More and better jobs in South Asia

This book is divided into seven chapters. Chapter one is an overview. Chapter two reviews South Asia's recent track record with regard to the quantity and quality of job creation. It traces the relationship of such job creation mostly to overall economic growth and attempts to answer what needs to be done to meet South Asia's employment challenge.

Chapter three discusses the key features of labor markets in South Asia, including where the better jobs are, who holds them, and the implications for the employment challenge ahead. Chapter four reviews the business environment constraints affecting, in particular, those firms that have expanded employment and discusses policy options for overcoming the most binding business constraints in South Asia. 

Chapter five analyzes the dimensions of the education and a skill challenge in the region and discusses policy priorities for improving the quality and skills of graduates of education and training systems. Chapter six reviews the role of labor market policies and institutions in encouraging job creation and protecting workers in the formal and informal economy and discusses possible directions for labor market policies, including options to increase the access of informal sector workers to programs that help them manage labor market shocks and improve their future earnings potential. Finally, chapter seven reviews the key constraints to job creation and the policy priorities for creating more and better jobs in conflict-affected areas.

This book investigates how more and better jobs can be created in South Asia.1 It does so for two reasons. First, this region will contribute nearly 40 percent of the growth in the world’s working-age (15–64) population over the next several decades. It is important to determine what needs to be done to absorb them into employment at rising levels of labor productivity.

Second, creating more productive jobs—with jobs defi ned to include all wage work and selfemployment—is the most reliable route out of poverty for a region that is home to more than 40 percent of the world’s absolute poor. The book addresses three major questions.

• Has South Asia been creating an increasing number of jobs and better jobs?

• What determines the quality of job creation, and what is the employment challenge going forward?

• What demand- and supply-side bottlenecks need to be eased to meet South Asia’s employment challenge in the face of intensifying demographic pressure?

World Bank. Author:Nayar, Reema ; Gottret, Pablo ; Mitra, Pradeep ; Betcherman, Gordon ; Lee, Yue Man ; Santos, Indhira ; Dahal, Mahesh ; Shrestha, Maheshwor. Document Date: 2012/01/01.Document Type: Publication. Report Number: 66229

More and better jobs in South Asia

For information about Projects in South Asia Projects

x

South Asia Smart Grid Capacity Development Business Opportunities

ADB.PN.45124- 02. In facing the challenges of energy security and climate change, some developing member countries (DMCs) have taken the lead in promoting renewable energy. At the same time, expectations are raised for smart grid technology out of concern that unstable output of renewable energy will adversely affect the power systems which the power from renewable energy will be fed into. In this context, during the second meeting of the Asia Solar Energy Forum in Tokyo, Japan, in December 2010, several South Asia DMCs asked the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to provide capacity development technical assistance (TA) for developing the smart grid. The concept paper was approved on 20 May 2011 and further discussed during the Workshop for Solar Energy and Smart Grid in Jodhpur, India, in September 2011.

ADB will hire a consulting firm to conduct a feasibility study on smart grid development for transmission, distribution, and mini-grid systems. The consulting work will comprise about 15 person-months of international consulting and 22 person-months of national consulting to provide (i) technical support for identification of the necessary smart grid components for transmission (e.g., a renewable energy operation center), for distribution (e.g., HVDS and smart meter), and for the mini-grid (e.g., an integrated control system for a combination of photovoltaic and conventional thermal power; (ii) capacity development for implementing agencies to formulate technical specifications for smart grid components; and (iii) monitoring of and reporting on TA activities and output. The national consultants will work with the international consultants to provide information on local power systems

Smart Grid Capacity Development Business Opportunities

For more information about Projects see South Asia Projects x

Employment growth patterns in South Asia: some evidence from interim enterprise survey data

This paper analyzes firm growth patterns in South Asia, using establishment level data from an Interim Enterprise Survey. The survey was conducted by the World Bank in 2009 and 2010 and covers seven countries in the region.

The first finding suggests that size in the base year gains importance for employment growth and firm age is statistically insignificant for growth. This contradicts the thought that young and small firms are the bearers of growth. Second, establishments in larger localities expanded faster, confirming the observation of urban centers as growth poles.

Third, establishments in areas of severe conflict performed worse than establishments in other areas. Interestingly, the distribution of growth rates shows that both firm growth and fast-growing firms exist in conflict regions

Author: Friesenbichler, Klaus. Document Date: 2011/10/01.Document Type: Policy Research Working Paper Report Number:WPS5856.Volume No:  1 of 1  

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