Monthly Archives: July 2018

Work or Family: Sri Lankan Women Shouldn’t Have to Choose

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • At just 36.6% percent, female labour force participation in Sri Lanka is low; further, having a child under age five at home makes women 7.4 percent less likely to join the labor force than women without young children.
  • Companies who provide childcare support have been able to retain experienced employees (both women and men), reduce absenteeism, and boost employee satisfaction and loyalty.
  • Corporate HR policies that pursue diversity can play a key role in supporting inclusive workplaces.

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This is the leading ICT-connected country in Central and Western Africa

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1_dD1b0L4owjraFCKySAW-LA.pngIt is impossible these days to drive around the cities of Gabon without noticing the large billboards promoting internet access at rates that were unimaginable only a few years ago.

This is a wonderful development for Alphonse, a young, 34-year old public-sector professional. WhatsApp, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram are all applications that this ultra-connected young man uses on his telephone for both work and pleasure.

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Technology works for getting poor people’s problems fixed – we just have to get it right

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20150224-senegal-farhat-0660One of the encouraging signs that I pick up whenever I travel is the difference that technology is making to the lives of millions of marginalized people. In most cases it’s happening on a small, non-flashy scale in hundreds of different ways, quietly improving the opportunities that that have been denied to remote communities, women and young people for getting a foot on the ladder.

And because it is discreet and under the radar I dare as an optimist to suggest that we are at the beginning of something big – a slow tsunami of success. Let me give you some reasons why I believe this.

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Are men the new weaker sex? The rise of the reverse gender gap in education

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capture1_34It is probably fair to say that the World Bank’s latest report on intergenerational mobility – Fair Progress? Economic Mobility across Generations around the World – is the first-ever attempt to paint a truly global picture of how achievement – or the lack thereof – is transmitted across generations. Though there are results for income mobility for a subset of countries, most of the analysis focuses on educational attainment across 148 economies, representing over 95% of the world’s population.

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eC2: Sindh Province: Renewable Energy Locational Study

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ict_day_card_1Deadline: 18-Jul-2018 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)

The envisaged scope of work will involve four tasks, as follows: (i) Grid integration analysis including an identification of substations that can accommodate solar and/or wind capacity without major upgrades, and those that would require major transmission and/or substation upgrades to allow the addition of VRE capacity; (ii) Assessment and ranking of renewable energy zones using the MapRE tool and utilization the best available data on solar and wind resource potential, transmission lines, elevation, land use, protected and sensitive areas, settlements, and other relevant data; and combining of this data with the results from the grid integration analysis; (iii) More detailed identification of potential sites for solar parks, using the results from the prior work to carry out a land availability analysis that investigates land ownership and other issues in a 10km radius around high ranking substations; (iv) Development of a solar park strategy, based on lessons learned from Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park, international experiences, discussions with key public sector agencies, and consultations with private sector developers.

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eC2: Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management to Sustain Local Infrastructure

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Camerooon.Deadline: 09-Jul-2018 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)

The objective of the technical assistance (TA) is to increase the capacity and knowledge of a selected LGU (1 province) in dealing with climate/disaster risks faced by local transport infrastructure and pilot an institutionalized coordination process with the national agencies to better inform local roads planning, using a learning-by-doing approach. Based on this activity, technical notes/guidelines will be prepared for the ongoing provincial roads program to benefit all participating LGUs. LGUs are the implementing units under the provincial roads program, and hence increasing their technical capacity in dealing with climate resilience for local roads will improve the performance and development impact of the provincial roads program.

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