The Transnational Project and its Implications for Migrant Civil Society in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, overseas labor migration plays a vital role in the development strategy promoted by government agencies, international donor organizations and civil society organizations. Civil society organizations facilitate the migration process, respond to exploitation facing migrants while overseas and assist migrants upon their return to Bangladesh. Organizations in Bangladesh are pursuing a ‘transnational project,’ whereby their activities, missions, and objectives are now focused around transnational work in order to assist migrants. The transnational project is driven by foreign development agencies and the legitimating actions of local migrant organizations. This paper demonstrates the different ways transnationalism has moved from a radical concept to a banal development practice, by critically analyzing contemporary development practices of migrant civil society organizations in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Also addressed are the implications of the transnational project on migrant organizations, development, and migrant political inclusion, arguing that the transnational project creates new power structures and paradoxes within organizations.     

Thailand: PPAT extends services to southern provinces; project on better living for women

The Planned Parenthood Association of Thailand (PPAT) aims to promote living conditions for Thai people. Accordingly, PPAT is planning to implement Family Health Promotion for the Southern Provinces Project, with emphasis on mother and child care. Another PPAT project started in 1978 was the Women's Better Living Project in Ubon Rachathani Province. The project aims to improve the living conditions of housewives in the northeastern region by giving them vocational training and knowledge on health and nutrition. Housewives were taught kitchen gardening, dressmaking, soil fertilizing, making waste drainage wells, wastewater drainage beneath their houses, and proper cooking methods. This project is expected to improve the living conditions of rural people, thereby easing the problem of migration from the northeast to some extent.     

Accounting for the environment

The paper discusses a major project to introduce imputed values of environmental services into the national accounts. After a short discussion of how the project relates to the social measurement research underway at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the accounting principles are briefly presented. Preliminary accounting data, as well as the results of a study of the distribution of air pollution damage, which relied on these data, are also presented. The paper includes a brief discussion of the policy and research implications suggested by these preliminary results. Finally, the paper closes with a technical appendix demonstrating that a sector's contribution to air pollution emissions may be a poor indicator of its contribution to social damage.     

Research note: imputing large group averages for missing data,using rural-urban continuum codes for density driven industry sectors

Understanding the effects and consequences of missing data imputation is vital to the ability to obtain meaningful and reliable statistics and coefficients in the examination of any quantitatively-based phenomena. Over time a series of sophisticated methods have been developed to handle the issue of missing data imputation however, these sophisticated methods may not always be appropriate or attainable. In these specific cases more traditional approaches to missing data imputation must be employed and driven by the research project, theoretical framework, and the data. In this research note we offer a brief account of one such instance, implementing a large-group mean imputation approach to handling missing data. The analysis is drawn from a much larger project and shows the effect of proper group selection in terms of mean imputation using a cross-validation approach based on the imputed data’s relation to known values. Ultimately, the results show that the use of Rural-Urban Continuum codes are superior to currently used group-means in the U.S., thus introducing a new, and more efficient, approach to the handling of missing data using group-mean imputation.     

青海省香巴农业扶贫开发项目及其人口迁移

香巴农业扶贫开发项目是青海省在20世纪末实施的集人口迁移和扶贫为一体的异地扶贫开发工程。文章介绍了其实施的背景、项目区基本状况以及项目中的人口迁移情况,并初步探讨了项目实施的意义。     

Indonesia: family planning target stepped up for 1980; twofold success of integrated project

The recruitment of 3 million additional family planning acceptors for the fiscal year 1979/80 was the target of Indonesia's family planning program. Available data shows that Indonesia was the 1st country in the world to have consumed 200 million cycles of contraceptive since the program's inception 9 years ago. The achievement of a lower birth rate of between 20 and 22 per 1000 (present rate is approximately 38/1000) is possible within the next 10 years should the program maintain its present pace. Education of women; health of pregnant mothers, and nutrition of children are factors which strongly affect family planning. Current conditions are such that 30% of children aged 0 to 6 years and a large proportion of mothers are malnourished. A coordinated family planning-rural development project launched by the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association and Indonesian Women's Association was launched 2 years ago and has proved successful. The project's core activity is the organization of income-generating projects such as poultry-raising, vegetable cultivation, handicrafts and small industries. Family planning and other health measures (eg, environmental sanitation) were also promoted. The project utilized selected cadres of married women who were then trained in community development. These women became trainers in their own villages. The project proved to be successful in terms of income-generating activities for the women and in terms of gaining 623 new family planning acceptors within a period of 5 months.     

水电移民安置中的文化作用机制分析及其对策研究——以怒江为例

水电移民作为一项复杂的系统工程,与区域相关要素存在多种关联,其中与文化的关联既重要又容易被忽视,特别是对于少数民族地区,移民所带来的文化冲击更为明显。怒江傈僳族自治州作为我国典型的少数民族地区,其水能资源蕴藏丰富,水电移民受文化因素的影响较为明显。怒江水电移民与文化的关联包括与文化类型空间、文化构成要素、文化演进态势的关联。文化因素在怒江水电移民过程中起着重要的作用。同质文化类型区域移民安置的文化阻力较小,有利于移民工程的开展;不同文化类型区域文化作用表现出的阻力较强,不利于安置工作的开展。     

Tagging for activist ends and strategic ephemerality: creating the Sex Work Database as an activist digital archive

The Sex Work Database project is an interdisciplinary collaboration, currently based in Canada, to research and design digital activist archives of “born digital” and digitized academic research, print and visual media, grassroots activism, and commemorative responses related to missing and murdered women and sex work. This paper discusses the project’s development over its first few years, and discusses the complexities of organizing and representing digital/digitized information using a feminist anti-violence framework. In doing so, we introduce and examine two challenges we have encountered to date: designing a tagging system that expresses the activist frame of the Sex Work Database, and the ethics and efficacy of strategic ephemerality for materials produced by sex worker activists.     

西部地区“少生快富”工程总体状况分析

“少生快富”工程是国家针对西部地区推出的一项计划生育利益导向政策。其目的是鼓励少生和促其脱贫致富相结合。本文首先介绍了该项工程到目前为止的实施情况。然后分析了该工程在全国的总体运行状况。紧接着．笔者分析比较了各省区在运行该工程方面的异同。最后,在了解情况基础上,对该项政策做了深层次的思考：该工程更为重要的意义：和养老保险的对接;与城镇化战略的呼应。     

农民社会养老意愿和缴费能力分析——基于陕西省关中地区的调查

社会保障制度是有效的社会风险化解机制,对于以国家为主导的农民社会养老保障建设成功与否,不仅取决于未来国家对农村社会养老保障供给的数量与质量,更取决于农民社会养老保障制度的主要供给者——政府对农民真实需求的了解、把握与满足程度。调查地区农民在养老保障项目上可承受的支付金额的平均值为32.06元/月,农民在养老保障项目上的支付上限值为当地农民年人均纯收入的17.29%,高于此比例,则影响农民正常的生活水平,而农民普遍能够接受的适宜比例值为10.61%。     

What state,what markets,for what development?

The collapse of “real socialism” and “peripheric late capitalism” and the exhaustion of the various models of “Welfare capitalism” demand the theoretical and practical reconstruction of the entire field of the eco-socio-economy of development and planning. Among the criteria for a new approach would be social equity and environmental prudence. This project should be then translated into a strategy for development which implies in turn a re-definition of state, market and the role of civil society and the forms of interaction between social actors. At the same time, the ways of articulation between the various areas - local, national, global — of development should be defined. In this framework, planning should be seen as a set of procedures for promoting societal debate on the “project”, in order to elaborate long-term strategies and identify the range of the decisions to be taken.     

对人口和生殖健康领域的社会性别意识调查与思考

社会性别平等是实现人口与发展的有效途径,相关政府部门管理者的社会性别意识对于推进人口与生殖健康领域的性别平等具有重要意义。对30个省、市、自治区人口和计划生育委员会与卫生厅项目管理者的调查显示,大多数项目管理者能够正视传统性别文化对妇女的影响,从不平等的性别关系分析人口与生殖健康领域的突出问题,对于推进性别平等具有一定的社会责任感。但同时也反映出:一部分项目管理者对中国的性别平等发展形势缺乏了解,对现实生活中两性不平等的权责关系缺乏辨析,对女性参与项目决策的必要性认识不足,这容易造成公共政策与项目管理中的性别缺失。为此,应提升项目管理者的社会性别分析能力,建立性别平等咨询机制和监督机制,以促进人口与生殖健康领域的社会性别主流化。     

Scaling up the Quality of Care Approach

Like the pilot project, the scaling up of the quality of care approach is also new in China and requires continued research and exploration. In July 2003, the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) drew on the experience of scaling up the quality of care project and decided to launch a campaign to select and commend model counties (cities/districts) in implementing the project in order to set an example for different regions with different economies and ensure the quali…     

Integrating parasite control and family planning

A pilot project started recently in 4 locations by the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines in cooperation with the Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning and the Asian Parasite Control Organization uses de-worming as an entry point to establish credibility for family planning workers among the target population. The ultimate goal of the project is to encourage community participation to such an extent that family planning and related efforts are sustained by the community itself and the field worker is no longer needed. Integrated parasite control/family planning projects have already gone through the 4 principal developmental stages of strategic planning, project design and development, implementation and assessment, and program maintenance in some areas since their beginnings in 1976. Support for such programs has been obtained from 3 international bodies working in family planning, and 2 others have recently indicated interest. Activities to develop criteria for project expansion are now underway. The 4 projects in the Philippines, located in Binakayan, Cavite; San Pedro, Laguna; Caramoan, Camarines Sur; and Davao City, are each staffed by a project manager, doctors, nurses, and medical technologists. The projects, especially the Caramoan project, have been quite successful, and efforts are being made to include nutrition in the integrated program.     

Maternal and child health care: a key step for family planning

The Maternal-Child Health Division of the Qinghai Provincial Health Department, the United Nations Children's Fund, and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities are collaborating on a model maternal-child health care project set up in the province's pastoral area. The project encompasses perinatal services in Minhe and Huangyuan counties, development of maternal-child health services at the grassroots level in Hainan Prefecture, and educational classes on child care for national minorities. The population has doubled in this vast but sparsely populated part of China since the founding of the People's Republic, and this rapid population growth has had negative repercussions for animal husbandry. To address this problem, 26 maternal-child health centers have been established in provincial pastoral areas of Qinghai and there are 20 full-time workers. Modern midwifery services are available to 67% of the population; as a result, mortality has dropped to 50/1000.     

ASEAN projects reviewed

The ASEAN Population Expert Group met in Manila and was followed by a meeting of the ASEAN heads of population programs, during the period November 5-10, 1979. Heads of population programs from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines attended. The meetings were held to review progress-to-date on phase 1 projects and to consider the development of an expanded population program. 5 projects funded by UNFPA are reviewed in tabular form with the project, the sponsoring country, date of implementation, data analysis, and date of completion. Suggestions were made for improving and extending these projects and it was also suggested that all projects being developed and proposed should include a section on use of research. 7 new projects were proposed as phase 2 projects. The 1st, sponsored by Malaysia, deals with women in development; project 2, lead by Thailand, will investigate population movement and its effect on development; project 3, led by the Philippines, will develop and strengthen national population information systems and networks in ASEAN countries; project 4, led by Indonesia, is directed towards institutional development and exchanges of personnel; project 5, led by the Philippines, will examine population and development dynamics and the man/resources balance; project 6, led by Thailand, will develop ASEAN social indicators; and project 7, led by Indonesia and Malaysia, will make a comprehensive analysis of existing medical/health care and family planning systems. It was recommended that an executive director of the proposed ASEAN population coordination unit should be appointed to expedite the recommendations of the meeting related to preparation and submission of phase 2 project proposals.     

山东省养老保障的现状评估与需求分析

伴随着人口老龄化程度的提高,老年抚养比的增加,一个非常现实的问题就是养老保障需求的增加。本文以山东省为例,根据山东省老龄委重大专项课题的实地调查数据和人口预测数据,对山东省养老保障的现状进行评估发现：目前阶段,居家养老仍是老年人最主要的养老方式,但是在人口老龄化程度逐步加深的客观影响下,机构养老需求将会面临巨大的市场需求。因此,本文进一步预测了山东省未来五年内的养老机构需求,以期为山东省合理配置社会保障资源、有效实施社会养老保障需求提供客观事实基础。     

Children’s conceptualisation(s) of their well-being

This paper describes the process and some findings of a collaborative project between the New South Wales Commission for Children and Young People and researchers at the Social Justice and Social Change Research Centre, at the University of Western Sydney. The project was designed to inform the Commission in implementing its legislative mandate to develop a set of well-being indicators to monitor children's well-being over time. Placing children centrally as research participants was fundamental to the methodological approach of the project in which children's understandings of what contributes to their well-being were explored through qualitative methods. We discuss the epistemological and methodological approaches used in the project, in the context of other, earlier research towards the development of children's well-being indicators. Some of the early findings from the collaborative project are outlined and an example given of the way in which knowledge produced by a research approach which places children centrally, differs from and is similar to knowledge produced by more traditional child social indicator research. The paper ends with a discussion of some of the implications and challenges posed by reflecting on the research process and early findings from the research.     

Comparative study on demographic-economic model-building for three selected countries of the ESCAP region

The research project involves building models for 3 selected ESCAP countries, Indonesia, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, which are at different stages of demographic transition. This project involves country level research workd esigned, implemented, and monitored with the assistance of ESCAP. Accordingly the 1st Study Directors' Meeting was held in Bangkok during November 16-30, 1979 in a series of informal interactive working sessions for Study Directors, modelling experts, and resource persons. The participants were Study Directors from the above mentioned countries and a few experts from Malaysia, Thailand, ILO, UNRISD, and IBRD. The main objective of the meeting was to help finance the basic model framework in order that National Study Directors will be able to commence their modelling work after the Meeting. As evidenced by the Report of the 1st Study Directors' Meeting, this objective was achieved. Following this meeting, the 3 case studies are being simultaneously undertaken in countries by national study teams with technical support provided by ESCAP.     

Prevention and Treatment of Reproductive Tract Infections

Reproductive tract infections(RTIs)prevention and treatment is one of the three major projects organized by the National Population and Family Planning Commission.The author,based on the practice of this project and the China/UNFPA reproductive health and family planning project,made some suggestions on how to improve the effectiveness of the efforts made to prevent and treat RTIs.1.Focus on people’s needs and improve public awareness about RTI prevention and treatment Reproductive tr…