2.25). The mediation analysis showed that 37.3%, 21.8%, 17.7%, and 14.0% of the association between severe food insecurity and fall-related injury was explained by anxiety, sleep problems, depression, and cognition, respectively.\ud \ud Conclusion:\ud \ud Severe food insecurity was associated with higher odds for injurious falls among older adults in LMICs, and a large proportion of this association may be explained by mental health complications. Interventions to improve mental health among those who are food insecure and a strong focus on societal and government efforts to reduce food insecurity may contribute to a decrease in injurious falls.

International audience; Many documents have been published and webinars held on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on food security at international levels, which tend to blur our understanding of actual dynamics on the ground. Based on a network of researchers from Cirad and its partners in a wide diversity of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, this paper attempts to take stock of what is happening in the food and agriculture sector. The information provided allow for a more nuanced analysis when compared to international organizations' reports. While lockdown and social distancing measures have only mildly affected world trade and production of staple food, some perishable products have been wasted, unable to reach markets. The crisis emphasizes the disconnection between food production and trade and the dire situation of many poor consumers, in cities, holding informal jobs, who have been hit very hard. The crisis should help imagining short- and long-term measures to support food systems resilience along an integrated approach and adaptation strategies already developed.; La crise liée au SARS-CoV2 (syndrome respiratoire aigu sévère–coronavirus 2) a donné lieu à une profusion de documents et webinaires sur la sécurité alimentaire au niveau international, ce qui tend à brouiller la compréhension des dynamiques à l’œuvre sur le terrain. Cet article se propose de faire le point sur la situation des secteurs agricole et agroalimentaire, à partir des informations relayées par un réseau d’experts du Cirad et de leurs partenaires dans une diversité de pays en Afrique subsaharienne. Mises en perspective avec les rapports des organisations internationales, ces informations permettent de dresser un constat nuancé. Si le commerce mondial des produits de base et la production agricole dans les pays du Sud ont été relativement peu affectés par les mesures de restriction prises pour limiter la propagation du virus,certaines filières de produits périssables ont rencontré des difficultés pour écouler leurs produits. Mais surtout, la crise a mis en exergue la déconnexion entre le monde de la production agricole, du commerce alimentaire et la situation des consommateurs précaires, qui dans les villes et dans le secteur informel ont pris de plein fouet l’arrêt des activités économiques. Cette crise sanitaire invite à repenser les mesures de gestion de la crise, tant à court terme qu’à plus long terme, avec une approche intégrée des systèmes alimentaires pour renforcer leur résilience et soutenir les stratégies d’adaptation des acteurs.

Background: Loneliness may be a risk factor for mild cognitive impairment but studies on this topic are scarce, particularly from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the association between loneliness and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in six LMICs (China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa). Methods: Cross-sectional, community-based, nationally representative data from the WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) were analyzed. The definition of MCI was based on the National Institute on Ageing-Alzheimer's Association criteria. Multivariable logistic regression analysis and meta-analysis were conducted to assess associations. Results: The final analytical sample consisted of 19,092 and 13,623 individuals aged 50–64 years (middle-aged adults) and ≥65 years (older adults), respectively. Among the middle-aged, overall, loneliness was associated with a non-significant 1.43 (95% confidence interval [CI]=0.93–2.21) times higher odds for MCI although significant associations were observed in China (OR=1.51; 95%CI=1.08–2.09) and South Africa (OR=3.87; 95%CI=1.72–8.71). As for older adults, overall, there was a significant association between loneliness and MCI (OR=1.52; 95%CI=1.12–2.07). Conclusion: In this large representative sample of middle-aged and older adults from multiple LMICs, findings suggest that loneliness is associated with MCI. It may be prudent to consider reducing loneliness in low-economic settings to aid in the prevention of MCI and ultimately dementia.

Epilepsy is a major public health concern in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) and comorbidities aggravate the burden associated with the disease. The epidemiology of these comorbidities has not been well described, although, identifying the main comorbidities of epilepsy, and their relative importance, is crucial for improving the quality of care. Comorbidities were defined as disorders coexisting with or preceding epilepsy, or else compounded or directly attributed to epilepsy or to its treatment. A meta-analysis of the proportion of main comorbidities by subcontinent as well as overall was also conducted. Out of the 2,300 papers identified, 109 from 39 countries were included in this systematic review. Four groups of comorbidities were identified: parasitic and infectious diseases (44% of comorbid conditions), somatic comorbidities (37%), psychosocial (11%), as well as psychiatric comorbidities (8%). Heterogeneity was statistically significant for most variables then random effect models were used. The most frequently studied comorbidities were: neurocysticercosis (comorbid proportion: 23%, 95% CI: 18–29), head trauma (comorbid proportion: 9%, 95% CI: 5–15) malnutrition (comorbid proportion: 16%, 95% CI: 28–40), stroke (comorbid proportion: 1.3%, 95% CI: 0.2–7.0), and discrimination for education (comorbid proportion: 34%, 95% CI: 28–40). Many comorbidities of epilepsy were identified in LMICs, most of them being infectious.

International audience; Developing countries have numerous challenges to manage in terms of supply chain and logistics networks such as safety, corruption, pollution, congestion, old and/or unsuitable vehicles, long lead times, economy, wastes and of course poor infrastructures and so on. While developed countries have started to change their mindset and toolboxes for managing their material flows all along their logistics networks, it is not yet the case for developing countries. This research work intends to study potentials benefit for these countries if there are drastic changes of the way physical of material flows are managed. In such a context, Physical Internet paradigm is considered as an interesting avenue for improvement. The objective of this paper is to draft an options that would be necessary to assess and to design the associated research methodology. Insights regarding an ongoing field-oriented research work in Cambodia are developed to highlight the potential.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the importance of external shocks relative to internal characteristics in explaining variation of firm growth in developing countries. To do so, we compile firm-level panel data covering 12,562 firms operating in 72 low-income and middle-income countries. Our statistical analysis reveals that, on average, firm characteristics account for a half of difference in growth rate across firms. However, the importance of internal factors is halved when we exclude firms in the tails of the distribution (top performers and worst performers). On the other hand, external shocks account for less than one tenth of variance. The role of external shocks is, however, stronger for young firms and for firms operating in unstable environments. Finally, our findings suggest that the external context is more crucial for exit than for growth.

Several studies have demonstrated that corruption hinders efforts in enhancing public revenue and fiscal space through different channels. This paper assesses the effect of tax reform on fiscal space conditional on corruption control for a large panel of developing and emerging economies over 1990-2016. Using a threshold approach, our findings indicate that tax reform effect on fiscal space is not monotonic and depends on corruption control. Tax reform enhances fiscal space and tax revenue when corruption control is better. The results also suggest that heterogeneity across countries and time does matter. Individual estimates of elasticity of fiscal space to tax reform support evidence that countries that benefit most from tax reform are those that prove enough ability to control corruption.

International audience; This paper consists of RF-based sensor nodes design for survey of critical areas and distance collection of useful environmental data such as pollutants, pluviometry, temperature and humidity. Given poor or nonexistent accesses in areas under investigation, adequate RF equipped sensor nodes are posted at indicated locations for collecting data to be processed by a microcontroller used as a control and processing unit. The processing unit also processes requests from users and sends feedbacks by SMS; those requests and related feedbacks are transmitted through a GSM module. Data from sensors are also processed and corresponding SMS alerts or calls are automatically sent when set parameters are detected. In addition to the use of GSM and microcontroller-based processing unit as in few systems, the proposed system here used RF-based sensor nodes for local area data sensing. That allows real time investigation of given locations. The prototype was successfully developed and tested with specific COTS components such as RF TX/RX433MHz for local area communication, PLL4046 for data formatting to digital, GSM SIM900 for long distance communication, and PIC16F877 microcontroller for data processing.

International audience; Development and dissemination of sustainable practices are key to enhance agricultural productivity in developing countries and to curtail potential negative externalities. Rigorous adoption/impact evaluations provide valuable lessons to enhance the capacity of agricultural research-for-development (R4D) systems in this context. Conventional evaluation studies rely solely on farm-household surveys for data. Generation of survey data however requires considerable financial and human capital, and the process often misses several important explanatory variables, ignores the longer-term impacts, and suffers from measurement errors. Complementary data sources are explored to make the evaluations more robust and rigorous. Here we review 54 studies that used satellite data to estimate adoption and impact of agricultural practices in developing countries. Some evidence on successful application of satellite data in high-income countries is also provided. The main findings of the paper are threefold: (1) satellite data have been successfully used to detect agricultural practices, such as cropping intensity, tillage, crop residue cover, irrigation, and soil and water conservation; (2) only a few studies have estimated the yield impacts of agricultural practices, although the estimation of crop yields with satellite data is fairly developed; and (3) only a small number of studies have explored impact estimation beyond the biophysical sphere. Estimation of certain environmental impacts of agricultural practices is possible through satellite data, although only a few studies have carried it out. Not many have assessed the economic impacts of interventions. We conclude that satellite data analysis allows information access with little delay and over longer periods, provide a unique set of variables over wide geographies, and reduce measurement error in certain variables. However, more interdisciplinary research is necessary to speed up the uptake of this alternative data source in R4D evaluations.

Background Commercial surrogacy is a highly controversial issue that leads to heated debates in the feminist literature, especially when surrogacy takes place in developing countries and when it is performed by local women for wealthy international individuals. The objective of this article is to confront common assumptions with the narratives and experiences described by Indian surrogates themselves. Methods This qualitative study included 33 surrogates interviewed in India (Mumbai, Chennai and New Delhi) who were at different stages of the surrogacy process. They were recruited through five clinics and agencies. This 2-year field study was conducted before the 2018 surrogacy law. Results Surrogates met the criteria fixed by the national guidelines in terms of age and marital and family situation. The commitment to surrogacy had generally been decided with the husband. Its aim was above all to improve the socioeconomic condition of the family. Women described surrogacy as offering better conditions than their previous paid activity. They had clear views on the child and their work. However, they declared that they faced difficulties and social condemnation as surrogacy is associated with extra-marital relationships. They also described a medical process in which they had no autonomy although they did not express complaints. Overall, surrogates did not portray themselves as vulnerable women and victims, but rather as mothers and spouses taking control of their destiny. Conclusions The reality of surrogacy in India embraces antagonistic features that we analyze in this paper as “paradoxes”. First, while women have become surrogates in response to gender constraints as mothers and wives, yet in so doing they have gone against gender norms. Secondly, while surrogacy was socially perceived as dirty work undertaken in order to survive, surrogates used surrogacy as a means to upward mobility for themselves and their children. Finally, while surrogacy was organized to counteract accusations of exploitation, surrogates were under constant domination by the medical system and had no decision-making power in the surrogacy process. This echoes their daily life as women. Although the Indian legal framework has changed, surrogacy still challenges gender norms, particularly in other developing countries where the practice is emerging.

International audience; Introduction: Smoking has been linked with depressive symptoms in adolescents, but data on secondhand smoking and depressive symptoms in low- and middle-income countries are scarce. Thus, this study analyzes the association between secondhand smoking and depressive symptoms among in-school adolescents from 22 low- and middle-income countries. Methods: Data from the 2003–2008 Global School-Based Student Health Survey were analyzed in June 2019. Data on past-week exposure to secondhand smoke and past-year depressive symptoms were collected. The association between secondhand smoke and depressive symptoms was studied using multivariable logistic regressions and meta-analyses. Results: The sample consisted of 37,505 adolescents aged 12–15 years who never smoked. The prevalence of depressive symptoms increased from 23.0% in adolescents with no secondhand smoking to 28.9% in those with secondhand smoking every day in the past week. After adjusting for sex, age, food insecurity, and country, there was a dose–response relationship between secondhand smoking and depressive symptoms in the overall sample (0 days: reference; 1–2 days: OR=1.06, 95% CI=0.95, 1.18; 3–6 days: OR=1.38, 95% CI=1.20, 1.58; 7 days: OR=1.63, 95% CI=1.44, 1.86). The country-wise analysis showed that secondhand smoking on at least 3 days (versus

This paper analyses the efficiency of more than 6800 schools in 28 developing countries, by means of a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis and using data from OECD PISA 2012. The results reveal that the average efficiency of schools is around 70%, meaning that achievement scores can be raised by 30% by employing a more effective use of available resources. Substantial heterogeneity exists both between and within countries; in general, efficiency scores are higher when comparing schools only with those in the same country. Among factors associated with schools' efficiency, the most important are the characteristics of student population (for instance, motivation, truancy, etc.). Therefore, some practices related to accountability, teachers’ involvement and professional development, and extracurricular activities are also positively associated with higher levels of efficiency.

International audience; A consensus on the virtues of an economic development strategy based on export diversification has emerged from the recent economic literature. The purpose of this paper is to revisit that relationship by questioning the sustainability of such a strategy. Drawing on a balance of payments constrained growth model, we compare the re-composition of productive capacities that follows export diversification with the evolution of countries’ external constraints. Based on econometric estimates of panel data, the lessons of the model allow us to analyze and compare, over the period 1995–2015, export diversification in three samples of developing countries, namely: Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Developing Asia.

International audience; Water scarcity poses a serious threat to the population in the most areas of developing countries. In addition to that, the traditional manual nearby approach of following up the water distribution network is unable to ensure an effective and equity use of the small water resources available. A dedicated real-time monitoring system based on radio frequency (RF) communication and internet of things (IoT) paradigms is proposed in this paper. This monitoring system is essential and constitutes a proposed solution for the local water management and equity distribution of the available poor water resources. An alert system recalls users to any abnormal water usage to reduce water loss or to check and solve usual leakages. A customer’s water consumption visualization as well as a setting of his desired consumption alert system are performed using a home dashboard; the monitoring of the system by the water utility company is achieved using a web-based system through Thingspeak cloud computing platform. For an immediate and easy local implementation of the prototype, the system technology was chosen in already validated most cases; in other words, Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components were used. For better and optimum results, most dedicated similar COTS components will be selected using the already running systems.

This paper studies the incentives that developing countries have to protect intellectual properties rights (IPR). On the one hand, free-riding on rich countries technology reduces their investment cost in R&D. On the other hand, firm that violates IPR cannot legally export in a country that enforces them. Moreover free-riders cannot prevent others to copy their own innovation. The analysis predicts that the willingness to enforce IPR is U-shaped in a country GDP: small/poor countries are willing to respect IPR to access advanced economies markets, while large emerging countries are more reluctant to do so because technological transfers from the West boost their production capacity and their domestic markets. Universal enforcement of IPR yields a higher level of innovation and global welfare only if the developing country does not innovate. A partial enforcement of IPR, strict in the north and lax in the south, is socially better if the developing country invests enough in R&D and if its interior market is large. The theoretical predictions of the model are tested with the help of panel data. The empirical analysis supports the theoretical results.

This paper investigates the impact of domestic fuel price increases on export growth in a sample of 77 developing countries over the period 2000-2014. Using a fixed-effect estimator and the local projection approach, we find that an increase in domestic gasoline or diesel price adversely affects real non-fuel export growth, but only in the short run as the impact phases out within two years after the shock. The results also suggest that the negative effect of fuel price increase on exports is mainly noticeable in countries with a high-energy dependency ratio and countries where access to an alternative source of energy, such as electricity, is constrained, thus preventing producers from altering energy consumption mix in response to fuel price changes.

This paper presents an operationalizing theoretical framework to analyze the potential effects of universal health coverage (UHC) using dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model. The DSGE encapsulates a set of heterogeneous households that optimize their intertemporal utility of consumption, health capital, and leisure. The model is calibrated to capture the salient features of an archetype developing economy. The model is, then, used to simulate alternative UHC-financing policies. The theoretical framework we propose can be easily adapted to assess the implementation of UHC in a particular developing country setting. When applied to a hypothetical country, results show that the implementation of UHC can indeed improve access to healthcare for the population while offering households financial protection against future uncertainty. However, the degree of financial risk protection appears to vary across heterogeneous households and UHC-financing policies, depending on the associated benefits and the additional burden borne by each group.

This paper explains the observed hospital congestion in developing countries as the result of the interaction between ambulatory care physicians who refer patients to hospitals, and hospitals which must detect the severity of the incoming patients’ disease. In an imperfect information environment, physicians might refer to top-tier hospitals patients with mild diseases that could be properly addressed by regular hospitals, just to fulfill patients’ demand for the best care. Yet, the triage capability of top-tier hospitals declines if the hospital is subject to congestion, which, in turn, provides incentives to physicians to refer more patients to these hospitals. The model presents two equilibria, one with perfect triage, and another with triage errors and hospital congestion. In this last equilibrium, a higher hospital size raises the likelihood of congestion.

International audience; This paper illustrates the “Sen-Nussbaum-type” capability approach to the measurement of youth wellbeing using the newly developed Exploratory Structural Equation Modelling (ESEM). It offers insights into how the capability to achieve wellbeing can be measured in a conflict-affected and resource-constrained setting. The methodology is applied to nationally representative data taken from the Palestinian Family Survey. The population of interest is youth aged 15 to 29. Three capability dimensions are identified: health awareness, knowledge and living conditions. Results show an interrelation between capability dimensions. It is especially important to note the effect of knowledge capabilities on both health awareness and living conditions indicators. Results also confirm the importance of some (exogenous) factors such as the education of the household head in the conversion of capabilities into achievements. Capabilities are shown to be highest in the West Bank for both knowledge and living conditions compared to the Gaza Strip.

Purpose Despite the great potential Health Information Systems (HIS) have in improving the quality of healthcare delivery services, very few studies have been carried out on the adoption of such systems in developing countries. This article is concerned with investigating the adequacy of UTAUT 1 in determining factors that influence the adoption of HIS by clinicians in developing countries, based on the case of Cameroon. Methods A paper-based questionnaire was distributed to clinicians in 4 out of 7 major public hospitals in Cameroon. A modified UTAUT was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) method to identify the determinants of clinicians’ intention to use HIS. Self-efficacy and cost-effectiveness were determinants used to extend the original UTAUT. Results 228 out of 286 questionnaires were validated for this study. The original UTAUT performed poorly, explaining 12% of the variance in clinicians’ intention to use HIS. Age was the only significant moderating factor, improving the model to 46%. Self-efficacy and cost effectiveness has no direct significant effect on HIS adoption in the context of this study. Conclusions The original UTAUT is not adequate in identifying factors that influence the adoption of HIS by clinicians in developing countries. Simplifying the model by using age as the only moderating factor significantly increases the model’s ability to predict HIS adoption in this context. Thus, the younger clinicians are more likely and ready to adopt HIS than the older ones. Context-specific should also be used to increase the explanatory power of UTAUT in any given context.

Objectives Our objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of peer-led self-management education in improving glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes in a low-income country (Mali). Methods We conducted an open-label randomised controlled trial. A total of 151 adults (76% women, mean age 52.5) with type 2 diabetes (HbA1c≥8%), treated in the diabetes consultation units of two secondary health centres in Bamako, were allocated to peer-led structured patient education (n = 76) or conventional care alone (n = 75). The intervention group received 1 year of culturally tailored structured patient education (3 courses of 4 sessions) delivered in the community by five trained peer educators. Both groups underwent conventional diabetes monitoring and follow-up. Primary outcome was the mean absolute change in HbA1c from baseline to 12 months. Results 177 education sessions were delivered to the intervention group. Patient attrition was 8%. From baseline to 12 months, the decrease in HbA1c levels was 1.05% (SD = 2.0; CI95%: 1.54;-0.56) in the intervention group compared with 0.15% (SD = 1.7; CI95%: -0.56; 0.26) in the control group, p = 0.006. Mean BMI change was -1.65 kg/m2 (SD = 2.5; CI95%: -2.25; -1.06) in the intervention group and +0.05 kg/m2 (SD = 3.2; CI95%: -0.71; 0.81) in the control group, p = 0.0005. Mean waist circumference decreased by 3.34 cm (SD = 9.3; CI95%: -5.56;-1.13) in the intervention group and increased by 2.65 cm (SD = 10.3; CI95%: 0.20; 5.09) in the control group, p = 0.0003. Conclusions Peer-led structured patient education delivered over 1 year to patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes in Mali yielded substantial improvements in glycaemic control and anthropometric parameters. This is of importance for the scaling up of efficient interventions in low-resource settings in the future. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01485913

International audience; As macroeconomic stabilization and structural adjustment policies have not been particularly successful, it becomes increasingly necessary to consider the role of additional economic parameters in the growth process. In this context, governance (the balance of powers, rational resource management, transparency of rules, involvement of civil society, etc.) has become inextricably linked to the analysis of the development of the countries of the South. Closely related to that of institutions, this notion of governance is a polysemous one. In spite of that, the concept of governance is currently the core question in debates about how international financial organisations use the idea of “good governance”. This paper examines the need for “good governance” as a prerequisite for growth and development for developing countries and studies the possibilities of economic convergence at the international level (i.e. developing countries catching up with industrialized ones) based on the influence of socio-political variables on local governance.

This paper investigates the effect of access to financial services on the prevalence of working poor. Using a panel of 63 developing countries over the period 2004-2013, we find that improving financial access (as measured by the number of bank branches per 100,000 adults) reduces the prevalence of working poor (workers living with less than US dollar 1.25 a day). This effect is even more relevant in countries affected by strong macroeconomic instability. Our findings are robust to endogeneity bias, the addition of various controls including remittances and mobile phone subscriptions, and to the shifting of the poverty line from US dollar 1.25 to US dollar 1.90. We also show that barriers to use banking services are correlated positively with working poverty. Moreover, our results confirm the validity of some transmissions channels such as growth (trickle-down effect) and the access of the non-poor workers to financial services, suggesting that improving financial access for the excluded non-poor can have a strong reducing-effect on working poverty.

International audience; The concerns about population ageing apply to both developed and many developing countries and it has turned into a global issue. In the forthcoming decades the population ageing is likely to become one of the most important processes determining the future society characteristics and the direction of technological development. The present paper analyzes some aspects of the population ageing and its important consequences for particular societies and the whole world. Basing on this analysis, we can draw a conclusion that the future technological breakthrough is likely to take place in the 2030s (which we define as the final phase of the Cybernetic Revolution). In the 2020s – 2030s we will expect the upswing of the forthcoming sixth Kondratieff wave, which will introduce the sixth technological paradigm (system). All those revolutionary technological changes will be connected, first of all, with breakthroughs in medicine and related technologies. We also present our ideas about the financial instruments that can help to solve the problem of pension provision for an increasing elderly population in the developed countries. We think that a more purposeful use of pension funds' assets together with an allocation (with necessary guarantees) of the latter into education and upgrading skills of young people in developing countries, perhaps, can partially solve the indicated problem in the developed states

Etudes & documents; This paper investigates the impact of insurance premiums on stock market development in 37 developing countries over the period 1987-2011. By controlling for the potential endogeneity bias, using the System GMM estimator, we show that the insurance premiums significantly increase the stock market total value traded. This result is robust to the use of alternative measure of stock market development and control of the political and legal system quality. In addition, the results highlight that an improvement in property rights promotes the deepening of the financial market. Thus, the results argue for insurance policies promoting and an improvement of the legal environment to benefit from the financial market development.

This paper examines the effect of ethnic diversity on the efficiency of public spending in a set of developing countries. For this purpose, we use Data Envelopment Analysis to assess the efficiency of public spending in the sectors of health, education and infrastructure in 77 developing countries over the period 1996-2012. Further, we investigate the effect of ethnic diversity on the cross country variation in efficiency. Two main findings emerge. First, barely 12% of the sample of countries under study makes an efficient use of public expenditure. Second, no matters the level of aggregation, ethnic polarization is positively associated with higher efficiency. In contrast, ethnic fractionalization does have a negative or at the best no effect on efficiency, especially at the finest level of disaggregation.

Conditionalities – i.e. ‘exchanging finance for policy reform’ in an asymmetrical relationship between the ‘donor’ and the ‘recipient’ – are central mechanisms of the reform programmes of international financial institutions (IFIs). As they are imposed by outside entities, they can also be viewed as ‘policy externalisation’, which is paradoxically a massive intrusion in the shaping of a country’s domestic policies. The resilience of such devices is remarkable, however. Indeed, in the early 1980s, many developing countries were facing balance of payments difficulties and called upon these international financial institutions for financial relief. In exchange for this relief, they devised economic reforms (fiscal, financial, monetary), which were the conditions for their lending. These reforms were not associated with better economic performance, and this led the IFIs to devise in the 1990s different reforms, which this time targeted the functioning of the government and its ‘governance’, economic problems being explained by governments’ characteristics (e.g., rent-seekers). The paper demonstrates the limitations of the device of conditionality, which is a crucial theoretical and policy issue given its stability across time and countries. These limitations stem from: i) the concept of conditionality per se - the mechanism of exchanging finance for reform; ii) the contents of the prescribed reforms given developing countries economic structure (typically commodity-based export structures) and the weakness of the concept of ‘governance’ in view of these countries’ political economies; and iii) the intrinsic linkages between economic and political conditionalities, whose limitations thus retroact on each other, in particular regarding effectiveness and credibility.

The aim of this paper is to provide an updated survey of the “state of the art” in entrepreneurial studies with a particular focus on developing countries (DCs). In particular, the concept of “entrepreneurship” is critically discussed, followed by a discussion of the institutional, macroeconomic, and microeconomic conditions that affect the entry of new firms and the post-entry performance of newborn firms. The reviewed literature bears some policy implications for the support of the creation new firms, such as the targeting of policy measures to prospective entrepreneurs who possess high education levels, long previous job experience, and innovative skills. Specifically, for DCs, tailored subsidies and support should be coupled with framework and infrastructural policies that are able to improve the business environment such that new ventures can start and grow.