Living Standards and Quality of Life

Statistics from a recent national sampling survey Indicate that per capita income is rising nationally For example.adjusted per capita family income in]992 for rural residents was more than three times as hugh as that of 1978:similarly,the income for urban residents was more than two times as high for the same period.Although the margin of increase favoured farmers,there still exists a large gap between the Income level of rural compared with urban residents.

The impact of the Rural Minimum Living Standard Guarantee(Rural Dibao)Program on child nutrition outcomes

The Rural Minimum Living Standard Guarantee(Rural Dibao)is an important unconditional cash transfer program to alleviate poverty in rural China.Despite the importance of children’s nutrition in breaking poverty cycles,little is known about the impact of Rural Dibao on child nutrition outcomes.Using China Family Panel Studies(CFPS),this paper examines the effects of Rural Dibao on child nutrition outcomes and investigates potential pathways and heterogeneous effects.We exploit propensity score matching and difference-in-differences techniques to evaluate the effects of the Rural Dibao program on child nutrition outcomes.Our results suggest that Rural Dibao significantly impacts the nutrition outcomes of children up to 15 years of age.Specifically,our results suggest that Rural Dibao improves child height-to-age z-scores by 1.05 standard deviations and lowers the probability of stunting by 11.9 percentage points.Additional analyses suggest that increased protein intake is the main pathway through which Rural Dibao participation contributes to better nutrition outcomes.We also find that the effect of the program is more pronounced among girls,children who are non-left-behind or live with highly educated mothers,and those from low-income families and poor areas.Our findings suggest that Rural Dibao participation helps improve child nutrition outcomes through improving diet quality.

Neuropsychological and Social Outcome of Patients Sustaining Traumatic Brain Injury in Cotonou

This inaugural study in Benin was aimed at assessing neuropsychological and behavioural problems of patients with traumatic brain injury managed at the Hubert Koutoukou Maga Teaching hospital in Cotonou, and the impact on their standard of leaving. This was a prospective and cross-cutting study with a descriptive and analytical aim. It was carried out from 1 July to 30 October 2018. The study population included patients over 15 years of age who had experienced TBI. A purposive sampling of 585 patients with TBI was done, of which 142 patients could not be reached by phone while. The mean age of patients was 37.16 ± 13.9 years, with extremes ranging from 16 to 87 years. The most frequent complaints were behavioural disorder (79.5%), headache (63.8%) and memory loss (50.4%). The average duration of post traumatic amnesia was 9.08 ± 38.56 days. Sixty-three patients (68.5%) had post-traumatic amnesia that lasted less than 30 minutes and 25 patients (19.2%) had post-traumatic amnesia that lasted over a month. Neuropsychological disorders were more frequent in patients with severe TBI. Attention disorders and difficulties in elaborating strategies were noticed without any statistically significant difference in mild, moderate as well as severe TBI. Nineteen patients lost their job, thus raising the unemployment rate in our sample from 6% to 21%. Among the 100 patients (75%) that recovered their job, 14% had medical follow-up and 10% returned to part-time work. Salary remained unchanged for 61.2% of TBI patients.

Progress Toward Implementing the Sendai Framework, the Paris Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals: Policy from Aotearoa New Zealand

In 2015, Aotearoa New Zealand became a signatory to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030(Sendai Framework), the Paris Climate Change Agreement(Paris Agreement), and the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs). Since 2017 Aotearoa New Zealand has been undergoing governance reform to realign priorities and to improve the management of natural hazards and climate change. The aim of this article is to provide a review of how Aotearoa New Zealand is taking steps to improve consistency of planning across the legislative environment, thereby implementing its commitments to the Sendai Framework, the SDGs, and the Paris Agreement. It provides an overview of the national governance arrangements, with a focus on the key legislative tools;identifies how key terms are defined nationally;and provides an overview of the governance arrangements that contribute to the country’s international obligations. The discussion describes how obligations are applied, and considers two"disruptive and proactive" action examples. Four recommended actions are provided to further implement these international aspirations:(1) take into account these international agreements during the development and implementation of all legislation;(2) build awareness, capability,and capacity within central, regional, and local governments to support implementation;(3) actively evaluate the progress of implementing initiatives designed to reduce vulnerability and strengthen resilience;and(4) ensure that more weight and value are given to indigenous planning documents.

Ideological Shifts and Social Impacts:A Study of Labour Migration from Pakistan to GCC Countries

This research aims to explore the socio-economic impacts of labour migration from Pakistan to GCC(Gulf Cooperation Council)countries.Labour migration is a complex and dynamic process which involves multiple factors.Today,it is considered a natural process that happens in every state as a source of cultural diversity and financial contribution.Specifically,the study looks into changes of family ideology of labourers’families and socio-economic impacts of remittances generated from labour migration on Pakistani society and the families of migrant workers.Primarily,the study focuses on the region of Gujranwala,as the home of the largest number of migrant workers with rural backgrounds in Punjab,Pakistan.The study follows a mixed method approach:a survey and focussed group interviews are used to explore the impact of labour migration in the specific region of Punjab.Fifteen focus group interviews were conducted from the families of labourers and a sixteenth was conducted after data saturation;similarly,100 participants of surrounding families were selected through convenient sampling.From the interviews major changes in family ideology were children education,migration to cities,purchase of property and religious funding.The quantitative results show that the society(of a particular region)experienced significant impacts in terms of status transformation and breakdown of socio-ethnic hierarchies.

Smaller Real Regional Income Gap than Nominal Income Gap: A Price-adjusted Study

Two factors determining the level of living in different areas are income level and price level. Current studies on regional gaps concentrate on the gap in income levels. The present paper studies the impact of the two variables on the real living standards in different regions, with the real gap in the living standards calculated with price adjustment by taking into consideration only the deviations brought about by cash income. The basic conclusion is that, despite China＇s economy having witnessed rapid growth, the statistics at the macro level cannot disguise the obvious gaps among regions; therefore, as a result of the impact of income and price, the real gap in the living standards among different regions is smaller than the gap indicated by the nominal income level. As people are sensitive to cash income level, they have a low sensitivity to changes in real purchasing power. In other words, in areas that have the same real income levels, people tend to think that people live better when the nominal income and price are both high. The differences in price indices among different regions show that the same cash income can get different goods and services in different regions. This explains the rationale of the existence of floating workers among different regions. On this basis, we predict that people working in high-income areas who enjoy higher levels of social security might prefer to live in low-price areas after retirement if the social security payment method becomes more flexible.