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Africa is the region of the world where Catholic and other faith-based schools have the largest footprint. One in nine students in a primary school in Africa is enrolled in a Catholic school, and students from the region account for more than half of all students in Catholic primary schools globally. Through the role it plays in Africa, the Catholic Church is at the forefront of providing educational opportunities in low-income countries, but challenges abound. In particular, learning poverty defined as the inability of 10-year-old children to read and understand an age-appropriate text, affects nine in ten children in sub-Saharan Africa. Students in Catholic schools are not immune to this crisis. This article introduces a framework from the World Bank on how we could end the learning crisis and summarizes the contributions of the articles included in this issue in terms of that framework.

While there is no doubt that education is transformative, simply going to school is not enough. Real learning, the process of receiving and distilling information, of thinking and creating and producing and socializing, is less likely to happen if a child is scared or traumatized. Preventing violence in and through school is therefore a prerequisite for girls and boys getting the education they need and deserve, and acquiring the skills, knowledge and values that provide the foundations for strong and inclusive societies. This report demonstrates that violence in and around schools negatively impacts educational outcomes, and society pays a heavy price as a result (with an estimate of $11 trillion in lost lifetime earnings). Cost-benefit analyses suggest that implementing interventions to prevent violence in and through schools from early childhood to secondary education is a smart economic investment. Rigorously evaluated programs and policies aimed at preventing violence at different levels of the education system show that action is feasible. The benefits of investing in preventing violence in and through schools is likely to far outweigh the costs.

This paper investigates the effects of shocks, predominantly climate shocks, on labor market outcomes in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). We focus on migration ows within the WAEMU countries to disentangle the differential effects of shocks on migrants and non-migrants. Our analysis combines survey data from Ivory Coast|as the main migrant receiving country|and from all the other 7 migrant sending countries of the WAEMU. Using an OLS fixed effects model, our results show that migration in the WAEMU is associated with a decline in female labor participation, as it is primarily motivated by marriage. However, we find an increase in female labor force participation and a narrowing of the gender gap in migrant households that are negatively affected by shocks. Our findings relate to the literature on the impact of shocks on the labor division between women and men and show that shocks may disrupt long-standing gender roles. The results are robust to accounting for the double selection into shocks and migration using a Propensity Score Matching technique that allows for a within comparison between treated and untreated units.

Reducing gender inequality makes economic sense apart from being the right thing to do. Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls is the fifth sustainable development goal and is a top priority for governments. Countries can achieve this goal if they take appropriate steps. This note is part of a series that aims to measure the economic cost of gender inequality globally and regionally by examining the impacts of gender inequality in a wide range of areas and the costs associated with those impacts. Given that gender inequality affects individuals throughout their life, economic costs are measured in terms of losses in human capital wealth, as opposed to annual losses in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or GDP growth. The notes also aim to provide a synthesis of the available evidence on successful programs and policies that contribute to gender equality in multiple areas and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This paper is the second in a set of two on the extent to which Catholic and other faith-based schools are serving the poor well. Catholic and other faith-based schools reach millions of children who live in poverty, yet this does not necessarily mean that they are serving these children well enough. The paper considers two separate issues. First, beyond academic subjects, Catholic and other faith-based schools emphasize learning related to values and religion. Do they succeed in doing so? Based on small sample survey data and qualitative fieldwork, as well as broader data on parental satisfaction with schools, the paper provides a tentative and mostly positive answer to this question, at least from the view of parents. The second issue is where performance is weaker. Education systems are affected by a learning crisis in the developing world. All schools should ensure that students learn, but too often this is not the case. The second part of the paper documents this learning crisis and the fact that Catholic and other faith-based schools are not immune to it. This is done in part through a rapid review of the recent World Development Report on education's promise, and a companion piece for sub-Saharan Africa. Estimates of performance for selected African countries are also provided. The results are sobering: too many children are not learning while in school. Finally, the paper briefly summarizes evidence from the literature on interventions that could improve learning, including in Catholic and faith-based schools.

Countries regularly track gross domestic product (GDP) as an indicator of their economic progress, but not wealth—the assets such as infrastructure, forests, minerals, and human capital that produce GDP. In contrast, corporations routinely report on both their income and assets to assess their economic health and prospects for the future. Wealth accounts allow countries to take stock of their assets to monitor the sustainability of development, an urgent concern today for all countries. The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018: Building a Sustainable Future covers national wealth for 141 countries over 20 years (1995–2014) as the sum of produced capital, 19 types of natural capital, net foreign assets, and human capital overall as well as by gender and type of employment. Great progress has been made in estimating wealth since the fi rst volume, Where Is the Wealth of Nations? Measuring Capital for the 21st Century, was published in 2006. New data substantially improve estimates of natural capital, and, for the first time, human capital is measured by using household surveys to estimate lifetime earnings. The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018 begins with a review of global and regional trends in wealth over the past two decades and provides examples of how wealth accounts can be used for the analysis of development patterns. Several chapters discuss the new work on human capital and its application in development policy. The book then tackles elements of natural capital that are not yet fully incorporated in the wealth accounts: air pollution, marine fisheries, and ecosystems. This book targets policy makers but will engage anyone committed to building a sustainable future for the planet.

Au cours de l'année 1996-97, l'École des Sciences philosophiques et religieuses a organisé une conférence et une journée d'études axées sur ce couple de notions qui condensent nombre de questions fondamentales de notre temps. Les profondes tribulations de notre époque semblent bien liées au déclin des références absolues et des idéologies sûres d'elles-mêmes et monolithiques. Mais au désenchantement moral et au désarroi de la pensée que redoublent les incertitudes économiques et politiques, répondent, un peu partout, une protestation et un refus du fatalisme qui se traduisent sous la forme de la réflexion critique et sous la forme, plus spectaculaire sans doute, de l'action, animées d'une volonté de transcender les particularismes et l'égoïsme frileux. Un nouvel élan de générosité, de risque, d'aventure même surgit au nom d'idéaux humanitaires. Cette effervescence d'initiatives force à revenir sur le sens de ces idéaux qui, au fond, de manière explicite ou confuse, en appellent à la valeur nodale d'humanité. L'action humanitaire, autant pour ceux qui la portent sur le terrain de la détresse, du désarroi et de la souffrance que pour ceux qui la soutiennent de plus loin, comporte évidemment des enjeux politiques, juridiques, philosophiques, éthiques, économiques et culturels d'une telle ampleur qu'il faut s'accorder du temps pour la penser. Une telle exigence de pensée ne peut en l'occasion prendre réellement forme sans le débat et le dialogue. C'est d'un tel travail de fond que témoigne cet ouvrage. La notion d'humanité s'y trouve réinterrogée à partir des contradictions, des ambiguïtés et des effets paradoxaux des actions humanitaires ou des débats juridiques ou économiques qui tentent de s'en inspirer. Le théologien, le philosophe, le juriste, le médecin, l'économiste, chacun selon son propre mode de questionnement, s'essaient à cerner les difficultés de formuler les éléments essentiels du noyau de sens irréductible, dont sont porteuses ces deux idées : l'humanité - l'humanitaire.

I. Introduction Dans son rapport au Conseil économique et social français intitulé Situation et devenir des associations à but humanitaire, Harlem Désir (1994) pose d’entrée de jeu ces questions : “Comment se fait-il qu’en 1994, après des décennies de progrès social, dans une société collectivement riche, le froid et la faim puissent encore tuer dans notre pays ? Comment tolérer que tous n’aient pas le même accès au soins ? Que plus de 200,000 personnes soient sans abri ? Comment l’admettre a...

Serving the poor is a prime component of the mission of Catholic and many other faith-based schools. Do the schools succeed in doing so? This paper and a companion paper focusing on learning aim to answer this question. In this paper, the focus is on schooling or enrolment in school. The paper considers first global and regional data on the number of students in Catholic preschools and nurseries, primary schools, and secondary schools. The data suggest that Catholic schools are located proportionately more in low-income countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. However, having schools in low income countries does not guarantee that they serve disadvantaged children. Relying on household survey data from Africa, the second part of the analysis suggests that while Catholic and other faith-based schools reach many children in poverty, they often serve children from better off households proportionately more. The last part of the paper considers the constraints faced by Catholic and other faith-based schools in reaching the poor. Some constraints are shared with other types of schools, but others are peculiar to Catholic and faith-based schools, especially in terms of the funding from households that they need to operate given no or only limited state support.

This report documents the challenge of achieving inclusive education in Africa. Primary school completion rates are 10 percentage points lower for girls with disabilities than for girls without disabilities. For boys, the disability gap in primary completion rates is 13 points. Gaps are also large for secondary education completion and children with disabilities are much more likely to never enroll in school at all. Across the board disability gaps have been steadily increasing over the last 20 years. Even when children with disabilities manage to remain in school, they perform on average less well on mathematics and reading tests. This is one of the reasons why only half of children with disabilities of primary school completion age can read and write, and only one in four complete secondary school. Multiple factors lead to disability gaps in education. According to teacher perceptions on the reasons why children drop out of school, lack of adequate infrastructure for children with disabilities is a major issue. In addition, among a dozen types of in-service training provided to teachers, training related to inclusive education is the least commonly provided. Finally, screening for disabilities in school remains very rare. In essence, children with disabilities are being left behind by efforts to improve education opportunities for all. Investing in the education of children with disabilities is required from a rights perspective , but it is also a smart investment. Indeed, apart from a wide range of other benefits from educational attainment, the labor market returns to education for individuals with disabilities are large and similar order to the returns observed for other individuals.

Too many girls drop out of school prematurely, especially in low income countries. Low educational attainment for girls has negative consequences not only for them, but also for their children and household, as well as for their community and society. This study documents the potential impacts of educational attainment for girls and women in six domains: (1) earnings and standards of living; (2) child marriage and early childbearing; (3) fertility and population growth; (4) health, nutrition, and well-being; (5) agency and decision-making; and (6) social capital and institutions. The results are sobering: the potential economic and social costs of not educating girls are large. Low educational attainment reduces expected earnings in adulthood, and it depresses labor force participation, leading to lower standards of living. When girls drop out of school prematurely, they are much more likely to marry as children, and have their first child before the age of 18 when they may not yet be ready to be wife and mothers. This in turn is associated with higher rates of fertility and population growth, which in low income countries are major impediments for reaping the benefits of the demographic dividend. Low educational attainment is also associated with worse health and nutrition outcomes for women and their children, leading among others to higher under-five mortality and stunting. Girls who drop out of school also suffer in adulthood from a lack of agency and decision-making ability within the household, and in society more generally. They are also less likely to report engaging in altruistic behaviors such as donating to charity, volunteering, or helping others. Finally, when girls and women are better educated, they may be better able to assess the quality of the basic services they rely on and the quality of their country’s institutions and leaders. These negative impacts have large economic costs, leading among others to losses in human capital wealth (future lifetime earnings of the labor force) estimated at $15 trillion to $30 trillion. Educating girls is not only the right thing to do: it is also a smart economic investment.

The attention given to the issue of female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) as a harmful practice has been growing in recent years. Yet, while ending female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C, both terminologies are used in the literature) is a target under the Sustainable Development Goals, the practice remains common. FGM/C is practiced not only in Africa, which is the region on which this note focuses, but also in other regions of the world and even in high income countries with diaspora from high FGM/C prevalence countries. While the prevalence of the practice is declining, it remains high in some countries. FGM/C is known to have potentially life threatening health consequences for girls, especially when the cutting is severe. While there can be significant health risks in all forms of FGM/C, especially in cases of infibulation, which can lead to the removal of virtually all external sexual organs, the practice has been linked to infections, infertility, and childbirth complications, among others. Cases of girls dying after being cut have been documented in the media. The practice may also affect the children of girls being cut, in part due to complications at birth. More generally, in terms of its drivers and other consequences, the practice is related to deep-seated patterns of gender inequality and gender-based violence.